Teach Soap

I add up to 5% of castor. Anything higher than that and my soap can be sticky or soft. I superfat at around 7%, whether I use goat's milk or not.

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

Thanks Justkate I've researched alittle about the castor oil since posting the question, I had heard that some women take it to induce pregnancy. when I was looking at castor oil preperties and stuff it said it was dangerous for pregnant women but it didn't say why, so thatts why I got alittle worried that I couldn't use it in my soaps.
Thanks for your advice, one I finally get all my oils I will be able to make my first batch, and hopefully figure out how to post some pics.

You're welcome. You asked in a previous post how to tell if soap is gelling. Here's a picture of a partially gelled batch. See the sort of translucent gel in the middle with the white soap surrounding it? That's gel. When it got to the edges of the mold I stopped insulating and cooled it down. This isn't a goat milk batch. I gel everything but goat milk soap. I'd gel that if I couldn't smell underlying ammonia when I do. Beneath the first picture is a picture of a non-gelled goat milk batch.


Here's a non-gelled goat milk batch. This has a discoloring fo but I expected that.

To post pictures I suggest uploading them to photobucket first. It's free and has some basic editing features. Best of luck!

Love, Love, Love that Goat's Milk mold Kate.

Thanks, Karen! It's a fun mold but not very hardy. One of mine just cracked and I've had it for less than a month. Dang it. I really do like the bars it makes and it's easy to stack in the freezer. I still have another one. I won't buy them again if this last mold goes anytime soon, though.

Thnks again kate, the pic of the soap gelling is really cool, now I understand what is is I'm looking for. That goat's milk looks nice, so gelling GM soap makes it smell like amonia? does that smell go away?
Thanks again

You're welcome. No, the smell never went away for me when gelling. I had read, heard that it would but it didn't. It lightened a lot but never completely disappeared. I thought it had until I tested it. I could smell it when I washed with the soap. Ugh. I'm not sure why. I didn't do anything differently in my soaping technique but gel it so I stopped gelling goat milk soap. I hate wasting oils and throwing out batches. SuperSoaper and others seem to have had good luck with gelling GM but it didn't work for me.

Some of the more heavy duty molds work better--- I have had milkyway molds crack on me too--- I still use them though as it only cracks in the handle parts.

Here are some pics of my goatmilk cp soaps.( hopefully I can do this....) These molds were sprayed with Crisco, put in the freezer then unmolded--- the details are great.

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af1 ... 040037.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af1 ... 040725.jpg

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Hi Knine. My Milky Way goat milk mold doesn't have a handle on it. It cracked in the middle so soap leaks out of it. Or it would if I used it. I noticed it when rinsing it out. I think it might be very similar to your Lavender mold, with different lettering.

Fantastic detail on your soaps! Wow, I love the bee hive! And the iris! And um, well... all of them. They're gorgeous! The way you featured the fleur de lis and other mold with ivy and Christmas decor is grand, too! Great job and great pictures!

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

Thanks soapbuddy! The flur de lies and the Irish Knots are OMH and the other group is fruit and flower FOs

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You may be only one person to the world, but you may also be the world to one person

Those are beauties -- soaps and photos. Thanks for sharing.
Scents

Nice soaps, I dont know whether I'll be bothered with fancy moulds, and if they break!! well they're kinda expensive.

Ooh another silly Question how much does soap shrink, because I've worked out the dimensions of a handmade loaf mould to hold 1.5kg because the total soap weight per batch (oils, lye and liquid) will be about 1.4kg. So how much of this weight will evaporate???

Thanks again everyone for all your advice and lovely pics too!

My freshly cut bars are 5 ozs. They shrink to about 4.5 ozs. after 4 weeks.

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