Best soap recipes

[norseofcourse]

Never pour the water into the lye; she has that backwards.

You're right, and I'm surprised it got published with that error.

I haven't milled any soap, too much work for my schedule. If you buy good fragrances that have been tested in cold process soap making you can add them the first time and all will be well. I only buy from sites that tell how the fragrance will react as some turn the soap brown and others can speed up trace to the point of seizing. And some scents just don't smell good as they age.

The first show I'm likely to go to with my soaps is next May, but I'm running out of freezer space for milk, so I need to start making soap soon. I liked the milling idea, because I can make plain soap now, and then add the fragrances/additives later, instead of adding them at the start and having the scents fade or turn by the time next spring comes around.

But I do like the idea of making it just once, and cutting neat rectangles and you're done. I'll have plenty enough milk to try that, too. About two or three months before the show should be enough time for it to cure, right?

 

[babsbag]

It needs to age for a month before wrapping or using. It is easier to cut at about 24-48 hours after making it and believe it or not I found it to be difficult to get nice straight bars when cutting the loaf so that is why I invested in the big soap cutter. You can also get slab molds that are about 3/4" to 1" thick, some even have dividers you can put in them. I don't like trying to get the bars out of the dividers though so I don't use those anymore.

After the soap is cured I store it in plastic totes and only one scent per tote. I get a little plastic condiment cup and put a cotton ball in it that has been soaked with the fragrance of that soap and put it in the tote with the soap. Makes it smell really nice, especially if the soap is wrapped in fabric or paper; the wrapping will pick up the scent too.

I have never had a soap fragrance turn bad on me, I think it is because I am picky about where I buy my fragrances. I have bars of soap that are over a year old and they still smell good.

 

[Hens and Roos]

any recommendations on a soap to make that helps remove buck odor from ones hands?

 

[mikiz]

Best soap I ever had was a home-made one we bought at a second-hand store. It got blood out of sheepskin and left them with no kerosene odor after curing. It was tough but not rough on your hands.
Wish I had the recipe for it

 

[Ferguson K]

Reading through this thread has me worried I'm going to destroy my soaps! LOL

I'm not very crafty...

 

[babsbag]

@Hens and Roos You need to make coffee soap. Dissolve your lye in STRONG coffee instead of water or milk. Then at trace add about 1/2 c (for 4 lbs of soap) of ground coffee beans and not the ones you made the coffee with, use fresh beans. I sell out of it every year. Also works in the kitchen for removing onion and garlic odors.

Or use Star Anise oil, smells like licorice. But I personally like the coffee, not sure the Anise removes the odor, maybe it just masks it. Anise is the fisherman's soap, supposedly used so the fish don't smell scent on the bait

 

[Hens and Roos]

We will have to try this....any particular coffee bean or just the plain regular coffee bean!

thanks

 

[babsbag]

Any bean should work, mine were Sumatra as that is what I drink

 

[babsbag]

I just made a batch of soap that smells divine and the color is Goat milk soap is hard to get white, it usually turns a nice light cream. So I wanted to do this Moonlight Pomegranate soap and my idea was to do a layer of burgundy on the bottom with a vein of gold mica and then swirl the rest of the soap with dark blue.

Well... burgundy...no problem, gold...no problem, blue... The soap discolored to yellow before I added the blue and so what do get with blue and yellow...GREEN. So I added more blue, darker green, added bright blue,...green and bright blue streaks. What a disaster. Not to mention that I blended this to the lightest trace possible so I could do the layers and swirl and I got the first layer out no problem, the rest turned to pudding as it sat in the pot.

There are days, and then there are days. Should be interesting to see this one when it is cut.

 

[babsbag]

My failed (I thought) Moonlight Pomegranate soap actually turned out ok, I was surprised. I took these pictures with my phone while at a craft fair, they aren't the best. I need to get some good ones for my website. I made about 12 different soaps and sold out of a few already. I guess that is good except for the fact that I have another sales event next week and not much to choose from. The lotion I made is almost all gone but I can make more of that next week; soap has to age so it is what it is.

Other ones that I did for the holidays were
Lavender Forest

Autumn Fig Harvest

Blue Man

Spiced Apple