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Author Topic: Soap Making  (Read 7849 times)

Offline rdy-b

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #60 on: August 06, 2008, 03:30:29 am »
 utabeekeeper Nice web sites-gota love that precived value 8-) hapykeeping  :) RDY-B

Offline SgtMaj

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #61 on: August 06, 2008, 05:08:00 am »
Wow Utah, your soap came out looking a heck of a lot better than mine did.  mine kinda looks lumpy... I think because I waited too long to pour it into the mold... it was literally hard to stir by that point.  Although it could also be the oils I used... Did you just use food coloring to color them the different colors, or was that just a byproduct of the ingredients used to make it?

Offline utahbeekeeper

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #62 on: August 06, 2008, 11:00:45 am »
Sgt    my wife is the "Soap Dish"    get it         and she uses oil based color for soaps, cosmetic grade color for lip balms . . . some are powder and some are pasty in a tube.  One soap we make is absent color or fragrance. . . . gets its oatmeal cookie aroma and brown color from goats milk, ground oatmeal and honey.
Pleasant words are like an honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones.  Prov 16:24

Offline Cindi

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #63 on: August 06, 2008, 11:08:33 am »
Oh, I am reading all this stuff about making soap and reading all these posts pertaining to it....that is my wish that one day I will make that time to take that time.  I love homemade soaps, especially with oatmeal!!!  Beautiful and most wonderful days, Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline SgtMaj

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #64 on: August 06, 2008, 05:23:23 pm »
Is oil based color... oil based paint?

Offline eri

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #65 on: August 06, 2008, 07:50:30 pm »
Yes, nice site utahbeek. It's downright inspirational! This thread has also piqued my interest to the point of looking at several soapmaking web sites, different processes and ingredients, and yes, I've released my ignorant prejudice against lye. As a kid, I watched with awe my next door neighbor Mrs. Edwards wash the bedcovers in a big black cast iron cauldron of lye soap heated to a boil by a blazing wood fire and a log stirrer. As an adult I somehow got the idea that lye was bad, but now I believe not.

Ummmm, oatmeal and honey soap!
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Offline utahbeekeeper

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #66 on: August 06, 2008, 11:50:49 pm »
Sgt   here is one of our favorite color sites . . . TKB Trading  You will see links on this page for several kinds of colorant used in various applications.

JGP
Pleasant words are like an honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones.  Prov 16:24

Offline rdy-b

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #67 on: August 07, 2008, 03:29:07 am »
One thing i would like to know -when using beeswax dose it give the soap blum like the candles -RDY-B

Offline johnnybigfish

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #68 on: August 08, 2008, 09:09:04 pm »
 yeh, Cindi, I've been reading these posts for awhile too and soapmaking is a lot more popular than i ever imagined!. I just mentioned to my wife about the percentage of replys to viewings in this thread.
 I went to michaels last weekend to see about soap molds...before i got out I had molds, smells, colors(oops...forgot the colors) AND A BIG CHUNK OF CLEAR STUFF TO PUT IN THE MICROWAVE TO MAKE SOAP.( as you can see, I look at the keyboard to type). I know its not the real thing but i couldnt help my self. I need to make it now! :) I told my wife that I bet if I make my own soap i would take more baths! :-D

your friend,
john

Offline derrick1p1

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #69 on: August 12, 2008, 04:20:09 pm »
Yes, thanks to this thread, I have read the 'Everything Soapmaking book', have bought most of my materials, and plan to make my first batch this weekend.  It is much more popular than I thought.  Thanks for starting this thread! 

My first batch I plan on being adventurous and making a honey/bees wax soap.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Derrick
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Offline SgtMaj

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #70 on: August 28, 2008, 03:29:48 am »
Well, I'm back from vacation, and I just tried out my home-made soap in the shower yesterday, and was great.  The odd smell is gone from it, or at least very nearly gone, to the point that I can't smell it anyway... but now it has no odor.  It gave a decent lather, too.  I was a little worried it wouldn't last long, as it's still soft enough to be easily cut into bars... but it seems to be holding up quite well in that regard too.  At least as well as any store-bought soap would anyway.

Offline greenismycolor

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #71 on: August 29, 2008, 02:36:52 am »
Bravo SgtMaj

Very glad to hear your soap turned our well. Now you can always be squeaky clean. :-D Will you try another batch?

green
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Offline SgtMaj

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #72 on: August 29, 2008, 07:41:11 am »
Very glad to hear your soap turned our well. Now you can always be squeaky clean. :-D Will you try another batch?

Most definately... I'm hooked already.  If this soap that was made from used fryer oil, and the whole process and proportions screwed up so bad, could turn out this good; I can't WAIT to see what I can do with good ingredients and the right processes and proportions.

Offline derrick1p1

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #73 on: September 08, 2008, 06:15:54 pm »
I finally made my first batch.  I used olive, castor and coconut oils.  It stuck to the homemade mold, so it isn't pretty soap, but finding a better molding process and larger mold (mine only holds 1lb) is my next challenge.  I will order fragrance oil for my next soap.  Probably almond.  Then lemon verbena.

My first batch, I added the lye solution to the oil solution when each was about 120 degrees.  I stirred.  Then stirred.  And stirred.  And stirred.  Then took a break.  Then stirred some more.  It didn't trace and was like a very thin pancake batter.  I poured it into the mold anyhow and waited a day, thinking the oils/lye would seperate, but they didn't.  No scent or color (just white).  I'll know in a few weeks how it feels.

Thanks for all info./sharing about soap!

Derrick
I won't let grass grow under my feet, there will be plenty of time to push up daisies.

Offline jsmob

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #74 on: December 12, 2008, 11:55:04 pm »
Quote
I'll know in a few weeks how it feels

 So how did it turn out?

Offline derrick1p1

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #75 on: December 30, 2008, 11:56:55 am »
My first batch turned out perfect.  Hard and uniform.  I made a second batch using the same recipe, but added a small amount of fragrance oil.  This batch is usuble and lathers well, smells great, but is somewhat of a soft chalky texture.  It crumbles too easily when trying to cut.  Any ideas what may have gone wrong.  The whole process looked and went just as the first did until I started to cut it.

Thanks,
Derrick
I won't let grass grow under my feet, there will be plenty of time to push up daisies.

Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #76 on: December 30, 2008, 06:59:31 pm »
The fragrance oil increased to moisture content of the mix.  When adding any mount of moisture increasing component the amounts of the dry ingredients have to be increased slightly or the other wet ingredients decreased slightly to offset the higher moisture content.  It's kind of like intending to make cake batter and ending up with pancake batter.
I would wager that even just a 1/2 tsp increase of dry ingredients would have made the finished product firmer.
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Offline sarafina

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #77 on: September 21, 2009, 06:19:13 pm »
Thanks for the recipe, marlena!

My first soap-making a couple of years ago was with goat's milk and turned out great, but I did a lot of research before I made it.  Froze the milk, then thawed it out to a "slush" and mixed the lye with the milk in a metal bowl set inside a larger bowl of ice to keep from caramelizing the sugar in the goat's milk.

I would love to try some with my own honey in it - do you add any other fragrance oils?  If so, what complements the honey smell?  What property does the beeswax add to the soap?  I use SoapCalc to calculate the amount of lye and it has worked great on every batch so far.

I had to get my lye from a chemical supplier through the mail - sad you can't just go buy lye at the hardware or grocery store.

I haven't bought "detergent bars" in several years and we are spoiled rotten with my homemade soap.  I even take it with us on vacation!

Offline luvin honey

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #78 on: December 22, 2009, 12:53:31 am »
lye is great in soap.  It really cuts through grease and oil. 
I've been doing reading on soap, so forgive me if I sound like a walking dictionary :D. Although cold process soaps are made with lye, they won't have any lye "left over" since all of it will have combined with the oils in a process called saponification. If any lye were left over, it would burn your skin and be really not desirable at all.
The pedigree of honey
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A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy.
---Emily Dickinson

Offline luvin honey

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Re: Soap Making
« Reply #79 on: December 22, 2009, 12:55:45 am »
I always thought that people here were using beeswax to make soap from.

your friend,
john
Hey John--beeswax can be a small percentage of the oil/fat/wax used but not too much. I think the soap gets too hard otherwise and doesn't lather well.
The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy.
---Emily Dickinson