What soapy thing have you done today?

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My pouring over a spatula skills need some work, batter was probably a bit too thin, and I need to be able to judge how much color to add for each pour. I'm no Veronica Foale, but for a first attempt I'm happy.

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made a 64-oz batch of 100% CO soap for laundry, etc. As a bonus used up the last of the drain cleaner lye and can now start on Lye Guy lye, which I somehow feel will be 'better'. or at least more pure! :D

edited 30 minutes later to add: it's about to volcano! I slapped it in the downstairs freezer (which is colder then upstairs) hope I was on time!!! Or that at least the cookie sheet holds the mess if it does blow. EEP!
 
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Made the first attempt of the May challenge. Did a CPOP with this one, I wanted to make sure the Really Red from Nurture got gelled so it becomes red, not pink.

We will see. With my luck it`ll probably turn fuchsia or something...

I used mostly Lard, and lemmetellyah, I feel I could work with it all day, it was so well behaved I can not believe it. Even with Jasmine. But then again, lard is the King of Chill...

It is in the oven as we speak. It is almost bedtime now so I`ll check on it before I go to sleep, and let it sit in the oven untill tomorrow morning.
 
Dibbles, that is so beautiful.

Today I looked over my Soaping Journal while resizing & naming photos of my soaps after doing an upload. Photos will be forthcoming.

Cut one my 1-lb test batch of Carrot Juice Low Cleansing formula. I could have waited another day or so to cut this, as it seems it's going to be slow to harden even though it is 63% hard oils. The Bubbly & Cleansing numbers are low (both at 6) so I added 1 T. sugar, and at this point, the bubbles are just tiny little baby bubbles. It is lathering but not much bubble action. I was concerned about my EO blend yesterday after reading one reference that said not to mix Rosemary with Eucalyptus. But I read another today that said they blend well, so I am confused. I blended Rosemary, Lemon & Eucalyptus, and put that into this soap. The blend is too strong, though, even though it is less than the lye calculator called for in total weight. I still wonder what the concern is about blending the R & the E together is, though.
 
My pouring over a spatula skills need some work, batter was probably a bit too thin, and I need to be able to judge how much color to add for each pour. I'm no Veronica Foale, but for a first attempt I'm happy.


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This is my favorite tool for pouring layers. I can get super close and ensure that I don't break through.
 
I'm on holidays but I can't stop thinking about soap. At least I have internet connection for a little browsing. Maybe they have a local store in the area... Anyone know of something in the Las Vegas area?

BTW, Dibbles - that is beautiful soap. I really like the colors.
 
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Bought some tester FOs, does that count? ;)

Made facial bars with butters, almond oil, bit of OO and lard (it gives me DOS but giving it another go).
Tested yellow clay in one and fragranced few with NG Honeysuckle. Rest of the bars are fragrance free.

And cleaned out my soap supplies. Tossed out few old FOs. Had a bit of BB Sensuous sandalwood that I've forgotten about and ewww. Never knew old FO could smell that bad.
 
Bought some tester FOs, does that count? ;)

Made facial bars with butters, almond oil, bit of OO and lard (it gives me DOS but giving it another go).
Tested yellow clay in one and fragranced few with NG Honeysuckle. Rest of the bars are fragrance free.

And cleaned out my soap supplies. Tossed out few old FOs. Had a bit of BB Sensuous sandalwood that I've forgotten about and ewww. Never knew old FO could smell that bad.

Buying FOs ALWAYS counts!
 
I made three batches of soap. The first was a "Mica Madness" 1000 gm batch that I used 5 different colors in and scented it with a tester of "Pretty Kitty" from Nature's Garden. (I never want to smell that again.) The second one was a 500 gm batch for a friend using her "mystery mix" of essential oils.The final was a 1000 gm batch that I tested out Soapalooza's Aloe & Yucca fragrance oil. I decided to swap out the water for aloe vera liquid (seemed smart). Everything was fine until I added the fragrance. I got a bowl of rice then Vaseline. By the time I got it into the mold, it looked like I had HPd the batch. I'll try the aloe liquid again another day, but I'll make sure I make the solution the night before and soap at room temperature.

I've got a question for those of you that use mango butter. Does your mango butter smell weird? I purchased some and it smells like fryer grease or oil. When I first got it, it was really bad. The distributor (a Facebook bulk purchase group) said refined mango butter has a "light" smell and definitely does not smell like mangos. She suggested I let it air out since it had been closed up and the odor will diffuse. The majority of the "grease" smell has gone; but it still does not smell pleasant at all. I'm trying to find out if that is normal for mango butter. I'm used to butters with either no smell or something like raw shea butter, kind of earthy but not unpleasant. Definitely not a product that smells like fryer grease. This is my first experience with mango butter. I have nothing to compare it with and don't know if it's a bad batch or just a naturally stinky product. I have no idea what it is supposed to smell like. I've gotten other oils from this company and everything else is fine; no other funky odors. It's a brand new batch of butter. I received my other oils and butters a week before this one because it hadn't arrived from the shipper yet.
 
TeresaT... yes mango butter smells a bit funky.
To me it smelled more like rancid. But I can see where your idea if grease comes from.
Didn't like it. Lucky I only got 100gr.
 
My little daycare munchkins "made" their mummies some foaming bath butter for Mothers Day which is this Sunday. They got to whip up their bath butter base and stir through some jojoba beads and cucumber & melon FO. They were so excited! So was I - I get to do soapy stuff at work as well as home :D

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Foamy Bath Butter

What a novel idea for your kids. I would love your foamy bath butter recipe. I love collecting recipes for soap and such and have never tried a bath butter before.
What soapy thing have I done today? Well, yesterday early in the wee hours of the morning (5 am)...I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. So I decided to make my all time favorite soap with a twist. I made 100 % pure coconut oil soap that was superfatted 20 % and added ground oatmeal in it. I have been wanting to try adding different ingredients in soap but I have had a hard time getting the perfect recipe with soap first. I keep going back to my tried and true 100 % coconut soap because I love the lather. To me soap isn't soap unless it has lots of lather.
On the flip side, this morning I ordered some powdered goats milk and powdered coconut milk to add into soaps. I liked the addition of oatmeal so much until now I am getting more sure of myself with additions into soap.
My next addition will be some lavender buds and some chamomile.
 
Thanks fuzz-juzz. Yes! I thought rancid at first, too. But I knew it was brand new and couldn't be rancid. The smell has gone down some, but I can still smell it. I'll see how it soaps. I've got a pound of it. It's going to have to make the most amazing soap in the world for me to buy more...

ETA: VonnieDeak don't be surprised when your lavender buds end up looking like mouse turds. Except for calendula petals, botanicals turn brown in soap because of the lye, when you mix them in the batter.
 
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Today I cut the soap I made for the challenge. I like it enough, but not happy enough with the outcome to actually enter it. It smells ahhmazinngg though...

So pictures of the 'dud' are coming soon. Now I have to make another try (oh no, how... tehrrible )

I may chose the other picture that I was debating about, but we`ll see.
 
I have been wanting to try adding different ingredients in soap but I have had a hard time getting the perfect recipe with soap first.
My next addition will be some lavender buds and some chamomile.

My favorite soap that I have made so far (it's been just under a year sinse I started making CP soap), is my lavender soap. But as TheresaT said, the lavender buds end up looking like mouse droppings in the finished soap. I even warned my granddaughter about them telling her, 'it may look like bugs in the soap, but it's really flowers that turned brown.' Made her laugh. Anyway I decided to grind them into powder the next time and just add the powdered lavender and see how that goes instead.

I have also used chamomile flowers as an infusion in oil and that seemed particularly nice. I did not include the flowers, but a few bits got through the strainer and provided some specks for visual interest. It's a nice soap, too.

My soapy thing today was unmolding the Purple Plumeria soaps (part of a rebatch soap). For rebatch/HP they came out pretty darn nice, I think. I colored them purple and added Plumeria fragrance. I also poured in a bit of the ground lavender flowers and that's what the specks are. I am not sure how much the purple color was affected by the ground lavender versus how much it was affected by the already muddy color of the rebatch when I added the purple. Either way, there really is only a hint of purple, more like a mix of grey and lavender. I thought of brushing the tops with gold mica to highlight the hummingbird & flowers, but haven't done so yet.

 

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