Hello from PA

[Aislyn]

Hello everyone. My name is Aislyn, which looks hard to say, but it's pronounced (Ash-lynn). I have made melt and pour soap for a long time, off and on, probably over 20 years now. When I was younger, I worked at a craft store and bought a kit because it looked interesting and that's how this whole thing got started. My experience with it is pretty basic, melt the base, fragrance it and pour it into a cute mold I bought from the local craft shop. It never occurred to me to look it up online until last year when I was forced to hibernate. Holy cats! There's a wealth of information out there. I never knew cold process soap making was even a thing and have often said for years that I wish I could customize my own base. Hello...cold process allows you to customize your own base, where have you been all of my life? I watched videos for an embarrassingly long time (we won't discuss this - lol) I finally placed my first order last night for supplies to make my first cold process soap. So, we'll see how this goes.

 

[LynetteO]

Welcome!
Needless to say, for myself anyway, soap making has become quite addictive. I fell in with a saponification chart during a CP soap coloring class. Science! Never looked back

p.s. This is a Gr8 thread:The Acronym and Abbreviation Definition Thread...

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[earlene]

Welcome, Aislyn

 

[Cat&Oak]

Welcome to the addiction Aislyn!

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Hiya Aislyn and

When you have time you may want to read Advice for Newbies
It is a work in progress with the intention of helping new members like yourself to find the wealth of information available on SMF.

HAPPY SOAPING!

 

[Aislyn]

Thank you all for the warm welcome My issue is that I've seen a lot of beginner recipes and they have no fragrance to them. I just want to get to the part where I can have a good smelling soap to use in the shower in colors I like. It's becoming very difficult for me to adhere to the basic newbie recipes. I chose a simple oatmeal and honey recipe as my first recipe to follow because the ingredients look simple and there is the added bonus of a fragrance. I'm not sure if this is a good plan or not, but anyways.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Howdy & Welcome

 

[Whillow]

Hello and welcome to this very addicting form of art. Pre-Covid when we were allowed into shops up here in Canada (my local one has switched to online only), it was very handy since I could smell all the fragrances before purchase; however, since Covid the online shopping has since caused a fragrance addiction for me as well.

The only advice I have is continue with the YouTubes on soapmaking as you are doing, as well as make sure you have lots of storage for your supplies and finished products. I quickly outgrew my space and now I have a corner of my basement refinished for a soap "studio" lol. Be safe and have fun.

 

[Megan]

Thank you all for the warm welcome My issue is that I've seen a lot of beginner recipes and they have no fragrance to them. I just want to get to the part where I can have a good smelling soap to use in the shower in colors I like. It's becoming very difficult for me to adhere to the basic newbie recipes. I chose a simple oatmeal and honey recipe as my first recipe to follow because the ingredients look simple and there is the added bonus of a fragrance. I'm not sure if this is a good plan or not, but anyways.

Welcome!
If you learn how to calculate percentages and look at usage rates for fragrances, you can put fragrance into any recipe you want! (a good piece of advice is to look at fragrance behavior notes and reviews on supplier websites to see that the fragrances you use won't be too naughty for your first trials. There's even the PDF around this forum which has many reviews.)

 

[earlene]

The problem with fragrances is that, unless you choose one that does not create problems, some will complicate the process, sometimes leading to frustrations for the beginner, which is why often experienced soapmakers suggest newbies to make fragrance-free soaps. With MP, you don't have as much problem with misbehaving fragrances, as you can with CP or HP soap.

So I suggest you search for fragrances described as 'well-behaved' in soap and choose one of them. Here at SMF, we have a Fragrance forum where members talk about how and answer questions/ask for recommendations/help troubleshoot problems. It's a good place to start if you want to use fragrances and don't know how to figure out which ones to avoid in the beginning.

Here is one thread asking for recommendations of well-behaved fragrances (from 2019): Good behaving fragrances for wedding

SMF has a spreadsheet on fragrances, which may be a bit overwhelming to a newcomer, but here's the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SarBRyH9X4gghraavMFTWfchk-c7sNswuh-yaTdRf1M/htmlview

First go to New User Tips, and read those, then scroll to the bottom of the page and choose a link by supplier for a particular Fragrance Oil vendor, then on that page, look for the name of a fragrance oil you have purchased, and then read the reviews entered, with particular attention to how the FO behaves in soap (Column "I").

Just FYI, I only addressed FOs (Fragrance Oils) and not EOs (Essential Oils) in my post. EOs also have nice players and bad players in lye soap. So, again, search for the well behaved in lye soap descriptions.

HTH: Hope that helps.

 

[Orebma]

Hello everyone. My name is Aislyn, which looks hard to say, but it's pronounced (Ash-lynn). I have made melt and pour soap for a long time, off and on, probably over 20 years now. When I was younger, I worked at a craft store and bought a kit because it looked interesting and that's how this whole thing got started. My experience with it is pretty basic, melt the base, fragrance it and pour it into a cute mold I bought from the local craft shop. It never occurred to me to look it up online until last year when I was forced to hibernate. Holy cats! There's a wealth of information out there. I never knew cold process soap making was even a thing and have often said for years that I wish I could customize my own base. Hello...cold process allows you to customize your own base, where have you been all of my life? I watched videos for an embarrassingly long time (we won't discuss this - lol) I finally placed my first order last night for supplies to make my first cold process soap. So, we'll see how this goes.

IKR? Welcome