Hi from NC

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Scooter

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2016
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Location
NC
I am pretty new to this and have been lurking for a while. I have gotten so much good information from the folks here and from so many other websites, too...like www.soapqueen.com, www.soaping101.com, modernsoapmaking.com, and about.com. It's nice to know that there are contributors here who I first "met" by stumbling onto their videos, like DeeAnna's salting out videos. I have made a few coconut oil batches (SF at 20%) that turned out well and some 4-oil batches that y'all might recognize. I don't know if they are exactly like other people's but they are highly informed by basic recipes I saw on Soap Queen and the soap section on About.com.

Anyway, thanks for being generous with your time and information.
 
Welcome!! I'm sure you will learn lots here :) I sure did! (and still do :) )

I *am* learning lots here. About two weeks ago I made my first batch of soap with shea butter and I noticed the other day that there are a lot of lighter areas swirling through it. Someone posted a question about something similar recently and the consensus seemed to be that perhaps the oils were not mixed well before the lye was added. I think that is what happened to me and I was glad to see my hunch confirmed somewhat. Of course the best learning comes from doing so the next time around I will mix better and see what the result is.
 
Welcome to the forum and the addiction.
You'll be browsing the oil aisle in no time.:)

Ha! I'm already learning how expensive this can be. Though I was happy to see Catherine McGinnis post a video on dollar store soaping. It does not *have* to be pricey.

Once a person gets away from the "core" oils (things like PO, CO, OO) do people really see/feel/perceive a difference in their soap when fancy ingredients like butters are used?

I'm asking b/c a while back I bought some shea butter and I'm thinking body butter might be a better use for it than soap, not sure though.
 
Ha! I'm already learning how expensive this can be. Though I was happy to see Catherine McGinnis post a video on dollar store soaping. It does not *have* to be pricey.

Once a person gets away from the "core" oils (things like PO, CO, OO) do people really see/feel/perceive a difference in their soap when fancy ingredients like butters are used?

I'm asking b/c a while back I bought some shea butter and I'm thinking body butter might be a better use for it than soap, not sure though.

You are going to get as many answers to this as there are soapers.

I love using avocado oil and cocoa butter or shea butter in my soaps. I think I can feel the difference. But it might be in my head.

Make a few small batches with 5%, 10 %, 15% shea butter and see if you can tell the difference. Its the only way to tell.
 
You are going to get as many answers to this as there are soapers.

I love using avocado oil and cocoa butter or shea butter in my soaps. I think I can feel the difference. But it might be in my head.

Make a few small batches with 5%, 10 %, 15% shea butter and see if you can tell the difference. Its the only way to tell.

Thanks so much for your reply. Since we are talking about shea, I had a question about unsaponifiables. I realize those are things that do not turn into soap, but what are they? Also, according to this link (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsaponifiable) unrefined shea has 6-17% unsaponifiables. If I use unrefined shea in my soap should I do a SF of 0% since I will have all this extra stuff in it anyway?

Thanks again for all your feedback! --Scooter
 
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