What soapy thing have you done today?

[Chris_S]

You can remove it from the wooden box. I take mine out as soon as it's hard enough to get out of the box. How long it takes your soap to come out of the mold will depend on the amount of liquid oils, the amount of liquid used as well as if you gelled it or not. I gel all my soaps and can unmold 12-18 hours.

thanks shunt much apprciated

didnt gel this one because i read on a few sites you can put goats milk soap in the fridge and the area i soap is as cold as a fridge at this time of year so i just left it out there. plus being new to this still i wanted to experiment a bit with what happens with different recipes and temperatures.

 

[shunt2011]

thanks shunt much apprciated

didnt gel this one because i read on a few sites you can put goats milk soap in the fridge and the area i soap is as cold as a fridge at this time of year so i just left it out there. plus being new to this still i wanted to experiment a bit with what happens with different recipes and temperatures.

I gel all my milk soaps too. I don't have the time or patience to wait the extra time it takes.

 

[Chris_S]

I gel all my milk soaps too. I don't have the time or patience to wait the extra time it takes.

well this one is only for me i didnt use any colour or fragrance for this one. does gelling milk soap not get it too hot? im bored tonight so might make another smaller batch with fragrance and gel this one. it wont even come out the wooden box yet still too soft. does using lard rather than palm oil make a difference to unmolding time if you dont gel it?

 

[shunt2011]

I've not had a problem with it getting too hot. What lye concentration are you using? I generally do 30-33% I don't know if lard or palm is easier when not gelling as I've never not gelled my soap. You can also add 1 tsp of salt PPO to your water and dissolve it before adding your lye. That will help make it harder to unmold but again I always gel.

 

[Dawni]

I made salted soap pebbles a bit ago.
Unintentional, but I made a number of mistakes to get this.
Read more about it in the beginner's forum after a bit lol

 

[Chris_S]

I've not had a problem with it getting too hot. What lye concentration are you using? I generally do 30-33% I don't know if lard or palm is easier when not gelling as I've never not gelled my soap. You can also add 1 tsp of salt PPO to your water and dissolve it before adding your lye. That will help make it harder to unmold but again I always gel.

33% which seems to be the default on the soup calc so i just went with that. ok think ill just gel in future i mean im not exactly rushed for time so an extra day or 2 doesnt make much difference but im admittidly not the most patient person going. but it sounds like gelling is the best and easiest option.

 

[shunt2011]

Soap calcs are generally at 28% which is also considered full water. At 33% I have to insulate well to get gel. 28% gels pretty well without a lot of help. I also get more glycerine rivers as sometimes it gets too hot.

 

[steffamarie]

Went to Dollar Tree and got myself a bunch of new soaping buckets and spatulas because I'm fed up with doing dishes lol

 

[Chris_S]

@shunt2011 maybe im misunderstanding (and thats definatly very possible) the soap friend calc then because next to lye solution it says 33.33%? And I definatly havnt changed that.

 

[amd]

well this one is only for me i didnt use any colour or fragrance for this one. does gelling milk soap not get it too hot?

I gel my coconut milk soaps with no problem, but my buttermilk and goats milk soaps I do pop into the fridge for 12-24 hours otherwise they "burn". I soap at max water (25% or 3:1 concentration) so that may also be why I have problems with buttermilk and goats milk.

I cleaned part of the soap lab yesterday, mostly getting the recyclable boxes out to the bin (it was trash day). I also entered some of my recent bubble scoops into SM3... and discovered that my scoop recipe has the wrong number of items per recipe so I've been pricing at 8x rather than 4x. I'll be doing a price drop for this weekend's show and online and see if they sell better. Tonight will be lip balm night and probably doing dishes.

 

[shunt2011]

@shunt2011 maybe im misunderstanding (and thats definatly very possible) the soap friend calc then because next to lye solution it says 33.33%? And I definatly havnt changed that.

I’m sorry, I don’t use that one so don’t know.

 

[SaltedFig]

@Chris_S @shunt2011 The new Soapmaking Friend calculator being developed has a default lye ratio of 2:1, which is where the 33.333% comes from

 

[shunt2011]

Excellent. Good to know

 

[Chris_S]

@Chris_S @shunt2011 The new Soapmaking Friend calculator being developed has a default lye ratio of 2:1, which is where the 33.333% comes from

thanks thought it was @SaltedFig so is this ratio/% thats generally recommended to use? or does this depend on the recipe or just preference of the person?

ordered some titanium dioxide and some more lye today. want to do so reasearch into liquid soap im intrigued by it as most people iv talked too seem to use liquid soap over bars

 

[SaltedFig]

so is this ratio/% thats generally recommended to use? or does this depend on the recipe or just preference of the person?

Somewhere around 30% to 33% lye concentration is pretty common (it works with just about any CP recipe).

As amd has described, you can go as low as 25% lye concentration (3:1 water to lye ratio), but you might have some trouble with some recipes with that much water, and as high as a 50% lye concentration (1:1 water:lye ratio), which isn't recommended, but it's possible.

About 28% is used when you want to deliberately use a bit of extra water (for design or recipe reasons).

 

[Chris_S]

Somewhere around 30% to 33% lye concentration is pretty common (it works with just about any CP recipe).

As amd has described, you can go as low as 25% lye concentration (3:1 water to lye ratio), but you might have some trouble with some recipes with that much water, and as high as a 50% lye concentration (1:1 water:lye ratio), which isn't recommended, but it's possible.

About 28% is used when you want to deliberately use a bit of extra water (for design or recipe reasons).

awesome thank you for the answer and information much appriciated im still very much in the leaarning phase so any information like this is very helpful .

and thank you @amd i had never even thought of using coconut milk. do you make it with canned version? also could anyone tell me if there is a point where goats milk has been in the freezer too long? its been in a ice cube mold for a few days will this still be ok to use in soaps?

 

[Dawni]

I tried a 60% Olive oil CP soap to throw my HP "soap pebbles" in, and I think I put too much of the pebbles.

What's me and overdoing it haha. Overcooking, over stirring, over embedding *sigh*

Won't be able to soap for a while coz I finished my lye flakes..

 

[amd]

and thank you @amd i had never even thought of using coconut milk. do you make it with canned version?

Yes, I use canned milk.

I made 48 lip balms last night, 36 will go out for a custom order. Cleaned more in the soap lab. Printed out labels for lip balms and the one batch of soap that is ready. Today I will get everything packaged up and update online listings. I don't teach at church tonight so hopefully with the rest of the family gone for the evening I will have uninterrupted video editing time. I also have to reorganize/pack for this weekend's show. I'm not taking everything and have to redo some signs for the price changes I made. And I have to clean my office. Have I mentioned how excited I am about making pine tar soap next week??

 

[Candybee]

Made some shaving soap today and tried out my new shaving soap molds from WSP. Will see how they turn out when I unmold them. It was hard getting the soap batter in because its thick and gloppy when I make it in the crockpot. I had to spoon the batter into the molds and it was quite messy for my first time using them.

 

[wardbond]

"If you're not into yoga, and you have half a brain . . ." @HoneyLady
The Escape song . one of my favorites.

I have to get soaps packed and picked for show on Thursday

I just thought pina colada would be a nice scent for a whipped Shea Butter. Or pineapples