Teach Soap

I have just started in the soap making business, and I have found difficulty in acquiring SoapFlakes and Soapmaking grade Caustic Soda in Durban. Is anyone able to steer me in the right direction.? I am currently getting most of my supplies from Gauteng, but the posting turnaround time is 1 week, which tend to affect one's production quite badly.

Welcome!
If you are using lye, why do you need soap flakes? How long have you been making soap?

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

Hi, as i stated,I have just started in this business. I was looking for soap flakes because I did not have lye to hand, thinking I could use the flakes whilst waiting for the caustic soda to arrive from JHB

I see. I don't know your area, but I'm sure there are vendors in the US that might be able to help you. If you find soap flakes, that's soap that's already saponified, so you don't need lye. If you are wanting to make lye based soap, you will need oils or butters like olive, palm, lard, tallow and castor, or butters like shea butter. Take a look at Kathy Miller soap> http://www.millersoap.com/

You will also find lots of info on this forum. Just use the search function.

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

i attempted to make some liquid Castille soap yesterday, intending to use it as a base for making shampoo, as per the recipe i obtained from the net. the liquid soap looked fine after i had blended it via a stick blender.i had made about 450 grams of soap.
The shampoo called for 4 oz soap, 4 oz distilled water and 10 drops essential oils, all ingredients to be decanted in a bottle and shaken up to blend. this i dis in 2 500ml bottles, but because the resultant mixture was too thickto qualify as shampoo, i added an additional 250 ml water to each bottle. i also added 5 drops each of Jojobo oil, Tea Tree oil and Sandalwood oil in the one bottle, to make an anti dandruff shampoo for dry hair. the other bottle contained no oils.

this morning soap with the oils had hardened in the bottle, and i had to microwave it to melt the contents. The other bottle had not hardened to the same extent as the 1st. i combined the contents of both bottles in a bowl, added 10 drops Sandalwwod to the mixture and after blending it for about 20min, i poured it into moulds. i am hoping i can at least salvage it by making Sandalwood soap.

please advise why the lquid Castille soap did not turn out as it should have done, as i really want to be successful in making my own shampoos.

Some essential oils thicken liquid castille soap. That's most likely why your soap hardened overnight.

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