What soapy thing have you done today?

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@The_Phoenix Your post made me happy! Even if your Snydet bat isn’t 100% you know what to do to improve it! 😁
Thank you! I took a few...*ahem*...additive liberties with my Syndet bars/pucks. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. It's what I do when I make cp soap, so I figured.............................. 🤪

Syndet is a whole other gorilla, though, I know that now. KISS (keep it simple stupid) it the way I'll go next time.
 
The house was quiet today and I ran out of my liquid dish soap...so I decided to make some more. I always put off making liquid soap paste, it always seems more complicated for me than my CP bars!?!? I usually make 100% CO and decided to add 10% red Palm oil for some color, then I was playing around with SM3 liquid soap recipe calculator and added some stearic acid and glycerin. Definitely wasn’t like my usual soap paste. But I left it alone to cook, stirring every 15 minutes. Then remembered the kids and I had to go to get our first round of vaccinations. Went to take a shower and then hurried the kids out of the house so we were not late for our appointment. Then got this text from my oldest son:
D41C46AB-7C38-4AA0-8457-7B69740C59C3.png
I got it cleaned up and separated for storage when we got home and I’m happy with the color. It soaps well and while my hands were squeaky clean they didn’t feel to dry afterwards. We’ll see what it looks like when I dilute some in a couple day.
0A1D8396-78C3-4F0F-B01E-46E172DE2911.jpeg
 
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The house was quiet today and I ran out of my liquid dish soap...so I decided to make some more. I always put off making liquid soap paste, it always seems more complicated for me than my CP bars!?!? I usually make 100% CO and decided to add 10% red Palm oil for some color, then I was playing around with SM3 liquid soap recipe calculator and added some stearic acid and glycerin. Definitely wasn’t like my usual soap paste. But I left it alone to cook, stirring every 15 minutes. Then remembered the kids and I had to got to get our first round of vaccinations. Went to take a shower and then hurried the kids out of the house so we were not late for our appointment. Then got this text from my oldest son:
View attachment 57469
I got it cleaned up and separated for storage when we got home and I’m happy with the color. It soaps well and while my hands were squeaky clean they didn’t feel to dry afterwards. We’ll see what it looks like when I dilute some in a couple day.
View attachment 57470
😂🤦‍♀️🤪
I’ve not yet attempted making liquid soap but it’s at the back of my mind. It looks like a different type of fun.
 
I just Re-Ordered Lavender EO' as i'm setting here enjoying Earl Grey tea I thought I'd share a Soap Picture. This was a two part series. I scented it w/ Pink Petals & Smell The Rainbow, Colored dots is charcoal & white is natural soap. It was fun creating this though next time I'll line up my dots straight 😉💫👍🏼
I like the random dots.
 
I just made a salt soap, it is hardening right now. I'd never heard of salt soap until I joined SMF.

BUT, I used Himalayan pink salt that we had to stop using in cooking because of the sandy grit. I had seen some websites talking about the benefits of Himalayan salt in soap, so I used it. THEN after I made it I decided to research salt bars better on here and realized I've probably made a big mistake. At least I only made a very small batch. :( Oops.
 
The house was quiet today and I ran out of my liquid dish soap...so I decided to make some more. I always put off making liquid soap paste, it always seems more complicated for me than my CP bars!?!? I usually make 100% CO and decided to add 10% red Palm oil for some color, then I was playing around with SM3 liquid soap recipe calculator and added some stearic acid and glycerin. Definitely wasn’t like my usual soap paste. But I left it alone to cook, stirring every 15 minutes. Then remembered the kids and I had to go to get our first round of vaccinations. Went to take a shower and then hurried the kids out of the house so we were not late for our appointment. Then got this text from my oldest son:
View attachment 57469
I got it cleaned up and separated for storage when we got home and I’m happy with the color. It soaps well and while my hands were squeaky clean they didn’t feel to dry afterwards. We’ll see what it looks like when I dilute some in a couple day.
View attachment 57470
Beautiful color, boy what a mess you had to clean up.
 
Boy, what a busy month I've had. Traveled back east for my FIL's funeral, visited my parents in AZ, interviewed for a few jobs, and then interviewed some more. Getting ready to see my daughter graduate from high school. My 25th Anniversary with my hubby is right around the corner and feeling so proud and delighted with us. 2021 is shaping up to be a wonderful year, personally and professionally. Can't wait to see what happens next...

Today, made big batch of beer soap with my very favorite FO, BB's Autumn Fig Leaf. It's my most popular, best-selling FO. It floors me that it isn't well reviewed on BB's website but I highly recommend it.

Stamped and wrapped a big order and delivered it to my friend, who will be gifting them to her employees. I feel so honored that she thought of my soaps as a "thank you" gift to them for enduring this year+ of craziness. I hate stamping soap. Only did it for this one order to personalize the soap.

Two more orders came in today, so processed that. I'm still so impressed with all that Shopify can do.

Ordered some FO from Oregon Trail Soapers' Supply. I don't have a single complaint of any FO I've ever bought from them and their customer service is excellent.

My testers all agree that my syndet shampoo bar leaves a residue/heaviness in their hair. Rats. I feel confident that I know what's causing it.

Wow' Congrats on your up & coming 25th wedding anniversary & your Daughters Graduation. Its always exciting to watch our kids graduate' especially from High School & Next College.

I'lll be checking out Oregon Trail Soapers' thx for the heads up.
 
Made syndet shampoo bars and conditioner bars scented with Irish Lass' OMH blend - they smell fantastic, and I can't wait to use them. Thanks to @amd for recommending the More Mango recipe; I had everything or reasonable substitutes on hand, and they came together easily.

For the conditioner bars, my experience is that things with BTMS-50 are a lot easier to make in one pot (water and oil phase together) than two. That way, the water is the same temp as the oils and emulsifier, so the batter doesn't get as clumpy as it tends to do when adding one into the other. Not sure why anyone still recommends doing them separately.

Also rotated some recently made lard-tallow-neem-colloidal-oat bars that contain a heavy dose of DB in an attempt to cover the neem smell. They don't smell anything like DB or neem - more like toasted caramel. I thought my smeller was off, but a friend sniffed them without knowing what was in them, and she also said, "Caramel." 🤷‍♀️ Not gonna complain - just hope I can replicate it next time.
 
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Made salt soap today. Two small batches, both 100% coconut oil with a 20% superfat. One is made with salt at 50% of the oils, the other is 75% so I can compare. Each batch (173g of oil) made three bars in my flower molds, plus one rectangular guest size bar so I can test the lather periodically throughout the curing time.

I color coded them with a bit of mica so I'll have an easy way to tell them apart. I thoroughly mixed the mica into the salt before adding it to see if that had an affect on the look. I normally stick blend mica into the oil before adding the lye, but this batch was too small to stick blend. Instead, I stirred with a spatula off and on until it reached emulsion, then added the salt, mixed well, and poured.

Neither batch is scented. I don't have a scent that I know for sure will last long enough for a soap that needs a good long cure like this one. Does anyone else scent their salt bars? What fragrance will work for a soap like this?
 
I usually make 100% CO and decided to add 10% red Palm oil for some color, then I was playing around with SM3 liquid soap recipe calculator and added some stearic acid
Sounds like you attempt to deliberately provoke a beautiful pearlescent look :).

As much as I love that pumpkin-soup-colour of red palm oil, I'm not sure if it's best off in dish soap. For sure, you see when they're clean. But my experiences with carotenoids in my kitchen is that it takes extra effort to clean them up, since the colourants LOVE to stick to plastics (PE, PP, silicone) and stain them yellow-orange or pink until you scrub them off REALLY hard, sometimes with the help of a drop of oil. Carrots are the worst to get off my food grinder.
If you're lucky, 10% are little enough so that it doesn't matter too much.

Good son to keep you from the grand disaster, and you only had to clean up a minor spill.
 
For sure, you see when they're clean. But my experiences with carotenoids in my kitchen is that it takes extra effort to clean them up, since the colourants LOVE to stick to plastics (PE, PP, silicone) and stain them yellow-orange or pink until you scrub them off REALLY hard, sometimes with the help of a drop of oil.
If so, the palm oil made it moisturizing enough for hand soap. And maybe to moisturizing for dish soap anyways... we will see! It’s pretty to look at though!
 
The only thing I'll say is that conditioner bars with BTMS-50 are a lot easier to make in one pot (water and oil phase together) than two. Not sure why anyone still recommends doing them separately.
I still need to start a conditioner bar thread - this is the next rabbit hole I'm going down.

Does anyone else scent their salt bars? What fragrance will work for a soap like this?
I use an Ed Hardy men's dupe that holds well (although I don't think WSP carries it anymore). My hubby has one bar left from a batch I made 3 years ago and I think it might have scent left (hard to tell because I fully shrink wrap his salt bars due to his hoarding tendency). A couple batches that I made in January 2018 were scented with Eucalyptus & Spearmint EO, WSP Frankincense & Myrrh, and WSP Sea Salt & Driftwood, also seem to be holding scent. [those were bars that I made with the extra fine pink himalayan salt, so hubs doesn't use them as often because they're so scratchy.] So far, it seems like salt bars hold fragrance a bit better than regular soap bars, but that could be just luck on my part.
 

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