What soapy thing have you done today?

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Pics of two of the three loaves from last night. The black and white ITP-turned-gloppy-chopstick swirl wasn't as bad as I feared, but the yellow really got lost, and the chunky top probably will be planed off - looked cute in the mold but just looks rough after cutting.

Fortunately, the simple ZNSC bastile turned out almost perfectly, other than a few bunged corners from unmolding a wee bit too soon. Also, I'm going to switch to a different brand of sea salt. This one has some darker specks that are ruining the creamy esthetic in a few spots.
Love the soaps, especially that B&W swirl! Do you mind sharing how you scented the soaps?

I bought Love & Sunshine yellow mica after seeing soaps made with it on the NS FB page. Haven’t quite gotten around to using it, but will take @KiwiMoose advice in mind when I do. I guess it’s time for a love & sunshine soapalooza because I also restocked annatto and threw some other things into my cart for good measure.

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Love the soaps, especially that B&W swirl! Do you mind sharing how you scented the soaps?
Of course, sorry I forgot that piece! These were custom loaves for friends who requested the specific design + scent, so please don't hold it against me if you don't think they go together.;)

The black, white and yellow was scented with Enchanted Orchid (WSP/CC).

The ZNSC was scented with White Tea & Ginger from Peak Fragrance. I only have enough of this left for about two more batches, and this one friend is absolutely obsessed with that fragrance. If any of you know where to find a good match, I'd appreciate suggestions so I don't waste time and money trying a bunch of other White Tea & Ginger FOs from all the places.
 
White Tea & Ginger from Peak Fragrance
WSP White Tea & Ginger EO/FO Blend :thumbs: 5 Stars - 200 reviews

I don't know how that one compares to Peak but most FO suppliers carry a White Tea and Ginger so you may have to try others to match Peak's.

TIP: Read description for "notes" in Peak. If you find one elsewhere with the same description, chances are, they are sourced from the same wholesaler. ;)
 
Thanks for the tip about matching scent profiles, @Zany_in_CO, much appreciated. As many of you know, Wellington Fragrances carries a fair number of Peak's scents, apparently taking over after Peak closed. However, they are and have been sold out of the White Tea and Ginger for awhile. Maybe I'll email and ask if it will ever be coming back. It's a very nice scent, and that's coming from someone who isn't big into florals.
 
I made a custom loaf of sandalwood eo/fo from wsp a few days ago. It took a few days to cut because it was so darned soft. I have never really had this problem before. (Cpop, lard bar) After i cut it, the texture was really crumbly feeling. I mean, it didnt fall apart, it just feels weird like velvet. Its been curing only for about a week, but its my regular recipe, and i know how it behaves. It is still too soft to handle without denting it up. Even after cutting it I left the bars on the counter overnight for another 24 hours to harden up a bit before i moved them to their spot. Even then i could only gently pick them up one by one with gloved hands.

So deciding that there may or may not be something wrong, i didnt want to delay the order so i just went ahead and made another batch with slightly less fragrance, suspecting it may be the possible cause. Same thing!!

I was super careful with my measurements, especially for the second batch, i can only assume its the fragrance. Even on a bad weather day I have never had this recipe come out like this.

I guess time will tell
 
Just got back from my first market. I learned a few things, and I don't know how to say most of it without cursing

People are jerks. I get there about a half hour before set up start time because I wasn't sure of the "seating arrangement". Found our spot. Instructions specifically said...unload your car and move your car, then come back and set up..so that other people can get in.

Literally being the first ones there, we were the last ones to set up our stuff, because we obeyed the rules and moved our truck. But then this jerk stuck his truck right in our spot to unload AND set up his entire display. So playing nice, I just sat and waited. He took almost an hour to unload, plus he was setting up his spot the entire time. I turned around to John "am I gonna get into a fight tonight?" (I can get a little mouthy 🤬, but i didn't lol).

Finally the coordinator came over to tell him to move his OVERSIZED DIESEL truck out of the way. dont get me wrong, it was a really nice truck, but the diesel smell was getting to me. He starts arguing with her. His wife was really nice though.

Otherwise I did ok as far as sales. I sell more to people otherwise. A lot of work for it though LOL. I dunno that I'd ever do another market again. Definitely not quitting my day job for it...

A lady walked up to my table early on (while I was still nervous), and started harrassing me about micas, palm oil and child labor, and orangutans ...first of all, I didn't have any soaps with palm oil on display. All lard bars. Shes like "don't you know you can use clays??" So I showed her two bars made with only clay and a few AC bars. She is really trying to pick a fight, I was good though LOL.

Eventually she moved along..after she said she makes soap and wants to make sure we all knew about "this stuff" (clays). You guys would have been proud of my non reaction to her shenanigans LOL LOL. She didn't have a table there. Just making trouble

But there were two other soap makers there, we shared stories etc. Neither heard of smf so hopefully they'll be along soon.

I did learn a lesson about my packaging though. I shrink wrap them and put labels front and back, which sucks because it hides the swirls and you can't smell them. I do put a sniffy spot, but it clearly wasn't enough to keep peoples noses off of them because they tended to REALLY stick the soap up to their nose to get a whiff. I noticed that the vendor (who had really awesome soaps btw, I even bought one from her), who had a cigar band on them...people tended to either lean in to sniff or picked the bar up by the wrapper. My totally wrapped soaps didn't pass the nose test LOL. In fact when I unwrap them to redo them, I'm going to plane off where the hole was LMBO. Plus a lot of people walking by just picked up a bar, sniffed, couldn't smell anything off the bat, and walked away. If I caught them soon enough then I would have the opportunity to show them where they could smell from.

I had quite a few people that just bee-lined for the table asking for charcoal bars. So I guess I will get busy making more of those.

I had a couple come to the table asking for something like Dr. Squatch soap. I have 3 pine tar soaps left and I actually talked them out of it. ONLY because she said she hated the smell of the squatch soap....I'm like "if you hate the smell of that, then you are REALLY gonna hate this, your whole house is going to smell like it once you unwrap it, let alone get it wet". She kept smelling the hole in the wrapper and said they actually smelled good. I offered to unwrap one for her "trust me I couldn't wait to get them re-wrapped last night". They ended up buying some barber shoppe bars for him instead. That scent was a hit for the guys.

I know I asked on here before, so I'm just gonna do a search for cigar band templates. I really think that's the way i'm gonna go, plus I despise shrink wrapping. You just couldn't smell the soaps that well. And I spent more time trying to show ppl where to find a hole in the wrapper than anything else all night. And watching people pick up a bar in passing and keep going because they couldn't smell anything was depressing, because obviously there was an interest, just not any instant gratification.

edit: sorry for the book LOL. I started it last night, then finished it just now without realizing how long my post was LOL
Markets are a sure way to learn how to deal with all types.

I had my first outdoor market last weekend. Glad my son assisted to set up the gazebo. Previously I had done a few indoor markets, table & chair was provided.
This time I had to carry everything along.

Thankfully I met lovely people.

I had one silly experience at a previous market: this lady read my ingredient list and insisted that Apricot Kernel Oil causes cancer so she could not buy that bar. She did buy another bar that did not contain Apricot Kernel Oil. I told her that AKO does not cause cancer, but she was so adamant , I just didn't want to argue. I think she got confused with the controversy about some people using Apricot kernel seeds for cancer treatment.

With regards to wrapping of soap. I shrink wrap all except one, which I use as a sample bar.

Hope your future markets go well.
 
What a stupid BS. Apricot kernels do contain amygdalin, which some people believe is a cure-all (including cancer), others don't (including causing cancer). But what is absolutely obvious is that it is not oil-soluble, i. e. isn't present in the oil. It's like demonizing castor oil because castor beans contain ricin an ricinin.
But oh well, people are free to choose the criteria for their purchase decisions 🤷‍♀️

In soapy non-news, I'm currently trying to detect any trace of smell in the EO of Copaifera reticulata aka copaiva aka “diesel tree” balsam. Its ridiculously low price made me curious. Seems like there really is just nothing to smell in there. I tried to sniff it out of the bottle: nothing. Sprinkled on a paper towel: nothing. Diluted with alcohol: nothing (or rather the alcohol, I really should invest into some perfume-grade alcohol). Cotton ball test: nothing but the faintest idea of pleasant smell, with a fading memory of hyacinths. No idea what I shall do with this stuff.
 
Thanks for the tip about matching scent profiles, @Zany_in_CO, much appreciated. As many of you know, Wellington Fragrances carries a fair number of Peak's scents, apparently taking over after Peak closed. However, they are and have been sold out of the White Tea and Ginger for awhile. Maybe I'll email and ask if it will ever be coming back. It's a very nice scent, and that's coming from someone who isn't big into florals.
Thanks for sharing the scents. They sound great to me. I really like BB’s White Tea & Ginger and it sticks well in my soaps, but the scent profile description is quite different from one on the Wellington website. (That’s a good tip @Zany_in_CO )

I spent what felt like the entire day yesterday cutting soap; washing and packing a mountain of soap dishes; cleaning up moulds . I've run out of space.
Below are some of the soaps I cut View attachment 64504View attachment 64505View attachment 64506View attachment 64507View attachment 64508View attachment 64504View attachment 64505View attachment 64506View attachment 64507View attachment 64508
All pretty. You should’ve put them in the photo thread for posterity.
 
All pretty. You should’ve put them in the photo thread for posterity.
@bookworm DITTO!
PLEASE show off your soaps in the Photo Gallery. and post a link here.

We all LUV pictures -- not just the few members on this thread -- even when a batch goes awry. Hopefully that won't happen, but if it does, see it as an opportunity to learn more. We can oooh & ahhhh over colors and ask/answer questions and all that.

You can also use the Photo Gallery as a log of every batch you make. Include the recipe as well as your comments about how you processed it for future reference.

I only wish I had that available to me when I first started making soap in 2003. It's a great way to chronicle your progress in the Wonderful World of Soapmaking!!!

Lovely soaps, BTW. Keep up the good work! :thumbs:
 
Markets are a sure way to learn how to deal with all types.

I had my first outdoor market last weekend. Glad my son assisted to set up the gazebo. Previously I had done a few indoor markets, table & chair was provided.
This time I had to carry everything along.

Thankfully I met lovely people.

I had one silly experience at a previous market: this lady read my ingredient list and insisted that Apricot Kernel Oil causes cancer so she could not buy that bar. She did buy another bar that did not contain Apricot Kernel Oil. I told her that AKO does not cause cancer, but she was so adamant , I just didn't want to argue. I think she got confused with the controversy about some people using Apricot kernel seeds for cancer treatment.

With regards to wrapping of soap. I shrink wrap all except one, which I use as a sample bar.

Hope your future markets go well.
I met lots of nice people, in particular other sellers. I had an Eagles jersey on...I spent a good amount of time with old men who wanted to tell me all about how they used to live in Philly, but had no desire to buy soap. Every time I turned around..there was another old man who wanted to share memories about Philly LOL. I would try to sneakily slide them a bar of barber shoppe and the one guy was "Oh that smells great! Do you know if that barber shop is still on Castor Avenue?"

Next time I won't wear an Eagles jersey LOL
 
I can't exactly claim this as a soapy thing, but I just made my first lip balm using this recipe that @IrishLass posted a while back. Either I overestimated on the recipe size, or I underestimated the number of tubes to order, or both! I have plenty of tubes to give away, plus more chapstick that I didn't have tubes for :) It seems nice though.
 
I bought Love & Sunshine yellow mica after seeing soaps made with it on the NS FB page. Haven’t quite gotten around to using it, but will take @KiwiMoose advice in mind when I do.
That is my favorite yellow ever!!!! I’ve not yet had trouble with it fading. Nurture Soap list it’s usage at 1-2tsp PPO, depending on need.
981E541A-4576-4E3D-AC29-C6B1BBAD7B95.jpeg676E5743-F524-4D54-B04F-B800A6B0D5BE.jpeg755BBCD9-A2DC-447F-A19F-77E8F754C18E.jpegBDA85D3F-7BE2-4AF5-ADD4-61C20F4F86B5.jpeg
The top one I used 1.5 tsp PPO, the rest used at 1 tsp PPO. It’s such a lovely color and my fav… but NS Firefly and Full throttle (mica neon blend) come in close second when it comes to yellow!
 
That is my favorite yellow ever!!!! I’ve not yet had trouble with it fading. Nurture Soap list it’s usage at 1-2tsp PPO, depending on need.
View attachment 64513View attachment 64514View attachment 64515View attachment 64516
The top one I used 1.5 tsp PPO, the rest used at 1 tsp PPO. It’s such a lovely color and my fav… but NS Firefly and Full throttle (mica neon blend) come in close second when it comes to yellow!
Perfect! And look at those gorgeous soaps 💛💛💛
 
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