What soapy thing have you done today?

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Yesterday I did 3 pull throughs with sort of Halloween themes. I had one that was supposed to be black, orange, black, yellow... I accidentally added half of my dispersed orange mica into one of the blacks! 🤦🏻‍♀️ It turned a funky brown. 🤷🏻‍♀️
Oh well, it is what it is. Used a couple of new experimental discs designs, so I’m excited to see how they turn out. One of the discs broke when I put it into the wash basin afterwards. Thank goodness it broke AFTER and not during!
 
My color trials after a night - I love these! They are resting in the dark now. Indigo 1 is Baphicacanthus cusia from bramble berry, indigo 2 is Persicaria tinctoria from leaf n flower, a Korean vendor on Etsy. These were both infused in oil. The gromwell is knocking my socks off. Can’t wait to see how it develops.

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My garden is full of borage. Thanks so much for doing the work😃. The difference in indigos is crazy😲
 
I just picked up a carboy of very special water. It’s from my local estuary. The water was filtered and sterilized by an oyster hatchery that uses it to grow baby oysters. Lucky me, they made more than they need. The salinity is about 2/3 the salinity of full strength sea water.

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I just picked up a carboy of very special water. It’s from my local estuary. The water was filtered and sterilized by an oyster hatchery that uses it to grow baby oysters. Lucky me, they made more than they need. The salinity is about 2/3 the salinity of full strength sea water.

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Oh how interesting!
 
Had my first CP disaster today. Everything was going well. added my colors and then.. the fragrance. o_O suddenly a combination of ricing, and as I was beating that back, sudden uneven thickening. racing to avoid soap on a stick, I got it into the mold and crossed my fingers it would be ok. 30 minutes later a small, but growing before my eyes crack appeared. I watched and waited until it stopped growing and smoothed it out. I was frosting it anyway.

Not being one to do anything halfway, a triple threat, all in one batch. All I can do now is wait and see if it's acceptable on the inside.
 
There is no way this should have been ready to cut already but I was checking the mold and it felt hard and the soap came right out. Could have been the heat this one generated that caused the crack earlier, or it could have been a tad too much sl. But here it is. the ricing and acceleration didnt seem to do damage. whew

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I had my friend and her boyfriend over on Sunday for a “soap sesh” - they love my soap and wanted to learn how to make it. We made a Taiwan swirl with French green clay and rose kaolin clay, scented with orange ginger from New Directions Aromatics (a new favorite!) My friends had a great time, I think, and we got to cut it yesterday afternoon.
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There is no way this should have been ready to cut already but I was checking the mold and it felt hard and the soap came right out. Could have been the heat this one generated that caused the crack earlier, or it could have been a tad too much sl. But here it is. the ricing and acceleration didnt seem to do damage. whew

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Maybe it was the “boil boil toil and trouble”.
 
Learning my lesson & soaping new recipes in smaller batches. Unmolded this today from a 1/2&1/2 milk container WAY2 SOON but LOVING 🥰 the SPARKLES ✨ View attachment 59972
ended up w/ 6 🧼 scented w/ pink grapefruit with added sparkles✨ My 1st time using enviro glitter mica, which aren’t showing in picture but WOW 🤩 ❤️✨
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Waiting to cut. No idea what to expect. Your guess is as good as mine!
FO actually decelerating trace is something I’m still getting used to.
Looking forward to seeing them cut! I don’t know if you are like me, but I bet it’s super hard to wait!!! 😂
 
When obsessing for over a year about which slab mold to buy
I bought a slab cutter in June from a local maker going out of business. Still have not decided how big to make my slab mold.

Does everyone really use distilled water for making soap?
I do. My first soap batches were made with tap water and they developed DOS before they came off the cure. This really depends on how good your water supply is. It was worth trying at least.

Messy Soap Wednesday is a thing, right?
Ummm... it's always messy when I make soap, so yes I can get on board with that.

It's almost September 1st! LOL I'm ready to get back to regular soap making (other than random batches for testing fragrances or the SMF soap challenges, I try not to make soap June through August). I've been dreaming soap a lot lately trying to get fragrances and soap designs picked out for my lineup. I have two wholesale accounts pending orders so hopefully those will break me back into soap habits again.

A peek into my brain of the first soaps I plan to do:
Goat Milk soap: I'm leaning towards a blend of Patchouli and NG's China Rain. I may try to get to this one this month, I'm feeling that it really needs an ombre design.
Christmas Soaps: I'm going to do the red truck soap again. Thinking a Frankincense & Myrrh soap with a candle design like this one from Bear Foot Gypsy (now Milk Made Soap)
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I have pumpkin beer soap on the brain so I may knock that one out quick as well.
I'm getting excited!

I've been making sugar scrubs and lotions like crazy through the summer, so I haven't been completely slacking off. I have sold almost all of my shampoo bars so this week I'll be making the new formula to officially roll into the shop.

There is no lack of soapy stuff going on over here.
 
Back from a few days of socialising abstinence (NOT soapmaking abstinence 🤪). I had decided to wait until some particular VERY weird HP batch would eventually decide to get hard enough after FIVE DAYS to be unmoulded. Let's not talk about it. Two of three of the small soap cubes got out of the mould mostly in one piece, that must suffice.

My soapy thing of today (well, rather yesterday), was that I by chance discovered that FFAs are a decent solvent for the brownish mud inside an oven. Let's also not talk how I found out … Anyhow, I had had soap scraps dissolved in water (like for salting-out), and then added citric acid in excess, to precipitate the free fatty acids as an oily liquid. I smeared some of it onto the glass door of the oven, let it “soak” (one hour at CPOP temperature), and then it has become a lot easier to remove the stains by rubbing, scraping (with a ceran cleaner spatula), and (secret tip) rubbing with washing soda solution, that turns the FFAs into soap inside the deposits, and makes them go off much easier.

oven1.jpg Left half: still dirty, but already treated with FFA; right half already cleaned.

oven2.jpg A whole new oven! (after also washing off the dirt between the glass panes)
 
Back from a few days of socialising abstinence (NOT soapmaking abstinence 🤪). I had decided to wait until some particular VERY weird HP batch would eventually decide to get hard enough after FIVE DAYS to be unmoulded. Let's not talk about it. Two of three of the small soap cubes got out of the mould mostly in one piece, that must suffice.

My soapy thing of today (well, rather yesterday), was that I by chance discovered that FFAs are a decent solvent for the brownish mud inside an oven. Let's also not talk how I found out … Anyhow, I had had soap scraps dissolved in water (like for salting-out), and then added citric acid in excess, to precipitate the free fatty acids as an oily liquid. I smeared some of it onto the glass door of the oven, let it “soak” (one hour at CPOP temperature), and then it has become a lot easier to remove the stains by rubbing, scraping (with a ceran cleaner spatula), and (secret tip) rubbing with washing soda solution, that turns the FFAs into soap inside the deposits, and makes them go off much easier.

View attachment 59996 Left half: still dirty, but already treated with FFA; right half already cleaned.

View attachment 59997 A whole new oven! (after also washing off the dirt between the glass panes)
Wow it’s like the glass isn’t even there! Um want to come to NH?
 
What is FFA? I checked the abbreviations post and don’t see that one.
Sorry, technobabble. FFA = free fatty acids, i. e. the constituents that were bonded to glycerol in oils/fats. When in alkaline solution, they are the carriers of the cleansing action of soap (with sodium/potassium), or precipiptate as soap scum (with calcium/magnesium). With acids, they precipitate out and float on top of the water phase.
FFA is a common abbreviation in the oleochemistry world (judging quality/age/rancidity of oils), but not so much in the hobbyist soapmaking community (NOT YET!!!).

Wow it’s like the glass isn’t even there!
I've taken another pic with the focus not on the point pattern (why is it there at all? To keep fruit flies from mistaking it for a cave and smashing their heads against the glass?), but the inside. I myself was unsure for a moment if the door indeed was shut:
oven3.jpg
The miraculous world of fast lens speed. 🤓
 
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