What soapy thing have you done today?

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Made an oatmilk Bastille soap with the ZNSC method! After reading some threads on the subject I decided to give it a go. I'll go more in detail about the process when I post the pictures, but in a nutshell: my plan was to use frozen distilled water cubes for a 1:1 lye + chilled oat milk for the .7, until I realized I forgot to include the faux sea water in that equation. I made a very concentrated solution and had to do an ice bath anyway.

What I'm thinking of doing for tomorrow is: make a concentrated faux water solution, freeze it, and do the same. All in all, it went better than I expected in spite of the blunder.
 
Made an oatmilk Bastille soap with the ZNSC method! After reading some threads on the subject I decided to give it a go. I'll go more in detail about the process when I post the pictures, but in a nutshell: my plan was to use frozen distilled water cubes for a 1:1 lye + chilled oat milk for the .7, until I realized I forgot to include the faux sea water in that equation. I made a very concentrated solution and had to do an ice bath anyway.

What I'm thinking of doing for tomorrow is: make a concentrated faux water solution, freeze it, and do the same. All in all, it went better than I expected in spite of the blunder.
No need to make a separate solution; simply add the appropriate amount of bicarb and sea salt directly to your oat milk. I did the math for that in this thread, and came up with this way to add those ingredients when using master-batched lye: I multiply my total recipe water number by 1.9% to determine the amount sea salt needed for this recipe, and by 1.7% to determine the amount of bicarb.

Of course, the amount of sea salt will vary a bit depending on the grain size of your chosen salt. I don't think it matters that much.
 
No need to make a separate solution; simply add the appropriate amount of bicarb and sea salt directly to your oat milk. I did the math for that in this thread, although I must warn that the amount of sea salt will vary a bit depending on the grain size of your chosen salt.
I thought of doing that, but since the thread mentions warm water, I assumed (should've done the research) that the salt and bicarb would dissolve best in warm water. My oat milk was already chilled, and heating it would've cause it to thicken. Will the salt and bicarb dissolve alright in cold liquid?
My salt is fine grain.
 
I thought of doing that, but since the thread mentions warm water, I assumed (should've done the research) that the salt and bicarb would dissolve best in warm water. My oat milk was already chilled, and heating it would've cause it to thicken. Will the salt and bicarb dissolve alright in cold liquid?
My salt is fine grain.
You are correct, it dissolves better in a warm liquid. I just warm up an ounce or two of my additional liquid to dissolve the bicarb and sea salt, along with the citric acid and sorbitol that I use in all my soaps.
 
@Relle That's funny. I added a picture for a couple of users here that came across to me as doubters because they couldn't "SEE" what I was saying.
My soapy thing for today is to finish the LARD rendering and a couple of more batches to finish this all up. It's several weeks into gardening season and I'm way behind.
 
@Relle That's funny. I added a picture for a couple of users here that came across to me as doubters because they couldn't "SEE" what I was saying.
To show your support of @Relle's efforts to get everyone to post pictures where they belong, just post them there then add a link to the photo gallery here. :thumbs:;)
 
Have not done it yet, I'm still doing it: a tallow soap with HO sunflower oil in which annatto powder had been soaking. I plan to pour into single moulds featuring honeycomb and bees. For brown bees I will use cacao powder, moistened with water and then add to some batter. If any brown batter is superfluous I will use it for the centre od sunflowers, with yellow for the remaining portion.
 
Relle, I don’t know where to find them.
Thx in advance for the assistance.
Jan
Click on “Forums” at the top of the page and scroll to “Soap Showcase and Photo Gallery”
 

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Just returned from a quick trip to my hometown. Very grateful that Sis no longer displays my soap but actually uses it. Sis and BIL are not fans of my pine tar salve experiment, which is fine, it's a strong scent.

Awhile back my dad was very clear that I no longer need to give him my soap anymore. He keeps one of my bars on the guest bath sink. It's old and starting to get DOS. I looked in a drawer, and hoo boy, found soap 2-3 years old, all with DOS and smelling not so fresh. Erg. I've been so open on how improved my skin is, kinda puzzled why he refused to be converted....
Gosh, I feel you. I too was making some really lovely soaps and some of my family were actually fighting over who was getting them! And my father just said, "no thanks, I got some from a friend of your sister's that smell really pretty." I was just so disappointed. Those pretty smelling soaps were hotel amenities that someone had gotten from their job. I rarely scent my soaps because I can't afford to do it. However, no one on my father's side has problematic skin, and they live in a part of that country that is warm and humid so they don't necessarily feel the need to use "special" soap.
My father died this past year and I couldn't travel to attend his funeral or to be with my siblings and my step-mom. I'm glad that I have no regrets about our relationship because I have so many beautiful memories together before he remarried and after. So this July, on my first vacation to see my family since the pandemic began, I'll be visiting them with just hugs and recipes to cook for them because that's the one thing they all loved. My non-Hispanic cultural recipes!
I'll also be taking the soaps the rest of my family DO appreciate, which are the Bastile and honey/oat and honey lard-based soaps, all unscented!
The old guard are hard to move sometimes from their stance on homemade things. I know that in El Salvador if you tell someone that the soaps are made with lard without giving them a demonstration FIRST, and letting them see how nice their skin feels after washing their hands with them, you'll get a quite aggressive negative response. And that's because most things pork derived are usually linked to poverty, and to what the poor use. For example, pork soap was black and smelly because it was made from frying pork almost dark brown and the lard wasn't strained, and the potash was from wood ash that wasn't necessarily strained either. A ball of the dark and smelly soap was less than 3 pennies of that time. I will bet your father was a similar product of the Depression-era or the end of it, when homemade was a necessity, not an option, and thinks that the pretty smelling soaps or gels are what's best because that's what the ads say. IOW, he's a product of his time. He won't see that his hobby and yours have anything in common, not the least that yours is actually useful and beneficial. Enjoy your time with him, and leave aside the annoyances. Time with one's beloved elders gets to be so short.
 
The soapy thing today, yesterday, the day before ... Ergamagerd! ... I'm anxiety-ridden over making my first shaving soap! I can't seem to make myself go to my sawhorse table to just start.
I've already decided that I'll make a modified @songwind recipe but instead of the 2 ingredients, I'll make it with 4: 50% SA, 30% CO76F, 10% Castor/Vit E, 10% Cocoa Butter, the 7% SF will be Glycerin and 850g of total oils. The 7% of glycerin should be 59.5g, but would it be ok to make it 60g? I don't have a scale that will do 10ths. I've not been able to afford it yet, and need the curing time to July before I can have my older son test it.
Can someone direct me to where I can find some assistance?
 
Today I jumped on the Ciaglia soap bandwagon as I have pounds and pounds of soap scraps and figured I’d try it out. My scraps were all light colored so I added just a tsp of AC to get a gray color. Looks like a countertop! I made it around 10 and cut it at 3. Already beveled and photographed! It took no time to make as I had measured everything out last night and made my lye solution ahead too. Pic in Gallery.
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/ciaglia-method.87836/
 
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Today was Oat milk Bastille part 2. It got a lot goopier for some reason. Used a % of chamomile infused olive oil. It might not be enough but we'll see if it does anything to the color.

Ran out of NaOH unfortunately. I'm not sure when I'll restock. It might be smart to stop soaping until I return in September.
 
I masterbatched today with the full intention of making a batch of soap. However, my other obsession -- gardening -- occupied my day now that Spring has FINALLY sprung in the hinterlands here.
Gosh, I feel you.
Wow, there is so much in this post! Thank you. The cultural reference around pork was fascinating. My parents were children of the Great Depression and I know it had a generational effect (tin foil and bread bags were used until they fell apart). I did not start soaping until after my grandparents died and I would have loved to talk to them about their homemade soap. My dad said his mother's homemade soap was pretty harsh and caustic. They couldn't afford to buy shampoo either and used dish soap or soap soap.

I do treasure every minute with my dad, I've totally let go of the fact that he doesn't use my soap. Life's too short. Thanks for posting, I appreciate it!
I've already decided that I'll make a modified @songwind recipe but instead of the 2 ingredients, I'll make it with 4: 50% SA, 30% CO76F, 10% Castor/Vit E, 10% Cocoa Butter, the 7% SF will be Glycerin and 850g of total oils. The 7% of glycerin should be 59.5g, but would it be ok to make it 60g?
I've never used glycerin so can't be of much help, sorry. My scale only goes to whole grams. I round down to the nearest gram if it calls for 0.1 to 0.4 and round up if it calls for 0.5 to 0.9. Grams are so small, don't worry about it.

Also, if I might comment on your castor oil. I use 4-6%. Higher amounts can lead to a softer soap. Have you had success with 10%? Good luck.
 
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