I miss Melt and Pour!

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valerieinthegallery

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I have always wanted to learn to make soap from scratch but never dared to, so I compromised and started doing melt and pour, years ago.

This year, I decided it was time to take the plunge and learn CP, and I did. And I have had many successful batches and I love my soap and I love knowing that I made it, and it's been incredibly fun and interesting to learn this skill, and I'm so glad I did it!

But I miss MP. I miss being able to use a small amount of fragrance and knowing I am not going to lose my scent, I miss making tiny batches (sometimes literally one bar!), I miss the way it looks, the way it feels in your hand, I miss the creativity of it. I am not into all the swirls and fancy tops of CP soaps, so I don't get to express much creativity with it. When I go to etsy to look around at soap (which is pretty much every night before bed because I'm a dweeb) I am drawn to the crisp colors (even the earthy colors seem more vivid) and sharp lines of the MP soap.

Anyone here do both and find that they really prefer MP? It's not the "ease" of it or anything like that, as I don't find CP difficult. But really, I just want a pretty, nice-smelling bar of soap and CP takes up so much time and energy, formulating recipes and ordering oils.. I like the design aspect of MP and how pretty it looks when it's done.

It's almost like a feeling of homesickness. lol.

(So why don't I do MP again? Because I have run out of money. Soaping is bankrupting me! :lol:)
 
I get it Val, I started w/MP and have been obsessed with CP for the last five or six or months as well. I think my obsession will continue, though, I love the slow learning curve on CP, there is so much to learn, and so many mistakes to make :)

I still make MP, though, people often want soaps right away, or I just want to make something that I know will be really pretty, smell good and have that beautiful translucence. I really like being able to do them both. Also, I love my MP soaps - in terms of quality (I use SFIC) I find them just as good as CP, athough I adore being able to tinker with my CP ingredients so that they are just right for my own skin.

It is nice to have the best of both worlds! Although I am glad that I have leftover MP supplies, I am with you on it being an expensive hobby sometimes.
 
I get it Val, I started w/MP and have been obsessed with CP for the last five or six or months as well. I think my obsession will continue, though, I love the slow learning curve on CP, there is so much to learn, and so many mistakes to make :)

I still make MP, though, people often want soaps right away, or I just want to make something that I know will be really pretty, smell good and have that beautiful translucence. I really like being able to do them both. Also, I love my MP soaps - in terms of quality (I use SFIC) I find them just as good as CP, athough I adore being able to tinker with my CP ingredients so that they are just right for my own skin.

It is nice to have the best of both worlds! Although I am glad that I have leftover MP supplies, I am with you on it being an expensive hobby sometimes.

I did MP so long ago that I don't even know if SFIC bases were a "thing". I think as I was getting out of it, people had started talking about them. I would love to use one and see for myself how it feels! I have NOTHING left from my MP days - maybe a silicone mold or two somewhere.

I guess I could do both. I'm such a black and white thinker that doing both really didn't cross my mind. I know people like getting from-scratch soap as gifts, etc. so I could do CP for that (I actually do HP, but it still falls under the CP umbrella).
 
The first time I made MP it was with a crappy base from Amazon, don't even remember why it occured to me to do so. I'm glad my interest was piqued though, that base was awful but it made me check out others and I really do like the SFIC ones.

I have to say that as gifts, most people actually seem to *prefer* MP, they say that they are prettier and the scent is stronger. Although the "pretty" factor may be because I am still have a long way to go before I can reliably reproduce pretty CP bars :) Not giving up though, the quest is way too much fun.
 
I still make M&P once in a while. I love the vibrant, clear colors that are possible with M&P.
 
That's the one thing I really miss about doing more MP, the colors. I really miss the shimmeriness of mica in cp. But the creaminess, the process of creation, the swirls of CP! Good tradeoffs both ways.

ETA: of course, a good way to get both is mixing them, which I tried. Mine did not look *anything* like this, though :) Curse that Zahida! Between this and her butterflies, she is just a bane on newbie CP'ers!

http://handmadeinflorida.blogspot.com/2014/03/sun-kissed-cp-mp-drop-swirl-soap.html
 
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