Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
You're very welcome... I think... I'm always happy to enable another soaper. It's what I do best! haha.
What soapy thing have you done today?
- Thread starter FlybyStardancer
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You're very welcome... I think... I'm always happy to enable another soaper. It's what I do best! haha.
I know what you mean... I'm an enabler too!
Yes, they do. Most have been covered in the monthly "Challenge" on SMF. If you go to the Lye Based Soap Forum and search for the Challenge for each month you can see different swirls by name each month. You have to be a member for 1 month (I think) to participate.
Here's the one for this past April:
Strainer Pour/Pull Through Technique
This is the link to a thread that has all the links to all the Challenges over the years at SMF:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/smf-soap-challenges-across-the-years.72159/We (the challenge hostesses) try to keep it up-to-date and current on a regular basis.
If you save it as a watched thread, you may never have to use search again to find the older Challenge threads. I have it save on my browser's toolbar, because I was always referring back to it for one reason or another.
I made soap today IN MY KITCHEN with a COUNTER and a STOVE and EVERYTHING! For those of you following my personal drama, we bought a house with no kitchen and moved in Halloween. And we've had four COVID-19 refugees (i.e. college students and kids who've lost their jobs) move in to this house. Now, our kitchen is 90% finished and it's so beautiful that I spread newspapers 100 pages thick everywhere.
I made a gardener/mechanic soap. The liquid was brewed coffee and I also used red palm oil so, peeee-eww what a scent sensation!
I'll skip all the borax drama which you can find in another thread How much borax in cold process soap? but this will truly be an experiment. Must. Wait. Six. Weeks...and let go of my perfectionism. Despite the odor, the red palm oil and brewed coffee made a lovely color. My wife wanted to eat it because it looked like caramel.
The other experimental part was half of the loaf was 2 teaspoons of exfoliants, and the other half was 2 tablespoons of exfoliants. I only had coffee grounds and poppy seeds in the house. It is scented with rosemary, litsea cubeba, bergamot, and basil essential oils -- with thanks to my homies' suggestions in the Aromatherapy/Herbs/Essential Oils forum.
I also observed that soaping in gloves and my bandana/scarf is now more like my daily wear instead of my once-in-awhile soaping wardrobe.
I made a gardener/mechanic soap. The liquid was brewed coffee and I also used red palm oil so, peeee-eww what a scent sensation!
I'll skip all the borax drama which you can find in another thread How much borax in cold process soap? but this will truly be an experiment. Must. Wait. Six. Weeks...and let go of my perfectionism. Despite the odor, the red palm oil and brewed coffee made a lovely color. My wife wanted to eat it because it looked like caramel. The other experimental part was half of the loaf was 2 teaspoons of exfoliants, and the other half was 2 tablespoons of exfoliants. I only had coffee grounds and poppy seeds in the house. It is scented with rosemary, litsea cubeba, bergamot, and basil essential oils -- with thanks to my homies' suggestions in the Aromatherapy/Herbs/Essential Oils forum.
I also observed that soaping in gloves and my bandana/scarf is now more like my daily wear instead of my once-in-awhile soaping wardrobe.
Adobehead
Well-Known Member
I got a small batch of lard soap made, this was my first time with lard.
I used titanium dioxide and zinc, equal amounts, to whiten it. Also, I added powdered moringa leaf, which I cannot bear to eat anyway. The soap is a pretty bright green.
This is the first time I cannot unmold and cut the next morning, the soap is "gooshy", I will look at it again tomorrow.
I don't think this lard was the best quality. It smelled like it had already been to the barbeque. It was 50% lard, 45% olive and 5% castor.
I do not have high hopes for this soap, except as a learning tool.
I used titanium dioxide and zinc, equal amounts, to whiten it. Also, I added powdered moringa leaf, which I cannot bear to eat anyway. The soap is a pretty bright green.
This is the first time I cannot unmold and cut the next morning, the soap is "gooshy", I will look at it again tomorrow.
I don't think this lard was the best quality. It smelled like it had already been to the barbeque. It was 50% lard, 45% olive and 5% castor.
I do not have high hopes for this soap, except as a learning tool.
Adobehead
Well-Known Member
Congratulations! You have been very patient and diligent!
I'm sure it was worth the wait. : )
And yes, we all look like the Lone Ranger, don't we? Banditos.
wow, you have been busy, I had to remake a batch of strawberry soap that went horribly wrong the other day, it made me nervous to unmold it but I have renewed faith in myself lol. my husband has time to kill right now, so he's building me my website as we speak.So I'm just wondering what stages everyone's at.I'm a curious little cat, I am.
For myself, I'm waiting for my most recent batch of bar soap to firm up (trying to give it 24 hours before I even touch it, since the soapcalc numbers put it just shy of the 'ideal' hardness range). In addition I fiddled around with the liquid soap I made yesterday (a good chunk of it didn't dissolved, and I was seeing if that was because there wasn't enough water to dilute it all... sure enough that was the problem so it was diluted and added to the bottle holding the rest of it).
And right now I have a tea going that will eventually be strained and frozen, to be used when I make my shampoo bar. Still need to get to my aunt's to pick her citrus trees... But at least I can have the liquid ready to go! I measured out 1/2 oz of dried marshmallow root, 1 1/2 cups water (both weighed to the gram), and then for kicks I tossed in one bag each of Bigelow's Chammomile Lemon and I Love Lemon teas. I'm going to be infusing both chamomile and lemon into the oils, and needed to use the teas anyways (and I don't drink tea). Win-win, right? I might not need all of the tea for the shampoo bar (I'll only be using about 500g oils after all), but at least I'll have it done.
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
A
amd
Zero for soapmaking this weekend. I did however finish painting my basement, successfully did some day drinking, and finished most of my B&B stock. So I consider the weekend a success. Today I will be finishing my B&B with solid perfume and facial scrub, and then masterbatching oils. Hopefully making a batch of mechanic scrub and at long last a batch of soap. (Mechanic scrub is basically a rebatched soap so I don't really count it as soap lol)
Congratulations on your kitchen. You have been very patient with that.
But am cracking up over the last part of your post. I read it as "robe" not wardrobe and sort of wondered where you were wearing the scarf? We had a friend in Alaska who would shed his clothes the minute the outside temps got above 60 degrees. Spent the summers in a bandana if he was being formal...and his altogethers if he wasn't. So I was imagining you in your soaping altogethers with a bandana tied around your waist like Shorty had in his formal moments! I just have to learn to read all the words in a post...not just some of them. But It certainly made for a great morning chuckle! Thanks
LOL! This forum certainly took a turn and you evidently have a vivid imagination (and hope it did me justice, male egos being fragile). While I respect but don't fear lye, I definitely would not want my altogethers getting a splash. Yikes-kers. When I soap, my boys joke I look like a "Breaking Bad' character so I can assure you I am completely covered in layers. Thanks for the laugh and the new vocabulary word!
Glad I gave you a laugh this morning. Shorty was a welder and for sure he did no welding without a good cover!!! How he dealt with all the mosquitoes in Alaska in the summer I'll never know. He had a full head of curly hair and so my imagination at least gave you hair on your head. LOL
msuver
Member
I didn't make soap this weekend, but I did have a friend ask me about how to get started soapmaking! I still think of myself as a beginner, but I spent a good two hours last night putting together all my notes and references from the last year and a half of research and experimenting that I've done. I also put together a sample pack of four soaps and included their recipes, so he can have some idea what he might like (which I will drop off next weekend, carefully and safely). I hope he decides to pick it up - soapmaking is the most rewarding hobby I've ever done.
Edited to add: attached a photo of the pack of soap I'll be delivering!
Edited to add: attached a photo of the pack of soap I'll be delivering!
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
Congrats on the kitchen....but yanno, if there aren't any pics..it didn't happenI made soap today IN MY KITCHEN with a COUNTER and a STOVE and EVERYTHING! For those of you following my personal drama, we bought a house with no kitchen and moved in Halloween. And we've had four COVID-19 refugees (i.e. college students and kids who've lost their jobs) move in to this house. Now, our kitchen is 90% finished and it's so beautiful that I spread newspapers 100 pages thick everywhere.
I made a gardener/mechanic soap. The liquid was brewed coffee and I also used red palm oil so, peeee-eww what a scent sensation!
The other experimental part was half of the loaf was 2 teaspoons of exfoliants, and the other half was 2 tablespoons of exfoliants. I only had coffee grounds and poppy seeds in the house. It is scented with rosemary, litsea cubeba, bergamot, and basil essential oils -- with thanks to my homies' suggestions in the Aromatherapy/Herbs/Essential Oils forum.
I also observed that soaping in gloves and my bandana/scarf is now more like my daily wear instead of my once-in-awhile soaping wardrobe.
Gathered soap in a bag for Hubby to take to his co-workers in the morning.
I got my first slicer and now feel like a real soaper and am happy as a little boy on Christmas morning! Thanks to @rdc1978 who recommended one that shipped for free instead of an arm and a leg. I unmolded and cut WITH MY NEW SLICER my gardener's soap, photos are Gardener's soap
luluzapcat
Well-Known Member
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Sunday I FINALLY finished my DIY soap cutter. This started out as "a little weekend project, if not a Saturday thing" and mushroomed into an epic one-step-forward, 3-steps-back several month odyssey. But hallelujah, it's done. Or at least usable--hopefully. So of course I made a soap loaf afterwards so I'd have something to cut. It's KILLING me waiting for that to be ready, but it spent the night in the freezer because I don't want it to gel, and I want to be sure I don't unmold too early so I'm waiting another day. Tell me I don't have to!
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Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
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