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Our resident soap making guru at Teach Soap is Anne-Marie Faiola. Anne-Marie is a true soap making artist with 12 years of soap crafting under her belt. So if you've got a soap making question, you've come to the right place. Just Ask Anne-Marie! Happy Soaping from Teach Soap! Click here to read previous soap making questions and answers. •Does Beeswax make CP soap harder? •What would cause a batch of soap to erupt while in the soap mold? •Can anyone give me a melt and pour soap recipe for a soap thats good for psoriasis/eczema? •Which oils can you use to make potpourri ? Which colorants can you use to color salt? •I am making soaps with a number of natural additives and I am worried about shelf life. •I am looking for a paraben free preservative for salt scrubs. Can you help? •Are FO's or EO's better for cold process soaps? •Could I add Palm Kernel Flakes to my melt-and-pour recipes? •Do I need to add Germaben II to my shower gel? I don't want to! •Is there an easy formula to decide the pounds of soap a recipe will make? •What kind of conditions does CP soap need to cure after it is removed from mold? •Can you tell me how to make soap balls with a CP soap? •Could you please explain what a flashpoint is? Thank you! •Wondering if anyone could tell me how to make colored swirls in soap? Any help is appreciated. •When mixing scents, how can you tell what can be mixed with what? •I've heard that tallow is really icky and hard to render. Can you tell me about it? I had some really pretty blackberry seeds . . . a wonderful bright pink . . . that I sprinkled on top of some CP Blackberry Sage soap after I poured it into the mold. Of course, after the soap heated up and gelled, most of the seeds had sunk into the top of the soap and are now dark and icky. I'm sorry that your soap did not turn out as planned. The good news is that it's still useable soap - just not as pretty as you wanted. Does Beeswax make CP soap harder? And if so, how much can I use in a 1 lb. recipe. Will I be able to handmill this soap and remelt to add herbs to it? I'm looking for something to keep my hand milled soaps harder. I use Olive and Coconut oils with a little castor oil recipe. Yes, beeswax will help to make cold process (CP) soap harder but it also inhibits lather, speeds of trace and causes the soap to get hotter in the mold (potentially helping to flash off essential oils and make them not as potent in the final bar). I recommend using beeswax at no more than 0.5 oz per pound of soap though you could go up to a full 1 oz. Pre melt the beeswax and add it in at thin trace. And yes, you can handmill soap that had beeswax added to it. Back to top What would cause a batch of soap to erupt while in the soap mold? I have been making CP soap for years and I have never had this problem before. I made a 24 pound batch of Lavender and everything seemed to be going well. I poured it into my mold and covered it like usual, but when I was cleaning up, I noticed that I had soap flowing out of the mold. When I took off the cover to see what the heck was happening, it almost looked like it was boiling inside the mold. It finally stopped after it dumped about ten pounds onto the floor. The strange thing is that when I blended it, my temp was 100 degrees and when I took the temp of my soap volcano, it was 124 degrees. Please help! Boiling inside sounds like a normal, very impressive gel phase. We had some really great volcano soap that made a beautiful tunnel when we finally cut into it. (below left)
Also, I'm attaching a photo of pretty normal gel phase.(above right) My gel phases normally get to about 180º so I'm surprised yours stayed so low! Did you switch lavender essential oils? I normally find that my lavender does the opposite - and actually decreases the temperature of the overall batch. Can you make good quality soap using the cold method without palm oil ie is there an envionmentally sound alternative to using palm? You can use any types of oils you want. You could do a 100% Olive Oil soap or a 75% Olive oil 25% Coconut oil or really any number of combinations. Palm is not necessary to make a good bar of soap, though it does contribute to lather and hardness. You can use any types of oils you want. You could do a 100% Olive Oil soap or a 75% Olive oil 25% Coconut oil or really any number of combinations. Palm is not necessary to make a good bar of soap, though it does contribute to lather and hardness. Can anyone give me a melt and pour soap recipe for a soap thats good for psoriasis/eczema? I would recommend the following recipe: This soap will be moisturizing and gentle to the skin and will be low in lather because of the oil additives. 1. What will make cold process soaps freeze or set up too soon? 2. Can cold process soaps be molded into different shapes? Cold Process soaps will accelerate trace and set up quickly for a variety of reasons, from temperature (too low) to choice of oils (too many solid oils) to fragrance oil (fragrance accelerates trace). Depending on what the factors are in your recipe, I could help you pinpoint it to one of those things and give you some tips for how to slow down trace and make your soaps easier to work with. Yes, you can pour cold process soap into different molds. You probably cannot actually mold the soap and use it like a clay or putty but you could definitely use Milky Way Molds or Flex Molds for CP Soap. I made a batch of lotion using beeswax, but the oil and water separates. Is there any way to save my lotion? You are experiencing separation of your lotion because oil and water do not naturally mix. You need something called an "emulsifier" to help blend and bind the oil and water together. Emulsifiers are non-natural substances that are a waxy consistency and are used at 1 - 5% in your total lotion recipe to help keep your waters and oils together and make a smooth creamy mixture. My favorite is just the very basic Emulsifying Wax NF. I normally use it at about 3% with Stearic Acid as a secondary help. You can purchase emulsifying wax here. That should help your lotion making endeavors considerably! I have a large quantity of glycerin byproduct from my husband's biodiesel projects. I am interested in making soap with it. Can you give me some easy soap recipes that I can use my glycerin in? I get this question a fair amount actually. I do not personally recommend making soap with the byproduct glycerin from biodiesel manufacturing as I don't think it's entirely clean and pure and has some extra things like methanol in it. However, we do have a local customer in Bellingham, WA that does make a soft, smushy, gray looking bar of solid, slightly lathering soap with their byproduct bio-diesel. They have shared a bar with me and while it is soap, it is very soft and fairly poor in terms of lather. This is probably due to the fact that it is 100% glycerin which is not entirely saponifiable by lye. If you really want to use the byproduct glycerin, I would recommend a more modified, traditional recipe such as: 16 oz. Coconut Oil Please not that you must do a certain amount of safety precautions to make lye and I strongly recommend researching how to make cold process soap prior to attempting to make it. My favorite books The SoapMaker's Companion by Susan Miller Cavitch to learn about soapmaking or The Natural Soap Book, also by Susan Miller Cavitch. The recipe above will be soft but will lather well and last much longer than 100% glycerin soap. I am looking for cold process natural dog soap recipe that will be good for dry skin. Can you help? I have searched the internet, and cannot find one. I would try something like this: 25% Coconut Oil Depending on the size of your batch, quantities of water and lye will vary. Consult a Lye Calculator to help determine quantities. Most dog recipes that I've seen tend to also have Litsea or Lemongrass EO in them as well as a wee bit of Tea Tree EO for its antibacterial properties. I seem to be having trouble with some scents dissipating from my soap after just a few weeks, particularly citrus EO's. I read a lot of internet chat about "anchoring" to make the scent last longer. Can you tell me what I can use to anchor lemon, lime, orange, & mango please. I would love to have a strong lemon soap. Citrus Essential Oils (EOs) are very volatile and tend to dissipate quickly. Anchoring is a fairly common term that is used to refer to blending a heavier, deeper, "stickier" scent with the fragrance you wish to hold onto. The heavier scent usually will help the lighter scent stick in your soap or toiletry recipe for longer. I have fairly good luck with Lemon, Lime and Orange when I anchor them with Litsea and Lemongrass. As for Mango, you might try another brand of Mango because there are some that definitely stick in soap fairly well. Either that, or try blending the Mango with another orange fruit such as Tangerine or a synthetic orange fragrance that is designed to stick in soap. Which oils can you use to make potpourri ? Which colorants can you use to color salt? You can use any fragrance oils to make potpourri - including the candle oils since potpourri doesn't need to be skin safe. To color bath salts you can use Lab Color liquid colorants. Just be sure to stir them in really well and then I like to spread the salts out on a cookie sheet and let them dry out - you can put them in a warm oven if your work space is humid or cold. I am making soaps with a number of natural additives and I am worried about shelf life. With some experimentation I realized that I couldn't use certain botanicals like mint or lavender because they turn brown (chamomile seems to be ok) but now I am using other additives like poppy seeds, ground white rice, fruit fiber, ground oatmeal and I am worried about shelf life. I recently tried adding sunflower seed, with disasterous results... Just because the botanics turn brown doesn't mean that they are "bad" or rotten. You can use them still, even if they go brown. Poppy seeds, white rice, ground oatmeal and other dried products such as coffee grounds that *don't* spoil if they are sitting out on your counter. I'm not sure about fruit fiber as I'm not familiar with that product. Sunflower seeds should not have actually turned your soap bad; could the seeds have been bleeding color? I would highly recommend that before you sell your product in areas that you cannot monitor, such as the out of state client, that you make very scientific notes (batch, batch date, recipe, humidity, temperature) about the changes in weeks 1, 2, 4, 6, 12 and 24 so you can determine what the actual additives do with your particular blend of oils and fats. Your additives will react differently depending on the actual recipe used and can vary from recipe to recipe which is why I would highly recommend testing, keeping notes and really be through and accurate about your batch measurements. If you're starting up a business with just soap, you might consider adding some liquid soap or lotion base without going through all the testing that you're having to do with the soaping. There are quite a few bases that you might consider. I personally like these Beeswax Lotion and the Liquid Organic Soap Bases. I am looking for a paraben free preservative for salt scrubs. Can you help? A preservative that is paraben free would technically be Optiphen Plus and it's oil soluble so it's great for sugar scrub. Our Phenonip is a non formaldehyde donor but is not technically paraben free. That said, there has been no proven link between parabens and breast cancer so it may not be worth it to trade efficacy of preservation for the more currently trendy preservative. A next generation of Phenonip has just been introduced onto the market: Phenonip XB, a phenoxyethanol/ paraben blend which is similar to the original Phenonip but without butylparaben or isobutylparaben. COLIPA (the European Trade Association representing the interests of the cosmetic, toiletry and perfumery industry) has just cleared methylparaben and ethylparaben for safe use in cosmetics at typical levels. Propylparaben is expected to follow. Phenonip XB is a blend of phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, ethylparaben and propylparaben. Are FO's or EO's better for cold process soaps? About how much would you use for small batch? (mine had just a pound of fats and 6 oz of milk) You can use both essential oils and fragrance oils in cold process soap. If you're using fragrance oils, make sure that they are skin safe (so no candle or potpourri fragrances) and ideally, if they've been tested in cold process soap, that will save you some trouble. If you're using essential oils, just make sure that they're not cut with anything. Some of the diluents can be trouble in CP soap. Regarding your orange essential oil, it is difficult to get straight Orange EO to come through in CP soap. It's just one of those essential oils that are fleeting (like many of the citrus ones, actually). If you anchor it with a Patchouli or even a Litsea, that will help its staying power. In terms of usage rates, they are somewhat all over the map. I generally start with .5 ounces of fragrance or essential oil per pound of fats/oils and then go up or down from there. Some lighter fragrances, like Vanilla or Jasmine, for example, I'll use a full .7-.9 ounces per pound but some very potent fragrances (anything with cinnamon notes or mints), I'll end up with .2 ounces per pound so it does vary somewhat based on the fragrance or essential oil. If you start at .5 oz. per pound, it's a good bet that you'll get a decent fragrance. I am using melt and pour glycern and Lavender from my garden, I used the pods from the lavender. I thought the lavender was dried. But now the soap looks like it is browning in the areas where you see the lavender pieces. Is this because the lavender wasn't dry enough or is something else causing this? What you are experiencing with the glycerin is totally normal. Lavender, and many herbs, go brown and have a halo effect around them in the soap. The soap is totally fine to use, and there is nothing that you can do to prevent this browning. It is simply the nature of using dried herbs in soap. Could I add Palm Kernel Flakes to my melt-and-pour recipies? I am hoping I could add a little bit to my melted base to make a harder, longer-lasting bar. I'm also thinking about using beeswax and candelilla wax to harden my soap. Yes, you can add PKO flakes, or beeswax or Candelilla wax to your melt and pour base. However, I actually find that a better method for making a hard bar of soap is to let the soap sit under a fan for up to a week. This makes the excess moisture wick off the bar and makes it a much harder bar than any of the waxes do. What type of base oil or cream would be good for the under eye area and can you use essential oils that close to your eyes? I use straight Tamanu Oil mixed with jojoba oil on my eyes; it's awesome! Of course, it's expensive but you really don't use much. You can use Lavender Essential Oil, Carrot Seed Essential Oil and German Chamomile Essential Oil in very small concentrations but I would stay away from most others. They will sting and you would need to wash and rinse the eye out if you got it in your eye, as you would with any product you get in your eye, but will not harm the eyes if used at .5% concentrations or less. The Carrot Seed EO and the Lavender EO are what I'm currently using in my eye concentrations. I use the German Chamomile on my anti-redness (aka blemish) formula. I just got my super cool new wooden log mold for cold process soapmaking and I cannot figure out how to line it. Can you help? Lining your mold is a matter of making sure that you keep your wax paper flat so there are as few wrinkles as possible and also fully lining the mold so there is no accidental leaking that will cause your soap to stick to the mold. Here is a wonderful site with great instructions on lining your mold with wax paper: www.raindancesoaps.com I've made some bath bombs, but I must be doing something wrong...when dry, they have lots of cracks all over them...please help! Bath bombs can be tricky; luckily, it sounds like you are following all the right steps. I would just make sure you are packing the bath bombs REALLY WELL! I have found this to be the ultimate secret for hard, long-lasting bath bombs. When I have a bath bomb that crumbles beyond repair, I put the crumbs in a jar or plastic bag and have Fizzing Bath Sprinkles! What does your citric acid look like? We had some customers that were using a coarse grade citric acid and they were having problems with the bath fizzies sticking together. With a coarse citric acid, I have found that using equal parts baking soda and citric acid works better than my normal recipe (2 parts baking soda and 1 part citric acid). I hope these ideas help! Back to top How can you calculate the SAP value of cooking oil and Vegetable cooking oil? or there is a rule of thumb in determining how much lye to use? Are these oils good for the skin in general? No, you cannot calculate the SAP value for either vegetable shortening or generic cooking oil because the ratios of different oils in the cooking and vegetable oils vary based on the brand. No, there is no general rule of thumb for determining lye amounts. You must figure out lye amounts based on the specific recipe you are using. Here is a good online lye calculator. Unfortunately, vegetable shortening oil and generic cooking oil generally are not considered the best for skin. You'll want to stick with tried and true, single oils, such as Olive, Hazelnut or Sweet Almond oil to name a few good ones. Back to top I made a Goat's milk soap and after 24 hours, the block of soap had a pool of what looked like olive oil sitting on the top of it. I mopped it up and proceeded to cut the bars for drying. Each bar is oozing oil. What would be your first thought as to what could have caused it? Can you tell what may have gone wrong? You can mop the oil up and then make sure you do a pH lye test to make sure the lye isn't too heavy. The soap will most likely be okay with curing. I'm actually guessing either the fragrance oil was the culprit and caused your soap to have some trouble, or the soap didn't reach a full trace. If the soap doesn't reach a full trace, it can partially separate in the molds. Cure the soap and then make sure you pH test it to check to see if it's too lye heavy before using it. Back to top Can you tell me what is the advantage of adding Vitamin E in MP soap? How much vitamin E should I add per oz of MP soap? What kind of vitamin E should I get? Vitamin E is commonly used to help prevent rancidity in oils (like in massage oil blends or lotion bars). In melt and pour soap, it would serve as a moisturizing agent but would not help to lengthen the life of your soap. It may actually inhibit lather some as well, so keep that in mind. If you were to use it, I would use no more than 1 tsp. per pound of soap. You can use any kind of Vitamin E. There is some thought out there that the naturally derived Vitamin E is somehow better than synthetic Vitamin E but there is a fairly large price difference so I'll leave that to you decide. Do I need to add Germaben II to my shower gel? I don't want to! First of all, you probably don't need to add Germaben II to any shower gels. The pH is so low that mold is not supposed to be able to grow (according to Catherine Failor's book "Making Natural Liquid Soap"). I normally add it to all of my shower gels just to be on the extra safe side - you never know when a client is going to put fresh oatmeal in their gel or something! Germaben II is a commonly used water-based preservative that you can find here. Just made my first batch of soap using the glycerin by-product from our biodiesel. I used lye, water and the glycerin. I brought the glycerin up to 150. Water was 100 when I added the lye to it. Then combined the two. I got tons of foam. I stirred the mixture for 20 minutes over low heat and made more foam. What did I do wrong? I skimmed some of the foam off but still there is too much. In my experience, you'll want many other things besides just the Glycerin in your soap. Glycerin plus lye may eventually make some sort of soft, icky soap but you'll want oils and to make the liquid glycerin at probably no more than 10% of your total recipe if you're trying to make actual bar soap. Is there a recipe that you're following? I've personally never heard of anyone making straight soap with Glycerin and again, in my experience, it probably wouldn't work but I'm always open to be proven wrong! I use the melt and pour method....To decorate my soaps I make embedded soaps with flexible ice cube trays. I notice after awhile the soap shaped embedded item will have a halo of its color around it. Is there anyway to prevent it? This is a fairly common problem called "Bleeding." Melt and Pour soap is a water based product and most FD&C colorants (food coloring) are water soluble. So, when the color is in the soap, there is no barrier to keep it from migrating to the entire bar of soap. You can use non-bleeding colors, such as Non Bleeding Red or pigments. Many micas, including the Sparkle and Pearl Micas also do not bleed in Melt and Pour soap. These colorants are not water soluble and will not bleed in soap. They will not be quite as easy to use as the FD&C colorants but won't bleed either. Back to top Is there an easy formula to decide the pounds of soap a recipe will make? I add the water and all the oils and all the lye. I hope this helps! Happy soaping! Back to top I'm wondering if there is a way to infuse natural juice, like papaya into your soap without relying on EO? I want the real thing because papaya EO is hard to find. I don't think there is a Papaya EO. There are fragrance oils (synthetics) but not an actual EO. But, no, you cannot infuse papaya fruit into your soap. You could puree it up and put it in but that would not impart a very good scent, and will probably eventually mold. Back to top What kind of conditions does CP soap need to cure after it is removed from mold? I know the process takes from 4 to 12 weeks but I cannot find out what temperature it needs to be kept at? You'll want normal room temperature. Unheated buildings tend to not allow the soap to cure properly. It doesn't need to be warm (as in oven warm), just room temperature. You'll want to make sure that the area is dry and not humid. Additionally, make sure that there is plenty of air flow around your soap so it is allowed to breathe. Back to top What colorants do you recommend for a solid bubble bath recipe using glycerin, baking soda, cream of tartar and SLS? I'd probably recommend Labcolors, True Tones *or* you could do actual FD&C powders but they're hard to control as they tend to be lighter than air. I'd start with a couple of the Labcolors and/or True Tones and then work with them from there. The bottom line is that you really want water soluble colorants Stay away from oil based colorants, such as oxides and ultramarines. These products are available at: http://www.brambleberry.com/basic12.html Can you tell me how to make soap balls with a CP soap? Making soap balls is fun and super easy! Just grate your CP soaps down into little strips (cheese grater works great!). The more fresh your soap is, the easier this process will be. Then, sprinkle a little water into your grated soap and get to work with your hands - mashing, and kneading the fresh, wet soap into balls. Once they're the size you want them, plop them onto a cookie sheet covered with wax paper and allow to dry until hard. Back to top. I've learned (the hard way) that some EOs, like Lavender and Peppermint, fade from CP soap rather quickly. I've heard that some other EOs (patchouli, sandalwood?) can act as "anchors" but I haven't had any luck with that. I've also heard that orrow root and benzoin can fix scent. Do you know if any of these really work in CP soap and if so how do I use them? I've never had any luck with Benzoin but haven't tried orris root. Benzoin is a skin sensitizer so I would personally stay away from it, but that's just me! Some Lavenders fade worse than others so you might actually try to use other types - like Lavendin, or Lavender 40/42, or Bulgarian Lavender. I've heard good reports of our French Lavender but just remember, not all lavenders are created equal in terms of staying power so just because one didn't stick, another one might. This goes for Peppermints as well. Back to top. Is it okay to use my large pot for cooking after using it for CP soapmaking if I prewash it and then run it through the dishwasher? I would recommend having seperate pots for soapmaking and for cooking in just to be on the safe side. That said, many people use their pots for cooking as well. Until you can get another pot for soapmaking I recommend washing your pot thoroughly by hand and then washing it again in the dishwasher. You may be able to find cheap stainless steel pots at a second hand store as well for soapmaking. Could you please explain what a flashpoint is? Thank you! A flashpoint is the lowest temperature at which the vapor of a combustible liquid can be made to ignite momentarily in air when given a spark or open flame source. It lets us know the maximum safe storage/work temperature for substance. Do you have any recipe with honey-bee CP soap to share? Do you have any Shea Butter recipes that you like to share? You'll probably find that most soapers aren't too keen to share their recipes. Many hours go into formulating and testing the recipes and some soapers feel more proprietary about their recipes than others. Using the ingredients that you have on hand currently, here are some recipes for you. One of my favorite products is the milky way molds. I have a question about them though. Do you have any suggestions about how to ensure they will pop out of the mold with out sticking, or the design crumbling etc.? Also, this is a silly question, but could you define what cold process and hot process soap is that you refer to often on your website? We have a great explanation of the differences between cold process and hot process soaps here: Soap Making Methods My Mango Butter looks all weird, like it has a growth or bloom on it? It's not all of it, just part of it. What's going on? The "bloom" phenomenon is usually associated with stratification that occurs during the production and cooling of the butter that causes a slight layering and variance in the distribution of the fatty acids. It sounds like that is what you are seeing, and we see it from time to time in some butters (including Mango and Shea). You usually see a lighter layer of butter on the outside. If this was oxidated material, it would have a sharp, acrid odor. This should not present a problem, as long as you use an even amount of the product in their formula. Once melted and re-solidified (cooled), the material will come with a nice, even distribution of fats. Back to top. I have a question about using liquid chlorophyll to color my all natural soap that is scented with pure essential oils (lime and sweet orange). It turns out beautiful at first, however over time the edges turn brown and eventually the whole bar turns brown. Why is it doing this and what should I do differently on the next batch? I have heard of many soapers having problems with liquid chlorophyll. It turns brown over time and I have also heard of your soap going rancid faster (6 month shelf life with chlorophyll). I would recommend using french green clay for a nice green natural color. Here is a great site that lists many natural colorants as well: http://crafty.dyskolus.com/coloring/coloring.html I want to make a blend of Orange EO and Cinnamon EO for my cold process soap. How much should I use? Since Orange is so fleeting and weak in cold process, I'd recommend an anchor or even using a bit of Litsea or Lemongrass to help keep that citrus scent around. Cinnamon can be a bit of a skin irritant and it is a very strong scent all by itself. I'd recommend using .1 to .2 oz. of it per pound of cold process soap (maximum). Start at .1. For the Orange, I would use .8 ounces (I know that's a lot but it does an amazing disappearing act in CP) and .1 to .2 ounces of the Litsea/Lemongrass. If you cut down on the Orange a bit, you could add a tinch (.1 oz.) of Patchouli in there for a base note and that would make a lovely blend. Back to top. Is it possible to use baby oil as one of the oils in a soap recipe or does it have to be plant based to work? Baby oil is made from mineral oil and fragrance. Mineral oil doesn't saponify, so it should not be used as a soapmaking oil. You may want to check out this site http://www.millersoap.com. She has a large amount of information on oils that can be used in soap. Not all soaps are made exclusively of vegetable oils, tallow is a common ingredient in soapmaking also. Back to top. Can you tell me how to add essential oils to my dry masks that I sell dry and the customer can add water as needed? 1. You can spray the fragrances onto the dry powders. This makes the actual liquid drops more dispersed and thus less likely to clump. If you do this, be prepared for your spritzer and bottle to not be used for anything cooking or food related again. You can use other fragrances/EOs in this spritzer and so long as it's cleaned out well between uses, the plastic shouldn't take on too much of the FO/EO scent (at least, not enough to doctor the smell of any other products in the bottles). You may have to sift this once or twice and break up the clumps but there should be less clumping with this option. 2. You can drizzle or dropper the fragrances into the dry powders. This means that you end up with little thick blobs of clay-oil that you need to sift through and break up with your fingers or a fork/spoon. You'll want to sift 3 to 5 times with this option as it's important to try and get the EO/FO as well dispersed as possible. Back to top. I would like to know if most recipes are showing oils measured in weight ounces or in fluid ounces? Thanks for your note. Most recipes are done in weight. If neither is indicated, you'll want to go with weight and weigh out your ingredients on an accurate scale. All cold process recipes should done with weight. It's more accurate that way because of the discrepancy between weight and volume measurements.Back to top I just bought some pure mango butter and some pure shea butter but when I added a little in to the melt and pour glycerin, the suspension floated to the top and was a hard white substance. I can't remember which one I had used which caused it but I suspect the shea butter. Do you have any ideas? It sounds like the oils were not mixed in well enough - or the oil load in the melt and pour was too high. Melt and pour is perfectly balanced, as is. That is why additional oils inhibit lather. If you wish to add extra goodies (and many do), you need to consider and figure out how much oil the brand of melt and pour that you are using will take. Generally, I find the maximum oil I can add per pound of base is 1 Tablespoon which is about 1/2 an ounce. That much oil will decrease lather so be prepared for that. If you cannot get the substance to mix in, put the entire (melted) mixture in the blender for 45 seconds. This will produce extra bubbles (spritz with alcohol to get rid of) but will also provide the extra agitation needed to (hopefully) mix the oil in. With your current batch, remelt it and put it in the blender. Hopefully that will mix the oil in for you. If that doesn't work, you can add more soap until there is enough to absorb the oil. Back to top My question is about using goats milk in soap. If I were to first add Titanium dioxide to my oils, then add the lye/goatsmilk mixture, would this produce a white bar of soap? Could I then swirl in other colors? If you first add titanium dioxide to your oils, and then the lye/milk mixture this will produce a more white bar. It may not be totally white and may actually be more of a light ivory but the titanium dioxide will help to lighten up the overall look of the soap. Yes, you could swirl with other colors if you lightened up the look of the soap. It would help to get a more true base color (so you're not trying to overcome the yellow color that the goatsmilk gives the soap). Back to top What's the difference between hemp rebatch and hemp melt and pour? Melt and pour soap is the same as rebatching soap originally but chemicals are added to make it easily remeltable in the microwave, without the use of extra water or liquids. Rebatching bases are sometimes considered more difficult to use because they do not melt down as smoothly as melt and pour. Rebatching bases get soft and lumpy, similar to mashed potatos or oatmeal. You can get a thin, easily more pourable soap with the addition of more liquids but the draw back to adding more liquids is that the soap takes longer to harden, so most soapers choose to deal with the mashed potatos consistency. The nice thing about rebatching bases is that they are all natural and often appeal to the purists and individuals with sensitive skin. Back to top I used the melt and pour method but the soap is stuck in the molds and I cannot get it out! What did I do wrong? Help! I'm not sure how long you've left your soap in the molds, but it takes about 12 hours until the soap is really ready to release. Many times, it's hard but is still sticky and cannot be released very easily. Remember, it's cheaper to let the soap sit in the mold than it is to break the mold by wrenching it! If it's been a couple of days and you still can't get the soap out, put the soap and the mold in the freezer for fifteen minutes. I don't normally use the freezer because getting the soap very cold can contribute to glycerin dew (similar to the condensation that forms on a glass just taken from the fridge) and also makes the plastic mold more brittle. However, by getting the soap cold, it will slightly shrink the soap and it may help to get the soap out of the mold.Back to top What about Essential oils? When can you use them in your soap? I love Rosemary and would like to use it in soap. Yes, you can use essential oils in soap. The usage rate varies but the general rule of thumb is .5 oz. of essential oil per pound of soap. You can use more or less according to your preference. If in doubt, make a small test batch.Back to top When mixing scents, how can you tell what can be mixed with what? When mixing scents, the easiest thing to do is take the lids off the scents that you're thinking of blending and simply smelling them side by side, together. This will give you a good idea of what the scent will smell like blended. If you like that, the next thing to do is take a dropper and drop a bit of each scent on a paper towel. Let that mix sit for a few hours and then come back and smell it. If it still smells good, make a small test batch of soap to try and wait for full cure before pronouncing the blend good (or bad).Back to top I have been selling my lotions, etc. for about 2 years now and have always used lotion bases that I buy from different companies. Is is still necessary to add a preservative such as Germaben to these mixtures? I thought they already have a preservative in them. Also, I am about to try to make some cold process soap. Is there anything I am supposed to add to this as a preservative. I haven't been able to find anything concrete about this. If nothing is added, how long before a bar of soap becomes rancid, or does the soap become rancid? If the lotion base that you're using has preservative in it, then you do not need to add a preservative. Make sure that the pre-made base already has the preservative in there before foregoing it, however! You do not have to use any sort of preservative in CP soap. Some people choose to use an anti oxidant (such as Vitamin E) to help prevent rancidity in the oils and spoilage but it's an optional thing and isn't necessary. The shelf life of the soap varies based on what oils go into the recipe and the superfat, but the basic rule of thumb is that a well balanced bar of soap will last for a minimum of a year (if not longer). Back to top When making lip glosses, and butters, how do I clean the glass Pyrex container, to remove all of that wax, coloring, and scent residue I do not want colors and scents from my last project to "carry over" into the next batch I make, causing some odd odors, and coloring. I normally wipe down the glass immediately with paper towels after making it. After the wipe down (careful not to burn your hands - the Pyrex gets very hot!), throw as little as 4 or 8 oz. of melt and pour soap (any type - clear, white, specialty) and melt the soap down, fragrance it, color it and pour it. This way, the soap and the heat make the wax and color 'unstick' from the side of the Pyrex and the soap cleans it off nicely. Plus, soap is so much easier to rinse out of those dishes than the wax is! Back to top I've heard that tallow is really icky and hard to render. Can you tell me about it? Rendering tallow isn't actually horrible. It smells like meat cooking and can be messy if you're not careful. Teach Soap now has an excellent article on Rendering Tallow. I've made tallow before and it took me about 2 hours to render about 5 pounds of tallow from beef suet. Back to top | |||||
