Need Advice

[MeadowHillFarmCT]

I am ready to place my second order of supplies and there is too much information.

I am looking for the cheapest good quality products... All will be GM and CP.

Oils - CO, PO and recommendations for other oils that I should try...

Fragrances - my batches are usually 6lbs. I want to try many and tend to like fruity and flowers. Want a Melon and a LIme with recommendations for others that work well in CP.

Colors - what should I get and where? Powder, liquid, paint dye...////

Glitters - want all colors - recommend best place.

Please help - I am becoming overwhelmed with all this info and so many places to choose from.

 

[newbie]

WEll, there are a million places out there and it is confusing. Some of it depends on where you are, because shipping can vary and some supplies will be cheaper if you're close.

I use:

Columbus foods for oils, the big ones anyway, like CO, PO, Lard, Shea, etc...

Essential Depot for lye. I like their bottles and the lye itself and they often have sales. SOme people like The Lye Guy.

The FOs and EOs are the hardest to narrow down, at least for me. Different companies carry difference fragrances and some people find quality to be more consistent for them than others. I love Bramble Berry the best- their FOs have always been top notch, they last, they have soaping notes on their website. Not as wide a variety as some other places though. A lot of people here like Peak. I like a few of their scents, but I've had a fair number just die off over time. I use them less frequently. Natures Garden has been good. Daystar has a good reputation among soapers here.

TKBTrading has excellent micas and glitters and they separate off which ones are soap stable. Love them. Also labcolors seem to be popular but I don't use them myself. I'm sure many places carry them but I know TKB and BB do. I have used mineral oxides from BB and have been very happy with them.

Hope that's helpful and not more confusing!

 

[PrairieCraft]

If you're still trying things out, the best recommendation I have is to drastically cut your batch size down. I started with 4lbs then went to 2 then 1. After wasting an insane amount of money, not only on the FOs themselves but also the base oils making batches that large, I have resorted to doing 1 oz samples to try FOs. I have tried well over 200 FOs at this point and barely found a dozen out of those that I like, that don't fade, that don't discolor my soap to mud brown, etc...

Like newbie said, the FOs are without a doubt the hardest supplies to find. There are plenty out there but sorting through them all to find what you want is like finding a needle in a haystack. I'm about to test some FOs from The Scent Works, oob these are some of the nicest I've found. Also, the priciest. I also just got some from BB and a lot of those smell great oob too. Good luck and go check out the SSRB.

http://soapscentreview.obisoap.ca/index.php

 

[Jerry S]

Overwhelmed

These are just my observations from the questions that you are asking from this topic.
First, I think you need to do a little research on the products that you want to buy and the quantities you are interested in. You sound like a beginning soap maker and if this is the case you start out with a simple recipe for the first few batches of soap you make to get the hang of the routine. You sound like your overwhelming yourself with a lot of information about purchasing products that only a more experienced soap maker would be concerned with.

Start out purchasing a few simple oils like PO, CO, OO and some Castor O. Make a few small batches of soap using percentages of the above 30, 30, 30, 10. Forget the Glitter, the Fragrant Oils and the colorings at first. After your successful with making some basic batches of soap then research the different vendors for sample packs of Colorings, FO’s, glitters etc.
FO’s can affect the color of a lot of recipes (darkening them). Find out, which ones you should use to get the result you want. If you don’t start slow and do your homework before tackling the more complicated recipes you may end up with botched batches of soap.

It’s been my experience that most soap suppliers sell the same stuff. The costs may vary some and the shipping may as well, but when it all shakes out choosing one over the other because of cost is mostly chasing nickels. Find the most inexpensive products you can at the quantities you want to purchase.

There is a wide range of colorants, fragrances, oils, butters etc in making soap. YOU really need to do the research to find what you think will work for you with some advise from the Forum members.

Use this helpful link to sort out FO's from Peak that will work for you.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key ... tswL#gid=0

Ok…ok…I’m done now and you’re probably a little hot under that cowgirl collar after my comments, but I’m really trying to make some helpful suggestions for your future soap making projects.

Jerry S

 

[MeadowHillFarmCT]

Thank you all for the advice.

I am new to this but over the last 6 weeks have made 6 batches of GM soap (36lbs). The reason the batches are so big is because that is the size of my mould. I need to pick up individual bar molds to test with.

After making these batches I feel my process is good. I can make GM soap that is light in color and not burn it.... My bars are hard (except the fresh ones with mostly OO), they lather nice and so far have not gone rancid...

I know I have a long way to go but I want to start getting a little fancy with colors and scents. I plan on giving my soap to family and friends as tester when they are done curing. I have two batches that are going as favors to my nieces wedding the end of next month. I have people already wanting to purchase my soap but I will not let them - yet

I need to work on my base recipe and want to try other oils or butters as well. Right now it is CO, PO, OO and grapeseed (but not that much because it has a shorter shelf life).

 

[PrairieCraft]

Not trying to be discouraging, just trying to help you save money. I would keep my base oils as basic as possible, OO, CO, PO, castor, with maybe a luxury oil thrown into the mix. (I like shea, cocoa for me has been hard to work with) Sometimes I see people selling soap that has over 5 different base oils and to me its a turn off. I would rather see a shorter list of ingredients, jmo. Too many and it seems like the maker just threw in a bit of everything cause it sounded good. TKB seems to be the fave place for colors, I've only tried their natural colorants and I like them. But, it's the FOs that will get you. They're so expensive and I can't tell you how many "unscented" batches I had in the beginning that actually have FO in them. Your testers, if they're anything like my fam and friends will gripe at you about the scent more than anything else. My mother in particular, if the scent doesn't reach out and smack her in the face she can't smell it. And a ridiculous amount of the FOs out there fade away to nothing or close to it.

 

[carebear]

You don't need to use that mold - my favorite first log molds were made by assembling one of those flat flat-rate boxes from the postal service, then chopping off the end to use as a mold! Line it and you are good to go with 2# of oils. In fact, I do NOT recommend testing with single bar molds as even tiny errors are magnified and can muck you up. Really, any container you see could work. Some use milk cartons, for example - I even used a bucket (hard to line LOL).

Start with soap. Just soap. Then using milk too. Figure out which method of adding soap is best for you (you are allowed to change your mind, though!). Fragrances next - once you have soap & milk soap figured out. Then colors. Sure you can try more than one new thing at a time, but the more complex it is, the harder it is to figure out. IMO.

Some do jump in with both feet and succeed, but you could just as easily have a few failures and get discouraged. And discouraged is no fun...

 

[Laurie Gator]

For 1 lb batches, I use an 8x8 silicone pan I picked up for $9.99 at Bed, Bath and Beyond. It works great for the small batches and the soap comes right out with no muss or fuss...

I also work in grams when I am making 1 lb batches (454 grams=1 lb). I find that 1 lb is easier to test stuff like fragrances and colors to see what they will do in the soap

I am still experimenting too. I hope your goat milk soap is a hit

 

[JenniferSews]

I agree with making smaller batches while you test. My friend took a soap making class and they used 1/4 gallon cardboard milk cartons for molds. They bowed a little on the side but if your starting out and testing then the shape isn't the most important thing. I agree to start without fragrance. People will fixate on whether they like the fragrance or not and you won't be getting feedback on the actual soap, which is what you really want. Fragrance can be researched and small quantities purchased until you find what's right for your market. But that is secondary to a good reliable soap recipe. And I'm glad you've had no issues with DOS, but 6 weeks isn't long enough to really know for sure. I would use color though, it's good practice!