Soap!

Latest Articles

Soap!
Page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next

Downsizer Forum Index -> Make Your Own/DIY

Author

Message

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Mon Feb 07, 05 12:47 pm Post subject:

well, the soap is ready, according to the book, and I have licked it (ugh!) with no tingling, so went and had an experimental bath. Photo's to follow when himself comes back with the camera.

The egg and lemon shampoo bar smells faintly of lemon cake mix, and lathered quite easily on my hair. My hair felt dreadful afterwards - like it had been totally stripped of all its natural oils, so maybe it wasn't ready after all. I conditioned it so as to have human hair for work this morning, so I don't know what it would have been like if I hadn't. Now my hair feels almost overconditioned (although it looks fine) so maybe I should have had more faith in it. I'll try it again tonight, and see.

The castille soap didn't really lather at all (until I put in on my sisial mitt, and then it was OKish) and was bit gooey. I wonder if it isn't quite dry enough. However i washed with it, including my face and my skin felt the same as my hair while it was wet - like it was totally stripped. However when i was dry, it felt fine, soft and smooth, a million times better than bought soap, and better than with what I usually use (which is just water) I didn't moisterise at all, and felt better than usual.

All in all, a sort of success. Don't mind about the not lathering, but need to sort out whether I need conditioner or not, as judging by the way my skin felt, I might have misjudged it. I think I would still need a moisteriser, but maybe not on a daily basis. overall, an improvement on my current products, except conditioner, which I had really hoped to be able to do away with.

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 05 3:53 pm Post subject:

Hello, I'm new to the forum and I'm also a soapmaker so I thought this was a good place to pop up to wave at everyone. Noticed the last post was about Castile being gooey- its in the nature of Castile to do that, it goes quite snotty if you leave it sitting in water for too long, but it does improve immensley with long ageing. Despite the snottiness, I like all olive castile a lot and make a fair bit of it.
At the moment I've got a couple of gallons of soft soap (rapeseed and tallow) on the stove, taking forever to cook out today

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 05 3:55 pm Post subject:
Hello Sally, welcome to the site.

Marigold123

Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 05 5:40 pm Post subject:

I'm still working up the courage to make my first batch. I fell in love with the idea after reading The Soapmaker's Handbook a couple of years ago. I tried re-batching some supermarket soap to make miniature soaps for Christmas presents in '03. One lot turned out OK, but the other stayed lumpy - perhaps I wasn't patient enough!

If anyone decides to do this with supermarket soap don't bother adding any nice essential oils or anything like that, the stinky smells they put in commercially completely masked the scents I added, even though I used quite a lot.

Where do people get their sodium hydroxide from? - Not counting the wood-ash method!

(And if you do make your own lye, what do you do to make sure it's the right strength?)

Sarah D

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 2584

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 05 5:44 pm Post subject:
You can buy it in ironmongers/hardware shops quite easily - not too expensive, and you odon't use a lot at a time. If you make your own lye, the way to tell if it is strong enough is if it will support an egg. Making the lye form scratch is still on the cards for me, still looking for the ideal vessel to make it in. In the meantime, I use the bought caustic soda.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 05 5:46 pm Post subject:
Well, we've bought some caustic soda out of Boots' household shelves...also got some borax (not related to the soap but to the vinegar/bicarb type cleaning things on MSE Old Style )...but have yet to pluck up the courage to use either

moggins

Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 942
Location: Gloucester

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 05 5:49 pm Post subject:
Bugs where did you manage to find the Borax from?

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 05 5:52 pm Post subject:
That was also in Boots - I'd seen that people were having trouble getting it so thought I'd pick it up. It's a quite a big branch, but the household stuff (which includes "sensitive" stuff, washing powder and the like) was near the back close to the baby stuff.

moggins

Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 942
Location: Gloucester

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 05 6:15 pm Post subject:
Thanks Bugs, we've got quite a big branch too so I'll have a look for that when I go in.

Marigold123

Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 05 6:34 pm Post subject:
Thanks Sarah and Bugs, I've really got no excuse now, have I?

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 05 8:10 pm Post subject:

Soapmaking is great fun, but you do just need to make sure you have space and time so that you arent rushed, especially in the weighing out stages. Bought lye (either sodium hydroxide for hard soap of potassium hydroxide for soft soap) means that you can work out your recipe really really accurately, so there is no reason for it to go wrong. There are some very good online lye calculators that will also spit out basic instructions, and that can be handy when doing your first recipes.
With rebatching supermarket soap, you just need to dig around and read the labels and make sure you get an unperfumed soap. Most supermarkets do at least one with no scent at all, and that will work well for making things like herb washballs until you get confident with your own soap bases.

judyofthewoods

Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 05 11:09 pm Post subject:
healthfood shops usually do the big 3"-4" cube dark green French basic olive oil soap, though it has gone a bit expensive. There is also a smaller rectangular bar in a green wraper, 'Oliva', no scent. Not tried re-processing it though, but can't see why it should not work.

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 05 8:09 am Post subject:

How much is that french olive soap these days? I've made my own for so long I've lost track of how much the big bad world charges for things. Need to do a bit of market research into such things soon as I've got several soap recipes being safety certified so I can sell them legally- mostly for the re-enactors who have problems getting historically accurate soap- but might also help with teh overall household economy.

The soft soap eventually gelled last night after about 6 hours of boiling, so that was a relief. Got to make some neroli and labdanum soap this morning for making eighteenth century washballs in a few days, I love the smell of these oils and its one of the very few soaps I make that has colour in it, so its quite cheerful kitchen alchemy

judyofthewoods

Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 05 12:29 pm Post subject:
Sally, you'r not Sally from Ammanford (recently in OZ)? Have you spotted Jerkey Meister on this forum, he is into medeaval reenactment (member#250)?

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 05 12:31 pm Post subject:
Not from Ammanford- I'm in Mountain Ash, north of Cardiff. Jerky Meister is an old friend of mine and it was him who suggested I check out the forum. He's just a couple of valleys over from me.

	Downsizer Forum Index -> Make Your Own/DIY	All times are GMT Page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next
Page 3 of 4

View Latest Posts