Soap Makers Help!

[Carolyn]

Woman in the woods, your soaps are both very pretty. No idea why you have the rim of lighter color but if you could figure it out I imagine that technique would catch on because it is very interesting. Soap making even with my chemist hubby assisting or advising is never a totally predictable experience for me.

Have you ever tried finely crushed egg shells or sand for the pumice or scrubbing qualities? It is supposed to settle to one side and make a great bar for cleaning really dirty hands.

 

[WomanInTheWoods]

And could someone PLEASE clue me in to what is up with this soap?

The inside probably gelled. I would expect the insides to look like the outsides the longer they are exposed to air.​

Thank you for replying. The soap is okay then? Do you think I need to do anything different for this soap next time, and do you have an opinion on the little flecks in there?
Sorry for all the questions, thanks for your patience!

I think I need to read up somewhere on gelling... what it is, how it happens, and how I can get it to happen more uniformly.​

 

[WomanInTheWoods]

Quote:
Thank you, Carolyn

I've not used egg shells or sand, but I did use coffee grounds in my coffee soap (I dried them in the toaster oven after brewing and ground them finer with a mortar and pestle) and used packets of herbal tea in some other soaps (again, I ground them up finer with the m&p). I really liked the herbal tea in the soap & will definitely be doing that again!

 

[ChicksterJo]

WomanintheWoods,
did the herbal tea discolor? I just made another small batch of the same recipe I made yesterday but this time infused some of the OO with ground annatto, whole cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. It turned out a nice burnt orange color but I hope it doesn't turn into an ugly color later...

 

[WomanInTheWoods]

Quote:
There's a picture of the soaps on page 509 ~ "Celestial Herbal Tea Soaps." I wouldn't think adding just the ground up tea at trace would discolor the whole batch of soap; I added it in at a pretty thick trace so it wouldn't all sink to the bottom. My soaps on p.509 are discolored because I wanted them to be. I made herbal tea with distilled water and used that for the liquid, then ground up another packet to add in at trace.

 

[ChicksterJo]

Oh okay, I just wanted to know if the greenish bits would turn brown but I really like those specks even if they don't stay green.

 

[tazcat70]

Chickster it looks great!!!

 

[ChicksterJo]

Quote:
Thank you for your clarification. I will stick to CP

When will you start yours, tazcat?

 

[MSDeb]

Quote:
There's a picture of the soaps on page 509 ~ "Celestial Herbal Tea Soaps." I wouldn't think adding just the ground up tea at trace would discolor the whole batch of soap; I added it in at a pretty thick trace so it wouldn't all sink to the bottom. My soaps on p.509 are discolored because I wanted them to be. I made herbal tea with distilled water and used that for the liquid, then ground up another packet to add in at trace.

Whats the actual post number, we all have our pages set to show different numbers of posts.

 

[WomanInTheWoods]

Quote:
There's a picture of the soaps on page 509 ~ "Celestial Herbal Tea Soaps." I wouldn't think adding just the ground up tea at trace would discolor the whole batch of soap; I added it in at a pretty thick trace so it wouldn't all sink to the bottom. My soaps on p.509 are discolored because I wanted them to be. I made herbal tea with distilled water and used that for the liquid, then ground up another packet to add in at trace.

Whats the actual post number, we all have our pages set to show different numbers of posts.

Gah~ sorry~ #5085