The random soapy babble thread

[RavingRosemary]

lol! Ok, I guess you do need some! What are you stocking up on? I can live vicariously through you since I won't be soaping until I find a job (ugh!)

Ha ha, ditto, only sub "find a job" with "finish Americorps and move back into some semblance of a stable life."  I'm not allowing myself to buy anything new until next August (even though I want Sweetcakes' Santa's Pipe SO BADLY).  I kind of envy you right now!   It must be fun to build up your collection again.  (And oh man, I wish I'd known you were giving everything away!  DC's only five hours away--SO WORTH THE DRIVE.)

I know it's time to load up on Christmas stuff, but I find myself wanting to make a bunch of tropical/ocean bars... guess I'm in denial about summer ending.  Sigh.

[smittenheart]

well..my philosophy of it was..that if I didnt use it or LOVE it then I was better off just starting from scratch..ALOT of what I had was peoples destash anyways...so I may have bought a whole lot of FOs for just a few that I liked..so I was left with some that I was iffy about..

though I will admit my heart ached when her husband came to pick it up..Ive given them things before shes been my inspiration in making soap...she does HP and from the start was VERY encouraging to me sooooo I felt it went to a good home..but looking for replacements has me going cross eyed 

Im getting some seasonal AND fruity(but of course)..its fun but ALSO getting $$..

[mullerslanefarm]

I want to try tallow and goats milk soap, suggestions?

For making milk soaps, make sure you use it frozen.  Fresh is best (check out Real Milk for possible suppliers in your area.  Please note that raw milk sales are ILLEGAL in some parts of the USA ... go figure!

When I used canned GM, I froze just the GM (after shaking the can very well) flat in a ziplock bag.  Don't discount the liquid amount for your recipe and dissolve the lye in water, then add the appropriate amount of frozen GM.

eta:  use half the amount of liquid your recipe calls for as water and the other half as frozen canned GM.

Tallow always makes a great soap. The two types of tallow most commonly used are rendered beef suet and leaf lard.  Lard is a tallow, but 'tallow' isn't lard. Lard comes specifically from hogs, where tallow is a generic name for suet that is rendered from all hooved animals (including hogs.)

Use it from 30-100% of your recipe.

[MareMare]

When I used canned GM, I froze just the GM (after shaking the can very well) flat in a ziplock bag.  Don't discount the liquid amount for your recipe and dissolve the lye in water, then add the appropriate amount of frozen GM.

What are you saying here? Use the normal amount of water plus the goat's milk? I've only made a couple batches of gm so maybe I'm doing it wrong!

[mullerslanefarm]

Um no, don't really know who she is.

That's perfectly normal.  It's only every once in a while that I get my head out of Fiber Arts and come back to the Soaping....

When I used canned GM, I froze just the GM (after shaking the can very well) flat in a ziplock bag.  Don't discount the liquid amount for your recipe and dissolve the lye in water, then add the appropriate amount of frozen GM.

What are you saying here? Use the normal amount of water plus the goat's milk? I've only made a couple batches of gm so maybe I'm doing it wrong!

Um ... sorry MareMare ... my bad for explaining the wrong way.

I'm saying for the total liquid amount used for your recipe, don't discount it ... if you are a new soaper to GM.

Let's say you need 14 oz liquid for your recipe (with no water discount taken).  Take 7 oz and mix up your lye, then add your frozen canned GM.

Since canned GM needs to be diluted 50/50, by using this method, you still get a 100% GM soap.

Let me know if this doesn't make sense!

[MareMare]

Oh ok, thanks hon! Don't do a water discount with GM, gotcha!

[mullerslanefarm]

Actually, I use a 32-33% lye saturation for my 100% milk soaps, but I don't recommend it unless you increase your lye saturation slowly until you reach the percentage you are comfortable with.

[monnie31]

so excited, I can now make Goats Milk Soap

[mullerslanefarm]

Wonderful!!!  Did you use the realmilk.com to find local raw milk?

You can use http://www.mullerslanefarm.com/soapmaking.html for a pictorial

[monnie31]

I asked the health food store and they called for me.  Is there any precautions I need to take with Fresh GM?  What oils mix best?