What soapy thing have you done today?

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It took me ages to learn how to recognise light trace at 30% lye concentration. Just when I have that down I am trying to move to 33% lye concentration and am having to learn all over again. I don't think soaping is supposed to be this difficult! [emoji24][emoji24][emoji24]
 
I've been working with SoapMaker for the past several hours entering all of the receipts that I've still got. So far I've got $621.36 of the more than $3,500.00 spent since March, 2015, accounted for. Some of those are more equipment and investments (like the computer and software) than they are supplies. I've got everything related to soap categorized as "soap" in my checking account to track that spending vs my other hobbies (which are also categorized -- I'm afraid to see what I've spent on "knitting" and "books" in the same time period no wonder I'm always broke).


Yes ma'am. Know the feeling. I had a co-worker at my last job and we realized we were two peas in a pod that had to buy two of almost every craft supply...one to use then and one because we were using the one we bought. If that makes sense? Because once you use it, you don't have it. And In order to create, (mainly pertaining to pens, paints and clay I guess, okay and beads and wire and some other things) one might need a plethora of supplies to gaze upon with which to stimulate the Muse. Oh, and ribbon, fabric, and thread. Leather, metal, bones.

Scents, colors. Supply hoarders, although I have vowed to stop that. Paper, magnets, glue types...grommet sizes....
 
Sigh. After about two weeks away from anything soapy (including reading the forum!) I finally made a soap with avocado puree. Split the difference with coconut milk and scented with cucumber green tea.... Sounds lovely after a long day in the sun! Made in my new t&s silicone mold. Slight bowing but really impressed with the mold overall.

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My lye came in yesterday, started this at about 4 this morning

Coconut oil 16.88 Oz
Rice bran oil 11.61 Oz
Grapeseed oil 7.39 Oz
Sweet Almond oil 6.33 Oz
Shea Butter 6.33 Oz
Castor oil 4.22 Oz
Lye 7.43 Oz
Water 20.04 Oz
Bonfire bliss FO Rustic essentials
My new Essential Depot mold
Nurture soap supply micas

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Still waiting on my lye so the SOAPY THING I did today. ..
I ordered the best slab mold set
<snip> Check it out

That looks so nice!

Im planning on doing an experiment with one of my wooden moulds and a tube of gutter silicone. Will report back if it works in a couple of days

I am looking forward to hearing about this.

I finally made a soap with avocado puree. Split the difference with coconut milk and scented with cucumber green tea....

Pretty. I need to try avocado puree in soap again. The first time I did, I really liked it. I used it as a shampoo bar. The second time I did, it I also liked it. Did that in combination with kombucha tea. But the third time I did it, it did not turn out so well and I ended up using that batch as a re-batch for some coffee soap for my husband. Nice nourishing soap for him, but one doesn't usually think of avocado as an additive to coffee soap. :think:

My lye came in yesterday, started this at about 4 this morning
<snip>
My new Essential Depot mold

Lovely looking soap. I haven't used my new ED mold yet. I have it sitting out since yesterday to do so, but since one of my 1 pound tests didn't go as planned yesterday I'm still on the fence about making that much soap in one batch right away.

` ` ` `

My soapy stuff:

A few days ago, I had to throw out a dandelion oil infusion I had started because it was growing mold. I was so disappointed, but figured the dandelions must have been moist, even though I thought I had let them dry out long enough. Oh, well, I will try again when we get back from our roadtrip. Hopefully there will be more dandelions in our yard when we get back. I may put them in the oven for a bit (like when I dry herbs) this time first.

Yesterday I made 4 one-pound loaves of test soaps.
#1. Walnut Oil & Milk soap. I have been wanting to try out Walnut Oil for a while, but kept postponing buying the oil. Finally did. It looks nice. I unmolded it after 20 hours

#2. Test batch of a revised recipe I made on a roadtrip a few months back. I had brought along a few oils and threw together a recipe based on what I had on hand, and did a nice little HP in my hotel room, with a quart-sized milk carton as my mold. I liked the look & feel of the soap, until I washed my hands with it a few days ago. Way too drying for my tastes. Too much Coconut Oil. So this test was a revised version with less CO and more OO. Still in the mold. I may take it out later today. (I am keeping the original soap for comparison. Eventually I will combine it with something milder in a rebatch.)

#3. Test batch of my favorite soap, with only one change. Changed from SoapCalc's default 38% water to 30% Lye Concentration. Unfortunately, this recipe also includes Sodium Lactate and using the SL at 30% [lye] was a mistake. Immediate ricing and separation in the mold.

#4. Same as #3, but without the SL. Success. Much better behaved. Still in the mold as I just put that one in at 11:15 pm last night.

Today: I rebatched #3 from last night. Scooped out all the oil on top and cut up the fairly firm soap into a plastic bowl. Covered with plastic wrap & microwaved for 3 minutes (in shorter intervals) at 30% power (defrost setting on my microwave). Stirred well and it looked perfectly well incorporated. The temp fell rapidly, so I zapped it into the microwave for another minute at 30% after getting the mold ready again & warming up a teaspoon of yogurt. Mixed the yogurt into the batter to increase pour-ability & put it into the mold. Looks so much better now!

I am hoping to unmold the others later today. Then I will let them all sit on racks to dry and cut them when we return from our roadtrip.

I wanted to do a larger batch to use in my new ED mold like niclycha pictured above. But now I'm thinking better left to when we return. I do have to finish gathering the wool roving and needle felting stuff to bring along as well as pack my bag for our trip. So that should be my focus today, not a new batch of soap.
 
I've been coveting that for a while now. I'm trying to justify the purchase. Justify to whom though...

Teresa the price is awesome, they are the people who build mils for Bramble berry, I looked at the price difference and instantly justified lol.. and to who, justified to me lol.
 
Sorry for the triple post. It kept saying cannot connect to server

And I thought you just wanted to make sure I knew...

Today, I melted 2 pounds of cocoa butter and poured it into individual molds so it will be easier to weigh what I need. Unfortunately, it turned grainy. Oh well. It will melt down just fine and turn into soap.
 
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Today I reshuffled all my soap and put clean cloths on the shelves and made sure the labels were all in the right places. Put some Castile away in boxes to give me some new airing-shelf room.
Pretty sure I get double points for this because it is decluttering, isn't it?
 
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I made a couple of manly soaps for Father's Day - Tyler Durden and James Bond.

Ordered some supplies as I'm almost completely out of Palm oil and thought I'd try my hand at a lip balm so I ordered those cute metal tins we use to have when I was a kid. Now I just have to formulate a good recipe.
 
I ordered a new phone today... one with a 13 mp camera. I'm calling it soapy because I want to take better soap pics without having to actually buy a camera... Sounds legit, right?
 
Made a batch of bar soap and am cooking a batch of liquid soap...and now I need to wrap a previously cured batch. Then I need to sit down and do some math to see if I can dilute the liquid soap in the crock or if it will overflow...hrmmmm
 
I got everything ready for my first stab at the May challenge. Then said the heck with it, I'm exhausted from the frantic uncluttering. So, everything is wrapped up on the counter top. The lye solution is covered and cooling down. I'll heat the oils later on tonight and make it some time before I go to bed or do it after work tomorrow. I need to break out the ice packs. I was not meant for manual labor.
 
a bad soapy day for me, I remade a batch of black and white soap that I made a month ago only to have nothing but problems with it, it definitely won't look the same but hopefully it will work the same. Then I made a batch for the may challenge that will come out of the mold tomorrow looking nothing like I wanted it to...
 
Oh major flash backs logging in here for the first time in ages. I finally made some soap again after chickening out for however long (long story, diagnosed with young onset Parkinson's but diagnoses changed to Multiple System Atrophy). I stopped making soap for safety reasons. You can imagine right. Tending a bar and shaking up cocktails, sure. Advantage, chick with the tremors. Not so handy playing with the caustic stuff. Anyway, my eldest kidlet is now old enough to be a useful soap minion. I'm back baby. Sort of. I'm going to develop a walking stick swirl or something. So yeah, hi again if anyone remembers me and a big hello in general. The soap was just a basic CP with a tremor drop swirl. Not putting up a pic as it's way to plain and was just practice. Cheers all. Time for a nap.
 
Oh major flash backs logging in here for the first time in ages. I finally made some soap again after chickening out for however long (long story, diagnosed with young onset Parkinson's but diagnoses changed to Multiple System Atrophy). I stopped making soap for safety reasons. You can imagine right. Tending a bar and shaking up cocktails, sure. Advantage, chick with the tremors. Not so handy playing with the caustic stuff. Anyway, my eldest kidlet is now old enough to be a useful soap minion. I'm back baby. Sort of. I'm going to develop a walking stick swirl or something. So yeah, hi again if anyone remembers me and a big hello in general. The soap was just a basic CP with a tremor drop swirl. Not putting up a pic as it's way to plain and was just practice. Cheers all. Time for a nap.

Oh yes I remember you and your sense of humor. Happy to have you back, but I'm saddened by the diagnosis. A tremor swirl huh? Sounds like it will have a "feathery" effect, so we'll need pictures if you can!
 
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