Soap Makers Help!

[pearpandas]

I've only made soap with natural oils, but if you want to change the colour you can do so with dried petals...

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

Hi Pearpandas, welcome to BYC & the soap making thread!

I can't think of any 'un-natural' oils that can be used to make soap.

Botanicals can be tricky to use in CP or HP soap. There are very few that actually retain their color. Most will turn brown or black.

 

[galanie]

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I'll never tell!!

 

[Bettacreek]

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Yup. Including lavender buds (better known as "mouse turds" to soapers). Natural colorants are all over the place. I've used cocoa powder and tumeric with success. Alkanet (I think that's what it's called) root powder mades a lovely purple color. Parsley, fennel and spirulina powders are all reported to work well for green (though too much spirulina apparantly gives it a fishy smell).

 

[bockbock2008]

I've started reading this thread (up to page 92 so far) and I've already gotten my copy of TSC

I have started collecting my ingredients and have everything so far EXCEPT the palm oil. So I'm almost ready to get busy on this. Earlier in the thread Ace hardware was mentioned for lye so I went in and told them about the website and even though I had to order a case (12) of one pound containers, I got it for 2.99 a jar vs. the 8.99 they were selling the jars from behind the counter. I also went to Target today and in the dollar bins just inside the door, they have body scrubbers 2/$1.00 in pink, puple, light blue, and red, just an fyi. I picked some up for Easter gifts to go along with my soap.(Surely I'll have it done by then

) You'll be seeing more of me here in the coming weeks as I'm getting some EO's and butters that had to be ordered for Christmas!

 

[ChicksterJo]

You could start soaping without the palm oil if you have a recipe that doesn't call for it...hehe!
I have a bunch of stuff in "shopping carts" on WSP as well as soaperschoice but I don't have the money for them yet

 

[bockbock2008]

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Wow! Talk about enablers!

I also want to get a loaf mold built hopefully this weekend. When I'm ready to start something new I usually spend any time I can to learn as much as possible about it and then dive in. I've learned alot just from reading some of the old posts and even made notes as I read so I'm learning the methods and contributing properties of the oils. The one thing I'm not sure of is goats milk. I'm not going to start out with that, as recommended, but that's my GMS is my goal after some experience. The qquestion I have is that the milk I got is from Walmart and is evaporated. So when a recipe calls for a certain amount of goat milk, do I dilute it first or use it straight? That's the one thing thats really bugging me right now. And here you all go again with more newbie questions.

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

Before I had access to fresh Jersey milk, I would use the evaporated goat's milk from the store. The way I handled it was:

1) Weigh and melt all your oils first.

2) Use half the recommended water weight as ice cubes & the other half as canned milk (be sure to shake that can very well before opening!) chill or freeze the canned milk (freezing in ice cube trays works well!)

3) Dissolve the lye into the ice cubes.

4) Add the chilled or frozen milk. Stirring well until all is incorporated. If the frozen milk doesn't want to melt, use your stick blender VERY CAREFULLY to chop up and incorporate all the frozen milk. You don't want the color of the milk/lye solution to be more than yellow.

5) Add Immediately to your waiting oils

6) Continue soaping as normal.

 

[Bettacreek]

For the evaporated milks, I use half the weight of liquid as icecubes/water (just enough water to get the lye to start to dissolve). If I used all ice, it wouldn't dissolve the lye properly. I mix my solution with my oils, then when it comes to light trace, I add my evaporated milk and fragrance, stir, then mold it. So much easier than messing around with trying not to burn the milk (I always ended up with ricing in the milk anyways, no matter how cool the temperature was).

 

[cybercat]

I just made a coconut milk soap. First I have done and using soapmaker too. That took some figuring out. I hope I got the lye water thing right. I only use part of my water for lye rest went with milk. I did not add my milk into lye either but after all my other oils were done. I did make sure my lye was dissolved fully before cooling it down to room temp. This wil be an interesting batch as I am using a new FO too. Hopefully I did not do myself in with 3 new things. Fo is Sea Air Sandlewood it made a nice creamy yellow soap batch. We shall see if it keeps that color.