What soapy thing have you done today?

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My 6 year old granddaughter Daisy comes to send the night with me about once a month. Last time she came she swirled soap that I posted pics of. This time (yesterday) we went to the beach and the NC Aquarium. On our way home as the sun dipped below the horizon leaving dark purple/gray clouds against a glowing peachy sky, she looked over to me and said we should make soap that looked like that. When we were sleepily settling into bed last night and talking over the fun day she said, "Gramma, it was fun, but I wish we had time to make soap. What kind of soap can we make next time?" So I fired up the iPad and we browsed newbie's soap pictures until our eyes drooped and sleep took over.
 
Rebatched yesterday and it took some time and effort. As usual I told myself "no next time"...but when I cut the soap today, the satisfaction told me I will still make rebatch again. Guess that's what happened the last time I rebatched, and the time before and before...tired but contended :)
 
Not quite soapy but I ordered some containers, caps and some supplies for making deodorant and Irish's creamy soap. I am going to try it without the sodium lactate or tetrasodium EDTA as I cannot justify buying them at this moment.
 
Searched YouTube videos for an easy way to line molds, since I made a 2 foot long mold on Weds. The inside measures 22.5" and I hate lining molds. But buying a few boards and screws is cheaper than buying a ready-made mold, wooden or silicone. Anyway, I came across this video and gave it a shot. My origami skills need a little improvement; however, I like this method. Once I've done it a few more times (I've only done it once!) I think I'll be lining molds quickly and easily.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFvJzTk86IY[/ame]
 
Today I have made rose geranium/geranium E.O. soap with Moroccan red clay, activated charcoal unscented, a very nice rosemary EO salt bar with cranberry seeds, and um, something else.

I am also doing a few solid perfumes and a hopefully six or eight tinctures. <3
 
Today I have made rose geranium/geranium E.O. soap with Moroccan red clay, activated charcoal unscented, a very nice rosemary EO salt bar with cranberry seeds, and um, something else.

I am also doing a few solid perfumes and a hopefully six or eight tinctures. <3

Maya, does the geranium EO stick well? I have some that I need to use up, but was afraid it would just fade as so many EOs tend to do.
 
I made a 4300 gram batch of Coconut Lime soap with goat milk and yogurt. I did the "Clyde Slide" and I hope it turns out well. If not, I'm going to have a lot of ugly bars of soap.

ETA: photos of ugly oil slick. I wrapped the mold in a towel and put it on a shelf in the curing room. Then realized it's 85 degrees and humid out, there's milk and yogurt in that soap. It probably doesn't need to be wrapped up. Too late. The towel is covered in oil (I'm NEVER going to get that out!!) and there is a huge oil slick on the top. I'm going to call this my "Exxon Valdez" batch. Dumb mistake on my part. I hope the oil reabsorbs in the next few days.

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Yesterday I made another tomato soap, with my goal being to have round red tomatoes and a touch of green at one side with a slight indent to indicate the stem area. It sort of worked, but because I took so long with the design the batter thickened up before I pulled the tubes out and I had to push the setting up 'tomatoes' through the tubes with a spatula. So the round 'tomatoes' didn't turn out so round after all. And somehow when I thought I was pouring green for the stem are, I must have picked up the wrong color, as that part didn't end up being green. Anyway, I cut them today and if I don't tell anyone they are supposed to be tomatoes, no one will know the difference.

Today I made a 'Flowers in the Field' soap with shredded soap as the flowers. I just got it in the oven at about 11 pm, so have to wait until tomorrow afternoon or evening (I hope) to see if it will turn out as planned. It was my first confetti soap, and I have so much more soap shreds to use yet. I may do another one tomorrow so that I can use up some more.
 
I made a batch of soap just for me. It's lemongrass mint scented with ground oatmeal, and I did an ITP swirl (I love those!). It's my first time using the 80% lard recipe, and I'm so anxious to try it out!

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My 6 year old granddaughter Daisy comes to send the night with me about once a month. Last time she came she swirled soap that I posted pics of. This time (yesterday) we went to the beach and the NC Aquarium. On our way home as the sun dipped below the horizon leaving dark purple/gray clouds against a glowing peachy sky, she looked over to me and said we should make soap that looked like that. When we were sleepily settling into bed last night and talking over the fun day she said, "Gramma, it was fun, but I wish we had time to make soap. What kind of soap can we make next time?" So I fired up the iPad and we browsed newbie's soap pictures until our eyes drooped and sleep took over.

What fun! I can't wait to see what you two come up with next.

Searched YouTube videos for an easy way to line molds, since I made a 2 foot long mold on Weds. The inside measures 22.5" and I hate lining molds. But buying a few boards and screws is cheaper than buying a ready-made mold, wooden or silicone. Anyway, I came across this video and gave it a shot. My origami skills need a little improvement; however, I like this method. Once I've done it a few more times (I've only done it once!) I think I'll be lining molds quickly and easily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFvJzTk86IY

I like this one, too. Very easy to follow.

I made a 4300 gram batch of Coconut Lime soap with goat milk and yogurt. I did the "Clyde Slide" and I hope it turns out well. If not, I'm going to have a lot of ugly bars of soap.

ETA: photos of ugly oil slick. I wrapped the mold in a towel and put it on a shelf in the curing room. Then realized it's 85 degrees and humid out, there's milk and yogurt in that soap. It probably doesn't need to be wrapped up. Too late. The towel is covered in oil (I'm NEVER going to get that out!!) and there is a huge oil slick on the top. I'm going to call this my "Exxon Valdez" batch. Dumb mistake on my part. I hope the oil reabsorbs in the next few days.

Whoa! Are you a mind reader? You got a head start on the July challenge. I sure hope your Valdez Slick soaks back in for you.

~ ~ ~

My soapy stuff.

I have cut my Flowers in the Field confetti soap, and wasn't thrilled with the result. It's not pretty as I envisioned, but I beveled the edges and it looks better. Still, not my favorite looking soap. Maybe I'll like it better tomorrow. I may try another confetti soap with a different look. I also plan to just do a regular rebatch as that is much easier and the result is usually satisfying.

I spent the day working on a design for my Pointillism soap, lining the box, picking out the colors, planning a slow moving recipe. Boy was it slow moving! After doing so many batches of [40% Lye Concentration] and the Dual Lye batches, this was like watching paint dry. I thought I'd be done and everything cleaned up before Hubby got home from work, but I was still squirting soap when he arrive and he asked what I was making. "Soap". Yeah, that's me, Mrs. Captain Obvious. Anyway, when I told him it was the Pointillism technique, he was impressed. I said, I know it's a weird name, but he said, no it's an art technique used by impressionists and went on to say how he always wondered how they did that. So that was cool.

My pointillism soap ended up being half the size I intended because I decided to use some of it to do the Clyde Slide for the July challenge. I did two small loaves and all 3 soaps are in the oven now.

From the top, I like both Clyde Slides, which is good because in a week I leave for two months and won't be able to do any soap challenge activities again during this roadtrip. I do expect I'll really want to do something soaping related so I'll have to think on how to prepare for that.
 
Thanks, Earlene. I think the oil is reabsorbing slowly. The slick doesn't look as big today as it did yesterday. And it can't be due to evaporation. :) I'll leave it where it is and hope I don't have to do a rebatch on it. But, at what point is it too hard to cut? I broke down and bought a Bud cutter because I was still making crappy cuts with the box cutter (although, they were much better than before). I've concluded I'm just not a good cutter. It could be because my mold was much thinner than the cutter was and the log wiggled too much (even though I held on to it as best I could). My silicon molds are about 2 x 2 x 11. I'm going to do the first July challenge today. I'm out of coconut oil, so I'll do a babasau substitute. I cannot believe I am out of coconut oil! On the positive side, I scored a free refrigerator for my garage. I need to get a repairman out to see if it can be fixed (shouldn't be a problem) and then I can buy in bulk and use the fridge and freezer to store it. As long as the repair is less than $200, I'm ahead of the game. That was my maximum payment on a used refrigerator. I also got a free 4 cu ft fridge that works great. It's in my laundry room full of my FOs and EOs. I've got some space in there for my 1# bottles of oils, too. I got lucky this weekend.

I'm looking forward to seeing your Pointillism soaps and your Clyde slide soaps. I tried the Pointillism once and ended up with my Jackson Pollock soap. It was supposed to be my May challenge soap. Not what I was going for at all, but it turned out really nice (and smells awesome). It's a Key Lime FO from Peak Candles. It's one that is going to be on my "keepers" list. Have a great vacation.
 
I've done absolutely nothing all weekend. I have about 30 more soaps to make for my cousin's wedding in September and I just can't bring myself to soap. Yesterday I was putting away my Pyrex cups and lost my grip. When I tried to correct the tipping cups one exploded spraying glass everywhere. I've been kind of on high anxiety since then and don't think I should soap till I feel a little more secure with myself.

Thank goodness I do not use those for soaping, can you imagine if there was soap batter/lye water in there?!
 
Five hundred grams of Silky Face Moisturizer, using Macadamia, silk, and Lotion Pro 165. I screwed the previous one due my DH bothering me............:) this one is very nice, no greasy fast absorbing, then used my soap planer to beautify some of the soaps:)
 
I've done absolutely nothing all weekend. I have about 30 more soaps to make for my cousin's wedding in September and I just can't bring myself to soap. Yesterday I was putting away my Pyrex cups and lost my grip. When I tried to correct the tipping cups one exploded spraying glass everywhere. I've been kind of on high anxiety since then and don't think I should soap till I feel a little more secure with myself.

Thank goodness I do not use those for soaping, can you imagine if there was soap batter/lye water in there?!


Jules, I have days like that, when I am all butter-fingery. If I stop after the first drop & break something event, I can usually avoid any others the rest of that day. But sometimes I don't stop and end up realizing too late that the first event was the warning to stop and relax and not do anything that would require fine motor skills. It's annoying when that happens, but I agree that you are making the right choice to wait a bit until you are more relaxed and comfortable again.

~ ~ ~

My soapy stuff:

Last night's soaps are still too soft to unmold, so I moved them upstairs to sit in the room with two fans going.

Cleaned yesterday's soaping stuff so I could start a New & Old soap, a combo of rebatch & new soap to use up more of those soap scraps. No plans to watch paint dry today, so I expect this one to set up pretty fast.

Mixed a few micas with glycerine in squirt bottles today to see how it works that way instead of softening in oil first. I have another dozen squirt bottles I got at Walmart the other day, so I plan to just keep a few on hand just for colorants. I suppose I should use them up before leaving though as I can't be sure it's a good idea to let them sit for 2 months unused. I didn't think of that when I mixed them. :think:

After that I plan to label and wrap a few soaps & start thinking of which ones to bring along as gifts. I'll be seeing my eldest granddaughter when we are in New York, so I want to bring her & my great-granddaughter some nice soaps. I sure hope I have something they will both like. Maybe some bathbombs, too.
 
Set up a couple of IKEA shelfs that arrived today. They’re dedicated for curing. The metal is coated so it should be safe, but I have a parchment paper (unsure what the English of “bakepapir” is) in between.

Also set up a shelf for storing the equipment and some household items.

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