Teach Soap

Made some new dividers out of polypropylene, so my 21-bar mould is back together again. I'll make a batch tomorrow, I think I will put stearic acid in it to harden it up, and throw in some cetyl alcohol as an emollient.

Don't add too much stearic as that can accelerate the soap batch or make the soap seize. Why not use plain table salt for a harder bar?

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

Doesn't salt reduce the lather?

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

What is a 'small amount'?
I bought some soap ages ago before I began to make my own, it was HP, and the mom n pop said "It has this wonderful Himalayan salt" etc etc.
It was terrible, no lather to speak of.

I cannot obtain castor, or palm, either, which was why I thought adding the stearic might be a good idea. I put in 2.75% and added the same amount of cetyl alcohol. The soap traced immediately. Fragrance was BB's ginger lime. It went into a thick plastic. No sign of ricing or anything like that, just very thick, very fast. It's in the mould now so I'll wait and see.

A small amount of salt is 1%
Your soap traced immediately because of the stearic. I find cetyl alcohol doesn't add anything to my formula. You could also add 1% of sugar dissolved in water to help with the bubblage factor.

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

Thanks. I'll experiment. Good info as usual!

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

I use table salt in my soaps. On two batches that I forgot to add it I was able to notice a difference. I will do up to 1 tsp PPO.
Would love to see a photo of your soaps as well.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I still don't see how to reference an image. Can someone help?

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

Well, I have a web site with the pictures, so I don't need Photo Bucket, but I don't see how. . . it says "choose file" ?????? File? File is not URL. Help!

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

D'oh. Now I feel really dumb

I'll ftp some on to the site so I can post.

is a soap I made with BB's Litsea Cubeba FF. The colour in the photo is a little off.

Nice looking swirls and your display is pleasant. So are the colors in the photo brighter than in real life or lighter? When I was a little girl pink and green together were my favorite. Now I have grown up to pink and orange.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!