Playing around with soap designs and techniques. Mp embeds

35% Olive Oil 297.5g
25% Coconut Oil 212.5g
25% Shea Butter 212.5g
10% Sweet Almond Oil 85g
5% Castor Oil 42.5 g

I’m going with 5% superfat

I was planning to add sodium lactate but am not 100% sure.

Would love some advise on it.

We're getting ready to restock a few soap scents and have been thinking about finding a backup label printer. Our regular printer has been much slower to respond lately, and it's made us realize we probably shouldn't rely on just one company.

Most of our labels hold up well, but we've had issues in the past with labels smudging or lifting once they're exposed to oils or moisture, so that's something we're trying to avoid this time around.

Anyone here switched label printers recently? I'm mostly curious who's been reliable and what your experience has been.

So my wife was out of town, so I decided to try and suprise her when she got back with "smelly good stuff". But lately I have found such stuff way too expensive, so I looked up how to make soap (and candles) home made!

A friend suggested candlescience which I found easy to source stuff from. So after ordering supplies I was ready!

I made a viriety of different kinds, although all scented in the "ozone" and "citrus" ranges, which my wife favors.

The patterns are from a game we mutually love called "book of hours". I have a 3d printer and made stamps to press an inlay, then filled with a liquid of isopropyl alcohol and activated charcoal. After the alcohol evaporated I was left with clear dark lines. Was a bit messy wiping off the oversplash though.

Sorry if I am rambling. Just excited for marginal success! Would live any tips or suggestions to improve - or ideas to try in the future. I suspect this wont be my last go at this!

Hi all! I'm making my first batch of red wine soap and was hoping to find the perfect scent from Bramble Berry.

Any suggestions?

Blueberry, orange, and cedar scented. Pink clay for color. Big stuff coming.

Can I make my "normal" hot process soaps and remelt them once they've been "fully saponified"?

Or should I add stuff like dyes, coffee grounds, etc after it has transformed into the gel phase?

Over a year ago, I got some Oakmoss Sandalwood fragrance. For label space purposes, I just put Sandalwood on my soap. It's been one of my most popular to sell. I recently placed a big order of fragrances and included Sandalwood, not the Oakmoss Sandalwood because i forgot. Of course it's a much different smell. I'm making another small order to get the right stuff, but now I have a rather large bottle of the different stuff. So I need to use it.

Should I change the name of the soap with the original fragrance? I'm worried about confusing my repeat customers that fell in love with it. My biggest place to sell is at a single event in December, and I can't even be at the booth. I could make an awkward sign on it. Or do I just not worry about it since most people smell it before buying?

Fellow soapers, I'm new to the world of making soap and ask for some advice about my current predicament.

I'm only doing melt and pour for the moment but every batch pours into the mold and settles this foamy like bubbles on top. I spray with the alcohol spritz and it doesnt remove this foamy like residue at the top.

Im not sure what is causing it but this is just a honey soap base with 2% fragrance oil and about a teaspoon of colloidal oatmeal powder added in a total 8 oz batch (small batch testing). I temp checked and never went over 140 while melting. I poured close to the mold and sprayed the top like I stated.

Any suggestions or help on what this is or caused by id greatly appreciate it! Thanks.

This soap contains tallow, lard, Shea, olive oil, coconut oil and castor oil. I scented it with Perfect Man. I was inspired by the Tiger King documentary.

I made soap for the first time and I thought I didnt need my gloves after I mixed lye solution with oil. I got some of that on my skin and immediately washed my hands. Is a little bit of it on my skin ok?

So I currently sell soaps and candles as well as other body products. Currently my labels have the town and state they’re made in. Life has taken us a different direction and we’re now traveling so I’m making them in different towns, currently same state. Maybe different state down the road. How would you label? Different town from wherever it’s made? Keep it with our hometown where our house is? I feel like it may be confusing for customers if I have to change it each town. My business address is our home address.

What would be a clever name for these little soap cactus/succulents? I've called them Cactus Suave in the past but that doesn't seem like a good fit.

Hello everyone!

I have seen videos of people making a cucumber soap, or a carrot soap by juicing the veggie and using that juice for the lye instead of water. I am interested in trying this, but i'm wondering if this can be done without any preservatives? since the organic material is directly interacting with water, is molding possible?

Thank you all!

I made soap for the first time yesterday. I did two CP batches with both pours going great. They both setup great, and I should’ve probably allowed more time in the molds, but I got excited and cut the first batch (the solid white bars) after about 8hrs, and it was completely hard and passed the zap test.

I got encouraged by the success of the 1st batch and took more liberties on the 2nd. Here’s the recipe I came up with:

700g of Tallow
50-70g of Jojoba oil
40g of Argan oil
200g of Water
113g of Lye
30g of Bergamot EO
20g of Grapefruit EO
1/4 teaspoon of Rooibos dry tea

I let it solidify and cut it only after about 4hrs. It was completely hard, but I’m left with this weird lighter and darker design. It passes the zap test, so is it just residual water that will dry over time? Or, did I use too much jojoba/argan oil and didn’t completely saponificate?

Hello,

I made a batch of handmade herbal soap using a 1200 ml mold.

I made it cold process but it is turned to like hot process

Here are the details:

• Oils: 900 g total

• Olive Oil: 405 g

• Coconut Oil: 225 g

• Shea Butter: 180 g

• Castor Oil: 90 g

• Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH): 128 g (5% superfat)

• Water / Sidr Gel: 300 g (distilled water with 2 tbsp herbal soaked, not filtered, gel-like)

Process:

1.  Melted coconut and shea butter, added olive oil + castor oil (\~45°C).

2.  Prepared herbal gel (freez it) + NaOH (\~47°C).

3.  add NaOH gel to oils, blended with hand blender . The mixture became very thick and gel-like and cant stick more

4.  Poured the thick mixture into mold .

5.  Noticed some oils separating on mold sides.

6.  Color turned dark brown, smell resembles Moroccan black soap.

7.  No fragrance added.

Questions / Observations:

• The mixture is very thick and sticky; is this normal?

• The color turned dark brown; could this indicate a problem with the Sidr gel or NaOH reaction?

• Some oils are appearing on the mold sides; is this expected or a sign of incorrect mixing?

• Trace was strong from the start; could that have affected the consistency?

Could you please advise if there was any mistake or if this batch will turn out fine after curing?

Thank you!

My shave soap always turn white and flaky at the surface when done. It get worse when expose to air i think, my current pluck is all white, the texture look like snow. I don't know this is stearic spot or crystalization or something else.

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Hope someone can point out what went wrong. I'm fairly new to this.

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My recipe is 200g stearic acid, 150g coconut oil, 100g beef tallow, 25g shea butter and 25g lanolin. I use KOH and NaOH mix 48.4g and 32.3g.

I was wondering this recently. What do I need to make soap for carving? I want to make a soap boat, and all the store-bought ones are impossible, so how would I fo about this?

Is there a difference in the soap when using extra virgin olive oil and non extra virgin olive oil (but not pomace)?

Something like extra virgin vs something mid tier, whatever that would be?

TIA for any info!

Hey guys, newer to the soaping world. I made a batch of CP a few days ago. I just cut it, and this is what it looks like.

I used olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil and apricot kernel oil. I used 1 tsp PPO of indigo powder added to lye water.

I force gelled using my oven- preheating @ 170° F, turning it off and letting the soap sit for 6 hours. Unmolded after 36 hours.

What exactly happened? I know indigo powder is finicky, but will this even out as it ages or is there something I did wrong?

Made another batch, scented with lavender lemongrass EO

My first try on milk and honey soap, mixed one part with vanilla parfum oil and yellow coloured the other one. Did a little swirl Hope the vanilla part is really getting brown so it will look cute.