Soap Makers Help!

[Jenlyn9483]

I'm going to knit some nice washclothes to go wtih mine.

 

[chiknwhisperer]

lol I wouldn't be able to knit a sweater for a nat if I had to. What if I add a thing of misletoe ( spelling ? ) to to it? Or something like that?

 

[Badhbh]

I'm having trouble finding lye

Lowes doesn't stock it any more, and nobody locally has it. I gave up and ordered from Bitter Creek, but i'd really wanted to get this batch done for Christmas. Stupid meth heads.

 

[smom1976]

Quote:
I have people like that in my DH family too.. his brother to be specific..

maybe they will regift to someone that they dont really like... and the person that they regift to will just love it.

 

[chiknwhisperer]

Quote:
I have people like that in my DH family too.. his brother to be specific..

maybe they will regift to someone that they dont really like... and the person that they regift to will just love it.

Well I figure if they leave it behind maybe I could sell it? Last year they just left their stuff

How rude is that

Hey on the bright side I could make money if they decide to be ungratfull.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
SERIOUSLY. I'm anticipating our Lowe's discontinuing it any time, now, and that is my LAST local source. I hate to order in bulk, and to have my name & address watch-listed.

As for stuff to put with bars of soap for gifts, I like some sort of handmade soap rack, especially since these bars must be able to completely dry between uses. One year I got a big batch of wooden soap racks. Stack a bar or two or three of soap on top, maybe add a pretty washcloth, or one made of organic unbleached cotton, and tie with raffie, rustic twine, or a pretty wire ribbon.

 

[chiknwhisperer]

Quote:
SERIOUSLY. I'm anticipating our Lowe's discontinuing it any time, now, and that is my LAST local source. I hate to order in bulk, and to have my name & address watch-listed.

As for stuff to put with bars of soap for gifts, I like some sort of handmade soap rack, especially since these bars must be able to completely dry between uses. One year I got a big batch of wooden soap racks. Stack a bar or two or three of soap on top, maybe add a pretty washcloth, or one made of organic unbleached cotton, and tie with raffie, rustic twine, or a pretty wire ribbon.

Thats a great idea NP! I'll have to go look around for some of those. Thanks so much

 

[redhead83402]

Quote:
I won't use palm oil in my soap recipes - my skin react to the higher palmitic FA. I much prefer lard over palm.

How are your rendering your tallow? I do dry rendering in the oven and it's a piece of cake compared to rendering with water on the stove top.

If you run out of suet to render, you might just want to try using "Creamed Shortening" from the grocery store. Not Crisco or the All-Vegetable Shortening (which is usually hydrogenated soybean oil), but the generic "Creamed Shortening". Look at the ingredients - it will say made from meat oils or some such. It is usually 97% lard/tallow & 3% hydrogenated soybean. (It won't say that on the label, but when ever I've called the manufacturer, that is what I'm told)

Your recipe looks quite nice actually.

Cheeptrick - those gems are beautiful!!

Muller ~ I have tried rendering both with & without water, but I have never tried filtering it out through coffee filters on the first go-round. I will definitely have to do it that way. I am sort of out of supplies now, so I have to render more...lol. The idea of the creamed shortening is a fantastic one!! I am definitely going to look into that one ~ maybe we have that sort of shortening around here. My family will lay flowers at your feet in gratitude, lol if we do ~ they really REALLY dislike the rendering days. :-D

This was my 1st attempt at that swirling trick ~ lol ~

I think I waited too long, trace was so thick on the green soap, and too thin on the brown soap, it didn't swirl very well. How do you time that well? I only fragranced the green, as I thought it would take the other to trace too soon. Should I have added fo's to the brown as well?
~Red

 

[BirdBrain]

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading through this thread. I have been soaping a little over a year and love it too. Someone asked in a previous post how we are packaging our soaps. Mine were made for Christmas. Here is a picture of some of them almost ready to go. I still have to put cellophane on some of them. Those are sticky notes to tell me who they go to and will be removed before gifting.

Most of those are half bars so that I could have a good variety of colors and interesting shapes. I am really wishing I had done a dark chocolate bar, but when I made the batch last year, the trimmings I rolled into small balls. My husband said they looked like moose poop. This year one of DH's co-woorkers said "what? No moose poop? I was hoping for moose poop."

 

[gypsy2621]

Actually for it not doing what it was supposed to it came out really neat looking.
It looks like nice pieces of Marble!
what a nice concept!