Hey everyone, glad to see y'all had good weekends at the market. Ours was alright, it was just so hot! Low 100's.
I had a horrible soaping weekend though.
I popped out three batches Friday night, cut them before we left for the market. Turned out well. I'll get some pictures of the dragon's blood. I swirled it with some gold mica and also dusted it on top. Gotta wait a couple of days for it to darken.
So Saturday night I decide to do my spiced mahogany from BB. I had read on the scent review board that you had to be careful, it tended to sieze, so I did full water and cool temps. I get ready to soap, 8 pounds, scent added to 95ish oils, lye close to that too. As soon as the lye started to hit the oils, I knew this wasn't going to go well. It just looked weird. With in 30 seconds it was already at light tace and I didn't even have all the lye added. Wih in one minute and once all the lye was added, I had the thick pudding stage. It was also very clumpy. I assumed it starting to rice, so I use my stick blender to try to beat it back in. By now it is like peanut butter, still very clumpy. I knew the lye couldn't be mixed in all the way, but I wasn't set up to hot process and if I waited much longer I was going to have soap in a pot, so I went a head and glopped it into the molds. By the time I was getting it into the second mold, it was already holding the shape of the pot and had to mushed in with my spoon.
I cross my fingers and pray. Well after dinner, about 2 hours later, I look and there is a reddish brown liquid all over my work table and the floor. *^&%* Stupid me zap test it and OMG my tongue tingled for like 30 minutes after that. I just didn't know what to do with it. So I stick a bunch of paper towles under there and ask DH to clean up the lye( I had a bad cut on my hand). Soap gels. More lye leaks.
Next day I go to cut it up to rebatch, but the smell morphed and it stunk so bad. It was very burnt smokey tabacco type scent. Before there was a nice floral to round that out. That's now gone. Dh comes down and says that stuff stinks, just throw it away. So I did. If it had been a nice scent, I would have tried to save it, but my gut was like, you are not going to be able to save that mess.
I don't know if it was because I added the fagrance to the oils before the lye or if it would have had the same outcome no matter what. I have about 1.5 oz left. I might try it to just to see.
Oh, I also putting in my application to the Texas renaissance festival. I e-mailed them and she says if I'm willing to do the demos, there is a good chance I could get in (pending approval of my product of course) Fingers crossed. This could be a really big deal. the Texas Renaissance festival is HUGE!!!!
I did a little better today. Just cleared $60 today. So the first FM was $100, then the next 2 were $50 and now this one was $60. Things might be on the way up? Oh and a lady that works the European market out here took a business card and a picture! She is going to post the picture she took on her market web site to spread the word
