What soapy thing have you done today?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Need to order RBO for next round of MB oils. Somehow missed that when I did my supplies restock in August. Oops.

Currently working through my yogurt & honey series and trying to use up the EO's I don't plan to restock just to free up space. Thinking I will cut my EO's down to just spearmint and eucalyptus that I know stick well and sell well. I don't have much left in some of the bottles so some of the mixes are getting pretty interesting - like the lime soap I made over the weekend. I didn't have enough lime, so added lemon 5x, which I also didn't have enough of so finished off a bottle of May Chang, and was still short total EO (and still well within safety usage rates for those three oils). Hopefully that lime and May Chang will hold up, because I'm certain there wasn't enough lemon 5x to do the job. Although now that I'm thinking about it out of the moment of panic, I could have added pineapple FO and might have had a nice lime pineapple blend. At least then the green colored soap might have made more sense... oh well.

I have to restock Nag Champa this week and work on a custom order for Valentine's Day. I also finished up a custom unscented uncolored aloe soap for a gal who ordered the same thing earlier in the year, she was getting down to her last 3 bars so put a second order in. I love customers who understand that soap takes time and get their orders in well in advance!
Where do you get your Nag Champa?
 
Just made another 'Eve's Garden' type swirl with Chanel No5 FO. I'm not sure I like it - it's too perfumey, lol! And besides that, the mixture thickened up while I was working, so I'm not too sure about how successful that swirl will be either. I don't think it was the FO, I think my mixture just got too cool.
 
I gave soap as gifts to the people who replaced my hot water heater.....and made up the gifts for all my family...made another green -two shades--and white side pour and coconut aloe vera soap...now that Im giving it all away I gotta refill the shelves..looks so empty and bare in the soap room.
 
Tried Silver Fox's shaving soap recipe and used my new crock pot. Divided batch into 3 to make mini-batches with different EO blends: lavender/anise, frankincense/patchouli and rosemary/peppermint. Dividing made me curse vilely, everything began to solidify as it cooled down. Looked like a haggard housewife from a 30s black and white film and sounded off like a Galician builder, but each batch is in its pringles can and smelling good.

Merry soaping, everyone
 
I finished making foot balm for wifey's Christmas (yes, USING A HOT PLATE!! because you know why, the things I do for this family), packaged and wrapped nearly all my lotion bars. I kinda went overboard making 100 lotion bars so everyone at our caroling party this weekend gets lots of party favors. Finally found our measuring cups and spoons in the mountain of moving boxes....
 
I finished making foot balm for wifey's Christmas (yes, USING A HOT PLATE!! because you know why, the things I do for this family), packaged and wrapped nearly all my lotion bars. I kinda went overboard making 100 lotion bars so everyone at our caroling party this weekend gets lots of party favors. Finally found our measuring cups and spoons in the mountain of moving boxes....
100 lotion bars??? That's a lot of lotion!

Here's my new 'Eve's garden' swirl - not as successful as the last one but still OK. I'm not sure I like that Chanel Number 5 FO.
C02DE4B8-A33D-485B-8CF8-4C614C0984C3_1_201_a.jpeg 3B64B3C1-54D3-4DAD-9CE5-75DE9B49BE94_1_201_a.jpeg
 
Today I made another batch for my single oil experiment, 100% coconut at 20% superfat.

Here's hoping this one doesnt break a cutting wire
I make that one a lot, with aloe vera juice...it is comperable to any "hard" soap for me--no worse..very nice too! I have noticed that it doesnt like hot, humid weather and will get dossy in just a few months under those conditions.
 
Need to order RBO for next round of MB oils. Somehow missed that when I did my supplies restock in August. Oops.

Currently working through my yogurt & honey series and trying to use up the EO's I don't plan to restock just to free up space. Thinking I will cut my EO's down to just spearmint and eucalyptus that I know stick well and sell well. I don't have much left in some of the bottles so some of the mixes are getting pretty interesting - like the lime soap I made over the weekend. I didn't have enough lime, so added lemon 5x, which I also didn't have enough of so finished off a bottle of May Chang, and was still short total EO (and still well within safety usage rates for those three oils). Hopefully that lime and May Chang will hold up, because I'm certain there wasn't enough lemon 5x to do the job. Although now that I'm thinking about it out of the moment of panic, I could have added pineapple FO and might have had a nice lime pineapple blend. At least then the green colored soap might have made more sense... oh well.

I have to restock Nag Champa this week and work on a custom order for Valentine's Day. I also finished up a custom unscented uncolored aloe soap for a gal who ordered the same thing earlier in the year, she was getting down to her last 3 bars so put a second order in. I love customers who understand that soap takes time and get their orders in well in advance!
I have found that Rice Bran Oil tends to give me DOS - have you noticed that also?
 
How soon into the cure do you get DOS? I use it at 20% now ( previously at 15%) and have had no problems with DOS 10 months into the cure.
I stopped using Rice Bran Oil over 3, maybe 4 years ago. Since I stopped using it, I haven’t had DOS. The soap batch that got DOS, however long ago, was about 9-12 months old. Possibly it’s my climate, I live in South Florida, but I’m afraid to use Rice Bran Oil in any quantity now. It is quite high in linoleic acid, I’m surprised you can use it at such a high percent.
 
I stopped using Rice Bran Oil over 3, maybe 4 years ago. Since I stopped using it, I haven’t had DOS. The soap batch that got DOS, however long ago, was about 9-12 months old. Possibly it’s my climate, I live in South Florida, but I’m afraid to use Rice Bran Oil in any quantity now. It is quite high in linoleic acid, I’m surprised you can use it at such a high percent.
My linoleum (lol - autocorrect) and linolenic are at 12 combined for my 20% RBO recipe. I thought since it was under 14 that I'm relatively safe from DOS?
 
My linoleum (lol - autocorrect) and linolenic are at 12 combined for my 20% RBO recipe. I thought since it was under 14 that I'm relatively safe from DOS?
I think you’re right, I have heard to keep linoleic and linolenic combined under 14. I personally like to keep it under 10. The batch that got DOS was at 14, so I feel safer going a little lower. I made some other changes also. These include using citric acid, which acts as a chelator and always using distilled water when I use water, since I also use other liquids.
 
I think you’re right, I have heard to keep linoleic and linolenic combined under 14. I personally like to keep it under 10. The batch that got DOS was at 14, so I feel safer going a little lower. I made some other changes also. These include using citric acid, which acts as a chelator and always using distilled water when I use water, since I also use other liquids.
RBO is also high in palmitic - which I need more of in my recipes. It's higher in RBO than any of the other oils I use. I must monitor closely though - I don't want them all to develop DOS at the 1 year mark. I like that RBO is so cheap : )
 
RBO is also high in palmitic - which I need more of in my recipes. It's higher in RBO than any of the other oils I use. I must monitor closely though - I don't want them all to develop DOS at the 1 year mark. I like that RBO is so cheap : )
Here are the properties of Rice Bean Oil. Not that high in Palmitic it seems.

675DC5F8-1790-494E-9472-2A61049BDF0C.png
 

Attachments

  • 064AD084-E5D0-4C9F-96D2-939DB9BA5B03.png
    064AD084-E5D0-4C9F-96D2-939DB9BA5B03.png
    360.6 KB · Views: 16
Last edited by a moderator:

Latest posts

Back
Top