What soapy thing have you done today?

[Zing]

I masterbatched today with the full intention of making a batch of soap. However, my other obsession -- gardening -- occupied my day now that Spring has FINALLY sprung in the hinterlands here.

Gosh, I feel you.

Wow, there is so much in this post! Thank you. The cultural reference around pork was fascinating. My parents were children of the Great Depression and I know it had a generational effect (tin foil and bread bags were used until they fell apart). I did not start soaping until after my grandparents died and I would have loved to talk to them about their homemade soap. My dad said his mother's homemade soap was pretty harsh and caustic. They couldn't afford to buy shampoo either and used dish soap or soap soap.

I do treasure every minute with my dad, I've totally let go of the fact that he doesn't use my soap. Life's too short. Thanks for posting, I appreciate it!

I've already decided that I'll make a modified @songwind recipe but instead of the 2 ingredients, I'll make it with 4: 50% SA, 30% CO76F, 10% Castor/Vit E, 10% Cocoa Butter, the 7% SF will be Glycerin and 850g of total oils. The 7% of glycerin should be 59.5g, but would it be ok to make it 60g?

I've never used glycerin so can't be of much help, sorry. My scale only goes to whole grams. I round down to the nearest gram if it calls for 0.1 to 0.4 and round up if it calls for 0.5 to 0.9. Grams are so small, don't worry about it.

Also, if I might comment on your castor oil. I use 4-6%. Higher amounts can lead to a softer soap. Have you had success with 10%? Good luck.

 

[Iluminameluna]

I masterbatched today with the full intention of making a batch of soap. However, my other obsession -- gardening -- occupied my day now that Spring has FINALLY sprung in the hinterlands here.

Wow, there is so much in this post! Thank you. The cultural reference around pork was fascinating. My parents were children of the Great Depression and I know it had a generational effect (tin foil and bread bags were used until they fell apart). I did not start soaping until after my grandparents died and I would have loved to talk to them about their homemade soap. My dad said his mother's homemade soap was pretty harsh and caustic. They couldn't afford to buy shampoo either and used dish soap or soap soap.

I do treasure every minute with my dad, I've totally let go of the fact that he doesn't use my soap. Life's too short. Thanks for posting, I appreciate it!

I've never used glycerin so can't be of much help, sorry. My scale only goes to whole grams. I round down to the nearest gram if it calls for 0.1 to 0.4 and round up if it calls for 0.5 to 0.9. Grams are so small, don't worry about it.

Also, if I might comment on your castor oil. I use 4-6%. Higher amounts can lead to a softer soap. Have you had success with 10%? Good luck.

This will be my first shaving soap and I still haven't added my dual lye to the melted oils yet because my son asked me to watch my favorite series installment with him. In the interim the oils overheated and I'm now waiting for them to cool down. The lye is now too cold. I don't regret it. Whatever happens, a sticky soap will be a prize!
Thanks for the reassurance on the rounding of the grams. It's what I've been doing all along with my regular soaping and haven't had an issue. But shaving soap is a new thing and I didn't want to put my foot into the ditch, so to speak.
I'll post how this batch goes.

I would look at the shave soap recipes posted by @Professor Bernardo and @Johnez. Some good stuff there.

Thank you! They were inspiring, I appreciated the morale boosting! I finally got my shave soaps done and it was a surprisingly good experience.
Thank you, @AliOop and @Zing for the encouragement!

 

[KeepItSimpleSoap]

Yesterday I created a thread of my own that has my soapy things in it. It has a history of how I got stared in this all the way up to now, current May 2022. Link on next line.
KeepItSimpleSoap Overview and Results

 

[SudsyPigeon]

Sunday was a packed soap day! I whipped up my tap vs. distilled batch and did my soap challenge club oasis swirl loaf… which was harder than I thought! My dividers failed and my insistance at having scented soap backfired (ricing, acceleration), so we’ll see if the swirl even worked. Photos of both batches will be posted in the gallery on unmold/cut day.

 

[TashaBird]

In soap makers friend would elk tallow be the same as deer tallow?

 

[Iluminameluna]

I've not made soap in a long while until the last batch I made that was regular soap. Like the break in a dam, it gave me the impetus to tackle a shaving soap that's been on my to-do list since last Summer. So after all the ingredients and tools had finally materialized, I made it last night and, though it was a bit nerve-wracking at times, it went amazingly well for my first time!
I used @songwind's basic recipe but I added 2 more oils/fats after reading/viewing a multitude of sources. I used cocoa butter for the conditioning and castor oil for the creaminess and lather stability.
Finally, something interesting happened while I crafted this shaving soap. I never came across anyone that had a BIG gap between the temperature of their oils/fats and their lye. And I hadn't foreseen that I'd have one. Until I did. And I tried looking for anyone who'd safely warmed up their lye without having it explode in their microwave, or melt their container in it, or doing the same on their stovetop. So I waited until my oils/fats were as cool as I could stand it because it was getting late and colder in the open garage. When the oils were at about 150F or so (they'd overheated some bcs my son had wanted to watch a series we both followed) I started pouring the completely cooled lye in tiny amounts. It became quite clear (NOT the oils. OHMYGOSH, the oils were NOT!) that I wasn't going to have a volcano but instant soap instead. So in those tiny amounts I stirred and managed to get the applesauce consistency you get AFTER you bring lye and oils to trace with your SB. I went through the entire lye addition to the end without having to use my SB.
@Zing About the castor oil: I added it at 10% to my recipe as intended and my pucks were SOLID. In all, the final batter performed like molding clay. I was very pleasantly surprised. And it stayed that way all the way to the last (18th) single silicon individual mold I'd bought for the purpose.
My recipe is here: https://www.soapmakingfriend.com/recipes/edit/61204 (I can't seem to leave the edit mode of my recipe, so please let me know if you can't see it?)

 

[Ugeauxgirl]

I made two batches of soap. My husband was out of his favorite Irish spring, so I made a loaf of that, and I made a small batch of deer tallow soap. The first batch went smoothly. The second batch went from soap batter to peanut butter consistency seconds after the addition of the FO. I hope the bubbles aren't too bad...

 

[LisaBoBisa]

Cleaning before she comes is very selfish of you! You are robbing her of her chance to feel superior and showing you how to do it right.
This worked on my ex MIL until she caught on...

I... am learning from a master

My Chief Packaging Officer received a shipment today: my first time ordering a fragrance bigger than 16 oz. I. Can't. Believe. I'm. Ordering. Gallons. Now. (Not the only thing in the order, but I'm still trying to get used to the idea!) I might not have room for actual food in my apartment sized fridge anymore