Soap making?

Who are you going to order supplies from? From Nature With Love has some good stuff and so does BrambleBerry. Brambleberry consistently gets high reviews for its Fragrance Oils. I also like Snowdrift Farm. She is really nice and has great stuff. Her husband is a perfumer/chemist. There are some other good places out there. www.certified-lye.com is another good place to get your lye. She is also very nice - spent some time with her at the last convention I went to. She also runs Pallas-Athene Soaps - a vegan soap company with ethical charities.

By the way, FNWL has really good M&P bases. I get mine from them.
 
Hi Nancy,

Brambleberry's kit is out of stock until the 30th. It sounds like it's the best beginner kit. What do you think? :confused3

I picked up a small melt and pour kit tonight at Hobby Lobby. I'll play with it this weekend, in between making jewelry for a craft fair on the 24th.

Thanks!

Susan :surfweb:
 
That's a pretty decent kit. I don't use my jojoba as a primary oil, but I have it in my stock. I have all of the rest of them and several more. I think I have about 15 or more different oils and butters. The primaries are Coconut, Palm, Olive, High Oleic Safflower or Soybean, Almond, and Avocado or any of the nut oils. Almond, Avocado, Macadamia nut, and the like are nice additive emollients and are usually added to the mix with your essential oils and additives - right before you dump it into the mold. I do like to throw castor into the mix occasionally. I have a lavender bar that has it in it. I also use it for shampoo bars.

Get yourself a decent scale (kitchen types are really good - up to 11 pounds will start you off right. Also you need to get pipets for your fragrances. I get the bag of 100. A set of silicone spatulas and hi temp spoons are good, too. I also get a couple 2 quart pitchers for making my lye in. That way I can cool it down in our extra fridge while I melt my oils. Since I work in my garage, I also have a portable burner. Remember not to use aluminum pots - they react badly with the lye. I have a couple cheap stainless ones I use.

I would recommend going down to the hardware store, buying a length of 3 inch diameter PVS pipe and then having it cut in 12-inch long sections. You can use sandpaper to smooth out the cuts, but make sure they do the actual cut for you. We cut our own and what a pain! Get the flat end caps and you have instant tube molds that hold up to almost anything and are easy to clean. I use those, some Creekside Soaps wooden slab molds (which have to be lined before use with wax paper) and some custom silicone molds I made myself. I finally got my soaps up on line at Flickr, so you can see the variety I achieve. http://www.flickr.com/photos/28132447@N00/sets/72157607866812254/ You basically don't want to use anything that can't tolerate the high temperatures that you get in peak saponification - and sometimes it's hotter than others!!! When they superheat, they can look like Mt. Vesuvius and bubble over the edge of the mold, so you don't want to fill the PVC ones up to the top - do 3/4 - 5/6 of the way full to allow for growth. If it does overflow onto your clean counter, then make sure to get as much as you can back into the mold. Once the reaction is done, it will shrink back to normal and even a bit lower in volume. If it overflows, the volume will be irreplaceable lower. I had one of those today! My coffee soap went nuts!!! BTW Soap Hutch makes a really cool, easy to clean hi-temp plastic box mold that you can divide into bars if you want to. I want one of those in the future. Wood ones are fine, but they require a lot of prep.

When you shop for lye, use either www.certified-lye.com or a local petroleum products company. I get a big bag and repackage it into safer plastic containers - which should be stored in a locked cabinet. I like the gal who runs Certified Lye, but I buy local, so I don't have to pay for shipping. I can also get the flake style I prefer, as it doesn't roll all over the place if you spill it like the bead version does! Make sure you mark your containers with Mr. Yuck or Poison stickers, just in case!

I'll be done with soap when I run out of the last of my coconut oil. I'm almost out of my citric acid for bath fizzies, too. I think I'll pull out the M&P at that point and play some more with it.

Have fun!
 
Hi Nancy,

Thanks for the information. I'll put in my order at brambleberry at the end of the month, when the kit is available! I really appreciate your advice - it helps to navigate the maze of sites and books.

I made melt and pour soaps this weekend, and had a blast! I'll post pics later. I bought a booklet on melt and pour soap recipies, and tried a few. I even ended up going to Michael's because I was out of soap base! :lmao:

DH kept coming in the kitchen while I was making the soap to see what I was doing and which colours and scents I used in the soaps. We both have chemistry degrees (BS in CHEM for me and BS/MS in Chem Engineering for him), so we were both interested in how the soaps "set" with the various add-ins. He's a bit bummed that I want the soap to cure for at least 2 weeks before using it.

I'll try to get pictures posted tomorrow night. I loved your soap pics - they looked good enough to eat!

Susan
 
Hey Susan, glad to hear things went well!

With M&P - initial temp is the biggest issue for cure time. At least that is what I found. Too hot and you are just screwed! You can melt all the cool little soap bits you made for suspension!

You know, you don't have to wait and have 2 weeks of cure time for M&P. It's already done when it resolidifies. No unresolved saponification issues! Same with Hot Process. Cold Process is another story - I'll have to share my flops sometime. I have one in the garage now - overheated in the mold and a bunch of superfatted oils came floating out on top. Completely neutral in pH too. Sigh...

If you are having this much fun with M&P and you guys are both chemist.... hang on to your hats and glasses kiddies! You guys are just going to love CP and using the different oils. The different combinations of those and the Fragrance Oils (FOs) are going to give you such a wide range of responses with each batch that you will find yourselves overanalyzing the variables! (I was a P-Chem major originally, before I changed colleges for MicroBio and then Nuclear Medicine.)

Oh yeah - make sure you chill the water you use to mix lye - and stick it in the fridge when melting your oils. Mark the pitcher liberally with the words DANGER and POISON and LYE, so there is no mistaking it for water or whatever in the fridge. Also, be careful, but putting your milk additive in the water makes for great darker color in soap (it also can create an authentic replica of Mt. Vesuvius if overheated....). You can also use teas and coffee in place of the water. Alkanet root colors best when added to the lye and is allowed to brew a bit.

Ah - the proof science can be fun - and clean!!!!

visit www.etsy.com for true inspirational ideas of what other soapers are doing in the market today. Be warned - it's overwhelming! I was thinking about marketing my soaps there and it's such a huge community!

I just shot pics today of the 7 varieties I made on Friday for my friend's wedding favors. I'll put those up this week after editing. Gotta find the best beauty shot for each! I have to put up one more batch tomorrow and her stuff will be done! Glad you liked them!
 
Thanks Nancy!

Right now, I'm reading the Natural Soap book by Susan Miller Cavitch. It will take me a little while to get through it. I should be finished by the time the kit from brambleberry gets here in early November! You know us chemists - we review our procedures before we start! (Except me in the kitchen ... but I was trained as a research and analytical chemist!) :lmao:

I wanted the soap to dry as it was quite moist on top about 2-3 hours after unmolding. It's drying now - I'm watching the colour change. It's probably because of the brand I purchased - life of the party.

I'll get pics this weekend. I'll be setting up to take some pics of the other stuff I've made for a craft fair.

I love etsy! It's a great place to surf, although I do have to be careful not to drool over my keyboard. :rolleyes1

I love your chocolate soaps - those are awesome!

Susan
 
Nancy,

One question: one of Rachel's soaps that she made about 3 weeks ago is getting a white, almost powdery, film over it. :scared1:

I can post a pic this weekend, if that will help the diagnosis. Rachel is my 8 year old quasi-niece (daughter of a very good friend). She's planning to make more melt & pour soaps for Christmas presents, so I'd like to have an idea how to prevent this film in the future. :confused3

Thanks! :worship: :worship: :worship:
 
Hey Susan.

Totally understand all of things going on with the soap. Here's the list.

1) Color Change - normal with certain types of water soluable colorings. The liquid ones you get at Michaels are notorious for it. If you noticed when looking at Brambleberry's site - they not which ones bleed. I had that issue with those types 2 years ago when I first did M&P.

2) White residue - ash powder. Very common in CP soaps. Probably due to temp/humidity issues in M&P. You'll see it in the troubleshooting section of the Cavitch book. How to fix - just run them under a little water and rub the top layer. They'll dry clear again. It basically just needs to be washed off. It's harmless.

What to do - keep the temps even. - make sure you really watch the melted base to make sure it isn't too hot. I also try to stick my M&P in the freezer for the first little bit to solidify them more quickly. I tend to do loafs (using a nice pyrex loaf mold that I got at the local grocery store. This helps me get it out of the mold easier when it is set. The cold slightly shrinks the soap and makes it easy to turn out.

Thanks for the comments on my BonBons. As you can tell from the size of the passion flower, they equal about 4 bars of soap. They are very difficult/labor intensive to make, as I have the top design build into the mold. It's very problematic to unmold them correctly. I've been researching it over the last week and I think I've solved it. Now, I just need to back-fill the grooves in my current molds - easy to do with the material I made them with (a commercial food grade silicone) and then use the new method to "drizzle" them. I'll let you know how it works. I was going to try to sell them to make extra money for the holidays, but with so many products to choose from already on etsy, it's somewhat discouraging that people would actually find and buy mine!
 
Hi all,

I'm back after spending lots of time prepping for the craft fair. I didn't take any soap, and that turned out to be a good thing. There was a professional soap maker there. Oddly enough, some people were commenting that the soaps were too professionally made. (They looked just like the soaps in the Canada exhibit store in Epcot.) You just can't please everyone! :lmao:

I'll be ordering soap making stuff later this week. What fun to look over the Brambleberry site and try to winnow down my list of things I want to things I need to make my first batch of cold process soap! :yay:

Nancy, try etsy anyway. One of my craft fair buddies is on etsy and says that you need good pics, good descriptions (with no spelling errors ... lol) and give good service - all of the common sense things. Good luck! She's bugging me to get items posted on etsy too. Sigh! I have to take pics! :rotfl2:

Has anyone besides Nancy and me made any soap (melt and pour or hot/cold process) lately? I'd love to hear your experience and see pics!

It's bedtime. My sinuses hate me, so I'm heading to bed with a hot cup of tea. Night all!

-- Susan

PS: melt and pour soap pics coming soon ... :rolleyes1
 
Hi everyone! So weird to find a soap making page on the Disney forum, but hey... I love to make soap.

If you don't mind, I will give you my thoughts on it. First, don't mess with the melt and pour. It is ok, but to get great results, you have to make it from scratch. I have been doing so since 2000 and we don't use anything else. There are millions of scents, colors etc, but I find we use the basic ones more often than not.

The BEST website about soap making is at millersoap dot com. I would put the link, but it won't let me. She takes you through it step by step and is awesome!!!! She also gives helpful tips, like a stick blender, and links to places to buy supplies. You will LOVE making your own. Just be respectful of the lye and your good to go.

LS
 
LS - you've been doing CP as long as I have!

Do you just do CP or do you do HP, as well? I play with both. Depends on when I need the final product by.

I used Kathy Miller's page in my early days, too. A very nice compilation for the beginner. I haven't been on it in quite some time, so I took a look - she's added some new articles and cool charts. Her Saponification page is pretty cool, too. One of the things they try to drive home (if you want to have certification in soapmaking by the HMSG) is to really understand how to calculate your own saponification and lye values in your recipe. A good chart is invaluable to that.

One of my tools that you might be interested in is Soapmaker software. It tracks my inventory of oils and fragrances and such, as well as my recipes, final product, calculates cost per recipe and per unit made. It's pretty cool for the serious hobbyist that isn't in business (yet). I have thoroughly enjoyed using it and keeping detailed records of my batch with the product or recipe file.

Welcome and keep with us on this thread, I think it will be fun!
 
Just resurrecting this old thead as I am new to cold process soap making. My niece learned from someone that sells and then she turned around and showed us and shared all her wonderful notes. The lady that showed her how shared a bunch of stuff with her, huge box of olive oil, sodium hydroxide and some nice sized bottles of oils, and she has left all that with me. :goodvibes

We made one batch last weekend and split it into two molds, one was Lemongrass Dill and the other was Lavender Oatmeal. Both came out well, I thought, but what do I know about this arleady, and it is now sitting on some racks, curing in my dining room.

I hope that some of you soapmakers are still active here and maybe we can revive the conversation on soapmaking.

:wave2:
 
I'm still here. Just hadn't had a chance to respond. :).

I remember reviving this thread when I first joined the DIS! I was so excited to find other saponifiers, like myself. My hobbies have been derailed for a little bit, because of my other DIS duties, but I'd love to chat with you!
 
So are you making any soap these days or did you have a stockpile to last you a while. I am finding that there are so many things I want to try with soapmaking that I will probably be overrun with soap at my house.

So far only two batches, but there are only two of us in our house, so it won't get used that quickly. I know I will gift some away, but I don't know what I am going to do with the rest of it.

I am also getting ready to try some hard lotion bars, and I am very excited about that. I plan to pour it into muffin tins, but then I need to find some containers to store it in. Any suggestions for a good supplier?
 
My first batch is done and is now curing:

_JWM0104.jpg
 
They look perfect!!!!! What did you use? Looks like maybe a little herbs mixed in?

I just got a call from my local petroleum products place has gotten my 2 55-lb bags of lye that I ordered! Can't wait to pick it up Thursday!
 
I used Lemongrass EO and some dill.

I first thought that the Mickey bar was too big, but I did not realize how much the soap would shrink. If I had known, I would not have cut the other bars in half, they are very small now.

I think I have gotten hooked. The soap ball was made from the scraps of the Mickey cutouts. I ended up with about 3 soap balls for the guest bath.

Wow, 55 lbs of lye, you are going to be one busy soapmaker.
 

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