What soapy thing have you done today?

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Ah the soap fairies are fickle things.

Two nights ago made a soap with a FO known to accelerate and tried to use it to my advantage in the design ... didn't accelerate.

Last night wanted to make a completely simple one colour soap with a FO said to accelerate mildly but still easy to work with ... it went from whoa to go in the blink of an eye so much so I think I am probably looking at my first re-batch :/
 
Made a double batch of my normal recipe with Lemon Verbena FO from BB. Unfortunately I think I forgot to double the lye and water. So the picture is of the soap one week after being made. It is still so soft it is like pudding.
20180317_140948.jpg
 
Lizzy are you sure you missed the double? Sometimes soap takes longer to harden if left in the silicone. Try taking it our and air it for a week if it will not lose the shape.

Lynnz, you soap is so pretty.

I made coffee soap today. I tried the vanilla stabilizer, which I don't know why because I added instant coffee to my batch which is brown .... and then after I was done I realized I forgot to swirl it! Lately I am always forgetting something. My brain is mush :(
 
Lynnz said:
I have been online and spent a ridiculous amount of money on beautiful new oils from Bramble Berry and Nuture..........It has been nearly two years since I got my soap pot out and I stamped my first batch of soap in soooooooooooo long. I used the scent Made to Measure from Bramble Berry and it soaped well, very slight acceleration but easy peasy to handle. I loved rambling through the forum today as well and now off to my bed as working night shift.
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That’s so pretty

ItsForrest said:
Didn't make any soap this weekend. Instead I made a soap cutter. Hopefully this will keep the cut sides of the bars smoother with less drag marks. I can't help but help keep them more even and straight.

I'd been looking at the Bud cutters and the copy-cats but just couldn't bring myself to spend $100 or more on something I could put together in an afternoon. So I put one together this afternoon. One of my other hobbies is guitars so I had some tuners and extra strings in a box in the garage. I had to buy a 2' x 4' piece of plywood, a hinge, and a fresh bottle of wood glue as my last bottle was rock hard. Not counting my labor and stuff I had in the garage, it cost maybe $40 to build.

I was only going to make the cutting bed 14" long but since the since the strips I was cutting were 24" long I figured I'd just leave it that long. Now I won't have issues with longer loaves if I get longer molds later. I didn't make the adjustable stop block but can certainly go back and do that later. I also may put a few coats of wipe-on urethane later but for now the wood is unfinished.

The cutting wire is the G note on an electric guitar so this is officially the G-String Cutter.

View attachment 29386 View attachment 29387
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If you don’t mind could you give me the plans you used. My husband wants to build me one but I don’t know where or how to start. You said you used guitar strings?!!
 
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If you don’t mind could you give me the plans you used. My husband wants to build me one but I don’t know where or how to start. You said you used guitar strings?!!
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I wouldn't mind taking a few pictures with some measurements but to be honest, mostly the "design" was scribbled on the plywood before I cut it so there's really no plans to share.

Yup, I used a guitar string for a cutting wire. I don't know how long it will last with fresh soap. I'm hoping that wiping it off after use will keep the soap from corroding it too badly. It will be easy to replace though.
You can buy single guitar string from most any music store. Just get the thickest non-wound string and I would think a nickel coated string would last longer than bare steel with soap.
 
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ItsForrest said:
Yup, I used a guitar string for a cutting wire. I don't know how long it will last with fresh soap. I'm hoping that wiping it off after use will keep the soap from corroding it too badly. It will be easy to replace though.
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Some of my strings are still the original strings from 2 years ago. The ones that aren't original were ones that actually snapped because I tightened the string too much and then tried to cut something I shouldn't have (like a 2 year old soap bar that I wanted to share with a friend...) I don't wipe my strings down after using, unless I am going to cut another batch right away. I leave it to harden and then wipe before I cut a new soap. It's easier cleanup for me to wipe hard soap off rather than soft soap. Just what I do, not necessarily a "good" or "preferred" practice.
 
Yesterday's soapy endeavors: shredded and rebatched my failed beer soap from February. This was the one that riced horribly and I gave up trying to get it to submit to my will so I shoved it in the mold. It sat in the corner for the last month, thinking about what it had done so I felt compelled to give it a second chance in rebatch. It's still a dang ugly soap.

Printed off recipes for 4 soaps - two of them were "redesigned" to include stearic acid, a solid color, and an increase in fragrance. The other two got slight color tweaks and a fragrance increase as well. Hopefully will get one batch made today, and the other three by the end of the weekend.

Put together my order lists for oils, fragrances, and lip balm/nail balm supplies. Just waiting for money to clear the bank so I can place the orders. Trying to keep my orders to just what I need and not all the stuff I want is a practice in willpower. Still trying to figure out Bitter Creek's website (I don't like it. It's not friendly.) and which fragrances are CP useable - it seems most that I want to try have the "unknown see forum" note. I just really want the vanilla stabilizer, but can't justify ordering just one thing.
 
amd said:
Yesterday's soapy endeavors: shredded and rebatched my failed beer soap from February. This was the one that riced horribly and I gave up trying to get it to submit to my will so I shoved it in the mold. It sat in the corner for the last month, thinking about what it had done so I felt compelled to give it a second chance in rebatch. It's still a dang ugly soap.

Printed off recipes for 4 soaps - two of them were "redesigned" to include stearic acid, a solid color, and an increase in fragrance. The other two got slight color tweaks and a fragrance increase as well. Hopefully will get one batch made today, and the other three by the end of the weekend.

Put together my order lists for oils, fragrances, and lip balm/nail balm supplies. Just waiting for money to clear the bank so I can place the orders. Trying to keep my orders to just what I need and not all the stuff I want is a practice in willpower. Still trying to figure out Bitter Creek's website (I don't like it. It's not friendly.) and which fragrances are CP useable - it seems most that I want to try have the "unknown see forum" note. I just really want the vanilla stabilizer, but can't justify ordering just one thing.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing with BCN. I ended up ordering bath poofs and 3 bottles of VS.
 
amd said:
Yesterday's soapy endeavors: shredded and rebatched my failed beer soap from February. This was the one that riced horribly and I gave up trying to get it to submit to my will so I shoved it in the mold. It sat in the corner for the last month, thinking about what it had done so I felt compelled to give it a second chance in rebatch. It's still a dang ugly soap.

Printed off recipes for 4 soaps - two of them were "redesigned" to include stearic acid, a solid color, and an increase in fragrance. The other two got slight color tweaks and a fragrance increase as well. Hopefully will get one batch made today, and the other three by the end of the weekend.

Put together my order lists for oils, fragrances, and lip balm/nail balm supplies. Just waiting for money to clear the bank so I can place the orders. Trying to keep my orders to just what I need and not all the stuff I want is a practice in willpower. Still trying to figure out Bitter Creek's website (I don't like it. It's not friendly.) and which fragrances are CP useable - it seems most that I want to try have the "unknown see forum" note. I just really want the vanilla stabilizer, but can't justify ordering just one thing.
Click to expand...
I do not find Bitter Creek hard at all to navigate. Most products seem to be on the bittercreek.com site not bittercreeksouth.com
 
SunRiseArts said:
I made coffee soap today. I tried the vanilla stabilizer, which I don't know why because I added instant coffee to my batch which is brown .... and then after I was done I realized I forgot to swirl it! Lately I am always forgetting something. My brain is mush :(
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Maybe put the coffee in you instead of the soap? :D
amd said:
Trying to keep my orders to just what I need and not all the stuff I want is a practice in willpower.
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Good luck with that! Sincerely! I'm starting to think lack-of-will-power is in a soaper's DNA :D
 
SideDoorSoaps said:
I am cutting labels for my show this weekend...about 100 bars need packaged :/ I’m such a last minute labeler. I
View attachment 29432 finished packaging for my EO necklaces. I love!View attachment 29431
I have some Dino egg bath bombs I want to make but I’m procrastinating. Just like being on the forum and I probably should go to bed!
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Your attachments don't allow viewing. I suspect this is a privacy setting. Where are they stored? If you uploaded directly from your computer, There shouldn't be a privacy setting option, I don't think, but if at a photo hosting site, you may want to check your privacy settings, or verify you are using the correct link for posting here. Sometimes, I find it takes a bit of trial and error with a new-to-me site.
 
earlene said:
Your attachments don't allow viewing. I suspect this is a privacy setting. Where are they stored? If you uploaded directly from your computer, There shouldn't be a privacy setting option, I don't think, but if at a photo hosting site, you may want to check your privacy settings, or verify you are using the correct link for posting here. Sometimes, I find it takes a bit of trial and error with a new-to-me site.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I uploaded from my phone on the app.
 
"Slug stage" was over at my house so I finally got myself in the soap room to test those molds. The soaps came out well enough except that for some reason I decided to use some micas I had not tested. I am so mad at myself. Pepto Bismol pink is not attractive. *cry* Adding more mica to try to "fix it" was not a good idea....sigh
 
It has been an expensive morning in my world! Placed my restock orders with Soapers Choice, WSP, Online Labels, and my first orders with Bitter Creek and Save on Citric. Filled out show applications too. Tonight I will be doing dishes, making soap, and working on my destash.

Last night I cut my rebatch loaf. Even the oldest son (Joe) said it was the ugliest soap ever. Not even a gold mica dusting can save this soap. I did some soap deliveries last night, so Joe decided to come with me. It was much needed car time with him and we stretched it out to dinner together. When we got home we did face masks together (he had a spot on his face that is particularly painful and was looking for any kind of relief, this morning he said it was much better). Good bonding time :) I spent some time on the Bitter Creek site, and got it figured out, still not intuitive for me but my brain works odd and website designing is hard, but I managed to find what I needed so all is well! I ordered (6) 1 oz FO's (Almond Cherry, Sandalwood, Sandalwood BCS Original, Lemongrass, Log Cabin, and Crushed Ginger) and 2lbs vanilla stabilizer. Sigh. This might be the most excited I've been about FO's in a while...
 
I have finally been able to get something done this week. I just finished cutting 40 of my tea tree & citronella pumi foot scrubbies. I have been able to get Black Raspberry Vanilla, Love Spell type, 2 batches of Lavender, Blackberry Musk (not sure if it will be strong enough), and White Ginger & Amber (another to light fo). It has been good to get something done even when I did not feel like it ;) and the plus side no gremlins! These were all vinegar dual lye gm soaps. 2uge4p4.gif
 

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