Teach Soap

Awesome! Now comes the hard part - waiting 6 months to use it!

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

Hestey, sometimes a basic soap is the very best.... mom is lucky. Great job!

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

Your Castile looks very nice, Hestey! I made a Castile a couple of weeks ago, too, and I can't wait to try it (but I guess I'll have to, lol.)

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- Jenny -
My soapy blog:
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Looks great Heather!!!

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Debbie

Ok, here goes..... Here are some photo's of a few batches I've made over the last couple of months - lots of christmas presents in there

An attempt to get a green and yellow swirl.... Not too happy with the result. Colours are a bit muddy, and the green seems to have 'blobbed' - almost looks like curdled milk if you look very closely. This has happened before, but the soap seemed to work perfectly well as soap...



Some yellow and red swirls. Not very happy with the yellow colour I'm using at all. Need something more yellow and less orangey-creamy. Actually, this soap represents a bit of a 'ooops - measure twice, add once' mistake - I somehow mixed up the palm and coconut oil when measuring out. Fortunately I realised my mistake and (as I had already made up the lye solution and other oils) ran the 'new' measurements through a calculation and ended up adding a little sweet almond oil to balance things out. I don't think it gelled, and any zap went after 48 hours (24 hours in mold).



My christmas colection I particularly like the purplish (alkanet in olive oil infusion) lavender on the far right, and the blueywhiteyswirly one in the middle-ish.



Any comments welcome!

Cheers,
Adam

The yellow and red swirls look very nice to me. Your comment on "Colours are a bit muddy, and the green seems to have 'blobbed' . I'm wondering if the color morfed that part and riced a bit. I've had some ricing lately with a fragrance and think that it caused a different look to the soap even though I whipped the rice out of that part of the batch I colored! Like crackle finished glass looks.

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

Here is my gremlin attack batch, I foiled those little buggars! I LOVE how it looks, aside from the few air bubbles in the fleurs, but I expected more from a super heavy trace batter! All in all I love it!!! It was an ITP swirl but my base accelerated VERY quickly and was like ultra thick pudding when I "poured".

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Mella - Ok, that sounds a possibility. The other time it happened was an attempt at using titanium dioxide. Similar pattern, different colours. I know EO wasnt to blame as there weren't any in the mix.

Here's a close up :


Cheers,
Adam

Nice pattern Hestey - do you have a photo of the other side, as it's a little tricky to see the swirls?

Cheers,
Adam

The back has a nice thick layer of ash currently! Once I get it cut, and my planar arrives, I can get a pic of the backs

Your soaps look lovely Adam! I really like your colours!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Very nice! I like your choice of colors too.

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

Been working on a new blend of base oils. Still not there yet, but thought I'd share pictures anyway.


Scent: Lime Mint FO
Colorants: Titanium Dioxide and Chromium Oxide Ultra Green
Swirl: Spoon Swirl

I knew the recipe for this would produce a softer bar, but it came out a bit too soft to unmold in a reasonable amount of time (at least for my level of patience). I had to trim up the edges since there were lots of dents and squished corners. Once out of the mold it did firm up well. Even less than a week old, the soap is very mild and lathers wonderfully. I'm looking forward to how it performs after it hardens up and has a good cure.



Scent: Sandalwood FO + Tangerine EO + Anise EO
Colorants: Titanium Dioxide and Black Oxide and Red Oxide (+ a hint of Chromium Oxide Ultra Green)
Swirl: Hanger Swirl

This recipe was for the version that should produce a harder bar. A little too early for cutting, so I got some drag between colors, but it was harder. Other than the hardness, its qualities don't seem to be as good as the recipe used for Lime Mint. Probably won't use this recipe again unless it cures really well.


I'll be trying one more version of the recipe, hopefully this weekend. Two batches: one regular, and one with some salt added in to see if it helps with the hardness. If that doesn't work I'll probably use it as an excuse to get some sodium lactate and see if that helps.

Very pretty soaps!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Adam, you do have alot of soap! I like your color choices... you will achieve what you want - its just a matter of practice and keeping notes. So far so good.

Hestey - I like them. Reminds me of marble. That is a good look for the fleur -de-lis.

giantolive, excellent colors, good swirls.

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

Good job giantolive! I've seen this swirling method done by a soaper friend. I wish it wasn't so time intensive.

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