Teach Soap

I am going to be making white glycerine M & P soap with the Beeswax & Honey FO and I was thinking of lining my loaf pan with bubblewrap to give it a honeycomb appearance. Does anyone know if this will adhere to the soap or will it be easy to peel off?
I've seen a post somewhere out in the web about making your own silicon mould using bubblewrap but unfortunately I don't have any of the silicon stuff.
Has anyone tried this before and was it successful? Was thinking of pressing a sheet of bubblewrap on the top as well so that all slices have the texture all the way round and then cutting with the wavy slicer.
Also can someone give me an idea as to how much FO I should put in my loaf? They hold about 1100gm soap base each (approx 2.43 lb I think). I must admit I've been rather random with my measurements and haven't written them down... I have learnt from my mistake and will write down EVERYTHING as I go from now on!
Thank you in advance!!

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Soaper from Melbourne Australia
Founding member of Melt & Pour Soap Crafters ... find us on Facebook - we'd love to see you!

I've only done it with CP. I used 0.7 of Honey FO PPO.

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

FO: I always use the formula of mild scenting is 1-3 ml/4oz. Strong scent is 7ml/4oz. (Someone posted that here in the forum a while back, don't remember who.) So you would need to figure out how many ounces are in the loaf mold. Another tip for figuring that is to set your scale with mold on it to zero, fill mold with water, and put it back on the scale. This will give you an idea of how many ounces in a loaf mold or any other mold. (I have 2 lb. 11.6 oz in my records for my silicone loaf mold)


Please post the results of the bubblewrap if you can, I'm very curious to see how it turns out.

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My Soap Box, LLC
Dawn Dering

I go by about 3% of total weight. If that's too strong, or light, for a particular FO I adjust the next batch

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Hi, PurpleMolly!

I have used bubble wrap before in my mold. I think it turned out well:


These bars are a goat's milk base that I added honey and ground oatmeal to. Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey F.O.

I used a regular four-cavity bar mold, not a loaf mold, but I think you could do the same with a loaf mold. I just lined one side, the inside of the mold with the textured side up. To "glue" the bubble wrap to the mold, I just put a tiny bit of soap base into the mold and swished it around to just cover most of the bottom before pressing the bubble wrap into the mold. I let that dry a few minutes, then I poured the base over it (make sure your base isn't too hot) and took a toothpick or craft stick (or a spoon or something like that for a bigger mold) to push along the bottom and sides to work any air bubbles to the surface. Spritz with rubbing alcohol to burst surface bubbles, and you're done!

It's fairly easy to pull the bubble wrap away. I find it's easier if you leave a bit of overhang off the sides of the mold so you have something to grab a hold of when it comes time to unmold.

For F.O. usage rates, .25 oz. per pound is a good rule of thumb. Fragrance is a personal thing; some use more, some use less. Personally, in general, I use about 2 tsp of F.O. per pound (16 oz.) of base.

Hope that helps! Have fun!

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- Jenny -
My soapy blog:
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I also use 3% as a general rule - I find it works really well.

Love those honeycomb soaps - I was going to try this myself this weekend but chickened out! Does it peel off the soap ok or do you have to pick little bits of plastic out of the holes ever?

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Hum just wondering if that 3% is for CP or M&P, it wouldn't be the same would it:?:

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

I only do M&P so not sure re CP I'm afraid.

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Hi, Honey!

The bubble wrap peels away okay for me. I learned the hard way that having an overhang where some of the bubble wrap sticks up out of the mold helps tremendously for unmolding and pulling the wrap away from the soap. Sometimes soap seeps under the edges of the wrap, but I just pull those scraps away and re-melt them later! I look really carefully at each bar after pulling the wrap away, and, so far, no plastic left behind!

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- Jenny -
My soapy blog:
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Cool thanks, I have some Honey based FO that I want to try out and I think this'd be a great look for it!

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Soaper from Melbourne Australia
Founding member of Melt & Pour Soap Crafters ... find us on Facebook - we'd love to see you!

Thanks for the compliments!

I found this bubble wrap M&P soap recipe in the Wholesale Supplies Plus blog yesterday: http://blog.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/2 ... -soap.html
It looks cool, too.

Let us know how it turns out!

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- Jenny -
My soapy blog:
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Now that looks like a fun experiment. I just love the color and it matches so well with the fragrance it would seem. How would it feel in the shower, or in the spa?

I hope it works well and you will let us know! I'm getting some supplies next week, maybe I'll do a single mold and see what happens.

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

I have only used bubble wrap on CP too, but I love the look in the MP guys, great links thanks!

Purple I use 3% FO in CP but much less in MP usually 1 1/2 to 2%. If it's a strong FO you'll need less if it's really subtle you'll need more. Why not make a single bar with it first measuring it out in drops and then you'll know how much per bar and then multiply it out for the loaf mold.

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Goldenearthgirl

I DID IT!!!

Thanks so much for all of the ideas and assistance! I poured a little white soap into the base and at the ends of the pan to bed in the bubblewrap and (kind of) seal the ends slightly.
Poured in the soap then laid the bubblewrap over the top. Thanks to jrose729 I left overhang on both sides of the pan. I would have struggled so much getting it out otherwise!! I pressed the top bubblewrap in quite firmly and banged the pan down on the bench (thinking if there were any air bubbles it would force them to the top!). I am pretty pleased with how it turned out!!
Next time will colour a bit more deeply. Added Vanilla Color Stabiliser (I have no idea why I did because the Beeswax & Honey FO would have given it the perfect color!!)
Looks like a "Creamed Honey" and smells delicious!

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Soaper from Melbourne Australia
Founding member of Melt & Pour Soap Crafters ... find us on Facebook - we'd love to see you!