Soap Makers Help!

[Backyard Buddies]

I'm in the midst of a soaping event here. I just made BB sandalwood, a milk based soap with added cocoa butter. I'm attempting a new color swirl. Hope it worked . . . .

Now that company has gone home and the 4th is over, I'll be making soap a little more often.

 

[chiknwhisperer]

I'm hoping to have a little more time to soap now as well. I have a few more scents and some castor oil now so I'm prety much ready to get started again. I just need to go pick up some OO and CO and I'll be set to go.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

What scents did you buy, chiknwhisperer?

 

[breconbcs]

Last week I don't know what was going on - every soap I made the colour didn't turn out. My Georgian Breeze looks more like it should be called Georgian Storm (it's purple, black and copper/goldish looking) just to give you an idea. The last batch I made I left natural so not to "waste" the lye with a new scent (Neroli). I read where it goes a nice medium tan, well mine is a light tan but still looks good and smells okay (not one I would buy).
My lye supplier has been on holidays (found out the hard way), back today, so taking the kids and driving down to pick up some.

The FM went well on Saturday, we sold $135. worth. People went nuts for the 25 cent "guest soaps" which are really just samples but hey whatever they want to call them as long as they're buying.

Some scents that I thought would not sell at all I'm almost sold out of so I have to order more scents to make more. I made a lemongrass/green tea soap, it was really dark brown when I unmolded it but over the 4 weeks it lightened up and it sold really well. Every week I'm trying to add one or two new scents to the table till I can find a selection of those that are good sellers.

 

[katiesarahsmom]

This is probably off topic, but - does anyone make homemade dish washer detergent? I make laundry soap and got to thinking why not for the dish washer?

 

[Morgaine]

This is probably off topic, but - does anyone make homemade dish washer detergent? I make laundry soap and got to thinking why not for the dish washer?

You can make liquid soap that can be used to wash your dishes. Sometime I going to try my hand at making liquid soap.

breconbcs - glad you did well at your FM. What kind of colorants are you using? I tend to use just natural colorants and I have had mixed results with those. Some have turned out awesome and others just disapeared on me or morphed. What does the Neroli smell like? That the one that is from orange flowers, right?

And it is so hard to judge how well a scent will do. Coconut lime verbena, that I personall really liked, didn't sell well at all. Same think with the Rose Geranium. Here are my best sellers: yuzu grapefruit, black raspberry cream, rosemary & mint, almond & oameal, and dragons blood. These all go fast! I sold one whole batch of black rasp cream in 3 hours at the market.

BB- That sandalwood from BB is so nice. I really enjoyed that sample you sent. I can't wait to see your new swirl. What did you scent it with? Are you getting ready for that festival?


TM Chickens- I've heard a lot of good things about those molds and would like one of those or from soaphutch. My molds are working now, hubby made them from scraps we had, but I'm going to be moving up to bigger ones eventually and I have those booked maked.​

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Quote:
I've been meaning to ask you . . . Where did you get your Black Raspberry Cream scent? What about the rosemary & mint proportions? I assume you mixed that one yourself. I'm also surprised that your coconut/lime/verbena wasn't a big seller. I still have that sniffy at my desk and love it! Did people pick it up and sniff it or were they simply put off by the coconut name? I don't smell the coconut in it at all.

I wasn't as thrilled with the sandalwood OOB, but so far it's smelling a little sweeter and less woody than OOB. I haven't cut it yet, so we shall see. Did you mean what did I color it with?

Hee hee. OK, we'll see if this worked once I cut it since I was experimenting. I used 39 oz of liquids with 14 of that being milk. I let the lye/water cool to 105, then added the milk so that it would turn just a little bit of a color - slightly yellowish. Then, after coming to very light trace, I added in the scent, pulled a bit more than 1/3 of the soap to a container that contained 2 T cocoa powder mixed with a little bit of almond oil. To the remaining in the pot, I added 2 T of the French Red Clay along with some more almond oil. I insulated lightly to make sure that it gelled, then pulled the cover once it had reached the edges. If it works, I was aiming for inthe main color to be a reddish tan with a swirl of dark brown. I've turned it out of the mold and think it may have worked. I'll cut it in a few hours and know for sure.

Yes, I'm finally getting started on that festival. With my trip to Hawaii in August, I'm going to have to work pretty steadily between now and early September, especially since I didn't get anything done last week with company in town. I looked over my scents and will probably need to add a few to my shopping list. I love EO/FO shopping!

 

[okiegirl]

Hi Guys, I just had to jump in here.

I'm REALLY new to chickens, but have been a soaper for several years. I had my own HBB for several years too. Heartland Soap and Gift. That was FUN!

As much as I loved soapin' I actually sold way more lotions than soap. I also made a lot more money on my lotions.

anyway, just saw fellow soapers and thought... I'm HOME!

-Angela

 

[Morgaine]

I get the BRC from Scent Works. It was my best seller this weekend. I haven't tried any others suppliers.

For rosemary and mint I do 1.5 oz rosemary and .5 oz peppermint for 4 #'s soap. I haven't used a fragrance for that one since the eo's are not super expensive and you can use a lot less and still get a really good strong scent.

A lot of people would pick up the CLV, smell it, and say it smelled good, but never bought it. It is very limey, but I have heard that coconut is hard to get to through in CP soap.

Your sandalwood sounds really pretty! I can't wait to see that. I'll have to take some pictures of the watermelon soap. Turned out good, but for some reason there were a lot of those tiny aire bubbles in it. I think I used a pot that was too big, so the stick blender wasn't submerged as much as it should have been.

I made dh a mechanics soaps. I put it to bed at 12 last night, got up at 5 this morning and omg that thing was already as hard as rock. I had to hand cut it because I didn't want to bust a wire on the tank. It was a 100% coconut with 20% superfat. I used a 38% solution, so it was discounted, but not too severly. I also used 4 tablespoons pumice. This stuff is so hard that I cannot dent it by pushing with my thumb at all, no matter how hard I try. Yeah it's that hard. I scented with the left ove energy mix and colored it green.
Quote:
I've been meaning to ask you . . . Where did you get your Black Raspberry Cream scent? What about the rosemary & mint proportions? I assume you mixed that one yourself. I'm also surprised that your coconut/lime/verbena wasn't a big seller. I still have that sniffy at my desk and love it! Did people pick it up and sniff it or were they simply put off by the coconut name? I don't smell the coconut in it at all.

I wasn't as thrilled with the sandalwood OOB, but so far it's smelling a little sweeter and less woody than OOB. I haven't cut it yet, so we shall see. Did you mean what did I color it with?

Hee hee. OK, we'll see if this worked once I cut it since I was experimenting. I used 39 oz of liquids with 14 of that being milk. I let the lye/water cool to 105, then added the milk so that it would turn just a little bit of a color - slightly yellowish. Then, after coming to very light trace, I added in the scent, pulled a bit more than 1/3 of the soap to a container that contained 2 T cocoa powder mixed with a little bit of almond oil. To the remaining in the pot, I added 2 T of the French Red Clay along with some more almond oil. I insulated lightly to make sure that it gelled, then pulled the cover once it had reached the edges. If it works, I was aiming for inthe main color to be a reddish tan with a swirl of dark brown. I've turned it out of the mold and think it may have worked. I'll cut it in a few hours and know for sure.

Yes, I'm finally getting started on that festival. With my trip to Hawaii in August, I'm going to have to work pretty steadily between now and early September, especially since I didn't get anything done last week with company in town. I looked over my scents and will probably need to add a few to my shopping list. I love EO/FO shopping!

 

[Morgaine]

Quote:
Welcome Angela! Feel free to jump in. I know a couple of us on here are looking to start making lotion too.