Teach Soap

Hallo there, all you soapmakers - this is my first visit after registering - I have begun soapmaking with more enthusiasm than knowledge, and with varying results, haha! I've already learned lots of useful things by reading others' questions and responses - I think this is a great site!
While I've been futzing around, looking for answers, I've concluded that you cannot improve a drying base with cocoa butter or shea butter, and to use those 2 in any quantity, I would have to embark on 'proper' soap making, as opposed to MP....is that correct?
(I ordered 1kg of each to use with 5kg base.)
Also, is there a simple way to choose a good base without checking out the ingredients? I wouldn't know what they were if I did, ....I'm in England, if there is a recommendation.
Got a whole lot of questions, hope you don't mind!
So is lye actually caustic soda? I've never seen 'lye' in any shops. Is 'oatmeal' simply porridge oats? (I ground up whole oats to try, & ended up with soap with a rough sawdust crust on one side....)incidentally, the dry additions I've tried, like lavender flowers, set on the top as opposed to sinking to the bottom, or being where they should be! What should I do about that please?
I put a goodly dollop of Badedas in one batch, which smelled heavenly, but set too soft, so I did it again with more base, & it's much better. Bit of an odd colour though.....
I'm going to try adding glycerine next, and maybe washing soda.
Um - I've also ordered a couple of books, which I probably should have done first...
Cheers everyone!

Welcome!
For MP, you can use up to 1 tbs. of extra butter or oil. Anything beyond that and you will loose lather. It is different for cold process. Yes lye is caustic soda. It is used for soaps made completely from scratch (not MP). BrambleBerry has good bases, so I would start there. Lavender flowers over time will turn brown and look like little poops. I wouldn't use them as decoration.

Please don't go by "dollops". Get yourself a scale and weigh it. You will get much better results that way. Your soap set up too soft because you most likely used too much fragrance.

I would not add any extra glycerin as that could make your MP soap sticky. Washing soda is not a good idea either. As far as oatmeal, I don't know what you have where you are and I'm not familiar with the term that you used.

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

That's quite an alias! There has to be a story behind that one....... Welcome

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Jackie


Beautifully Handcrafted Soap

Welcome - scarypants name though!

In the UK, the best suppliers are The Soap Kitchen or Gracefruit (Google them). You need to have proper cosmetic colourants and fragrances and they needed to be added at a certain percentage, otherwise you'll have highly coloured bubbles or an rankly overpowering soap.

Measure, measure, measure. Get a digital scales and know how much each of your moulds holds. In the EU, there are very specific laws about the sales of any cosmetics, including soaps and, if you intend selling at any time, you need to make yourself aware of these.

I wouldn't add botanicals such as lavender flowers, they may look nice at the begining but they will look like darkened bits of mouse droppings very shortly!

Not entirely sure Badedas is designed to add to soaps to be honest! Check out the Fragrance Oil (FO) and Essential Oil (EO) section of both suppliers. They would be comparable to Brambleberry in my opinion. Most of the ladies on here are from America so some terms won't be understood always (oatmeal is porridge oats).

You can add oils or butters but in a very small amount - nothing more than about 3% of your total soap weight. I always add oils or butters to my soaps, but you have to get the balance right or you'll get very low latering which isn't what you would like - experiment to get the balance right.

Glycerine will only make your soap softer - as M&P is a glycerine based soap, I'm not sure about the point of adding extra glycerine - also your soaps could be prone to sweating or being sticky if too much is added. Washing soda I personally wouldn't do, I can only imagine it'd dry your skin out horribly.

Have a look at some videos on Google or You Tube about how to make proper M&P soaps - you'll learn a lot. The owner of this site, Anne-Marie, runs The Soap Queen blog (Google it) and it's full of fab info and weekly how-to videos.

Best of luck but remember, you will need to invest in some basics to make good soaps - don't understimate the need to weigh, measure, and have the right ingredients for the job.

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Thankyou everyone! I am no longer alone!
Well, lots of advice, thankyou again.
"dogfrightener" I earned on an animal communication course, where everyone wore trousers all the time. I "dressed for dinner" one night in a long kaftan, & the only dog in attendance took fright, hid under the table & barked at me....someone called me that, & it just tickled me. Before I met my husband, he'd heard me referred to as "the dog lady of Reigate", so it's OK, really!
I didn't mean to alarm y'all with dollops, & soda etc - I am using scales, so that I mix the correct amount for the moulds, it's just that experimenting is irresistible, the only time I enjoy being in the kitchen!
Mostly the stuff I've tried was to overcome my original mistakes which resulted in waxy, hard soap with no lather - too much cocoa butter?
Last night I tried a one-bar mix of base, glycerine, cider vinegar & oatmeal.....Yup, it's very soft....lovely lather, but the oatmeal all sunk to the bottom. So, not a huge success, but, having weighed everything & noted it, I have a starting point, yes?
I wasn't intending to sell my soap, promise I won't bring the art into disrepute!
Thankyou again for the welcome!

Try using quick cook porridge oats, it works in cold process, not sure about melt & pour.

The scales question is because most people in North America measure recipes in cups. I'm an expat who's lived in Canada for the last 10 years and using cups to measure with still makes me squirm!!

I'm not sure what books are available to you but you might want to look for The Soapmaker's Companion by Susan Millar Cavitch. Although I've taken a peek at WH Smith online and it's not there, but there's plenty of others on both M & P and cold process. A decent book will give you a start on recipe formulation.

Still, you've made the smart move by signing up here, keep reading and keep us informed of your progress!!

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Jackie


Beautifully Handcrafted Soap

Thanks Jackie! I've been quiet 'cos I've been reading the 1st soap making book that I bought, and this time I started at the front....I understand the difference between the 3 processes now.
I do have another question though - I've been trying to find an MP base in the UK, one that is comparable to the lovely sounding Brambleberry ones, but so far, I can't find one that isn't just chemicals. I've tried Claranyl (Clarynol?) & found it drying, looked at Gracefruits' too, but theirs seems not to have much in the way of goodies in it.
So, what I wondered is, can you make a batch of CP with olive oil or whatever, let it cure, and then use it like M & P? Or is that what re-batching is? It didn't sound quite the same....when I've searched for info. on how to carry out other things I wanted to try, I've found that the info. is not to be had, then it dawned on me that it's because whatever it is isn't done!
Cheers everyone!
Caroline

CP will never be as fluid again as MP. You can rebatch CP, but it will be more gloppable then fluid.
CP can be made into handmade MP, but you can only remelt it once before it starts to get gummy. This is an advanced project that requires pure alcohol and sugar.

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

Thankyou Soapbuddy.....it's good to know the reason 'why not'.....it's helped me to decide between trying to make my own, or continuing the search for a better base...actually, I found something promising on ebay, which was a surprise, having haunted all the recognised online suppliers!

You're welcome.

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