Teach Soap

So... after years and years of commercial liquid soap training, it seems that I had fallen off the know-how band wagon when it came to lathering with a soap bar... until I stumbled across this on youtube. Just look at all those bubbles she created! And without a drop of castor oil, to boot.

So I quickly rushed off to try her "technique" with my own soaps... looking at my line up, I decided to test out my chocolate with shortening bar first, you know... just to see... Bubbles! Lots of big big bubbles!



So then, I tried two of my other soap bars that people always claim to have only slight bubblage to them (yes, I made up a word ^_~) and oh my goodness was I surprised! Would you have believed these were castile soap bubbles? I wouldn't have, anyway...


Ingredients: olive oil, water, lye


Ingredients: olive oil, coconut milk, water, lye

So last night is the night that I truly learned how to create all those mystical magical bubbles everyone else has been able to post ^_^ (sorry, I'm just excited!)

_________________
Tamra
New to soaping, long time crafter and artisan, avid learner of new things!

Looks good! Do you have soft or hard water?

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

We have hard water here on base. So I find the handmade soap being so much kinder to my skin. Last winter was horrible! The first time my hands had ever cracked so bad they bleed So I'm hoping now with these soaps I won't have that problem this coming winter!

_________________
Tamra
New to soaping, long time crafter and artisan, avid learner of new things!

Since you have hard water which normally makes the soap bubble less, imagine all the bubbles you would get with soft water.

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

This may come as a shock to the video soapmaker's friend Louise but it is indeed possible to make soap that bubbles very nicely without castor oil. I did it for years. I happen to like what castor oil contributes to my soap, which is why I use it.

So Tamra, are you for or against castor oil?

I have to say that video made me laugh. Evidently Louise has been riding her pretty hard about not using castor oil.

Anita

Hehe Your comments made me giggle, panzerakc!
As for the castor vs. no castor... there is no yes or no, as long as there is a good soap in my hands! I'm happy! I was just mostly excited about learning how to truly use a bar soap again, sad as that may sound

_________________
Tamra
New to soaping, long time crafter and artisan, avid learner of new things!

I'm surprised about the "bubblage"! I've always used castor oil...use it at 5%, so I may try a batch without it. Thanks for sharing!

I use castor @ 5% in my lard soaps, but not in my olive & coconut oil soaps. I find that I don't need it for lather or conditioning in those.

_________________
Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

I've also heard that a tiny bit of grapeseed oil can help boost bubbles, too (at like a 1-2% usage rate). Has anybody else heard of this or even tried it?

_________________
Tamra
New to soaping, long time crafter and artisan, avid learner of new things!

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

Yeah, I've heard of adding sugar or salt to the lye water to get either a (respectively) bubblier or harder bar but I'd like to try and get some good high olive oil content bars without those added ingredients if I can at all help it ^_^ I'll probably do a test batch with the grapeseed oil one of these days to see if it actually does work

_________________
Tamra
New to soaping, long time crafter and artisan, avid learner of new things!

_________________
Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

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