Soap Makers Help!

[Morgaine]

I think I like coconut around 20% and the castor at 7%. I have been using the sweet almond and avacodo at 4% each. I superfat at 5%, although I may play around with that % after Christmas. I have two more batches to make than I will have all my Christmas soap done! Yeah!

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Thanks for your thoughts and guidance Ninja and Morgaine!

I spent some time this afternoon trying to find recipes that utilized what I had, but of coarse when you're new at this you have no idea if what you're reading is a good recipe or not.

You both are probably correct that I need to play around with this and find what I like, but like Morgaine is doing, that'll have to wait until after Christmas since I'm attempting to get these ready for sale at the church before then and don't really have the time to do that now.

Ninja - Soap Essentials has only coconut, olive, and palm, with the coconut as 31% of the oils. I did back the superfatting down to 7% from 10% so I hope it's not too drying.

Morgaine - your numbers would be very close to the Soap Essentials bar. By backing the coconut oil from 31 to 20, then replacing that 11% with 15% of other oils, that is only a fraction that would need to be changed of the other two. Unfortunately, I didn't get the sweet almond. My bill was getting pretty high after adding all that other stuff.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Oh, and while I'm picking your brains, how does one decide what water ratio you want to go with when using the SAP calculator? On the one I used, that was the first question asked. I just figured out what the Soap Essentials ratio was and stuck with it.

What I'd really like to try tomorrow is the Applejack & Peel recipe. I'd love to dehydrate some of my orange peel and add that along with a small amount of cinnmon and clove for a nice speckled look. I just have all these ideas and no know-how!

 

[mirecipes]

I just found this thread this evening..
Took me awhile to get thru all the posts

Heres a pic of some soap I made..Mostly animal fat, but some coconut and castor oil too..

Great lather!!

And I used cake color to color it!!
It doesn't color the skin..the color does change a bit (When saponified)..Was blue and rose cake color..But came out kinda purple for the blue and hot pink for the rose

Edited to add..
I used PVC pipe as a mold..
It was a bit hard to push out when it had set up..But it made round bars..and I was able to slice it as I pushed it out..

 

[smom1976]

ok so I found one of my bars that was thin and looked like it was hardened and stuff.. it has been 3 weeks.. used it no problems.. loved it..

BUT>>>

it gave my husband a rash under the arms... what did I do wrong?

 

[Morgaine]

What was in it? Essential oil or Fragrance oils? I know I can't use anything jojoba oil in it. Breaks me out, even when it's in shampoo.

 

[chiknwhisperer]

My lye and some molds will be here today! I'm so excited.

I can't wait. I've been tracking the shipment for the last three days lol. Just becasue of my excitment it probably will be the last package delivered

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Nice soap, mirecipes! I'd love to try the PVC pipe at some point as well. The round bars are a nice change from the usual rectangles.

That's hilarious chiknwhisperer! That's exactly what I did. Heck, I tracked them more than once a day, even! I just made my second batch yesterday and I even made up my own recipe! Well, I used a lot of other people's info as a guideline and ran it through the SAP calculator to be sure I was doing it OK. It looks (and smells!) really good. I made an Apple Jack and Peel recipe and added some orange peel (from my own orange tree!), cinnamon, and clove. I added only a minimal amount of these three as I mostly wanted it to just stand on its own. But, it's just too fun to add things to the soap.

So, when are you going to make your first batch?

 

[chiknwhisperer]

I'm going to make it this afternoon.

I'm just waiting for my goats milk to get slushy in the freezer and then I'm good to go. OH I'm so excited I can hardly sit still lol . My friends are making jewlery and scrap booking stuff and selling it and I've been thinking about what I would be good at. Well I decided to give this a try and I'm sure I'll be good at it. ( with practice of course ) I saw the UPS truck go by my house without stopping and I started to panick lol. He had already droped it off at my door and didn't even knock or nothin'! I was ready to chase him down the street lol. I would be giggling right now if dh wasn't sleeping.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Quote:
So, did you make it? Did ya? Did ya?

As far as chasing the UPS driver down the street, I actually did! He hadn't arrived and it was time to go and pick the kids up from school. As I was leaving, I spotted him in another part of the neighborhood and begged him to go to my house right away. He was a good sport about it and not only got them up the driveway but helped me get them in the door as well.