What soapy thing have you done today?

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I did a loaf and a half of lemon/charcoal, two loaves of cherry almond and four little round “tubes.” Can’t wait to see how the little rounds come out as I want to use them in other loaves later. I have made the cherry Almond before.mfirst time for the lemon/charcoal two-zoomed. Very excited to see how it comes out! Have all my stuff soaking in the sink overnight and will clean the in the morning and do a few loaves of lavender for our son’s shop. He and his wife grow lavender and sell lavender-related products, including our soap (using their buds).
 
Poured some master batched base to try to get my bars to the right dimensions and weight...decided to add lavender eo at the last minute so that the soap could go to a loving home. This weekend I'll be labeling all of my (safe) experiments so I can donate them to the food pantry at the college I teach at.
 
Okay, okay, here is my lavender first time spoon plop swirl, some people are impatiently waiting. Not my color or scent but I think it'll sell at the church auction. I would be satisfied with fewer air bubbles if I had, how do I put this, um, jiggled and smacked it a bit more. And, no worries, people, they were in the metal pan a hot second to transport it to the curing room.
20190111_211359.jpg 20190111_090652.jpg 20190110_222603.jpg .
 
Okay, okay, here is my lavender first time spoon plop swirl, some people are impatiently waiting. Not my color or scent but I think it'll sell at the church auction. I would be satisfied with fewer air bubbles if I had, how do I put this, um, jiggled and smacked it a bit more. And, no worries, people, they were in the metal pan a hot second to transport it to the curing room.
View attachment 34989 View attachment 34990 View attachment 34991 .

They look great and dont worry the impatient one has admited she is back at work so you will soon be out of her grasp of great impatience ;)

@Misschief air bubbles i believe not that i can see any :rolleyes:
 
They look great and dont worry the impatient one has admited she is back at work so you will soon be out of her grasp of great impatience ;)

@Misschief air bubbles i believe not that i can see any :rolleyes:
Anyone can get air bubbles in their soap. I've been seriously making soap for 4 years and I still get air bubbles occasionally. My recent Kombucha soap has air bubbles. No biggie. It just proves that they're "artisan made". :)
 
Okay, okay, here is my lavender first time spoon plop swirl, some people are impatiently waiting. Not my color or scent but I think it'll sell at the church auction. I would be satisfied with fewer air bubbles if I had, how do I put this, um, jiggled and smacked it a bit more. And, no worries, people, they were in the metal pan a hot second to transport it to the curing room.
View attachment 34989 View attachment 34990 View attachment 34991 .
They look great! I have been waiting very patiently to see these and it was worth the wait. I haven't tried a drop swirl yet and might add it to my 'to do' list. I hope the impatient person is happy to see your pics. ;)
 
I'm in the process of diluting my latest batch of liquid soap. This one is made with Kombucha and honey; it called for apple cider vinegar but I didn't want to use my homemade cider vinegar in soap. I have plenty of kombucha and can easily make more.

The soap is looking good so far, nice and thick, and a dark amber colour.

Later, when I'm fully awake and the coffee has kicked in, I'll be making a batch of salt bars. I'm pretty much out of it and the market starts up again in May.
 
Anyone can get air bubbles in their soap. I've been seriously making soap for 4 years and I still get air bubbles occasionally. My recent Kombucha soap has air bubbles. No biggie. It just proves that they're "artisan made". :)

I know but thats what zing was saying was wrong with them. I think they look really nice and as you say just shows that they are really properly home made
 
Got my plastic needlework sheets today so just spent 15 minutes reorganising my curing shelves got them looking pretty awesome and squished them a little closer to make some more space as i cant be doing with not soaping because iv run out of space thats just NOT acceptable.

Very nice rack! Your soaps should all be very jolly about this! Good-looking soaps they are, too. :)
 
Made my first batch of salt bars today! I think they turned out good so far and it smells great (first time using FO instead of EO; not sure I'll stick to it, but it sure smells nice. Apple scent from NG). No big color work because I like the clean look (plus... still newbie), but did add a teeny bit of alfalfa infused oil and another teeny bit of madder root infusion that you can't really see on the pic but it shows a little. I just wish this didn't take forever to cure...
Observations: this was relatively easy with just 1 oil. Also, I have to make myself a miter box because it's kind of pain to cut straight without it.
IMG_4904.jpeg
 
Went to the store for castor oil and, yay, it was on sale at 15% off so bought 2.

I'm waiting for my lye solution and oils to cool down for my first rosehip powder soap. Now that I have a good sense of what quantities look like, it's the first time I'm using grams instead of ounces. Nice to not have to convert recipes for 22, 37, 53 ounces to my scale which is in pounds and ounces. Not sure if it will worsen or relax my OCD with trying to get that last drop of oil out of the measuring cup, and then from the melting pot to the mixing bowl (why won't that last drop ever come out?!). :)

Side rant: Why oh why is the U.S. not using metric!! :mad: In elementary school in the 70s we were told metric is coming -- and it is 2019! I'm consulting with a client on new construction and converting inches to feet and inches to decimal inches and square feet, and back again, etc. is for the birds!

Gentle snow all day, good day to be inside making soap.
 
Side rant: Why oh why is the U.S. not using metric!! :mad: In elementary school in the 70s we were told metric is coming -- and it is 2019! I'm consulting with a client on new construction and converting inches to feet and inches to decimal inches and square feet, and back again, etc. is for the birds!

You need to be bilingual, like Canadians: our weather is in C, but we bake in F. Our produce prices are advertised per pound, but calculated per kilo at the checkout. I do most of my weight-based cooking in g/kg, but weigh myself in lb! Most everyone talks and thinks in km, and of course signs are posted thus, but we talk about what kind of mileage we get. House/room sizes are in square feet. Our milk is measured in litres, but is often sold as a 4-pack (e.g., a gallon).....
 
You need to be bilingual, like Canadians: our weather is in C, but we bake in F. Our produce prices are advertised per pound, but calculated per kilo at the checkout. I do most of my weight-based cooking in g/kg, but weigh myself in lb! Most everyone talks and thinks in km, and of course signs are posted thus, but we talk about what kind of mileage we get. House/room sizes are in square feet. Our milk is measured in litres, but is often sold as a 4-pack (e.g., a gallon).....
LOL... you pretty much nailed it. Where I work (in a print shop), I can always tell the general age of a customer by how they tell me the size of their project. Anyone who's had their education in the age of metric gives me metric measurements for their business cards/postcards, whatever. I always ask them to give it to me in REAL measurements (inches). Metric is a second language for me and I'm not all that fluent in it. I get by but...... That said, for soaping, it's all metric. It's the only measurement language I know for making soaps and bath & body products.
 
LOL... you pretty much nailed it. Where I work (in a print shop), I can always tell the general age of a customer by how they tell me the size of their project. Anyone who's had their education in the age of metric gives me metric measurements for their business cards/postcards, whatever. I always ask them to give it to me in REAL measurements (inches). Metric is a second language for me and I'm not all that fluent in it. I get by but...... That said, for soaping, it's all metric. It's the only measurement language I know for making soaps and bath & body products.

Yeah the problem is that we were educated in metric (I was among the first), but everyone else lives in Imperial to some degree. So whatever my kids learn about in school, great, but they're still going to bake cookies at 350F. Just today, my 9 year old was talking about a drink and said that it took 8ml of coke...I said that was just over a teaspoon. He said he meant 80, that was probably closer to 1/2 a cup. So even his generation is saddled with it.
AND, when I did my soap-making workshop, we measurement in grams, but then did temperatures in F, because the degrees were smaller and you could be more precise! AND, I was just on SoapCalc for the first time, which seems to be all in ounces.....can you switch it to grams, or do I need to do math? Am I just missing a button?
 
I did a 100% Coconut Oil soap today and tried to do a wood-grained 'swirl'. I got to emulsion - the first time I actually can say that, even though I've tried and missed before - a wonderfully liquidy thing! Added the EOs, still all okay, split up my wonderfully liquid emulsion into 4 pitchers, added micas and then had to hurriedly just dump it all into the mold as the new micas I got for Christmas immediately made everything turn to pudding! I'm weeping on the inside for the wood-grain but still oh-so-happy that I can get to emulsion successfully... *sigh* Try, try again...
 
I did a 100% Coconut Oil soap today and tried to do a wood-grained 'swirl'. I got to emulsion - the first time I actually can say that, even though I've tried and missed before - a wonderfully liquidy thing! Added the EOs, still all okay, split up my wonderfully liquid emulsion into 4 pitchers, added micas and then had to hurriedly just dump it all into the mold as the new micas I got for Christmas immediately made everything turn to pudding! I'm weeping on the inside for the wood-grain but still oh-so-happy that I can get to emulsion successfully... *sigh* Try, try again...
I watch all these wonderful you tube videos where they are working at emulsion to do colours and swirls and glorious designs, but it never works for me. As soon as I add ANYTHING it starts to accelerate. Actually I do lie - the micas are fine. But while I was doing my recent project, using the mica coloured batter to do a design, the other batter (left sitting) started to set up. I gave it a stir to loosen but it was on its way and wasn't about to slow down. I knew I had some accelerating Essential oils in there, but I had tried to counteract that with equal quantities of slow moving ones. I blended them all with a little of the warmed oils before adding too. For me - I can't help but think it is my recipe ( I blame the shea butter and soy wax content because I suspect both of these need to be kept warmer rather than cooler).
 

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