What soapy thing have you done today?

[penelopejane]

I used my first batch of soap for the first time today and was sufficiently impressed to tell my DH that we are never buying commercial soap again! [emoji2][emoji2]

 

[Susie]

Welcome to the addiction!

 

[whitewitchbeauty]

I'm so annoyed, I still can't get my roommate to use my soap. She is using stinky old Ivory. The soap i make is really nice, much nicer than that stuff.
In other news, I made salt bars, charcoal bars (which I messed up badly woops) and pine tar soap bars yesterday. It was quite an adventure! I spilled pine tar, but that was OK I cleaned that up. The charcoal I meant to put in a little bit and a whole bunch poofed Out everywhere into a smoke cloud which was kind of funny. So far they look pretty good. Oh, I also made a lavender cactus soap batch and it's still a little soft, but it I think it's going to be OK. Today, I'm going to make something soapy using ghee. With Nag Champa.

 

[houseofwool]

I'd bet this arrangement would be super easy to set up. A good portion of beer goes to waste during production, so they could even supply you without cost to them if they wanted by giving you brew that was going to be production losses for them. Actually the best beer for soaping would come after fermentation but before carbonation - to save you the step of driving it of. But odds are they probably won't even bother with that and just give you some finished beer because it won't require them to remember to save it for you. Beer is cheap for brewers.

Visit during the day so you can talk to an actual brewer instead of the restaurant/bar people who usually run the place at night. You shouldn't have much problem setting something up. Brewers are typically a very friendly bunch and are passionate about everything to do with beer (they're certainly not doing it for the money!) and that includes beer soap. That's why I started in with soap, myself. As long as your needs are modest, I can't imagine any brewer balking at trading a growler of beer for a couple bars of soap.

Good luck!

Yes. We make 2 or 3 soaps for a local brewery. They are small orders, but we use their beer and hops in the soaps. If the owners are there we can get the supplies for free. The tap room employees are skeptical...

 

[JuneP]

Not soaping due to being on heavy medications making me not very enthusiastic about standing up for a couple of hours, but I did manage to get my newly arrived, soaping, funnel type pitchers unpacked and washed.

I also took a long soothing bath and tested my 5 week old new recipe with Nag Champa and am very pleased. It's real creamy and it's got decent bubbles and great lather which is what I was looking for. I have two other soaps made since then with minor revisions, because I wanted a good comparison so I could just select one basic recipe. So now i just have to wait another month for them all to be ready for that comparison test.

I wanted to have two basic recipes, one with lard and one without.

 

[cmzaha]

I'm so annoyed, I still can't get my roommate to use my soap. She is using stinky old Ivory. The soap i make is really nice, much nicer than that stuff.
In other news, I made salt bars, charcoal bars (which I messed up badly woops) and pine tar soap bars yesterday. It was quite an adventure! I spilled pine tar, but that was OK I cleaned that up. The charcoal I meant to put in a little bit and a whole bunch poofed Out everywhere into a smoke cloud which was kind of funny. So far they look pretty good. Oh, I also made a lavender cactus soap batch and it's still a little soft, but it I think it's going to be OK. Today, I'm going to make something soapy using ghee. With Nag Champa.

Word of Advice, Ghee sticks in soap, trust me, save your ingredients.

 

[traderbren]

I came back from a weekend camping and spending a good bit of time outside in the cold, drinking a bit too much beer, and winding up with more chapped than usual lips. I made up a small batch of 6 lip balms with lanolin, cocoa butter, avocado oil, coconut oil, beeswax, and castor. My first impression is that they are lovely. Up until now, I've been using pre made lip balm base.

 

[doriettefarm]

Not exactly soapy but I made my first evah batch of lotion and it wasn't a failure! Sorta tweaked a recipe I found on WSP and used swiftcraftmonkey's heat/hold method because I felt it would be inviting failure to do the microwave method. I'm pretty excited to test it once it fully cools. It's a kokum butter, hemp & argan oil mix to share with a friend that brought the argan oil back from Morocco.

 

[dibbles]

Not exactly soapy but I made my first evah batch of lotion and it wasn't a failure! Sorta tweaked a recipe I found on WSP and used swiftcraftmonkey's heat/hold method because I felt it would be inviting failure to do the microwave method. I'm pretty excited to test it once it fully cools. It's a kokum butter, hemp & argan oil mix to share with a friend that brought the argan oil back from Morocco.

That sounds so luxurious. I bet you'll love it. I've never tried making a lotion, but the idea of it has been percolating in the back of my mind for about a year. May be a good project to try during the dead of winter.

 

[RainyDayRose]

I just finished making batch of what I hope will be a very nice "spa" type soap. With two different kinds of clay, some luxury oils, and shea butter, a swirl and topped with pink sea salt. This is my fifth CP batch and I am trying something new each time. This was my most complex recipe so far. Unfortunately, I forgot the fragrance oil. I think it will still be nice but it was irritating to put it all together then see the FO sitting on my countertop unused.

 

[mymy]

Cut my cp cocoa butter with rosemary soap today and i keep thinking should i stay with cp or hp? I prefer cp due to the ease of mind but hp is good when luxury oil is in use. I don't use eo and luxury oil that often though. Been using this soap that i made last time for already 2 weeks. Creamy.

 

[houseofwool]

Today I washed up from a batch of soap that creates a stupid amount of pots. 4 colors evenly split in a modified tiger stripe. Since there are 8 12" loaves in the batch, I am sweating like crazy to get it all in the mold before it gets too thick. I usually make my 12 year old suit up with gloves and goggles to help bang the molds smooth between layers, but the kids are with their dad. My kitchen looks like a crime scene when I am done...

I am also starting to work on a palm free recipe which is tricky since I can smell even the faintest hint of lard in a soap.

 

[SweetBubbleTreat]

I finally ordered hemp oil to make some soap with....now the hardest part of all...WAITING for it to get here...then making it and MORE WAITING for it to cure....I hate waiting!!!

 

[gigisiguenza]

I was gifted some PayPal money for helping someone out with a problem, so of course my soapy thing was to buy some soapy stuff LOL.

I found some very good bargains from some people who were destashing, and some others selling off extra from a co-op buy, and from people selling off extra stuff they no longer use.

The best part? Kept it all within my little $40 gifted money budget.

Can't wait for it all to get here - including my first micas! I figured buying teeny little destash bundles was a good way to test them out without a major investment. I'm not giving up my naturals (love experimenting with them too much LOL) but I'm curious, and now I get to try them

 

[traderbren]

I'm making a small batch of a shaving soap. I was fairly happy with the first batch I made (based on the Songwind thread) as far as lather went, but I wanted to make a few changes to make it less drying to my skin and to hold up better in my hand since I don't use a brush... It's cooking now. I went with split lye (64% KOH/ 36% NaOH) and added some lanolin and cocoa butter.

I also ran numbers for a "winter" batch of soap with extra butters and avocado oil (and pretty high lard). I figure by end of December/ beginning of January when it starts getting really cold and dry, it will be ready.

Hubs is on a stay-cation this week, so has plans to hunt a few mornings. I hope to learn how to render tallow from deer fat in hopes he catches something this week.

 

[annalee2003]

Nothing soapy related since I made my very first batch last Friday. But boy, do I have a million ideas floating around in my head now! Might head to he store today to look for some lard or castor oil, since my last recipe had high linoleic numbers.

 

[Punkin2x74]

Blue Christmas. Cut my first Drop swirl.

 

[traderbren]

I made my shaving soap earlier today and I was already able to pop it out of my small round molds. I'm very happy with it so far.

After dinner, I made my "winter soap". I had my hard oils and butters melting on top of my woodstove while I ate. Hubs left, and the kids were bingeing on candy, so I had a nice quiet kitchen and decided to do a hanger swirl (I suck at all swirls...). Got it all poured and did the hanger thing, then poured the rest of the batter on top to make it pretty. Stuck the chopstick in to swirl the top, forgot what I was doing, and stuck the chopstick all the way to the bottom. Didn't realize what I had done until I was completely done. I think I need to just stick with simple from now on and give up my swirling delusions.

 

[dibbles]

Made a little 1 lb batch of kitchen soap with espresso fo and coffee grounds. Just the lye pitcher, 2 4-cup measuring cups two spatulas and a couple of spoons. This will be the easiest clean up ever!

 

[CTAnton]

Cut my espresso shot soap...followed BB's recipe...no issues and the espresso fragrance oil smells great...
Came home and just finished a poison ivy soap allowing soaping101's recipe....double infused the jewelweed which colored the soap a brown pink...just cleaning out the freezer of all this soaping liquids...