This first one looks a bit like a Christmas tree, but that was not what I was going for.  The soap accelerated once I added my fragrance and it became almost impossible to pipe n the "frosting". It is scented with coconut lime verbena and I added a touch of shredded white soap to look like coconut.


This soap was much easy to pipe and the scent is black raspberry vanilla.

Did you use virgin olive oil or pomace olive oil?  Pomace can trace quite quickly.  Mine usually takes a minute or 2 to trace, but I also soap at RT which helps to speed up the process.  My 100% olive oil soaps have a nice lather, so you may be surprised when you go to use it.

Last night I whipped up a batch of dark chocolate raspberry cupcake soaps. This was my first time doing this type of soap. I had never piped soap like frosting before, but it was really no different than cake decorating. So fun! I plan to make some more today. 

Are you using Candelilla wax for your vegan deodorant?  Do you find that it works just as well as beeswax?  What an original idea...I love that so many people are thinking outside the box (of soaps and lotions) and coming up with ways to make all types of products.  Very cool!

I sell homemade cold process soap.  LadybugSoapworks.et sy.com

I would love it as well if someone would critique my store.  LadybugSoapworks.et sy.com

You should be able to get things like vitamin E at your local natural food store and I would not be surprised if you also found grapefruit seed extract.  Other preservatives you would probably have to order online though.  And Vit E is not really a preservative it is an antioxidant which will slow down the process of oils going rancid, but will not prevent bacteria from growing in the lotion.  You can also try to choose your oils so that they are ones with a long shelf life and then keep the lotion in the fridge in a squeeze type bottle. 

Have you tried out the one with foil hearts yet?  I am just wondering if it is really scratching?  It looks very cool...like glitter.

I made some soaps yesterday that contained shea butter and silk fibers.  I can't wait to try them!  I have read that silk fibers can make your soap really...well um silky.  Has any one else tried silk fibers in your soaps?  I put a pinch of the silk fibers in the lye solution.  The soaps I made were Vanilla chai tea, Patchouli, and lavender.  I put the lavender in a big round mold and plan to cut it like pie slices.  I saw that done somewhere and it looked so cute.

I would say it is unlikely that the sodium hydroxide (lye) went bad.  For my "day" job I am a molecular biologist and I work with sodium hydroxide often and I have never seen it go bad.  We have some very old stuff in our lab and it still works well.  The only way it may have gone bad is if it was left open for a long time and was able to absorb moisture from the air.  If something did go bad it was most likely the oils since many only have a shelf life of 6 months -2 years. 

Do you have pictures of the soap?