Soap Makers Help!

[Morgaine]

Corrie, the boxes look great. It does help enhance the look of the soaps I think too. What about some stamps to put a little design around the oustside? Wow, it looks like you will be very busy soaping soon. That's a LOT of stuff. Can't wait to see them soaped! I love getting packages in! I'm good on everything but coconut and lye. I've already ordered the coconut and I'll order the lye later today. PS, you might want to rething posting the picture with your phone number.

Cheeptrick, you always have such neat looking soaps! I am surprised that you got such an olive green with the LC. The only time I got a color close to that was when I didn't gel some castile soaps. Maybe it's the brand? Mine is made from alfalfa.


Shelly- Please let me know what you think of the Red Apple Jack. I'm not that happy with the AJP I got from southern garden scents. It's way way too apple-y and sweet. It smells too much like apple juice. Reminds me of day-cares. Dh likes it though. And winter solstice, let me know what that one smells like. The Black Raspberry Cream is the best! I've sold out of all of the perfumes I made with that one.

I soaped tropical vacation last night. It's a 100% coconut/20%sf recipe with chunks of some lemongrass bars in there and I used coconut milk as part of the liquid. It smells sooo good! It's just my kind of scent, smells like a pina colada!

 

[Morgaine]

Quote:
Get the book "Soapmakers companion" I also like the above sites and teach soap.com

Oh so dislike this soaping book! It does have a lot of good information but a lot of bad information (and opinion) also.

That is some beautiful soap! I tried boxes for a while, but discontinued it because the boxes would get dented and had to be replaced.

I use just shrink bands (MMS Dan's Bands). Even though they're open on the ends, folks will try to smell everywhere but there!

I'll check out essentialoil.org. Do they send sniffies or samples? I'm so low on patch, but there are so many different grades that I'm afraid to get a couple pounds of the stuff just to be disappointed.

Well, I see the price per pound is down ($99).

I have been very happy with all orders from Essential Oil University, more so than I was with New Directions Aromatics. The premium peppermint (usa) is to die for, it is just pure candy cane scent. I love it lotion for my feet and hands. The stuff I got from NDA was cheaper, but not nearly as nice. I like EOU lavender 40/42 a lot better too. Lemongrass is the same at both places. I haven't compared the patch's though.

I've been re-reading SMC and yeah there is a lot in there I don't agree with, I gotta say that for a beginer it is great to have right there when you are doing that first batch. I think it's best to get a wide variety of info though, MLF site is great, so is millersoap.com and teach soap has some good stuff too. The more info you have before the better.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Quote:
Will do. Better yet . . . It's about time for one of our sniffie swaps.

I just turned out the cucumber from yesterday. Right now I smell the actual cucumbers more than the cucumber FO. I only had enough for .5/ppo, so perhaps that is why. The cucumber puree was only 38% of the liquids, so I don't think it was because I used too high of a percentage. As a comparison, the Slice of Summer recipe uses 44%. I'm hoping the actual cucumber will fade a bit as time goes on. I'll be cutting it later.

Today I'm soaping Rose Milk soap and will color it pinkish with pink clay.

 

[cheeptrick]

http://www.letterseals.com/mosp.html I LOVE This site....their products come so beautifully packaged. I purchased a few seals for stamping the soap...it is AWESOME!!

ALSO CW...I purchased custom self inking stamps for stamping my boxes, coffee tin tie bags, and labels. I think you'd do better with a self inking stamp instead of printing labels...just add a pretty ribbon or raffia if you are looking for color!! I'll post some photos later...of my self inking stamp....but I'm kind of busy CRYING like a blubbering baby because I just dropped off all 3 children at their first day school!! My youngest just started kindergarten!! BOO HOO BOO HOO....but I must admit they are WICKED proud of their bento boxes and tiffins that I packed for them!!

Here is the custom stamp place I ordered from....nice quick turnaround....and got it super FAST!! LOVE the round stamps....
http://www.stampin.com/online/custom.htm ALSO love that my $70 laser ink does not have to be replaced as much!! You can refill the self inking stamps...they come in different ink colors too!!

I personally...like The Soapmakers Companion for the beginner soaper...her soaps are not lye heavy and are perfect for just starting out. But I must admit after soaping heavily for 3+ years...I do see the problems with some of her recipes...soda ash being one of them.

 

[cheeptrick]

BB....I'm soaping Rose in a few days....I ordered some essential oils along with muslin bags and botanicals from sfherbs.com and Rose eo is one of them. I'm looking forward to them....hope I'm not disappointed. I might be interested in a SNIFF swap....I mostly have sweet cakes fo and Essential Wholesale eo's. I want to try it out..but do not want to PURCHASE it unless I LOVE IT or DH loves it. I do have one customer who used to be a PRO-SNIFFER...and she gives me thumbs up or thumbs down.

I like your Rose MILK...think I'll make that a goatsmilk and CALL it ROSE MILK!! I've got RED rose petals coming in the mail....I'll put on top.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Quote:
That sounds lovely, cheeptrick!! The other thing that I do is to distill my own rosewater and use that for part of the liquids. I'm not sure whether it adds anything or not, but it looks good on the label.

Your comment about rose petals reminded me that I need to wait on my rose soap. I need to get some petals from the garden and dry them first. OK, so I'll make something else today . . . either Herbal Mint or Rosemary Lavender. Both sold like hot cakes!

Sniffie swapping is easy. If you're only swapping scents, it's a matter of a few drops on a cotton ball, placed in a snack sized ziplock and put through the mail.

You're lucky to have a pro sniffer in your corner!! Wow!

 

[cheeptrick]

Quick Review/Polling question....
Which Free soap calculator ONLINE do you think is the best?

 

[Morgaine]

Soap calc, hands down

 

[cheeptrick]

My PRO Sniffer is a pain in my BUTT!!

But I do love her...she thumbs down EVERYTHING.

 

[Morgaine]

i'm not sure what I'm going to soap this morning. It might be pepper zest or burberry for men and then more lemon grass.

Shelly, I've got a package to send to you, I'll shoot you a pm and list what I have so you can pick any sniffies you want.