What soapy thing have you done today?

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I bought a paint stirring thing to go on a drill yesterday. This morning I have been stirring my liquid soap to get the last of the lumps out. Much easier than using a whisk. Now I just need to find a way to suspend it so I don't need to actually be there. Yep, I know I am lazy :)
 
My head is still stuck in the April pull-through challenge 🙃, so I gave it another try with only 2 colors. I used activated charcoal for the black and left the rest of the batter uncolored. The top row is cut horizontally, and the bottom row is cut vertically. I did a faux funnel pour (not really through a funnel) and used shelf liner as the pull-through tool. I'm happy!

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Nicely done!

I bought a paint stirring thing to go on a drill yesterday. This morning I have been stirring my liquid soap to get the last of the lumps out. Much easier than using a whisk. Now I just need to find a way to suspend it so I don't need to actually be there. Yep, I know I am lazy :)
Like a stand mixer. :nodding:
 
My head is still stuck in the April pull-through challenge 🙃, so I gave it another try with only 2 colors. I used activated charcoal for the black and left the rest of the batter uncolored. The top row is cut horizontally, and the bottom row is cut vertically. I did a faux funnel pour (not really through a funnel) and used shelf liner as the pull-through tool. I'm happy!

View attachment 46055
Very cool reminds me of a snakes skin.
 
I am down to less than 20 pounds of palm shortening to re-package into containers, but I am making progress & now have the last of it out of the big cardboard box, just the blue plastic bag (cut down to just enough to cover it if I walk away) sitting on the table.

I've been watching videos of and reading handouts for the 2020 HSCG Social Distancing Conference during breaks from Palm oil packaging. And saving handouts to my hard drive so I can refer to them in future. If any one wants to access the HSCG 2020 Conference materials, it's free to members though August 31, 2020. You do have to be a member, but you don't have to pay the fee normally associated with the conference. So that's a pretty good deal.
HSCG Annual Conference (right click on the Conference tab to get the list of handouts, and of the corresponding videos for each session, as well as discounts from vendors, and of course the 32-page Program Guide.)
 
I just used my new round mold for the first time, per a suggestion I got here, I lined it with paper and so glad because I was able to get the soap out. I cut a little early because I am not good at waiting.

It is also my first attempt at pull-thru. I used an old strainer from a drainpipe on the house (that I found in the yard) and it didn't do much. But it was fun to make and try out.

The EO blend is Blood Orange 10, Lavender 5, Ylang Ylang 1, Pachouly 1. who knows if it will stick, it's heaven right now.
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The past few days I’ve made a double batch of Castile Brine soap and a cucumber layer soap. The Castile is my favorite so far. It’s quick and easy to make. But it does take months to cure. I made the cucumber layer soap once before but had trouble with the trace. It ended up being a swirl instead of layers. It turned out beautiful just the same. I’m excited to see how it turns out this time. Fingers crossed I got It right. I’ll be cutting it in the next day or two.
 

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I made my 2nd batch of cp soap today. Yesterday I played around a bit with water discounting and superfat numbers. I found a recipe I wanted to try but substituted the fragrance and colours that I had on had. My first batch was successful enough however I used a 1 lb recipe and put it in a 2 lb loaf so the bars are not very high but no big deal.
This new soap is an in-pot swirl - half the batch is pink to which I added half with TD in it... the colour is supposed to be a soft pink and while swirl but it is more of a pink & cream due to the dark EVO I used (next time I'll use extra light EVO). The swirl from the top looks quite subtle but I like subtle - can't wait to see what the inside looks like. I used Pink Peony from Brambleberry.

That is SO smart! :thumbup: :thumbs: :thumbup: I wish I had done that from the beginning!


This was in my email today. Thought I would share it here.

I just made my 2nd batch and decided to do the same thing. I print off the recipe from soapcalc, add a small pic(s) of the soap with notes about what I did' how the batter behaved, and how the final soap looked and behaves when being used. Hope to eventually come up with just a half a dozen or so recipes that I can just swap out colour/fragrance/design.
 

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I tested two new-to-me FOs today. Both are from MMS. Ginger Pomelo smells wonderful and behaved well. French Lime (Linden) Blossom, a dupe of a L'Occitaine scent, accelerated a bit and smells more subtle, but I like it. I remembered to color code the soaps so I can keep track of them if the scents fade. I also played around with a new way of getting a green soap without mica. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one, which is scented with one of my favorites, MMS Green Tea.
 
They look great! Did you use the no-slime Castille recipe? I have been thinking about trying a Castille. Now would be the time to do it if I want to gift some at Christmas!
Thank you. I followed a recipe from a book I bought from amazon. It did not mention anything about no-slime. It called for only olive oil pure and of course the usual distilled water, lye, sodium lactate and EO.
 
Today I was the Socially Distant Quarantine Soap Fairy! Carefully masked up, contactless drop offs of soap packages. Anticipating a need for soap, I made a whole bunch right at the beginning of quarantine so there would be plenty to go around once peoples' supplies started to dwindle. I was being a good friend and community member, I swear! It wasn't just an excuse to indulge in my addiction... :oops:

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I made soap again. Tried some of my new micas and tweaked my trial basic lard recipe with a different main soft oil.

Here it is ready to put to bed.
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Can't wait to unmold it!

I also purposely made extra batter to go in a silicone muffin-type mold shaped like fall leaves and pumpkins. Sure, they are gonna be blue and white leaves and pumpkins, but it was an experiment! 😅

I will post cut pictures tomorrow in the photo gallery.
 
I made a soap using orange juice as I have 3 large containers of it that are past expiration by a couple months and I was in an experimental mood. I also used orange peel powder from oranges that I dried and ground. Scented it with a combo of satsuma, orange 10x and lily lemon drop fo. I froze the OJ before adding the lye. It darkened some after adding it but the final product came out nice. It smells really nice. before I attempted this I tried to find some post about using orange juice but didn’t find too much information on it. Anyone else use OJ have any feedback on what will happen down the line with color, etc?
 

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I tried to find some post about using orange juice but didn’t find too much information on it. Anyone else use OJ have any feedback on what will happen down the line with color, etc?
Hiya Jersey Girl!

Since there are no other posts about using OJ, please, please, please start a thread with your query, and, if you haven't done so already, post the results in the Photo Gallery so it doesn't get lost in this thread... as so many do. 😢 I really like your experiment... anxious to know how it turns out in the long run.:thumbs:

ETA: I just typed "OJ in Soap" into the Search box. There are quite a number of threads on the subject. Here ya go:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/orange-juice-and-orange-eo.73421/#post-741915
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/oj-fast-trace.32163/
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/natural-colorant-photo-gallary.32185/#post-304164
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/magnolia-and-orange-blossom-soap-idea.44041/#post-413395
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/keep-your-superfat-up-when-using-orange-juice.33476/
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/do-you-know-what-orange-juice-does-to-cp.14738/
 
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I made my 2nd batch of cp soap today. Yesterday I played around a bit with water discounting and superfat numbers. I found a recipe I wanted to try but substituted the fragrance and colours that I had on had. My first batch was successful enough however I used a 1 lb recipe and put it in a 2 lb loaf so the bars are not very high but no big deal.
This new soap is an in-pot swirl - half the batch is pink to which I added half with TD in it... the colour is supposed to be a soft pink and while swirl but it is more of a pink & cream due to the dark EVO I used (next time I'll use extra light EVO). The swirl from the top looks quite subtle but I like subtle - can't wait to see what the inside looks like. I used Pink Peony from Brambleberry.



I just made my 2nd batch and decided to do the same thing. I print off the recipe from soapcalc, add a small pic(s) of the soap with notes about what I did' how the batter behaved, and how the final soap looked and behaves when being used. Hope to eventually come up with just a half a dozen or so recipes that I can just swap out colour/fragrance/design.

I decided to cut my soap and not too disappointed with the results. This is a 2-colour soap but as you see there's a 3rd colour introduced - which I assume are glycerin rivers. The colour is actually the same as some of the salt crystals on top and since I'm told it's purely aesthetic, no harm no foul in my opinion. As I said to someone earlier today, if glycerin rivers are the worst problem I have, then I should be in good shape.
 

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Hiya Jersey Girl!

Since there are no other posts about using OJ, please, please, please start a thread with your query, and, if you haven't done so already, post the results in the Photo Gallery so it doesn't get lost in this thread... as so many do. 😢 I really like your experiment... anxious to know how it turns out in the long run.:thumbs:

Thank you! I will do that.
 
I decided to cut my soap and not too disappointed with the results. This is a 2-colour soap but as you see there's a 3rd colour introduced - which I assume are glycerin rivers. The colour is actually the same as some of the salt crystals on top and since I'm told it's purely aesthetic, no harm no foul in my opinion. As I said to someone earlier today, if glycerin rivers are the worst problem I have, then I should be in good shape.

The glycerin rivers really compliment this soap. I think it looks beautiful!
 

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