What soapy thing have you done today?

[jules92207]

I mixed several blends this morning to make my 2nd attempt at my blend swap soap today. I keep debating on which one to use.

Also last weekend I made my comparable batches with Fannie & Flo's lard and tallow samples and had a bit of each left over so last night I made homemade tortillas for the first time ever, delicious!

 

[earlene]

I mixed several blends this morning to make my 2nd attempt at my blend swap soap today. I keep debating on which one to use.

Also last weekend I made my comparable batches with Fannie & Flo's lard and tallow samples and had a bit of each left over so last night I made homemade tortillas for the first time ever, delicious!

Cool! When I was in my 20's my boy friend's mother taught me to make tortillas, tamales, menudo, refried beans the 'right way' and a variety of wonderful Mexican dishes. Lard was a staple, of course. She wouldn't cook without it.

I decided to walk downtown to the Farmer's Market and Father's Day Weekend Festival. Besides the usual farmer's market vendors, there were also lots of other artisan boothes, 3 of which were selling soap, one selling sheep's wool from her own sheep. I talked to her about roving and she said she will bring some next time. I am so thrilled! I told her I felt soap and we talked about that for awhile. Then I stopped at each of the soaper's boothes, but when I started sniffing the fragranced soaps I began to realize my head and stomach weren't handling it very well. I had to walk away. I told them why & they understood, especially the one who also gets ocular migraines. I wonder if there are certain fragrances I need to stay away from? Or it could simply be because I am not fully recovered from yesterday.

I bought a loaf of bread and some fresh honey from a local bee keeper's wife. Time for lunch! Then I'll get back to soaping.

 

[BlackDog]

Which Excedrin do you take? I will look for it. I did not used to get an actual headache with the Ocular Migraine, which was pretty nice, but just an odd feeling afterward. My eye doc told me some people don't get the pain, so I was hoping it would remain so. However, it morphed into a HA yesterday and the couple of times before that so I have started taking plain acetaminophen for the pain as that's all I have on hand. I knew about the caffeine, but since I tend to drink very strong black tea (iced) I'm pretty sure I have that covered. Perhaps it would be worse if I had not been drinking tea. Anyway it's mostly gone today except for a slight shadow of an odd feeling in my head behind my eyes.

I think it's excedrin extra strength. It's in a green bottle with a white label. My bottle is at the office or I would check!

Even black tea is only like half the caffeine of coffee, so you might consider keeping some caffeinated soda or something on hand.

 

[TeresaT]

I made avocado puree soap. I'm getting ready to clean up some bars of soap and wrap and label them. Then I think I'm going to go to bed. I've got a dull headache that's been bugging me all day. I've taken Tylenol but it's not doing any good. Neither is the coffee. Perhaps too much coffee? I dunno.

 

[doriettefarm]

I got to experiment with something completely new & different today. I've been wanting to try it for at least a year now . . . I actually remember having an inspiration last summer during tomato season. So I guess things have come full circle and just this week I got my hands on some soap dough from Sorcery Soap! I've been having a blast just kneading the dough and smooshing it into different shapes like modeling clay. I also picked up a fondant roller, some cutters and sculpting tools so I could experiment this weekend. Let's just say I'm gonna need ALOT more practice before I'm sculpting any magical creatures!

 

[earlene]

I think it's excedrin extra strength. It's in a green bottle with a white label. My bottle is at the office or I would check!

Even black tea is only like half the caffeine of coffee, so you might consider keeping some caffeinated soda or something on hand.

Thank you; I will look for it next time I am in a store. I don't drink soda. And I don't drink coffee. But I can make very strong tea. Truly I can.

 

[Sagebrush]

I haven't done any soapy things today, but I've been so busy doing soapy things that I haven't posted on the forum in a few weeks! I've been alternating two different markets on Sundays, trying to keep up popular soap stock, made a bunch of sagebrush smudge sticks (because people kept asking for them), have been making bath bombs every couple of weeks, found a local paper company to use for my packaging so I can transfer out of the paper I'm using, made a new mold for lotion bars. SO busy!!!

 

[MySoapyHeart]

Thank you; I will look for it next time I am in a store. I don't drink soda. And I don't drink coffee. But I can make very strong tea. Truly I can.

Mmmm, I drink coffee sometimes, but I am more of a tea drinker. Love the stuff. With milk, without milk. But no sugar please. Sometimes I feel I should have been born in England, instead of Norway. And I like my tea STRONG.

People don`t get it. They really don`t.

Them: Uhm, seriously, you forgot to take out you teabag. The tea is almost black now...

Me: Oh dear! ALMOST black? Well, let us leave it in there for just a smidgen bit more, untill it is black.

Them: *_*

 

[MySoapyHeart]

I haven't done any soapy things today, but I've been so busy doing soapy things that I haven't posted on the forum in a few weeks! I've been alternating two different markets on Sundays, trying to keep up popular soap stock, made a bunch of sagebrush smudge sticks (because people kept asking for them), have been making bath bombs every couple of weeks, found a local paper company to use for my packaging so I can transfer out of the paper I'm using, made a new mold for lotion bars. SO busy!!!

Say that three times fast, lol : D

But seriously, what is that? Sounds intrigueing, but have no idea what it is.

 

[earlene]

There is a snail in my Egg Yolk Soap

Do you have a lot of sage, sageonthemountain? I guess you must, given your moniker.

I entered my June SMF Mosaic Soap Challenge soap today, after unmolding, cutting. cleaning & photographing it. Right out of the mold, it didn't look like much, but I am happy with the look of the cut soaps. It was a 10" x 14" by 2" slab, so it's a lot of soap. I also posted it to Facebook so my family can see it since it is in honor of my Dad.

One of my brothers wants lava type soap, so I need to fix my stick blender. Just at the end of using it yesterday, it began to make an odd noise. After cleaning it, I noticed the rubber/plastic/whatever-it's-made-of piece under the blade (attached to the long arm blade) had come loose. I am thinking I will try using gorilla glue and see it that will hold. If not, I'll have to try and find a replacement arm. I once looked into getting a replacement arm 'just in case' and did not. Now when I want one, I can't find one. Kitchenaid's website was down when I looked last night, but I haven't checked today. Anyway, I think I'll make him some Borax soap instead of lava soap. Or I could buy some pomace and make lava type soap. But not today. Need to work on fixing the SB. Said brother is a blacksmith, so he needs some powerful cleaning. He says sometimes it take him all week long to get his hands clean, then he goes out and blacksmiths again.

Here is an Egg Yolk Soap I made a few days ago and didn't post a picture of because some of it was going into the mosaic soap. I was testing colorants and mixing my own greens, as I still don't have a green mica. I think one is on order and to be delivered soon. No, I just checked. I didn't order any. I better get on that. Oh, BTW, if you look closely you will see a snail in the Egg Yolk Soap!

Here, this might help:

 

[handavaka]

Taking a few pics of some soaps that I keep stocked up for my household and also for sale. I often get asked which ones are my personal favorites, and these three are high on my list. From Left to Right: "California" Fresh Organic Carrot Juice, Carrot Seed Oil and Shea, "Hemp Luxe" Hemp Seed Oil, Carrot Seed Oil, Primrose, Sea Buckthorn, Shea, and "Oatmeal, Coconut Milk, & Honey" Colloidal Oatmeal, Honey, Beeswax, Shea

 

[TeresaT]

I like your salamander stamp, handavaka. Where did you get it?

 

[Dahila]

Packed some soaps, and started to make table cover for Canada's day

 

[AustinStraight]

I made a little batch of salt bars just to use up the last of my coconut oil before ordering more, and wow, what a disaster... I used Fresh Brewed Coffee by WSP, and first of all, it turned it into mashed potatoes in 2 minutes, then the scent morphed from gas station coffee (not sure why I even used it in the first place) to cinnamon & play dough, and then a huge amount of oil leaked out of the bars. Now I'm left with greyish-brown lumps of what looks like frozen applesauce (grainy, grainy, grainy!), covered with grease... and since they're salt bars, I don't think I'll even try to rebatch them. Into the trash

 

[earlene]

I need to fix my stick blender - the rubber/plastic/whatever-it's-made-of piece under the blade (attached to the long arm blade) had come loose. I am thinking I will try using gorilla glue and see it that will hold. If not, I'll have to try and find a replacement arm. I once looked into getting a replacement arm 'just in case' and did not. Now when I want one, I can't find one. Kitchenaid's website was down when I looked last night, but I haven't checked today.

Last night I used gorilla glue to fix my SB and it seems to be holding nicely. I tested it in just boiled water & it's holding. But it seems to have discolored the water somewhat. However, as it's not necessarily done curing I will give it another few hours and test it again.

In the meantime, I tried to find a replacement rod (blending arm, or whatever name this part is called) at the Kitchenaid website and couldn't find one. So I contacted them via chat & the CSR recommended a part that is 2 inches longer and twice as expensive as I expected. It also does not look like the connection end is the right fit, so I decided to buy a whole new/used one from eBay for less than a new replacement rod. The one from eBay is the exact same model and has all the original parts, plus the owners manual. It looks like it is in better condition than mine, so for the price it is a bargain. We used ours in the restaurant, so it got a lot of use before it became my soaping tool. I am happy with my purchase and it is supposed to arrive by Saturday, so not too long to wait.

 

[Consuela]

I made a little batch of salt bars...............it turned it into mashed potatoes in 2 minutes...............and then a huge amount of oil leaked out of the bars.

THIS!

This happened to me the other day too! It obviously was NOT a day for me to be soaping....though I discovered my problem... I shorted my recipe by about 1000 grams.

And the worst part, is that I was doing two batches back to back - so I lost double the amount.... by the time I realized what was going on I was already crying, and cursing my head off. You know. Pregnancy hormones and all that. LOL.

Anyway. Figured it out. Fixed myself and managed a third batch properly....only to remove from the mold too soon (I almost always cut salt bars within the hour) but this time they weren't ready...so it started to lose its shape and turn into a pile of mush. I jammed it back into the mold and now have some funny off-shaped bars..

Whatever.

They smell good. And they'll work good.

I agree though - I don't even try to salvage salt bars... I'm not even sure you CAN.

 

[penelopejane]

I like your salamander stamp, handavaka. Where did you get it?

It's a gecko:

 

[Arimara]

I just tested out one of the castiles I made with 95% NaOH and 5% KOH. It lathers like a dream but I think it could definitely benefit from a longer cure. Now I have to try the one I made with avocado oil. It may feel a touch nicer but be in the same category.

Correction- the avocado oil soaps does feel 10x better than the olive oil one. I may have to do this over though.

 

[TeresaT]

It's a gecko:

I thought of that after I posted. I figured if it was a gecko, she'd let me know. Thanks. I'm still wondering where the little varmint came from, though. It's adorable with a capital AWWW!!!

 

[handavaka]

I like your salamander stamp, handavaka. Where did you get it?

Hi, TeresaT! Thank you so much! I drew it out (typical lizard), and sent it to Soap Impressions. The stamp is very well made, and makes deep, clean impressions.