[Jodi_berg]

So in what little free time I've had I've been teaching myself how to make cold process soaps, some goats milk some not. I've been working now for about 9 months and am just starting to get better at it. Theres a lot going on in that little bar of soap I tell ya, between color and fragrance morphing, trace accelerating fragrances, my clumsy and forgetfulness it's a lot to pull together before it begins to set up, but I love it. I'm not working on some hair conditioners,lotions,and balms again some goats milk some not. Anyway was wondering how many soaper we have on here?

 

[Scottyhorse]

Those are awesome! How do you get the colors like that? I am hoping to make soap soon..

 

[ksalvagno]

Wow! Hard to believe that is soap! Nice job!

 

[toth boer goats]

Nice

 

[Serenity Woods]

Wow! I do a little bit, but nothing that looks like that! Those are perfectly gorgeous. Care to share any recipes or techniques? What do you use for your colors?

 

[ArborGoats]

What is the size of the mold you used in row 2 picture 1? height/width/length? That looks really cool! Also have you determined a good way to determine mold size to batch size? Would love to be able to easily make a batch that fits into a mold nicely!

Mine are currently plain and simple! All come out a natural pale brown. What do you use for colors? How much colorant do you use?

 

[nchen7]

i started soaping a couple months ago....but DANG! mine do not look like yours! your soaps are beautiful!

 

[Jodi_berg]

Im totally addicted, I use Micas and oxides and pigments for my color the secret is to use a mini frothed to blend your colorl into some sweet almond oil 1/2 tsp mixed with 1/2 tbsp,so you get very little or no speckling, I use these colors at a rate of 1/2 tsp per cup of soap batter. I'm not sure the exact size of the shallow pink square mold. I usually do about 6 cup batches at a time. Most of the recipes I use are my own, but I also check out the brambleberry blog for ideal and recipes any usually cut the recipe in 1/2 and make some oil changes. I would love to share some recipes, later tonight I will share my swirling recipe which is slow to trace and give tons of time for play.i have to get my 4 year old to pre k this morning and then work but at the end of the day I' ll be back with some more pics and some recipes! This week I'm hoping to do a peacock swirl and an experimental technique I've seen a couple of time involving an in the pot swirl and a solid color loaf base.

 

[Sundancer]

Wow...nice soaps

We've just barely started making soap but want to get into it more. So...looking forward to a thread full of ideas, recipes and shorcuts from Ya'll

 

[Bambi]

Nice soaps!

 

[lovinglife]

I am just starting to collect my soaping supplies, I will be keeping watch on this thread!

 

[OutdoorDreamer]

Very nice! I'll be watching also

 

[nchen7]

I don't have access to micas and oxides, so I've only stuck with clays and natural colours, so mostly greens and beige. haha. this is the most adventurous that I've been able to get. NOTHING compared to yours!

 

[Jodi_berg]

Ugh so annoying just typed a huge response and it doesn't post. So tonight I did a peacock swirl and here's the recipe I used, most of my mold hold 6 cups or about 3 1/2 lbs. the flat square pink one holds I think about 7-71/2 though. If in doubt use water to see how much your mold hold and go from there.

10.5 oz coconut oil 76 degree
10.5 oz palm oil
7 oz avocado oil
7 oz sweet almond oil

11.6 oz water
5 oz lye

Combine at 120 degrees or less, stick blend in pulses for 1-2 min, just enough to emulsify and make sure you choose a well behaved fragrance oil or things can go bad fast. This recipe gives lots of time for great techniques.

 

[Jodi_berg]

I don't have access to micas and oxides, so I've only stuck with clays and natural colours, so mostly greens and beige. haha. this is the most adventurous that I've been able to get. NOTHING compared to yours!

Your soaps are Awesome, I love natural colors. We can try to get something pulled together to ship some stuff to you

 

[nchen7]

i'm off island soon, so I have my shopping list. but I think i'm sticking to clays for now (can get some nice colours from clays).

love the peacock swirl! i'm currently experimenting with a few diff recipes, but the one I like most so far is (moves pretty slowly):

50% olive oil
25% coconut oil, 76 deg
6.25% castor oil
18.75% cacao butter

goat milk instead of water, and room temp oils. I can't remember how much liquid or lye to use...soapcalc will say.

 

[Angel]

My oldest daughter and I are planning on making goat milk in the spring so any advice would be a plus. I will be watching this thread and coming back to it when we get started. I will also tell my daughter to check out all the colors. WOW, the soaps are so cool.:thumb:

 

[Trickyroo]

Those soaps are Amazing !!!!!! I am looking to try my hand at soap making too
But I doubt anything I do will look like yours , lolol Everybody that posted pictures of their soaps are just awesome ! All would really make some nice stocking stuffers That has got to be so cool to be able to use your own soaps
Thanks for sharing recipes and methods everyone !

 

[nchen7]

honestly, i'm not very artistic, and a lot of it is just playing around and having fun!

Laura, if you want to make stocking stuffers, you better get on it now! soap takes at least 4 weeks to cure (6-8 would be better), and christmas is creeping closer and closer.....

Angel, my suggestion is (and keep in mind i'm still a newbie, and I did all these things...), do a LOT of reading, research and watch youtube videos of soap making (Brambleberry and Soaping101 all have great videos on basics of cold process soap). then make sure you have all your safety gear. can't stress that enough. ALWAYS wear eye protection, even when moving the soap when they're in the mold...

there's a soaping forum very similar to this one (I think the admin there is Austin as well....lol).

 

[ciwheeles]

Wow, those are so cool looking! I've never seen homemade soaps that look that good. I love the colors too. We haven't gotten into making soap yet, but we're hoping to start next year.