Carrie

I'd rather order from SNC! :laugh2: (Inside Joke for Mystical...I know she doesn't sell Lye)

I've made a few cp soaps in small molds and I have to let them sit for a week or so until they are hard enough to come out of the mold. If I pushed too hard, too soon, it dented the bottom of the soaps.

It was a gift, but I recently asked where I could get it. Let me check the email. It is Tussah Silk and the place to get it is called lookchina.com. I just looked up the site and 5lbs is $70 plus shipping, for chopped. I use a strand about 1/4 wide and 1" long for a 2-3lb batch. I got .4oz and I think there is enough in there for about 100 batches.

Try this link. She was sending you to the archives and you can't get in there. This is the link to the active forum. You have to sign up though. This one is taking members...LOL Forgot the link, Duh! http://soapdishforum.com RLN: edited to fix link

Well, I just changed mine, I switched the OO with RBO, but I also subbed 5% of the coconut 76 with babbassu. It made a nice improvement. I should also add that I have since started to add silk to each batch. These little suckers just keep getting better.

Really, it's no more complicated than making cookies from scratch. The lye can be dangerous and must be respected but there is so much you can do with CP. It really is a wonderful creative outlet for me. I enjoy the reading and researching I do, the tinkering and the testing. I also make MP once in a while. I like the fun things you can do with it, but I love the quality of my cp soap. There are trade offs with each.

I stopped using olive in my main soap recipe and switched to RBO for a while. I really like the feel of the soap now but I can get pomace local for a decent price. I may have to switch back when I run out of RBO. If this is your usual recipe that you like and works great for you, why tweak it?

I just ran it thru MMS calc and it says 5% superfat is 5.50 lye and 10-14 water. So this looks just fine. What oils do you usually add after trace?

My guess would be that it would do nothing but harden the bar. I could be wrong. There is propably some moisturizing benefits as well.

Actually, that would be more like making a peanut butter sandwich, just adding PB to the bread. There are too many differences to discuss here. I say go find a bar of CP soap, or buy a few from people here. After you've tried them, come back to this thread and tell us what you think the difference is. That would be very educational for you, and informative for us CP makers, to have a non CP user try our soaps and compare them to MP. I'll send you a bar for testing.

Uggh 5 year olds are the best hurlers, that's for sure.

My first thought was my grandma's top drawer in her dresser. It had some wonderful scents that came out of it. I know one was lavender, I remember that one, but she would almost die for a french milled rose geranium soap. So would my mother. That's the next fo I'm soaping. Were yours eo's or fo's?

I infuse lip balm with coffee, I just haven't figured out the best way to do it yet. I seem to waste a lot of the lip balm.

I give out scrubs to friends etc in a 4oz jar. The last one I gave out sent me a note with $10 and told me that amount was just too small and could she get a bigger jar next time.

I picked up the KA Professional 5*tm* Plus Series, bowl lift mixer. MSRP $399.99. I got it for $199.99. I was doing the happy dance in the store!

Isn't the monoi just coconut 76 infused with tiari flowers. Couldn't you just use coconut 76 and save a bunch of money?

:tiptoe: EWWWWWWWW!

I use the lip balm coloring from MMS, what kind do you use?

Sorry Maryann, I was in 3 swaps all at once. I am just finishing up with the last bar of soap from the 2nd swap and then I'll get going on the B&B swap.

Not e, also not a silly question. The temp of the lye and oils isn't what heats up the soap to gel stage, it is the chemical reactions taking place. If the oils and lye water are warm when you start, then the reaction can happen faster, but it should happen anyway. Ok, most of the time.

I soap in the basement at my mothers house. I make sure that I tell my mom not to let my son downstairs, I'm soaping. I put on gloves and goggles. I mix the lye and let sit in another part of the basement. Take off gloves and goggles. My son will ask if he can come down, No, I have lye. I measure hard oils and put in the microwave to melt. While thats melting I measure liquid oils. Remind DS he isn't allowed downstairs. Decide which FO to play with today. Now what color and what kind of color. Pick up lye and see if it's still too hot to pick up. If it isn't I take it to soaping area, mix soft oils with hard, SB for a minute to break up the last of the hard oils then put gloves and goggles back on and SB the lye into the oils. At about this point I remember that I haven't lined the mold yet. That's the other reason I bought a Kelsei. I throw it together really fast. Also, this is usually when my cell phone rings and DS asks once again if he can come downstairs. I mix the color with some traced soap and add FO to the remainder in the pot. SB until it mixes. Add some color to the mold, pour the soap over the color, add more color, swirl. Put in the cross pieces of the mold and cover with towels. Go upstairs and have a glass of wine with Mom.

The lab colors? They are expensive. They are very concentrated and you measure by the drop. A little goes a long way

I use a pipette. No spills.

I don't buy sweetened flavors nor do I sweeten them. IMO, lip balm flavors are for smelling, not eating.

Eye Opener, that's for sure. I soap in my mothers basement. My son isn't allowed to go down stairs no matter what until I'm done. I remember reading about a woman who made lye water in a pitcher that the family always used. Her husband thought it was a pitcher of water and drank it. I never saw that site again but always wondered what happened to her husband. Anyone else remember that?