What soapy thing have you done today?

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Cut the test batches from yesterday and they turned out ok. The FO (vanilla buttercream) is going to turn them ugly brown (can already tell on the sides), but the layers turned out ok. View attachment 50007

Lovely; really beautiful.
I made a soap I titled Lady Camo because the vanilla disscoloration turn my pink & white to pick & brown. I really liked the Lady Camoflauge effect and it smelled great.
 
Where do you live?! I'm coming over to eat it! 😁
Not if I get there first!! I had the same thought about how delicious it looks. Still trying to figure out @The_Phoenix Phoenix 's technique.

I cut my Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh tonight. Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh I know I sound repetitive but I using a real cutter is such a treat! It's up there with reaching in under the towels to feel the warm molds gellin' and turning curing soaps. Okay, that sounded just a tad geeky.
 
Not if I get there first!! I had the same thought about how delicious it looks. Still trying to figure out @The_Phoenix Phoenix 's technique.

I cut my Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh tonight. Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh I know I sound repetitive but I using a real cutter is such a treat! It's up there with reaching in under the towels to feel the warm molds gellin' and turning curing soaps. Okay, that sounded just a tad geeky.
We soap geeks have a secret handshake brought on by repetitive stick blender use.
 
Ordered samples of fall/holiday fragrances from some suppliers that I haven't checked out before--Muddy Soap Co. and Candles and Supplies. Also grabbed some favorites from Wooden Wick to use for close family and friends holiday gifts. I put in an order for Lotion/scrub supplies as I have always wanted to learn how to formulate those from scratch. My treat to myself for managing to survive the first few weeks of homeschool madness😂
 
Made my 50th batch of soap!
Decided to actually throw away some shavings. For the first time. My confetti stash over floweth!
 

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I brought a bunch of soap in for the trauma nurses. They all wanted to give me money (I didnt take it!! Lol). They were totally gaga over it. Even the guys.

I told them the only payment was to follow me on instagram and comment on my soap after they have used it a bit. Now i gotta get all my pictures up.

Building my future customer base lol. Tomorrow, i work on the ER nurses lol.

Made my 50th batch of soap!
Decided to actually throw away some shavings. For the first time. My confetti stash over floweth!
I havent been beveling my soap...i feel like i completely destroy it. I dont really mind the crisp edges. So i really dont have too much as far as shavings go. I guess i can hit some of my bits and pieces with a peeler
 
Doing some soapy stuff today as usual. Lol. This time it’s prep work. I made a cucumber melon soap last week with one of the cucumbers from my garden. I had a bunch in the fridge and wanted to use them up. @earlene you would approve! 😁 So I made a few jars of refrigerator dill pickles and decided to prep the rest for soap. I got out my trusty vitamix chunked up some cukes
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and added some distilled water and puréed away. It got nice and liquidy but there was still some pulp so I strained it and put the juice in 5 ice cube trays. When that hardens I’ll transfer them to baggies and put the pulp in the molds. Will use the juice as the liquid and add a little pulp to the oils. The soap I made last week is really nice and cucumber melon is one of my favorite scents as well as a favorite of friends and family who have tried it. My kitchen smells so green and heavenly right now!
 
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All my soap shreds are currently in the InstantPot on the slow cooker setting. It's about half full, which was not enough (for once) to fill the turkey roaster pan, nor to make it worth turning on the oven (which I have yet to try for re-batching, but I will!).

The advantage is that the stainless IP liner is so light and easy to clean, compared to a ceramic crock. However, the IP's slow-cooker setting supposedly doesn't get as hot as a traditional crock; we shall see how long it takes to melt everything.
 
All my soap shreds are currently in the InstantPot on the slow cooker setting. It's about half full, which was not enough (for once) to fill the turkey roaster pan, nor to make it worth turning on the oven (which I have yet to try for re-batching, but I will!).

The advantage is that the stainless IP liner is so light and easy to clean, compared to a ceramic crock. However, the IP's slow-cooker setting supposedly doesn't get as hot as a traditional crock; we shall see how long it takes to melt everything.
Looking forward to seeing your results. I did my first rebatch a couple weeks ago. I did use the oven and it worked well. I could have used a little more water as it wasn’t terribly fluid but it was still ok and made a nice soap.
 
I havent been beveling my soap...i feel like i completely destroy it. I dont really mind the crisp edges. So i really dont have too much as far as shavings go. I guess i can hit some of my bits and pieces with a peeler
I only bevel some, and only after they’re cured. They turn to mush if I try it when they’re soft. These I had to bevel because they were some odd individual mold soaps I made from leftover batter, they were messy. I have not been beveling my pull throughs.
 
@Jersey Girl with all my re-batching experience, you'd think I'd have it down. But each time is a bit different, even though my recipe is pretty standard. I think it depends on how cured the shreds and end pieces are. I've taken to putting them right into a tightly-sealed ziplock bag so they don't dry out much. That seems to help them melt faster. Which is good, because I am most impatient when waiting for soap to melt!

@TashaBird round soaps can be rather hard to bevel, even for someone with a steady hand! I've tried a few times, with less than stellar results. I'm pretty good now with a veggie peeler for the straight edges. The big planer is nice for taking off more if that is needed. I did purchase one of the kakuri planers that Irish Lass uses, but I cannot get it to work. It is now past the return window, so I should probably list it for sale over in the classified thread.
 
Did something I haven’t ever done before in all my years of soaping....made a soap with only my preferences in mind. No thought to who likes what color, fragrance, style or worry about matching fragrance to color.....it was all about me me me!!! Boy, I need to do that more often! ( Wsp Frosted Birch and Juniper)

Also made/cut cocoa butter and cashmere discoloring soap. Taking it’s time discoloring, but I think it looks decent.
 
All my soap shreds are currently in the InstantPot on the slow cooker setting.
My husband won't let me steal any more appliances from the kitchen since I stole the crockpot. We use our IP alot. Although tomorrow I will be cooking some shreds for rebatch soap as well, I'll be using the stolen crockpot :p

round soaps can be rather hard to bevel, even for someone with a steady hand!
@TashaBird What I found works the best for round soaps is to use the back side of a butter knife to gently run around the edges of the soap a few times. You don't get a large bevel, but it does knock off that hard cut edge nicely. When I started beveling soap bars I also used this trick until I mastered the vegetable peeler.

My soapy thing, I made a custom order of 22 soap bars last night. Normally I do this in two batches, one large one for my 18 bar mold, and then a smaller batch for 4 bar mold. I was pressed for time last night, and knowing this soap makes me cry anyways, I decided to just throw it all in one large bucket and do it in one go. Normally this FO blend accelerates like crazy (this is the third year I have made this particular soap for this customer) and it's a plop, pray, squish and go cry over a beer process to make this soap. Last night everything went so smoothly, I even managed an ITPS. It was actually fun to make! (So I celebrated with a beer, ha) It gelled nicely through the night, so I was able to cut it this morning, and it's gorgeous. I'm beyond pleased with myself. The bars are drying out a bit under a fan so I can bevel when I get home from work and take pictures then. The only thing I am upset about is that I used 3 colors for the ITPS: yellow, pink and orange. The orange looks just like the pink color when first mixed with soap but morphs to a lovely orange color during saponification. I thought I had my color buckets straight and was putting the orange and yellow on the top to swirl prettily... but I had the pink and yellow instead. Actually... thinking about it, I wonder if I had the right buckets but poured the wrong mica in them... either way... the top isn't what I wanted but still pretty enough.
 
My husband won't let me steal any more appliances from the kitchen since I stole the crockpot. We use our IP alot. Although tomorrow I will be cooking some shreds for rebatch soap as well, I'll be using the stolen crockpot :p
We have two IPs. We had a larger household at the time, so having two was great for making the roast in one, potatoes in the other. Or to be completely honest, chili in one, and cheesecake in the other. 😁

ETA: the IP actually worked out really well for re-batching. Used the saute' function to get it hot, then used some leftover hot coffee with sugar to deglaze the bits stuck to the bottom. That was my planned liquid additive anyway. Then another hour on the IP's slow cooker setting. Stirred in an EO mix that was a bunch of leftovers from the ends of bottles, and it was ready to plop into the mold. Looks like fudge with colored marshmallow chunks, and smells pretty good, although not like fudge. If the IP liner is any indication, it lathers very well.
 
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Doing some soapy stuff today as usual. Lol. This time it’s prep work. I made a cucumber melon soap last week with one of the cucumbers from my garden. I had a bunch in the fridge and wanted to use them up. @earlene you would approve! 😁 So I made a few jars of refrigerator dill pickles and decided to prep the rest for soap. I got out my trusty vitamix chunked up some cukesView attachment 50077 and added some distilled water and puréed away. It got nice and liquidy but there was still some pulp so I strained it and put the juice in 5 ice cube trays. When that hardens I’ll transfer them to baggies and put the pulp in the molds. Will use the juice as the liquid and add a little pulp to the oils. The soap I made last week is really nice and cucumber melon is one of my favorite scents as well as a favorite of friends and family who have tried it. My kitchen smells so green and heavenly right now!
I have some lychee in the freezer all pureed up ready to go. Thought I might do a guava scented soap with the lychee - they sound like they 'go together'. Meanwhile - I have cut my beer soap. My nephew LOVES this stuff
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I’ve been soooo busy. But I’ve wanted to make this soap for weeks. Made a batch of red/white peppermint layered soap and made soap curls from that. Topped a batch of chocolate soap with the curls. Smells so dang yummy. It was a LOT of work but definitely worth the effort.
Wow, that’s amazing!! Looks fabulous!
 
I have some lychee in the freezer all pureed up ready to go. Thought I might do a guava scented soap with the lychee - they sound like they 'go together'. Meanwhile - I have cut my beer soap. My nephew LOVES this stuff
.View attachment 50079
Those looks beautiful! I’ve yet to try a beer soap but it’s on the list!
 
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