Soap Makers Help!

[cheeptrick]

Ok....I am very sick along with my 3 sad, feverish, h1n1 children! But I had to share the beautiful mold that Lurky's husband made me!! She's been making beautiful soap with hers and she and I traded BUT my trade was NO where near her husband's mold. He is a true craftsman! BRAVO!!!!

And some soaps I made a few weeks ago...Yuzu Grapefruit, Kitchen Coffee Pumice, and Clean Cotton Lotion bar.

Hope you all are staying healthy....I'm going back to bed!

THAT MOLD IS FANTASTIC Lurky!!!!

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Wow! Nice cheeptrick!

I hope you all feel better soon.

 

[L*A*G*]

i have made my first bar of soap now! smell and works great but there is oil alway ozzing out of it!? what is going on? can i fix it?

 

[ametauss]

LAG -- Sounds like you might have superfatted too much or that it didn't get mixed well enough... Maybe some pictures.

CT -- Hope you all feel better... Need some chicken soup!!

Lurky -- what does your DH charge for the molds... It looks great!

 

[BirdBrain]

One of my friends told me today that her favorite soap scent was a spirment and eucalyptus combined. Has anyone tried this combination?

CT how are you and the kids feeling by now?

 

[ChickenToes]

Quote:
I think this would turn out really well. I think eucalyptus and spearmint are two fragrances found in Vicks VapoRub, so if you like the smell of that, the soap would smell fabulous.

 

[Morgaine]

Cheeptrick, sorry to hear about you and your kiddos, that really sucks. that mold looks AWESOME!!!! Is it HDPE? Dh hasn't gotten around to making mine yet. He has been working late every night the last two weeks .

L A G I agree that you either have an over super fatted soap or else you didn't get the oils and lye completly mixed. To avoid over super fatting always you a lye calculator and make sure that your scale is accurate. If you are using a lot of hard oils/butters in your recipe, you might need to soap at a higer temp to avoid a false trace from the hard oils. Using a stick blender will also help to ensure that your soap is mixed all the way. What fo did you use? I have read that some fo can cause that too. I have it happen a few times. Once was with a lavender gm batch that I forgot to cut back to 5% sf and I had a bunch of oil on the top. I had to rebatch that. And twice with 100% coconut oil soap with a 20% superfat. For about a week they were slightly greasy to the touch.

Bird Brain, I made a spearmint eucalyptus blend of 3 parts spearmint to 1 part euc and 1 part patchouli to anchor the euc which I have read fades a great deal by 3 months. So far mine is almost 8weeks and is still very strong on the eucalyptus.

I think I'm done soaping for a while. Last 2 weeks I have made a little over 600 bars, so by Dec I will have around 1500 bars in stock. I hope this will last till the new year because we have started moving stuff into the new house and I'm just not going to have the time.

Anyone doing any shows soon? I did one Saturday and brought in almost $300. Which was awesome considering onlt about 200 people (including vendors!!) were there. I had very few people buy only one bar. Most people did the 5 for $20 deal. My next show is first Saturday in Dec. and then it;s only farmer's market till next Feduary.

 

[L*A*G*]

i went with the melt and poor soap base that was made from plant. i think it was from the scent that i used bc it had jojoaba oil in it.

 

[Morgaine]

Oh I remember now. You had the jasmin eo in oil. Yeah it was that I think.

 

[cheeptrick]

Quote:
Thanks BB!!
Almost tip top...but so cranky!! I think being in bed for 4 days and then getting up to shampoo the rugs really can make a person MAD!! You all know why the rugs are being shampooed I'm sure!! Kids still out today...thought we'd be going back to school today...but a sleepless night again with #3 put us all in rough shape this morning.

I'm not sure what the mold is made out of...I'll have to ask Lurky?? Lurky?? You following here? Did you slice your loaf?? How did it come out?

On another note...I just go SEA ROCK SALT in the mail for my shows...looking forward to making some more salt bars!!

Morgaine-I've done 2 shows in the last 2 weeks and I've got 3 more (well one is a small artisan open house not really a 'fair' but more fun and intimate with a potter, beekeeper, photographer, and my soaps). I sold 90 bars at the first show...I ran a special 3 bars of soap for $12 and if you buy 3 you got a FREE bath tea! I mixed organic oats, calendula, lavender, spearmint, rosemary, chamomile, juniper berries and rose petals epsom salts and sea salts infused with rosemary eo. I layered all the herbs and salts/oats in a HUGE 2 gallon apothecary jar. I mixed them at the show at the table and stamped the muslin tea bags with my logo and filled them for each $12 customer (plus I gave all the vendor abutters free ones). I cleaned UP!!

Only cleared $200 at last weeks show...but I was starting to get sick and just could not crack a smile NO matter how hard I tried...but $200 is nice. PLUS I got a gift boutique in Nashua to carry my soaps...it's consignment and I'm still mulling over the contract...but may just give her a small inventory to try it out.

I'll open the website on Cyber Monday...and what ever inventory is left over from the shows...I'll sell as last minute holiday specials.

Happy soaping...I'll post photos of the mold with soap in this evening...going to soap when DH gets home.