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.
Yay, I made soap today! I was still careful but didn't have to worry much about neatness because of the sub-floor and wall studs, yes I STILL HAVE NO KITCHEN! My hot plate is super quick, though. And thanks to a tip from here, I only melted my solid oils. I can't believe the whole time I've been soaping, I've heated up ALL my oils together! Today I only melted the solids and added to the soft oils which made the cooling down time go quicker. Doy!

I was given red palm oil and used it at 5% and the batter was SUPER orangey yellow -- I can't imagine using any higher percentage. I separated out 20% and added blue mica which turned green. Hanger swirled it. And it's scented with patchouli (a Christmas gift), lemon, and lemongrass. It's resting and toasty under the towels. :)
 
Ohhh... Lemon Verbena! Should have thought of that. No, I used a blend of Sweet Orange EO and Yuzu FO.

View attachment 43268

I've been making bath and body products for even longer than I've been making soap. In my supply cabinet, I have some liquids that really should be used up. They've been there so long that the plastic bottles are breaking down so I either have to use them up or get rid of them, which I really don't want to do. So.... I made myself some bubble bath. I remember making it before and it was wonderful!

I don't intend to sell these so there's no issue with re-using my Kombucha bottles. The second picture shows the bubbles I got from the little that was left in the bowl and the funnel. I scented it with Saltwater Mermaid. Now, I want a bath!

View attachment 43269 View attachment 43270

Love the lemon poppyseed, it looks like some sort of lemon dessert and now you'll have to have a bath (Mmm, bath :tub:, I want a bath) with the bubbles and get your mermaid on - tail that is :p.
 
Yay, I made soap today! I was still careful but didn't have to worry much about neatness because of the sub-floor and wall studs, yes I STILL HAVE NO KITCHEN! My hot plate is super quick, though. And thanks to a tip from here, I only melted my solid oils. I can't believe the whole time I've been soaping, I've heated up ALL my oils together! Today I only melted the solids and added to the soft oils which made the cooling down time go quicker. Doy!

I was given red palm oil and used it at 5% and the batter was SUPER orangey yellow -- I can't imagine using any higher percentage. I separated out 20% and added blue mica which turned green. Hanger swirled it. And it's scented with patchouli (a Christmas gift), lemon, and lemongrass. It's resting and toasty under the towels. :)
Looking forward to seeing it!
 
Last night, I made a batch of oatmeal-goat's-milk-honey with 500g of oil in order to try out my leprechaun-sized molds. I unmolded today, and was pleasantly surprised that the details came out pretty well for such a small mold. The picture shows the rest of the batch, as well, which I poured into more typical-sized cavity-mold bars for comparison. View attachment 43266 View attachment 43267
I love your little leprechaun size molds. I just may have to order some. Do you happen to have the link?
 
I love your little leprechaun size molds. I just may have to order some. Do you happen to have the link?

Sure, here is the link:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000250452976.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.bb804c4drf6vgy

Interesting...the listing now does indicate the mold size and has a specific picture of the soap size with measurements on it. So my review now indicates that, even though I would swear that this info wasn't on the listing before. Perhaps they added it in response to my feedback?

I still left off two stars because the mold edges needed trimming. On the plus side, the flower details came out great, and the mold walls are very thick, not flimsy at all. I was able to bang it down a bit after pouring, which I can't do with the thinner and larger cavity molds unless they are on a cookie sheet.

ETA: these would be great for wedding/shower favor soaps in organza bags, if one wanted to buy 10 or so molds and pour multiple batches.
 
Last edited:
Today I made a batch of 12 bars. My total oil weight was 25.1 ounces. I changed my simple recipe a bit for some variety etc. I used a little coconut oil and I used coffee instead of water and right when it was starting to trace I added one of those little Hotel room coffee containers. The soap color came out coffee with creamer in it and the dark specks of coffee show up well. I'm hoping that will work for an exfoliant.
Lard 20.35
Coconut oil 4.75
LYE 3.6 oz
Liquid coffee 8 oz
Dry coffee added at trace
After I un-mold it I will post a picture in the Photo Gallery.
Here is a pic of the dry coffee next to a 12 oz soft drink for scale. No measurement was on the container. drycoffee.jpg
 
Last edited:
I’m home from my regular day job for another month on disability . I haven’t had much time (or the ability) to soap since the beginning of December when I had surgery for torn rotator cuff. It’s really hard to soap with one hand/arm, and even worse being HOME and not able to play in my hobby.I’m going crazy... I can’t wait to get fully healed. But, I did make shampoo bars yesterday and managed to get them cut today.
 
@Jstheidi I hope you heal soon :)


How'd it go? When I made my first CP batch I was so worried of messing things up lol
So far so good but I haven't unmolded it yet LOL. The most stressful part was trying to get the lye water and oils with infants degrees of each other and not too warm when I'm used to soaping at 190.

I was also worried about trace. With HP it doesn't matter if its a thick trace. I think I timed it right. Fingers crossed.
 
I’m home from my regular day job for another month on disability . I haven’t had much time (or the ability) to soap since the beginning of December when I had surgery for torn rotator cuff. It’s really hard to soap with one hand/arm, and even worse being HOME and not able to play in my hobby.I’m going crazy... I can’t wait to get fully healed. But, I did make shampoo bars yesterday and managed to get them cut today.
Sorry to hear about your torn rotator cuff. Dh had his done some years ago, he was cut open, not done through a scope, it took one year with rehab exercises before he was right. He did as he was told and got back 95% movement.
 
I’m home from my regular day job for another month on disability . I haven’t had much time (or the ability) to soap since the beginning of December when I had surgery for torn rotator cuff. It’s really hard to soap with one hand/arm, and even worse being HOME and not able to play in my hobby.I’m going crazy... I can’t wait to get fully healed. But, I did make shampoo bars yesterday and managed to get them cut today.
Hope you're back to full soaping soon.
 
Sorry to hear about your torn rotator cuff. Dh had his done some years ago, he was cut open, not done through a scope, it took one year with rehab exercises before he was right. He did as he was told and got back 95% movement.
I was also opened for surgery because ligaments and tendons were also completely detached. This has by far been one of the most painful surgeries I’ve ever been through and healing time seems like it’s going SOOOO SLOW. I am doing physical therapy and exercising at home but I’m just not one to sit still and do nothing! I’m also allergic to all pain meds so acetaminophen and ibuprofen is the only thing I’m taking. I just hope it’s worth the pain when recovery is done.
 
I was also opened for surgery because ligaments and tendons were also completely detached. This has by far been one of the most painful surgeries I’ve ever been through and healing time seems like it’s going SOOOO SLOW. I am doing physical therapy and exercising at home but I’m just not one to sit still and do nothing! I’m also allergic to all pain meds so acetaminophen and ibuprofen is the only thing I’m taking. I just hope it’s worth the pain when recovery is done.
That is rough stuff - sending prayers for healing!
 
Last edited:
I had intentions of making soap, but did not...
I did however obsolete some stock that hadn't sold - all were soaps that were made in 2016/2017 and despite reducing the price hadn't sold any during 2019. I take that as a sign that I shouldn't be hauling these around for 2020. So I wrapped each one in Christmas paper and I will take them to the next Brew Club meeting and/or Christmas Party. About half the soaps were beer soaps with odd fragrances or down to the last bar (why won't anyone ever buy the last bar??!!), so it seems fitting to take them.

This week I hope to have time to make one "2020 Goal Soap" (i.e. using up an FO that I've had around forever), figure out the setup and work flow for the 10 people class I'm doing in Feb, and make two yogurt honey soaps. I should probably finish my supplies inventory before I start those...

ETA: I also went through my personal soap stash boxes. Threw away quite a bit of soap that had developed DOS in the last year, so I'm almost down to only having one box of soap! Decided I would start sharing these soaps with my niece (some are soaps that I have made, as well as soaps I've purchased or gotten in swaps, or been given as gifts) by cutting each bar in half and setting aside for her when she comes to visit.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
@Misschief
Would the poppy seeds work well for some "shop sink" soap? I'm looking for something to use in my soap with a little scrubbing action.
Definitely. I make a gardener's hand soap that has poppy seeds, pumice, corn meal, and lemon peel; it's very scrubby and it flies off the shelf in the summer. Gardener's love it. That reminds me, I need to make another batch for the upcoming market season.
 
Today I made the very last batch of soap I will make in this house. Tomorrow we pay the down payment on the new apartment. Goodbye tiny kitchen, in our new place I will have a whole soaping room which I cannot wait to put to use!

My soap today was Bergamont Sandalwood scented. I tried doing a spin swirl in my loaf mold but it didn't swirl much. I used Tangerine WOW! mica from BrambleBerry, and TD for most of the layers, and a single layer of Lettuce Entertain You from Mad Micas in the middle. For the top I just scrapped my containers, plotted the extra on top, and used a chopstick to swirl them. This FO discolors to brown and I'm hoping it will look like layers of wood grain when it cures.
 
Back
Top