My name is Christine... and I am a soap addict.

[RocknRoll]

I'm glad to have found this forum where I can meet fellow soapers! Looking forward to swaping tips, tricks and ideas with you and talking everything soap. So a little about me...

It all started 8 years ago after i made my first batch of cold process soap. I was instantly hooked! I experimented and made batch after batch, selling every bar. I had big visions of having a business and the whole nine yards but then came a divorce and into storage my soap supplies went... a few years past and was finally in a position where i could pick up where I left off... of course i bought all new ingredients and pulled out all my boxes full of equipment and dedicated my whole spare room to soap! I even had my "thinking couch." lol anyway, so I'm in full swing, getting good at cold process (or so I thought, compared to what I know now) and once again, my dreams of selling soap were rekindled... until,

in 2010 I was diagnosed with with a benign brain tumor the size of a golf ball. Back into storage the soap supples went because i had to move closer to family (into 420 square feet) and face the dreaded brain surgery. Since then, all this time has past but I never lost the desire to make soap. Finally one day back in December, I set up a little place to make soap. Now I'm a complete addict! I think I've perfected my recipes and am finally making some bars I can really be proud of. I've learned a lot of good tips along the way and I'm glad to share them too!

So in a nut shell, I've been making soap on and off for 8 years but only in short bursts. This time I'm going all the way! Am I still considered a Newbie? Maybe, but I definatley know the basics =) My goal is to make enough soap to sell so I can finally pay off my medical bills. (I know, wishful thinking!)Who knows, maybe it will turn into more than that. Check out my album of all the batches I've made within the last 29 days. Good to meet you all and thanks for your support!

Warm regards,

Christine~ :mrgreen:

 

[Body_Basics]

Great to have you, Im new too. And Im glad your doing ok. My Mon just had the same surgery. It really scared me but shes doing ok, only issues is she said she can't stand the smell of food any more, it just makes her sick. So I told her to try some incents in her room to get rid of the smell. It's not the food, but when its being cooked? I plan on sending her all kinds of Essential oil blends to wear and burn around the house.

Now back to soap lol, I have put this thing off for a long time too, life all ways seams to get in the way of dreams... I am now cracking down and doing this. I have always been scared to fail so I never try real hard. I start off good but soon start doubting my self and defeat walks in the door. Now that i am on this fourm I hope I make some friends and Business partners who will help encourage me to stick with it? If I haven't posted anything in awhile send me a Email and ask what's going on. Ask me for advise about blends for soap and engage me in soapmaking conversations. Buy stuff from my store when I hop on here complaining about a slow sells month lol.

Rock&Royalty with you get a chance show some pics.

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum. You will find we are enablers. LOL

 

[Relle]

Welcome Christina

Sorry to hear of your health problems, glad your back on the road to recovery. Your question - Am I still considered a Newbie ? Well your a newbie to this forum, so - yes, but not to soap making.
Looking forward to some photos.

 

[RocknRoll]

Great to have you, Im new too. And Im glad your doing ok. My Mon just had the same surgery. It really scared me but shes doing ok, only issues is she said she can't stand the smell of food any more, it just makes her sick. So I told her to try some incents in her room to get rid of the smell. It's not the food, but when its being cooked? I plan on sending her all kinds of Essential oil blends to wear and burn around the house.

Now back to soap lol, I have put this thing off for a long time too, life all ways seams to get in the way of dreams... I am now cracking down and doing this. I have always been scared to fail so I never try real hard. I start off good but soon start doubting my self and defeat walks in the door. Now that i am on this fourm I hope I make some friends and Business partners who will help encourage me to stick with it? If I haven't posted anything in awhile send me a Email and ask what's going on. Ask me for advise about blends for soap and engage me in soapmaking conversations. Buy stuff from my store when I hop on here complaining about a slow sells month lol.

Rock&Royalty with you get a chance show some pics.

Thank you for the introduction. Sounds like you are a lot like me. I hope that we can be great soap buddies, I too excel with encouragement and I'm glad to hear you are finally taking the bull by the horns! Life does get in the way, but this time... let's not follow the path of doubt and a fear of failing... pick up your stick blender and march on toward success lol! I'll be there for you as much as I can and I cant wait to exchange ideas and methods.

I'm glad your mom is doing good. I never had that problem but it did leave me permanately deaf in my right ear beings it was an acoustic neuroma type tumor. Happy soaping and we'll chatt soon!

Oh, by the way, you can view all 20 of my new batches via the pictures I uploaded to the cold process photo gallery, or check out the album on my profile. I'm excited to see what you think!

 

[Relle]

Christine, I'm not sure where you have uploaded your photos to - I can't see any in the photo gallery or on your profile.

 

[melstan775]

Hi Christina!

Welcome to the forum! I'm new too. I'm sorry to hear of your health issues, and I hope you will be well enough now to achieve your dreams. All the best and looking toward pics of all your fabulous creations.

 

[RocknRoll]

Christine, I'm not sure where you have uploaded your photos to - I can't see any in the photo gallery or on your profile.

Thanks for letting me know! Still learning my way around the forum. I can see them, hmmm, wonder if they are only visible to me? I will try to figure out how to post them so everyone can see.....stay tuned =)

 

[sunfloweracres]

Welcome!

Welcome Christine! Glad you are feeling better. You sure came to the right place where we are all addicts. You will find some wonderful soapers with loads of experience. I have learned a lot in a short time here.


Do you make shampoo bars to sell along with your soap? They seem to be a popular item right now. I have both soap and shampoo bars in a couple local stores, and so far the hp Chamomile shampoo bars are outselling the soap. Do you use the hp crock pot, or oven method? I love it because I do not like to wait. I'll go over and check out your soap pics now

 

[RocknRoll]

[quote=sunfloweracres;293702]Welcome Christine! Glad you are feeling better. You sure came to the right place where we are all addicts. You will find some wonderful soapers with loads of experience. I have learned a lot in a short time here.[/quote]


Do you make shampoo bars to sell along with your soap? They seem to be a popular item right now. I have both soap and shampoo bars in a couple local stores, and so far the hp Chamomile shampoo bars are outselling the soap. Do you use the hp crock pot, or oven method? I love it because I do not like to wait. I'll go over and check out your soap pics now

Nice to meet you! I have yet to make a shampoo bar but would love to actually. Maybe you can share a good recipe with me. I use the room temperature method to make cold process soap. I used to use thermometers but now I just wait for the oils and lye to cool (after using the crock pot to melt hard oils like cocoa butter and such) and mix together! i find it so much easier and less stressfull. My motto is work smarter not harder lol. If I can find an easier way of doing something... Anyway, here is a picture of my coffee scrub I made, I love the look of the coffee beans on top! Happy soaping!

 

[sunfloweracres]

Nice to meet you too! Beautiful soap! All your other soaps are fantastic and so professional, great job! I also like to work smarter not harder. After my first batch of cp soap that took forever to trace I almost quit (to impatient)... Until loads of reaserch online I discovered room temp. Now I use the hp crock pot method and add 1 t. sugar to lye water (for a 2 lb. batch) plus increase the water by 3-5% to make hp as smooth as cp, with no waiting to cure. Its best to let them cure a week or so to harden nicely. But you can use one right away. I love it!

Here are 2 of my latest favorite hp crock pot Shampoo Bar recipes, but should be fine with room temp I would think. They also make great soap.

Recipe #1. Cheaper version, but just as good (no Cocoa Butter)
11 oz Canola oil
10 oz Coconut oil
3 oz Olive oil
4 oz Castor oil
2 oz Shea Butter
11.4 oz water + 1 t. sugar (I used strong Chamomile Tea)
4.24 oz Lye
At trace add 1/8 C. powdered milk, and fragrance is optional
I also added about 1/8 C fine/sifted Chamomile (from the bottom of the bulk tea bag)
--------------------------
Recipe # 2. Shampoo Bar
9 oz Coconut oil
9 oz Canola oil
3 oz Oilve oil
4 oz Castor oil
2 oz Cocoa Butter
2 oz Shea Butter
11 oz water +1 t. sugar (again I used strong Chamomile tea, any tea would work)
4 oz Lye
At trace 1/8 C powdered milk, fragrance optional

You could switch the anounts of Olive oil and Canola. I was getting low on Olive oil at the time, snowed in. Check with a lye calculator first though.

Even though the water and lye amounts vary, they both came out nice hard bars with lots of lather. I ran out of Cocoa Butter so recipe # 1 was created, lol. Cannot tell the difference. I made them in Pringles cans, and round bread crumb cans lined with waxed paper.

 

[RocknRoll]

Do you make shampoo bars to sell along with your soap? They seem to be a popular item right now. I have both soap and shampoo bars in a couple local stores, and so far the hp Chamomile shampoo bars are outselling the soap. Do you use the hp crock pot, or oven method? I love it because I do not like to wait. I'll go over and check out your soap pics now

Nice to meet you! I have yet to make a shampoo bar but would love to actually. Maybe you can share a good recipe with me. I use the room temperature method to make cold process soap. I used to use thermometers but now I just wait for the oils and lye to cool (after using the crock pot to melt hard oils like cocoa butter and such) and mix together! i find it so much easier and less stressfull. My motto is work smarter not harder lol. If I can find an easier way of doing something... Anyway, here is a picture of my coffee scrub I made, I love the look of the coffee beans on top! Happy soaping!

Nice to meet you too! Beautiful soap! All your other soaps are fantastic and so professional, great job! I also like to work smarter not harder. After my first batch of cp soap that took forever to trace I almost quit (to impatient)... Until loads of reaserch online I discovered room temp. Now I use the hp crock pot method and add 1 t. sugar to lye water (for a 2 lb. batch) plus increase the water by 3-5% to make hp as smooth as cp, with no waiting to cure. Its best to let them cure a week or so to harden nicely. But you can use one right away. I love it!

Here are 2 of my latest favorite hp crock pot Shampoo Bar recipes, but should be fine with room temp I would think. They also make great soap.

Recipe #1. Cheaper version, but just as good (no Cocoa Butter)
11 oz Canola oil
10 oz Coconut oil
3 oz Olive oil
4 oz Castor oil
2 oz Shea Butter
11.4 oz water + 1 t. sugar (I used strong Chamomile Tea)
4.24 oz Lye
At trace add 1/8 C. powdered milk, and fragrance is optional
I also added about 1/8 C fine/sifted Chamomile (from the bottom of the bulk tea bag)
--------------------------
Recipe # 2. Shampoo Bar
9 oz Coconut oil
9 oz Canola oil
3 oz Oilve oil
4 oz Castor oil
2 oz Cocoa Butter
2 oz Shea Butter
11 oz water +1 t. sugar (again I used strong Chamomile tea, any tea would work)
4 oz Lye
At trace 1/8 C powdered milk, fragrance optional

You could switch the anounts of Olive oil and Canola. I was getting low on Olive oil at the time, snowed in. Check with a lye calculator first though.

Even though the water and lye amounts vary, they both came out nice hard bars with lots of lather. I ran out of Cocoa Butter so recipe # 1 was created, lol. Cannot tell the difference. I made them in Pringles cans, and round bread crumb cans lined with waxed paper.

oooh, thank you for the recipes, they are very similar to some of my main recipes that I use. I'm excited to try them. I have all those oils on hand too! I have just started to use pringles cans and I love them. I line with freezer paper as well. I just adore rounnd soap and prefer to hold it in my hand than a standard "bar" but I cant get as creative with layers and such.

Your HP method sounds awesome to me! I hate waiting for cure time too. I actually started with melt n pour years ago, then tried HP before moving on to CP and then finally settling on room temp CP. The main thing I love about making CP is that they have a smoothness that i wasnt getting from HP so I'm glad to hear that you have found a way around that! thanks for the imput :wink:

 

[countymounty22]

Welcome Christina. That is awesome to hear that you are winning the fight. Stay in it.

 

[lizflowers42]

I loved your album of soaps and your display! I have an obsession with food too so making fun soaps with everyday cooking supplies is win win with me!

 

[seannasmommy]

Nice to meet you Christine! Glad to hear you're back to doing something you love. I look forward to seeing your work. I have only made one batch so far, but I'm already addicted