Soap Makers Help!

[itsy]

Thank you, Cyndi! You're the best!!!

Edited to add: Any animal fat will work?

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

I've rendered all my animal fat this way. You don't want to overheat the oil. If you only have a little and don't want to heat up the oven, use a crockpot on low.

Animal oils I've rendered this way:
beef
pork
deer
elk
bear
skunk
raccoon
turkey
chicken
rabbit
goose
duck

 

[MSDeb]

Hello everyone. I have a request for some licorice soap. Has anyone found a FO that smells even close? I just got one in the mail called black licorice and it doesn't smell even close to the real deal. Help.

 

[beaglady]

Try star anise essential oil.

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

Have you soaped with it MsDeb?? sometimes FO will smell different once soaped.

I agree with beaglady, though. Anise EO will get you the licorice scent you're looking for.

 

[Bettacreek]

Yup, stick with anise essential oil. A little goes a long way, and it smells devine. You can even market it for fishermen/hunters.

 

[MSDeb]

Thank you all for the responses. I am soaping with the fo this morning and I see BB sells the anise so I am going to order some of that too.

 

[Bettacreek]

I've finally started making larger batches. 10lbs at a time. I was wasting time trying to do 2lb batches at a time and have saved over an hour on 5 batches by doing them all at once. I can even do my swirls, lol. I'll have to post pictures of all the soap curing here soon.

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

That's a good feeling, isn't it, Betta.

I find it much more relaxing and fun to make soap once a month to keep up on orders and inventory than it is to make soap every weekend .... especially during the spring/summer/fall months when I'm busy in the garden or the winter months when I'm busy with my fiber arts.

 

[Bettacreek]

Yeah, it's nice to cut time. I was doing 1-2 batches in a day, and only felt like doing it about once a week or so. I had to stop selling because of lack of inventory. I cranked down to get 10 batches ready for a small show, and it sucked. Now, however, I can achieve that in one energetic day, lol. The only thing that sucks is cleanup. I'm not fond of it to begin with, but to wash up all of those containers at once just sucks! Now, another thing that sucks, is restocking my raw ingredients. I have about 3 gallons of OO, about a gallon of grapeseed oil, but my goatmilk, coconut oil and my castor is about diminished. I have enough for one more of these big batches and I'm out of the last three ingredients. I can finally start buying in larger bulk now though, since I'll be going through so much more. That'll save me money as well.