What kind of soaper are you??

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heyjude

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Are you the type who loves to tinker around formulating original recipes with SoapCalc or Soapmaker, endlessly experimenting with new oils and percentages

or

do you have a few standard book recipes that use a 2 or 3 oils and you enjoy playing around with scent/color/packaging?

Are you a chemist or an artist? Or both?

The more soap I make the more I realize that I can be content using just a few oils and playing around with the look of my soap. Some of the chemistry involved with oils and fats make my head spin. :lol:

Jude
 
I'm definitely a tinkerer and love to formulate and play. So much so that it was extremely hard for me to narrow my recipes down to 4 'keepers' for future business' sake. I'm not in business yet, but I figure the less recipes, the less confusion it will cause. I still love to play, though, so I'm thinking of having a section on my future website called 'Limited Edition Soaps' or some such thing so that I can still play while peddling my experiments at the same time. :)


IrishLass
 
I think I am leaning towards being more of an artist. I have done some playing around with SoapCalc and a bunch of different oils...but I think I prefer having a few basic recipes and then just working with colors or texture and packaging. :D
 
I've been too much of a tinker-er. I am always searching for something new to try but feel like I've never landed on a good recipe. But several here helped me to formulate a new recipe that they think will really work. I'm excited to try it! Plus some tried-and-true recipes to try. I'd love to get a great recipe and then tinker from there on color and scent.
 
My first attempt at soaping was from a recipe I got off the Miller website; I've been winging it with my own creations eversince! I love juggling the numbers for different oils through soapcalc and seeing the properties change with each new number I punch in. By accident, I have created some really nice soaps :lol: :lol:
 
More of a tinkerer here, but I am quickly learning that I need a few good base recipes to tinker from instead of spending countless hours re-creating. I'd rather spend those hours actually making a batch of soap.
 
Speaking of packaging...I just mailed a batch of soaps off to swap. Like was mentioned in the Autumn Swap that SMF is hosting, I sent them as if they were for a customer. For the first time I created a label and an ingredient list and 'dressed' my soaps.
I just have to say that I can appreciate how much work those who sell their soaps put in. Creating attractive packaging and measuring and fitting each bar is sooo time consuming.
I haven't got a label program so I just used Excel and printed on scrapbook paper. Can't wait to play with real labels!
Making up the soap is just one of many steps to a professional product. My hat's off to the pros out there!
Here's a sample of what I did.
http://i836.photobucket.com/albums/zz28 ... 001jpg.jpg
The ingredients are on the reverse.
 
I'm the crazy chemist. I tinker and calculate and have no idea how to make anything pretty. I have to find stuff I like and try to copy it. I have so many chemicals in my house from soap, lotion, and wine making. I have nowhere to put anything anymore either.

I'm also the type who doesn't necessarily want to make pretty soaps, but useful soaps instead. My soaps need to have a purpose in my life! Right now I'm trying to find tried and true recipes online for those purposes and then make it my own from there. Then I realize if they were pretty they'd be so much better!

I recently found a recipe off another forum that uses cheap oils. It might get DOS, I don't care though. It's a very slow tracing recipe so now I'm using it with my bad/weak FOs and I just did a funnel swirl with it. I also used it with an FO I knew would seize and I was able to mix it with my blender and get it in the mold.

So right now it's technique sometimes, useful soaps other days, and pretty soaps on the other other days!
 
When I started I made so many different tweaked recipes . I have my base recipes down but every once in awhile I get a wild hair to play with Soapmaker3 and see what I can do

I love playing with color and design , love it .I have been known to play with the tops of fresh soap for an hour or more , just seeing what can be done . I am more into scent know too . There are so many things that can be done and I want to do them all :wink:


Kitn
 
i do both....like to try new oils just got some babassu oil....enjoyed playing with vegetable milks, then there is the ever present challenge of the perfect yellow dock soap! i just tried the seeping in boiling water for my spearmint leaves, can't wait to see if they stay green...like they have for others
 
I am still in the phase of scientist I think, trying to find a good quality recipe. But, I love the scent thing so TW's color will be here any minute now, cant wait to play with colors next.
 
I'm a cant-leave-well-enough-aloner. I tweak and tweak until I'm a crazy person. I have a couple "main" recipes now, but I never stop experimenting. And don't even get me started on FOs....
 
Maybe someday I will follow a recipe perfectly.....but I doubt it! I just feel compelled to modify a recipe somehow....
 
The kind that wants to use biodiesel glycerin to make all the cool types of soap on this forum.

Tonight... It was floating bar soap!
 
I started off as a tinkerer - now I have a few basic recipes including a couple of exotics. I now play with colour and scent to satisfy my artist side. I still like to tinker now and then but right now with my Christmas build-up starting I need to stay with my tried and true.

At least I get to play with colour still!!!!!
 
Started out being a tinkerer. Now I have one tried and very true wonderful recipe that I vary only by fragrance, butters and additives (cornmeal, oatmeal, dillweed, lavender buds and such). That's it for me. It may be boring but it's great soap and the beauty of it is that it works every time.
 
I'm still tinkering. I love trying new things, but I do have a 'base' that I tend to stick to lately, only varying the recipe by 4 oz.
 
Hardcore recipe-tinkerer for now. I'm still very firmly in the hobbyist category but toying with the idea of starting to sell in another year or so. That would give me a lot more R&D time under my belt, and in the emantime I'm addicted to playing with SoapCalc and working out recipes, be they subtle variations on my favorites or completely new ones.
 
I LOVE to experiment! :D I LOVE playing around with my soapmaking software! That thing is priceless to me! I do have a handful of bade formulas that I rely on and are very popular with customers. BUT...I still LOVE to tinker every few months! :D
 
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