What soapy thing have you done today?

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I think NS heard us with the muslin bag conversation/dilema. It didn't come with an imprinted logo this time LOL. However, if the NS gods are watching, I was not impressed with my meme card this time LOL.
I thought the same thing when I opened my box last week! The bags & the meme. The kids laughed at this meme card I put on the fridge though! 😜😬
 
Had fun experimenting with colorants again. The blue is phycocyanin, or blue spirulina, mixed with various other things - rose kaolin clay, TD, two iron oxides, and rhubarb. The red tray is red rice yeast with nothing, TD, and iron oxide. I don’t know if the blue will hold up, I actually wasn’t sure it would make it this far.

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I am totally fascinated by your color tests, and admire the planning it must take and your patience to do it so methodically. The results are also beautiful. They remind me of the tests the dyers do with little squares of fabric. Is there any chance you would put the photos in a thread and let us know how they change over time?

Ok, finally a real actual soapy thing in a while.

Smell the rainbow in my slab mold. I have 5 colors, plus white, uncolored because I'm an idiot. The green glopped up after the fragrance was added, so there is very little green in it. It was a weird glopping up...like it just had chunks. I was able to add a little green from what I could salvage. I poured high on that one, so hopefully it got a little throughout the soap. Lots of f bombs going on at this stage. And I wanted thinner color swirls.

I guess the soap top doesn't have the uniform swirl that I would like, but I guess in the end after the cut it really doesn't matter LOL. I usually just do the swirl without thinking. I actually took my time with it, and it ended up uneven (just got done watching a Tree Marie video, so I feel particularly particular).

As Terry might say: "what I would have done differently for this batch"....would to be to not forget the fragrance...

Anyway, wet-soap Smell the Rainbow...not very straight, missing most of one of the colors, but I think nobody will notice in the end LOL

btw, I am not a fan of this FO smell, as much as everybody raves about it :shakinghead:

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This soap is really beautiful. I think the white makes the colors pop!

Holy cow, I think I did it! 😧
I'm going to be terrified to cut this now...
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Well done! Look at that red!

Here's soap I cut yesterday. (The light blue background was inspired by @MobjackBay and her new beautiful new photo backdrop.) I used Blackberry and Magnolia FO from Micas & More for the first time – and it accelerated! The colored part - equal parts of Micas & More cosmic purple and ruby red – went into the mold in a clumpy line. I used a gear tie (hanger swirl) to try to break up the clump of purple and spread the color around the loaf. All in all, I'm happy with it.
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I love the swirls and the soap looks pretty on the background!
 
Today I struggled with my first solid hot process attempt, and made some chocolate-scented soap that (unintentionally) looks like meat.
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On the upside I got a delivery of some more supplies; some proper funnel jugs and some nice colours from micamoma. So I'll be consoling myself with some nice gradient stripes in the very near future!
We have all made meat soap. I think its a rite of passage..
 
I am totally fascinated by your color tests, and admire the planning it must take and your patience to do it so methodically. The results are also beautiful. They remind me of the tests the dyers do with little squares of fabric. Is there any chance you would put the photos in a thread and let us know how they change over time?

That’s a good idea, and thanks for noticing! I will do that. I’m actually retiring as of this Friday, and will have time to put something together.

The blue from the spirulina totally disappeared. I’m doing a little more research but I think the saponification kills it. Weird though it stayed blue for a while so it wasn’t an immediate reaction to the lye,
 
I may be insane but I've been watching this video and I want to try it so badly... Actually I want to try it well but we must be realistic 😂


I made up a mix of oils today that (finally) is basically liquid at room temperature! And I got some micas that I'm really confident I'll be able to get a good red out of. The oils are waiting for me for the morning, if I'm feeling brave I may well give it a bash 😮 Wish me luck!

You can do it!!

Today I struggled with my first solid hot process attempt, and made some chocolate-scented soap that (unintentionally) looks like meat.
View attachment 55616

On the upside I got a delivery of some more supplies; some proper funnel jugs and some nice colours from micamoma. So I'll be consoling myself with some nice gradient stripes in the very near future!
You know, I opened the full picture so I could look for something that didn't look like meat. ...I'm sorry your soap looks like meat... 🤭
I have made more than one like that too, so welcome to the meat soap club!

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You did it! Can't wait for the cut!
 
It's cut! And the pattern worked! :dance:
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Scented with orange, lemongrass, tangerine and just a little frankincense.

The only thing bothering me is that I was so paranoid about over mixing that I didn't stir in the colours quite enough so they're a bit patchy in places. But mostly I can pretend that's part of the plan ;)

I think the tip from the video about using citrus EOs to slow down trace helped, as well as an oil mix that was slushy but not solid at room temperature. Going out this morning to buy a whole bunch of grapefruit EO 😂

I feel a Petra swirl attempt coming on... But I do also want to do a wood grain with my discolouring FO... And I still haven't done the 5-layer gradient I bought the jugs for 🤔 Decisions, decisions.

Edit: oh and I also need to rebatch the meat soap and make it less meaty looking. Since it's still fresh and sticky I'm thinking I'll grate it with the food processor and then press it into a mould without any extra liquid and CPOP it for a bit.
 
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It's cut! And the pattern worked! :dance:
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Edit: oh and I also need to rebatch the meat soap and make it less meaty looking. Since it's still fresh and sticky I'm thinking I'll grate it with the food processor and then press it into a mould without any extra liquid and CPOP it for a bit.
Beautiful soap!! Love those colors.
Maybe you could give your butcher the meat soap. Really. What a hoot and it might just touch their little heart. :D
 
That’s a good idea, and thanks for noticing! I will do that. I’m actually retiring as of this Friday, and will have time to put something together.

The blue from the spirulina totally disappeared. I’m doing a little more research but I think the saponification kills it. Weird though it stayed blue for a while so it wasn’t an immediate reaction to the lye,
CONGRATULATIONS 🥳 ON YOUR RETIREMENT 🙂
 
That’s a good idea, and thanks for noticing! I will do that. I’m actually retiring as of this Friday, and will have time to put something together.

The blue from the spirulina totally disappeared. I’m doing a little more research but I think the saponification kills it. Weird though it stayed blue for a while so it wasn’t an immediate reaction to the lye,
Wahooo! One more day! :)
 
Not a very soapy day today but I got a bunch of cured bars safely wrapped up, and rebatched the meat soap.

It now looks and smells like brownies, which is ever so much better!
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Also took some tentative steps towards setting up a business - not selling soap, but possibly soap-adjacent things like cutters, moulds etc since I'm not impressed at what's generally available here at the moment.
 
Apart from a very educational attempt at the challenge, I discovered that my planer can also be used for beveling, and beveled all the things.

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This is the batch of Zany's no slime Castile I made on the 8th of March. It's simple but it's so pretty! Definitely up there on my list of favourite soaps.
 

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