Teach Soap

Hey all, I've been away from the board, and from soaping for several years. This past week I've been cleaning off my soaping shelves, tossing old oil, etc and getting everything ready to do some soaping again. I've been reviewing all sorts of online tutorials and it just amazes me to see all the new tools, molds and decorative methods! I want to try peacock swirling, CPOP and so much more! There were very few silicon molds available when I was soaping, so I'm just going crazy buying new equipment. Those thermometers! Wow!

So...I want to hear what's new, what everyone is in love with and kinda get caught up.

It looks like most of my EOs are still good, I bought a bunch of patchouli before the price spiked and have some of the basics. I'm a little worried about my FOs, some smell pretty faint. And my lye...its a big, solid clump. LOL! I ordered new.

So, anything that's come up in the past 5 years you want to share?

Thanks!

Belinda

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Logansama aka Belinda
Nor Cal

Hey Belinda! Nice to "see" you.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Well, I've been soaping only a few years, but I, too, love the silicone molds, and the slab molds with dividers (I have two from Bramble Berry that are my main "production" molds). The round molds are also cool: BB has a silicone round mold and lined round molds that are great for the round bars. I cannot cut a straight bar, so dividers and a cutter are life savers for me. Also, if you want to label things nicely, Online Labels has soap labels! Yes, cigar band style labels for soap! Man has that saved me a lot of cutting and gluing.

I make my soaps for an audience that prefers things to be "natural," so I'm having fun with all the botanicals, clays, activated charcoal, essential oils, and so on out there. I can't imagine doing all this 20+ years ago, when I was a sysadmin and teaching people how to use this new thing called "the World Wide Web." Now, it's so easy to Google and find vendors. Oh, and back then, my black and white laser printer cost $800. Of course, it was built like a tank, unlike today's plastic junk... Anyway, so much for memory lane.

I love the videos and other information that's out there for ideas--it seems like there are dozens of creative people coming up with cool stuff and sharing it with everyone! The videos may be the best tool ever!

So welcome back to the sudsy side!

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

Thanks, guys!
Now about those slab molds with dividers...silly question here...do the dividers go in after you pour? I'm wondering what effect it'll have on a swirl pattern.
I'm a writer and what I'm planning to do is to do a theme soap for each book and take those to signings and conventions. Just a nice little handout. Maybe stamp it or use those great labels to put my url on.

Now I need to get all my old soap and donate it somewhere. BTW, I'm finding a few soaps that the scent really held on. McKintosh Apple (BB) is still fragrant, and there's a lilac I got from Oregon Trail Soaps that literally smells fresh! I'm impressed.

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Logansama aka Belinda
Nor Cal

Sounds great!

The dividers go in after you dow what you're going to do. There are tons of examples on SoapQueen where she makes a pattern then puts them in. But, of course, you could skip the dividers and cut the soaps by hand, too.

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

Hey Belinda! If you go to my blog (link below) there are some videos where I use a slab mold with dividers! The 9 bar mold is my favorite of all of my molds, and there are many! I would also recommend the vertical wood mold from BB; it can be a pain to un-mold, but you can make some gorgeous soaps with it! Like one that Anne-Marie made!

If you have any colourant questions, feel free to ask. I may or may not have ~300 of them. Maybe.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Thanks, you guys! I"m now off to watch more videos and read blogs.

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Logansama aka Belinda
Nor Cal

Heather, I haven't noticed your blog link until you mentioned it in this post. I took a look, it's awesome! One of these days I'm going to read some more when I have some time. Did you ever figure out what the flecks were in your 'Highland Rainstorm' soap? I'm wondering because I had the same thing happen a couple months ago and I eventually determined that it could be a mica that I added that may have clumped instead of dispersing in the soap. Did you put any mica into that batch? I haven't had it happen since then, so I'm still not sure if that was it. The flecks were not lye - I tested with litmus paper, the soap was ok to use but just not what I wanted it to look like.

Yeah, they're my precious beeswax! Another soaper messaged me and told me that Kentish Rain made her beeswax precipitate out of her soap as well. Hers looked exactly the same. She tried it again with processed beeswax (the pastille type) and it worked just fine. We figure it must be something in our "straight from the apiary" beeswax that causes the issue. But I honestly have no idea!

My hubby, Dad and brothers will still use it, I'm sure

Glad you like the blog! I have a lot of fun with it, and get some pretty good feedback!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Glad you figured out what it was! That is odd about the beeswax reaction with that particular fragrance. Sometimes I wish they would list the ingredients of the fragrances just so I know what's in them.