chuck_35550

I can whip up 6 bars of soap in no time and unmolding is very easy and clean up is very easy. It is a well made mold which should last a life time. A good mold is going to cost money and this one has paid me back 100 times over. I would like the slab mold but the width of the soap seems a little slim to me (1.25 inches) and most of my bars are about 1.5 inches thick. The only other mold that I ever wanted was a Soap Hutch and those were too expensive for my little operation. The red silicone molds from Essential Depot are the best bang for the buck but they do not come with a support frame. You can buy a metal frame or build a wood frame for it; I just use the box it came in for support. I have an old Kelsei slab mold (9 bars) and it just doesn't do it for me. The HDPE sticks to the soap and tears when unmolding, no matter what I do. HTH Steve

Oh yea, last year I bought a bag of acrylic acorns, maple leaves and pumpkins and made molds. So much fun.

The two pound acrylic mold from Soap Makers Resource is my all time favorite mold. It's so easy to use and I like making small batches (about 6 nice bars) with sample fos and experimental formulas with this little mold. It cleans up so easily and the soap comes out smooth as glass on all sides. I use my red ED mold too. Then there's all the others.......and the ultimate is to make your own silicone molds. I have a bunch of Van Yulay molds for imbeds, just great. About time to start making cupcakes and cakes.

Cost. I will say that the type of lid is a major consideration on sales. I found that the plastic fitment types were too hard for customers to take off and put back on. I use a type of screw on lid called a lug type. Lugs aren't real pretty but they are functional and less expensive. High end companies can afford to pour up a candle in a fine tumbler with no lid and put it in a beautiful box and charge $40.00 but I can't. I wish my customers would buy Masons but they aren't into prim or country stuff, so I use 12 and 16 oz salsa straight sided (flint) jars with a gold lug lid. HTH Steve

My last batch was perfect and the bomb twirled and all that good stuff.I blended all my ingredients together at the beginning but the real secret is using Natrasorb or SLSA or both. Kaolin clay really helps to harden the bomb and I use dry mica for coloration, no water based coloration. My wife said it made her skin really soft without being greasy; so I'm like "Yes". Picked up some mondo bomb molds at Hobby Lobby and might try a formula for Big Blue but you should really look into using Natrasorb and SLSA in your bombs. I didn't have any bumps on any of my bombs and I used a lot of oil and spritzed them pretty heavy with witch hazel. You just have to stir like crazy to incorporate. I've looked at several formulas that call for the citric to go in last but as long as my results are this good; I'll continue to mix it all together. I put everything together in a large zip lock back and shook it up real good. It keeps the dust down and really blends the ingredients well together (I still wear my double filter respirator). HTH Steve

Shout out to SCENTED! Made a batch of bombs yesterday with Natrasorb, Kaolin clay and oh my goodness are they awesome! Thanks so much for turning me onto the Natrasorb (although I did have to wear my heavy duty respirator). I have yet to try out the SLSA with the Natrasorb but that's for the next batch. Steve

Never throw anything away! NEVER! I can't tell you how many times that some item has been used at a later date for a totally different purpose. Some fos wind up in melt applications or in a m&p guest soap. They may not make it in a candle or cp applicaton but can be helpful for some in general testing applications like making fragrance jelly or beads. My shop is stacked with all kinds of items that may or may not get used but I promise you that sometime I'll be thinking of how something might be packaged or I think that might work. Besides, I have no intentions of throwing away what's left of my bottle of GL Magic Of India!

I still have a healthy respect for lye and always will, lye burns hurt. I only use Essential Depot for my lye source. Their packaging and granular type of lye is the easiest to deal with IMHO. I save all the empty bottles (just in case I buy a 50 pound bag again) and never have to worry about static charged lye sticking to everything. The worst mistake I made was buying a 50 pound bag right off the bat and not knowing how to handle so much caustic material. Most of the lye went bad and then there was the problem of disposing it properly. I finally have done away with disposable gloves and bought a great set of black latex rubber gloves that have the long cuffs to protect your forearms. Wally World carries them in the paint department and they are really flexible and fit nice and tight. Now, I handle soap without worry but I still use my double respirator and safety goggles to be safe. I can tell you that breating lye fumes don't mix well with asthma. HTH Steve

I use 3022 but order directly from Clarus. Critters (mice, roaches, ants) love to eat wax or just hang out on it. I always check my shipments to make sure there's nothing wrong. It sounds like the critters were in the sealed area and someone owes you 20 pounds of wax. HTH Steve

I'm just getting started and the few that I've made have been shrink wrapped. There are a couple of good youtube vids on the subject. There are quite a few vids on making bombs and it looks like everyone does theres' just a little differently. So far I've ordered about $300.00 worth of supplies, so they better sell. My daughter told me if I started making Lush bombs, she knew a lot of young ladies that would buy them. I saw a Lush bomb on Amazon and it was nearly $16.00 for a 9 oz one. Steve

Scientific Soapmaking: The Chemistry of the Cold Process Paperback – March 16, 2010 by Kevin M. Dunn (Author) Best book on the subject IMHO. Not 100% in agreement with everything he suggests but its pretty darn good. Be careful with Anne-Marie, some of her formulas don't work out so well. She is very creative and her cupcake info is superb. Steve

Thanks, I'll add that to the growing grocery list of ingredients that are theatening to take over the lab. Steve

This recipe uses no liquid, only oils. The bombs do spin somewhat and float on top of the water but the effect was somewhat less than I expected. I'm hoping that when the round molds are going to work better and intend to add some extra oils and more color.

Be careful to buy canned coconut milk that does not contain agar. Its made from seaweed and causes your soap to turn into a monster that breathes. You want pure coconut milk with no additives. HTH Steve

Hanger swirls need to be in that medium trace so you can layer but it still requires me to barely emulsify with the sb and not be tempted to make sure its well blended. The trace is perfect by the time I separate and color the batter. Nothing feels better than to be in control of your soap and know that this is not just a happy accident. I make nothing but goats milk soaps and the sugars make it real hard to get that thin trace you need for certain types of swirling but that's my choice. I've read that castor and palm increase saponification, as well as, Borax. I generally soap at about 85 degrees and find that a happy medium rather than cool temps or hot temps. You have to move fast whatever you're doing and make sure that the fo dosen't cause acceleration or discoloration. HTH Steve

Oh hey Scented, I want my bath bombs to spin on top of the water, fragrance, color, fill the tub with oils and the like and leave no trace on the tub. Asking too much out of a bath bomb? Steve

Supernova is a dream to soap too. So far, I'm pretty impressed with FB. Have you tried Jungle yet? Oh and one ounce in a two pound mold is doing a great job with no morphing or fading. Steve

I think the Lush dupes are going to be good for my area. Nobody knows anything about them, which is good. Fragrance Buddy has awesome dupes for soap, haven't tried them in wax yet. Steve

I thought the Jojoba beads would melt in the tub and not congregate around the tub. Still looking for the perfect bath bomb recipe. Its the new thing to take over my waking life. Why isn't any of this stuff easy? I now have about 20 recipes that all look pretty much the same. Steve

I prefer the cdn wicks but have been using cds lately.

I'll have to try that.

I trim my wicks pretty low when selling. Some customers make it a point to tell me that they trim their wicks but probably most don't care. Tall flames make me nervous. Most of the hang up with a cd or cdn wick is due to their leaning or bending over in one direction (some people twist their wicks to turn as they burn) and the only way to counteract an uneven burn is to double wick the jar. I notice that most companies are double wicking to ensure an even burn=full melt pool. I hate double wicking anything but it makes sense if you have issues with a messy jar until the final burn. Hang up and tunneling are two different issues and my candles don't tunnel but they do keep a fair amount of hang up until the final burn. HTH Steve

Lavender can either be perfume like or astringent like in combination. So lavender and lemon smells like the most astringent personal hygiene fragrance on the planet; whereas lavender and rose comes off as gag me with a spoon perfume. Plain lavender just smells like old ladies sachets. I have a pound of Tennessee Candle Supply's True Lavender and a half pound of Tassi Lavender from what is now Soapalooza and they just sit there staring at me. French milled soap is almost always lavender with buds on the top and there's something about that fragrance that is altogether different. What about lavender in a bakery application? Lavender Pound Cake, Lavender Milk Oatmeal Cookie, Lavender Chocolate Dipped Sugar Cookie?

The mica left a faint ring on my tub, so I used liquid dye for m&p. This batch is quite pretty and smells great. I split my mix into three sections and used Bubblegum with red, Black Raspberry Vanilla with a mix of orange and red and Strawberry Shortcake with the orange and made layers. The dye made specks that look pretty nice but also colored very well and the fos are non-discoloring soap fos. I used Witch Hazel to spray and 1/2 tsp of sunflower in two of the batches and 1/2 tsp sweet almond oil in the other. The formula was 2 cups soda, 1 cup citric acid, 1 cup corn starch and 1 cup ground Epsom salts. I had trouble getting them to the right consistancy and they weren't coming out of my silicone molds easily. Three are perfect and two had to be remolded and one just wouldn't work at all. This morning they look really nice and smell so good (I was going for Strawberry Bubblegum). I think I'll try green French clay in the next batch. Too much fun! Steve