So last night on the way home from work I remembered to stop at our local Ace Hardware store and see if I could get a soap cutter. Now "remembered" is an important word in the first statement because my memory is not what it used to be and even worse if you ask my husband. So I walk up to the cleark (very nice at least 10-15 years older than me deBrat=48 currently) and try to describe to her that I wish to purchase a tool that has a metal blade about this long or longer and is strong enough to cut through soap... and it is what a soapmaker uses to cut their soap .... but I don't remember what they were calling the ones they were buying in "hardware" stores for lots less than those marketed for "actual" soap cutting use. Nice clerk has no clue what I'm describing but kindly walkie talkies someone else and asks. I felt like I could hear the guy chuckling silently in his head as to how will he answer this question tactfully fully knowing that I am standing right there able to hear his answer.
He has no clue either... so I say okay i'll walk up and down the aisles but I have another question. Do you carry lye? Grandma's lye soap? yes, its right over there.... in the meantime the man on the other end of the walkie talkie has walked up and now I follow him down the aisle with the Lye for soap. My words.... turns out they had some soap there... nope I'm going to get lye to MAKE my own soap. Oh that would be in the plumbing aisle... okay. So I walk over there and as he has nothing more interesting to do so he follows/escorts me to the plumbing section. Needless to say they did not have Roebic's and nothing else qualified as 100% sodium hydroxide........ to be continued
Friday, July 21, 2006
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Salt Bar Soap Again
Okay so I made salt soap again last night.... The results from my slab mold are to the left there. Crockpot hot process attempted pink swirl. Peppermint EO 1 ounce(equaling 3 TBSP) into about 2#s of the 3# batch of soap. about 30 drops of get this.... Life of the Party liquid coloring red... finally something of Life of the Party that works in hot process soap and not just Melt n Pour.... into the reserve portion for color. Salt went mainly into the non colored portion of the soap with just a bit of salt into the pink section......anyway.... I had a hard time convincing it to be flat on the top. I remembered someone recently saying they had used a spatula dipped in hot water to smooth out their top on a hot process soap. So I tried it......So I used the hand with the playtex glove on it and dipped my hand in the really hot water and attempted to flatten it out. All that did was create white foam across the top. Well my doubts about quick trace (once again) were dispelled by the appearance of the foam. Surely, if it is foaming "it is soap"! The salt is in the white part (about 1# of Mediteranean Fine Sea Salts) The pink portion has the tiniest bit of salt.
Two observations as the strength of the peppermint EO was already noticed in the rebatch on Sunday: firts, the top of the soap (what you see in the picture) had tiny areas of pink wet liquid. When blotted the pink liquid had no odor to it at all, nor did it appear to be oil. You can easily see the difference between oil and water type substances on a papertowel.
Second when I cut on the cutting lines (showing up better this time then the rebatch did on Sunday in my new UPLAND silicone slab mold) when I cross cut it some of the pink fell away from the rest of the pink/white part. I took a picture of this but after I had already downloaded from the camera and uploaded to here this AM and I was out of time for leaving for work.
So now I am at a loss of what to do. I guess I need to find a plain white soap producing recipe that I can just make and make and make and have on hand to rebatch everytime I need to "fix" another batch I've made...... sigh and not of relief. More like sigh of acceptance of flopping soap.
Tried a chunk of the mostly all mixed together pink part that was put into the separate mini mold bar(I cut the soap bar to the left in quarters) this morning and it feels nice and it smells exquisite and it lathers okay, certainly not profusely... but how do you send off partially fell apart soap bars to be swapped.I want my soap to look like Anhoki's! I want my soap to look like ANYone else's but what I have been getting. Silly me, I sure bit off more than I can chew this time signing up for the swap.
Well that is my story and I'm sticking to it
have a soapy successful day,
denise/deBrat
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Salt soap.. but Where's the Salt?
Alright it is just not fair to have thing after thing go wrong with my soap. don't get me wrong, I have lovely, useable soap from today's rebatch but now there is like NO salt feel to my soap. I suspect that the clear melt and pour melted my salt in the white rebatch and then i think the dead sea salts melted away in the M/P too. So I wonder if I technically have salt soap for a salt swap?
I hate to rebatch this again, but I can't make another batch in time to mail out. If I rebatch it, yet again, and add more salt to it, how do I prevent it from dissolving again?
on an UP note.... it smells divinely. It lathers nicely. It feels good on my skin while I use it. So it IS soap.... but is it salt soap?
Sigh..... I can't do anything easy
Oh and here are the pics!!!
the soap fresh out of my silicone line mold from upland. I'm going to love this mold... now to buy a cutter that will cut it..g. I had to use our big knife to cut it. the wavy cutter would not have gone through this without making a knobby mess every 6" or 7 ". Anyway here it is turned upside down from the mold.
Here are the cut bars. Not one bar is the same size or weight as another bar. they range from 3 1/4 oz all the way to 5 1/2 oz I guess the salt is in there somewhere, eh?
So they are interesting and I can't wait to decide what to do with them. Perhaps I should make a little baggie of peppermint bath salts to send with the soap for the swap? Would that be a good peace offering?
Let me know what you think! That is what the comments box is for.... lots and loads of hugs
denise/deBrat
I hate to rebatch this again, but I can't make another batch in time to mail out. If I rebatch it, yet again, and add more salt to it, how do I prevent it from dissolving again?
on an UP note.... it smells divinely. It lathers nicely. It feels good on my skin while I use it. So it IS soap.... but is it salt soap?
Sigh..... I can't do anything easy
Oh and here are the pics!!!
the soap fresh out of my silicone line mold from upland. I'm going to love this mold... now to buy a cutter that will cut it..g. I had to use our big knife to cut it. the wavy cutter would not have gone through this without making a knobby mess every 6" or 7 ". Anyway here it is turned upside down from the mold.
Here are the cut bars. Not one bar is the same size or weight as another bar. they range from 3 1/4 oz all the way to 5 1/2 oz I guess the salt is in there somewhere, eh?
So they are interesting and I can't wait to decide what to do with them. Perhaps I should make a little baggie of peppermint bath salts to send with the soap for the swap? Would that be a good peace offering?
Let me know what you think! That is what the comments box is for.... lots and loads of hugs
denise/deBrat
My outdoor soaping station and the pool progress
More Pics, because we know it is all about the pics :)
Here is my table set up with the crockpot, new Upland mold. see the orange electric plug?
Here is my new Upland 12 bar mold. It has a silicone insert and I chose to get it with the cutting lines on it as I do not have anything to cut my soap with yet exept my wavy Pampered Chef cutter.
And here is the edge of the pool. Hubby took all of these metal parts off when he changed the liner. These are what he was painting with primer in my soaping spot yesterday!!! The grey part is dh's idea of making the pool not look dirty because he painted on the grey so the dirt would not show too much? You got me.... he lost me at making it look dirty all the time so dirt would not show....
and now i have just finished eating a cheap Publix brand dill pickle. It smelled like a pickle but tasted like the peppermint EO smelled.... hmmmmm not a good idea to eat something that smells like that peppermint stuff? I checked my hands and they don't smell of peppermint....
okay until the next set of pics comes my way this is it.... going to go check on my rebatched soap....
Brat
Here is my table set up with the crockpot, new Upland mold. see the orange electric plug?
Here is my new Upland 12 bar mold. It has a silicone insert and I chose to get it with the cutting lines on it as I do not have anything to cut my soap with yet exept my wavy Pampered Chef cutter.
And here is the edge of the pool. Hubby took all of these metal parts off when he changed the liner. These are what he was painting with primer in my soaping spot yesterday!!! The grey part is dh's idea of making the pool not look dirty because he painted on the grey so the dirt would not show too much? You got me.... he lost me at making it look dirty all the time so dirt would not show....
and now i have just finished eating a cheap Publix brand dill pickle. It smelled like a pickle but tasted like the peppermint EO smelled.... hmmmmm not a good idea to eat something that smells like that peppermint stuff? I checked my hands and they don't smell of peppermint....
okay until the next set of pics comes my way this is it.... going to go check on my rebatched soap....
Brat
More pictures from Gathering!
Thanks to Judi in Jax I have a pic of the "bar" facial people.
I have now uploaded the bar pic four times. I am just going to take where it lands because every time i try to move it I delete it and have to re upload it. geeesh
Left to right front: judi in jax,Millie, Amber, Wayne
Back oh shoot Dan/daniel I think and I forget oh-miss-quiet-ones name... help me fill in the blanks pretty please?
and a pic of Sindy and her swirled cold process (then she put it in the car so we could see it done) soap demoLeft to right front of pic but back of heads: Ocala Kelly, deBrat
Back with full bodies LOL: Sindy, ??? , Joanne
see the neon powered colors on the table next to Kelly's head? See that pitcher of bright pink? She will pour that from a very high height! oh brave one.... I want to make soap like yours!
And that has to be Trish and her camera off to the left there..... I'm knitting that is why I am not looking up at that time.
more pics coming
~Brat
Ooops missed these pics from NFC Gathering 2006
Oops I missed these pics in the camera and I took the soap and lotion ones today just to post for your look-see.
This is what shea butter looks like after riding in the back window of the car for 5 hours and then being in the a/c of the house for a couple of hours. It is just starting to get smooshie again instead of a pure liquid. That butter has been whipped up by hand with a fragrance, rosemary perhaps? and it sits in the bathroom waiting for me to check it out and see what if anything, i wish to do to it next.
My foot after the Dead Sea Salts bath soaking story. It is hard to see how red my foot actually is because the flash reflected off of my foot. dang flash it won't behave on this camera. i am always holding it down while taking a picture.... i need to take a class in photography but truly just want to learn how to use my Nikon 8700.
The soap that Sindy made in her Cold Process swirls demo. Talk about going forth fearlessly! That woman is nuts. The color is not quite as bright as in the bags but it stayed much brighter than I was thinking from the description she was giving about "fade". it too smell wonderful. the colors are Neon: orange for the base, pink and green for the swirl. Paige sold out of her neon colors before that demo. Gum package for size reference.
My first lotion! those are lovely 2 oz bottles judi in jax so kindly sold me at the Gathering so i could make my lotion AND bottle it LOL. The black lids are NOT on them. the coconut is on the left and that is the 5th bottle that did not quite fill all the way. My tester bottles both of these. The raspberry is on the right. Gum package for size reference.
It is too bad you cannot feel or smell these lotions they are WONDERFUL!
I am so happy to have something go so right my first time of making it. Of course, some of my happiness could be from the fact that I planned to make soap yesterday and my outdoor area was "taken" up by the pool project my dh is working on for 5 days so, I made lotion and bath bombs and bath salts instead. I had not soaked in the tub before I started buying Dead Sea Salts and making bath bombs and bath salts.
Now to work on a name and labeling. Oh so much to do and the weekend runneth out already :(
lator gators,
deBrat
This is what shea butter looks like after riding in the back window of the car for 5 hours and then being in the a/c of the house for a couple of hours. It is just starting to get smooshie again instead of a pure liquid. That butter has been whipped up by hand with a fragrance, rosemary perhaps? and it sits in the bathroom waiting for me to check it out and see what if anything, i wish to do to it next.
My foot after the Dead Sea Salts bath soaking story. It is hard to see how red my foot actually is because the flash reflected off of my foot. dang flash it won't behave on this camera. i am always holding it down while taking a picture.... i need to take a class in photography but truly just want to learn how to use my Nikon 8700.
The soap that Sindy made in her Cold Process swirls demo. Talk about going forth fearlessly! That woman is nuts. The color is not quite as bright as in the bags but it stayed much brighter than I was thinking from the description she was giving about "fade". it too smell wonderful. the colors are Neon: orange for the base, pink and green for the swirl. Paige sold out of her neon colors before that demo. Gum package for size reference.
My first lotion! those are lovely 2 oz bottles judi in jax so kindly sold me at the Gathering so i could make my lotion AND bottle it LOL. The black lids are NOT on them. the coconut is on the left and that is the 5th bottle that did not quite fill all the way. My tester bottles both of these. The raspberry is on the right. Gum package for size reference.
It is too bad you cannot feel or smell these lotions they are WONDERFUL!
I am so happy to have something go so right my first time of making it. Of course, some of my happiness could be from the fact that I planned to make soap yesterday and my outdoor area was "taken" up by the pool project my dh is working on for 5 days so, I made lotion and bath bombs and bath salts instead. I had not soaked in the tub before I started buying Dead Sea Salts and making bath bombs and bath salts.
Now to work on a name and labeling. Oh so much to do and the weekend runneth out already :(
lator gators,
deBrat
North Florida Crafters 2nd Annual Gathering
I did not take many pictures but here are a few I managed to take. If others took pictures and have shared them online I'll post a link here if you'd like. Also, some of the names I do not know please feel free to tell me so i can identify everyone here.
Tammy mixing up the hair mud for the demo. This is after the 1 hour powerpoint show of information on the Dead Sea and the products she makes from the imported minerals. It is hard to make out but she is wearing a leopard or cheetah patterned material apron. It is a fancy as her outfit LOL
Judi in Jax, Lori (pawdette@yahoo.com)and OcalaKelly
Vendor: Alabaster products/table in the background.
I literally ran into this woman several times before taking her picture. She is opening her swap goody box. I was so busy apologizing for cutting in front of her and her friend I never got her name. My only defense is I get so focused some times I just blunder forth and miss everything around me. I'm so sorry, again. Would you please provide your name? [according to Ocala Kelly this is Sylvia. She had a wonderful olive oil and jasmine soap in the swap. :-)]
Hmmm I should know who the guy in the background is but I don't recall his name. Anyone?
Ocala Kelly with her tart warmer/burner from Cheri in the swap goody box. She is wearing her new shirt from the mall visit the day before.[I stand corrected that is not kelly's new shirt she wore the new shirt after the hair mud treatment.] Kelly's dh and two sons were there. They had all gone to the museum and the mall on Friday and the boys wanted to go back again on Saturday. To both the mall and the museum.
I am sorry I did not take more pictures. But the camera is a heavy one and I tend to get so "focused" on taking pictures I miss out on what is actually happening. Sometimes you have to choose in life and of course while I was there choosing to watch, listen and LEARN seemed good but now that I'm home I'm so sorry I did not take pictures. I think Trish took tons of pics perhaps she'll share some for me to post here?
Tammy mixing up the hair mud for the demo. This is after the 1 hour powerpoint show of information on the Dead Sea and the products she makes from the imported minerals. It is hard to make out but she is wearing a leopard or cheetah patterned material apron. It is a fancy as her outfit LOL
Judi in Jax, Lori (pawdette@yahoo.com)and OcalaKelly
Vendor: Alabaster products/table in the background.
I literally ran into this woman several times before taking her picture. She is opening her swap goody box. I was so busy apologizing for cutting in front of her and her friend I never got her name. My only defense is I get so focused some times I just blunder forth and miss everything around me. I'm so sorry, again. Would you please provide your name? [according to Ocala Kelly this is Sylvia. She had a wonderful olive oil and jasmine soap in the swap. :-)]
Hmmm I should know who the guy in the background is but I don't recall his name. Anyone?
Ocala Kelly with her tart warmer/burner from Cheri in the swap goody box. She is wearing her new shirt from the mall visit the day before.[I stand corrected that is not kelly's new shirt she wore the new shirt after the hair mud treatment.] Kelly's dh and two sons were there. They had all gone to the museum and the mall on Friday and the boys wanted to go back again on Saturday. To both the mall and the museum.
I am sorry I did not take more pictures. But the camera is a heavy one and I tend to get so "focused" on taking pictures I miss out on what is actually happening. Sometimes you have to choose in life and of course while I was there choosing to watch, listen and LEARN seemed good but now that I'm home I'm so sorry I did not take pictures. I think Trish took tons of pics perhaps she'll share some for me to post here?
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