What soapy thing have you done today?

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Impatiently waiting to cut last nights loaf. I did a layered pour with a pencil line of rose clay.

The fragrance is Empress by NS. It is supposed to discolor to a medium tan, so i tried to counter that a bit with some TD. I am thinking that i should have left it alone because i just took a peek and it is bright yellow ☹

I have nothing to do tonight, so i think i am going to be dominating the forum for a few hours LOL
Since you have time, you need to visit our homemade vanilla stabilizer thread. 😁
 
Unmolded my Cactus flower and White tea soap. Totally recommend this blend it smells sooooo delicious. Be warned - the Cactus Flower is an accelerator.
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These are my favorite ones; they are a little pricier than others, but their surface is completely smooth. Some of the less expensive ones have a bit of a woven texture to them, which is not ugly, but not always what I want on the sides and bottom of my soaps.

These are very easy to crease and cut as needed to fit your mold. I lightly tape the side pieces to the mold. Some people also tape all the seams together, but I'm too lazy for that. Very little soap leaks between the seams, and it is easy to clean up.

After you unmold the soap, just wipe these down, and they are ready to use the next time. Easy-peasy!

ETA: these ones are larger and less expensive, but they do have the slight "weave" texture to them.
Thx so much' I'll be ordering them. cant wait to have them going to be so much easier in the long run, I love a smooth sides & bottom too, I cant achieve this w/ parchment paper. 💫
 
Also used some dehydrator sheets to make a reusable mold liner. I stink at lining with freezer paper!
I bet you get some crisp edges too! Sometimes when I line with freezer paper I do not pay enough attention and the paper is not all the way in the corners and one edge of my soap is rounded! This seems like a wonderful solution all around!
 
Do all color morphs like that turn back in a few days? Just curious because I had a bright red mica turn a orange-ish tan and I'm hoping it turns back to some semblance of red... :oops::confused:
Not all colors, but greens are notorious for morphing. Some blues too. Reds is a hard color to stay true in soap. The closest ive gotten is trial by fire by NS.
 
The only soapy thing I've done in the last couple of weeks is clean. Clean soaps, clean shelves, clean floors where the soaps are.. Lol

That being said, part of the cleaning was because I got myself some early Christmas presents! I got myself a spanking new curing shelf! I finished setting everything up today. Its got pull out racks, n quite sturdy. Had it made by a small time carpenter, so now he can offer the same to other soapers.

And last weekend I travelled a couple of hours away to collect someone's destash. I got new molds! She had em custom made and makes 20 bars each, and I got 4. There's 2 other smaller sizes, and I also got a single wire cutter, and an 8L slow cooker plus a stick blender with an extra blade. There's also a whole box of individual molds...

As for ingredients... I got a whole box of syndet shampoo bar stuff, along with a stainless steel mold, small amounts of carrier oils, smaller amounts of butters n waxes, some EOs and botanical extracts, and several plant powders. Some of these are unopened. And oh, some packaging materials like small boxes, glass ine and kraft pouches n more twine. I'm so happy!
 

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Shopped @ NS too, savings on many items 😉 with sample sizes still available. I'm impatiently waiting for my Lye delivery was hoping to squeeze in a couple of loafs before Christmas. Next year I'll start earlier.
 
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Shopped @ NS too, savings on many items 😉 with sample sizes still available. I'm impatiently waiting for my Lye delivery was hoping to squeeze in a couple of loafs before Christmas. Next year I'll start earlier.
Got my lye delivery today - I order from dudadiesel.com They have the quickest, cheapest delivery. I ordered on Tuesday and got it today!

I search a new recepee... olive, no palm, no shea butter, ...
I had few weeks ago a problem with my sewer pipes. The plumber have said that it came from home made soaps.
Use paper towels to really wipe out your soaping bowls/equipment. I think that makes the best difference.
 
I cut my Empress fo from nurture soap. This is a very weird fragrance. It was supposed to discolor to medium tan, so i added td to it to just lighten it up a bit.

Cpop as usual, and when i peeked in on it yesterday, it was bright as the sun yellow...really not pretty at all. Its a layered bar. Top and bottom the exact same color, split off about 300ml for a rose clay layer, with a rose clay pencil line. The rose clay was dispersed in fo prior to adding to the batter.

Here is the fresh wet soap:
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Then the unmolded soap, i figure the white would be turning yellow as well

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I let it sit a while before cutting, and these next pictures are 12 hours-ish after the cut. No sign of discoloring on the bottom layer. There was nothing different with the batters. Everything was added in the main pot and split off
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I’ve been trimming soaps and generally organizing soaps that are curing. My soaping/sewing room beyond messy, but my soaps are neatly lined up on the shelves. I just received a shipment of lye from Duda via Amazon that I ordered earlier this week. Fearing that it might not come fast enough, I also bought lye at Ace on Wednesday. I think I have enough now. I also heard the sales calling and stayed up until midnight last night so I could hit submit on my Nurture order before they sold out of anything I wanted. I’m finally going to try 8th & Ocean, Winter Wonderland, and Sambucus, along with a half dozen others.

Took a few soap pics, too:

This is the cut of the citrus basil soap I made last weekend. From left to right: bottom, middle and top of a swirled slab. The top had extra white soap and I like that color balance the best although there’s not much orange peeking through.
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This one is not as intended. I was aiming for irregular pockets of color, but my over enthusiastic attempt to release bubbles flattened them out. I’m also working on muted color palettes and like the results I’m getting using Nurture’s Copper Penny and Adamant Olive, in this case with some TD because the base gets a little dark. This is scented with MMS Green Tea, one of my favorite FOs.

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Another muted color palette using Adamant Olive, Copper Penny and Synergy, again with some TD in the base. It’s chopstick swirled. The scent is a blend of “last bit in the bottle” FOs, all BB - Ginger & Amber, White Tea & Ginger and a small bit of Wild Rose.
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Use paper towels to really wipe out your soaping bowls/equipment. I think that makes the best difference.

Another great idea someone had previously suggested is to cut up old towels into smaller pieces and use them instead of paper towels.
Leave them for a few days and after saponification, you can wash them.
 
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