Soap Makers Help!

[Morgaine]

Well the breakfast bar is in the mold. Not sure how this will turn out. I wasn't able to keep the eggs completly smooth when I tempered it with some of the lightly traced soap, I hope some little chunks will be ok, they were smaller than poppy seeds. I think the carrot juice will give it a nice color. I used corn meal in the soap and then sprinkled grits on the top.

 

[MissPrissy]

When I use eggs I mix the eggs with about 2 cups of the oil until you can't tell there is eggs in it. Then I mix that with the rest of oil. At that point I add the lye/liquid and work for trace.

 

[Morgaine]

Thanks MP, I will definately try that next time. Soap gelled and I'm waiting for it to harden up enough to cut. Grits on top was a bad idea I think, but we will see once it's cut how it looks.

I got my muslin bags in and I think I got the wrong ones cause I cannot fit the soap in them. DH is going to be so mad. Cheeptrick what size do you use and what size are your bars?

 

[Morgaine]

Well I think I had my first big flop,

There are bigger bit of egg than I had thought when I cut it up. I don't know if it is going to mold or go bad or what. I'll let it cure and see what happens. I really wanted this one to turn out since it was the most adventureous I've been with soap. Live and Learn.

 

[cheeptrick]

Quote:
Oh...man that stinks...I did the same and adjusted my cut to fit the smaller bags. I preferred the larger 4x6 bags...but customers kept buying the smaller bars and not the large ones....so now I'm all small bags. I have many testimonials about my long narrow bar being easier to hold in the shower. All are appx 4 ozs too. My bars measure after fully cut and rippled...4x2x1.5 and I do cut sometimes at 2 inch thickness. I ripple cut only the ends of the bars...very pretty. This smaller size fits the smaller bags for sfherb.com just perfect and leaves the ends opened a little for a peek at the soap. My larger bars are sold for $4-$4.50 and the smaller narrow bars are sold at $3.50....$3.00 for wholesale and at shows. My soaper friend who sells tallow soap charges $6.50 each...she hates my price....yells at me all the time. But I notice folks shied away from the larger priced bars...and this economy speaks for itself....I being a fiscally responsible person chose to market only the smaller bars and marketed what folks were buying most.
Could you use the bags as SAMPLE soap bags? Sell them for $2 and cut your larger bars in half? My $3 soaps sell very quickly...

 

[cheeptrick]

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Pics?? I love seeing mistakes just as much as the nice bars...troubleshooting/rebatching is FUN too!! Did you think grating and rebatching would work with the egg? Microwave rebatching is the easiest and quickest way...grate up a few bars and try it out...see how you like it. Maybe whip it? Make some floap...

When I make my eggnog....it is cooked which makes it stable....so I have never used raw egg....so this is good to know about tempering the eggs...the gel probably scrambled them a little too. I've been researching milk like crazy...used some of the farm's homogenized milk and found that the raw un-homogenized milk turned red and the pasteurized homogenized milk stayed white...interesting hunh!! The spinning breaks the fat globules down.

No worries...mistakes can always be fixed with soap by rebatching.

 

[Morgaine]

I'll post pics in the morning. I don't know that rebatching would work. I'm going to leave em and see what happens. The eggs srated thickening and turning stringy almost as soon as I added the traced soap. Took me a while to mix it all, but I guess I didn't get them all. I looked the over and it looks like I only have two that have what I would call big pieces, about the size of calendula petals. Fingers crossed. Next time I'm going to drop my SF from 8% to 5 to make up for the eggs and milk.

For the bags I'm going to use the for samples, cut a bar into 4 parts and charge $1 each and staple a card to it. I'm going to order some of the 4x6 and 5x7 bags because if they fit will be perfect.

 

[MissPrissy]

I cut these bars this morning. My kitchen smells lovely!

I have plans for 5 more today then I am taking a long break. 19 batches of soap these past 2 weeks.

 

[cheeptrick]

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Those are beautiful!!

 

[cheeptrick]

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That is $500 dollars!!

The dollar bars go FAST! Sometimes mistakes are good ones...I have found!