Soap Swap: Anything Goes - Fail No. 2

Oh dear, where do I start... The colours after gelling are a little better but the soap is SOFT. I am going to have to leave it in the mould a bit longer. Made on Wednesday, unmould attempt No. 1 on the following Sunday, unmould attempt No. 2 on the following Wednesday, unmould attempt No. 3 coming up the following Sunday. The top is hard but the sides... Still quite mushy. I'll be bringing this one home to put in the freezer and see how I go...

Oils:  olive oil, macadamia oil and coconut oil (ran out at this stage). I ran what I had left through the soap calc and it seemed to work... Ummmmm...
Fragrance: Nature's Blush - it accelerated, not madly but pouring an ITP swirl became difficult in the end and I think it began to rice as well. It looked fine but started to get thick and looked not as it should...
Colour: TD and blue oxide. I was going for an ITP swirl... I'll try again on another recipe and in a loaf mould rather than cubes.

Soapy hugs
Kayla

No More Sneaky Soaping

So, most of my soaping stuff has moved to the other house. In between cleaning up and stripping walls of 50 year old undercoat, I am now allowed to soap.

No more hiding that I have been making soap from the other half. He is currently chunking through the first batch of soap I made, scented with Love Spell and since then I have bought him his own scent and about to make up something just for him, with something purple... I am thinking a purple ITP. I need any excuse to start working on my techniques.

So yay for being allowed to soap, but still have a while until we move. I am moving in more bags every time we go over and hopefully will have everything moved over soon enough that I can tell the estate agent where they can shove themselves for all the years of NOT repairing this place and have a home that is all my own, with my soaping shed and hopefully see the beginnings of getting away from working in a job that I loathe and into making soapy goodness.

Soapy hugs
Kayla

Soap Haul: Week of 15 June 2014

Nothing spectacular this week other than 5L of coconut oil, some colurants, glycerine, bees wax and a desperately needed cheese cutter since other cutting methods were leaving me with 'door step' soap bars that are just horrid! Next pay day will be more macadamia oil as I am now starting to run through that quickly too. On another note, when the EVOO is finished, I will be getting light EVOO as I am not liking the darker oil colour and really don't want to be using TD. 

Soapy hugs

Kayla 

 

Soap Swap: Natural

Scent: Hairloom Goddess blend (ylang, ylang, white grapefruit, sweet orange & patchouli)

Oils: EVOO, coconut and macadamia

Colour: uncoloured batter, Australian pink clay and red mica swirl

Whilst not perfect, it is made with love and good intentions. I bought a cheese cutter during the week as trying to cut a loaf of soap with a knife or the mitre box method was just not working. Today I produced 10 nearly uniform little bars of soap the are now happily curing in the kitchen of my new old home. 

Stay tuned for the next installment which will be the results of the 'anything goes' soap swap loaf...

Soapy hugs

Kayla

Soap Swap: Anything Goes - Fail No. 1

Scent: Pink Jasmine FO
Oils: EVOO, macadamia & coconut
Colour: black oxide
Embeds: clear M & P with opal white glitter

Well, the soaping gremlins have hit me. Whilst the soap itself turned out fine, my design didn't. What I had in my head and saw in a photo, did not translate into reality. A black mess with barely noticeable embeds. Yep, one for the use at home and never try again file...

In the words of many a fail meme...NAILED IT!

Soapy hugs

Kayla 

This is how I wanted the soap to look! Ahhh, yup...nailed it!

Soap Calculators and Other Useful Calculators

Since I am still very much a greenhorn in the soaping world, I am trying to make it easy on myself and hopefully other new saponifier a by brining links and resources into one place. Today's post is for,  you guessed it, online calculators! There are many out there, I will list what I have found and the comment on the couple that I find the most useful. Again, check these out for yourself and make a decision on YOUR findings.

The Majestic Mountain Sage ("The Sage")
https://www.thesage.com/calcs/index.html
This has three calculators available: a lye calc, a universal conversion and my favourite - the fragrance calc. The fragrance calc gives you a guideline on weight, percentage or liquid measurement  of either essential oil or fragrance oils for the size of your batch of oils. Brilliant! Also gives approx. how much to use dependant on if you want subtle, mid or strong scent. The other good aspect on this calculator is that you can select the type of product you are making and calculates the percentage for that product type.

I am currently using their soap calc as even though it does not give exact amounts of water, it does give you options with how much lye to use and how that translates into superfatting. Always select lye amounts I the GREEN range!

Brambleberry
http://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Fragrance-Calculator.aspx
http://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Lye-Calculator.aspx
Brambleberry has both lye and fragrance calculators but I have not used either.

How to Make Any Soap Recipe Palm Free
http://thenerdyfarmwife.com/how-to-make-any-soap-recipe-palm-free/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNerdyFarmWife+%28The+Nerdy+Farm+Wife%29

Soapcalc.net
http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp
This is the calculator that I have previously used.

Online Conversions
http://www.onlineconversion.com
This has been my favourite site for years to convert just about anything to everything!

Australian Soapmaker
http://www.australiansoapmaker.info/ozcalc/lye.php
I have not yet used this calculator.

Soap Gulld
http://www.soapguild.org/soapmakers/resources/lye-calc.php
I have yet to use this calculator. I only wish we had a soap guild here in Australia or something between Oz and NZ.

Summer Bee Meadow
http://www.summerbeemeadow.com/content/lye-calculator-and-recipe-resizer
I have not the used this calculator.

If anyone has used any of these calculators please comment below or if you know of any that are worthy of adding to the list.

Soapy hugs
Kayla

Mini Haul: Week of 1 June 2014

Nothing major. Just a mini haul from Big Tree Supplies on fragrant oils. I am very happy with the pricing, speed of delivery and the beautiful smells that are probably going to suffocate me! I will be starting to build back up my aromatherapy/essential oil collection as money allows. They are so much more expensive!

Soapy hugs

Kayla