/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Most people get into soap making as a hobby. They make guest soaps, party favors, or just want to produce a higher quality soap than they could buy at their local grocery store, for half the cost.

Personally, I'm approaching it as a business. I'm very new to it, and maybe it's a bit silly to start a business doing something I haven't done before, but life is all about adventure.

In this picture, you can see a bunch of supplies I ordered from Brambleberry, a really great soap supply company. You can get most of the stuff to make soap at your local grocery store and hardware store. There are also tons of hobby shops out there with soap making supplies.

The main ingredients in soap are oils. You can use virtually any type of oil: coconut, olive, castor, hell even beef tallow. When combined with Sodium Hydroxide (Lye), the process of Saponification begins. This process converts the oils into soap.

I'm getting geared up to start cranking out lots of soap. I bought about 50 samples of fragrance oils, to see what I like best, and a dozen different types of oils, so that I can test the different properties each oil adds to the end product. I also purchased molds, but you can use anything from plastic tupperware containers to muffin pans as molds for your soap.

>IMPORTANT RULE
>NEVER EVER EVER EVER USE ALUMINUM. IT REACTS WITH SODIUM HYDROXIDE.

I've done a lot of studying. Youtube is a great resource, as there are tons of people who show you how to make soap. There's several different ways as well, but if you're making soap "from scratch", you'll be doing either:
>Cold Process Soap
or
>Hot Process Soap

The methods are very similar, but there is a distinct difference in how the soap turns out, the length of time before the soap is ready, and the amount of work you're putting into it.

>>779825
How can you trip yourself "Soap Dad" if you haven't even made soap before? Soap enthusiast at best.

>>779829
I'm a dad and I'll be making soap. I see your point, though. Shall I change it to "Soon To Be Soap Dad"? Or do you mind if I go ahead and start my first batch tomorrow and post pictures of the process and results?

To be honest, I actually am a soap enthusiast. It's been mostly shave soap, but my interest in cold process soap has also grown. I have about 40 different types of shave soap. This is a small order I placed with my current favorite shave soap company, Stirling.

Either way...if I can help others get into it an learn, then why not?

>>779829
By the way, thank you for posting that picture. I was looking around on my computer for it...saved it a while back, but had trouble finding it.

>>779832
Yeah man. I was making a joke on the play on words. Soap dad could also mean the father of soap, but if you hadn't even made any, how could you claim such?
Anyway, I am very interested in learning to make soap, please do not let me discourage you.

Isn't lye based soap really bad for your skin?

>>779833
Don't worry...not discouraged. Just realized I came across as kind of defensive. Wasn't my intention. I was gonna go by "Shave Dad" but then I realized that could come across as an instruction instead of an interest.....

The process of making soap is fairly easy, but it's figuring out what to put in it and the best combinations that is important. Each oil has different properties that it lends to the soap. Palm oil makes a harder bar of soap, so it's important to include some if you're using softer oils like Castor oil. I'll post a link to a soapmaking calculator, so that nobody has to try to figure out the proportions themselves.

http://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Lye-Calculator.aspx

>>779835
Nearly all soaps use sodium hydroxide (lye). If they don't, they really can't even be called soap, legally. But to answer your question: Not at all.

The reason is that when the soap is finished curing, there is NO lye left in the soap (provided you made it properly). Lye itself is very caustic and can cause severe burns, but when added to the oils in the proper proportions, the process of saponification changes everything chemically into soap. There's no lye left in the soap once it is finished curing. That is why, if you make cold process soap, you have to let the bars cure for 4-6 weeks. That ensures that everything is fully saponified.

>>779838
I like threads like this. Showing up with information on the topic and educating others. None of that "What can I do with a toothbrush and 3 mint wrappers" bullshit.

>>779845
Haha! Yeah, I've seen a ton of those. The soap threads in the past were really informative and experimental and I absolutely loved it. It's what inspired me to do it myself. And after a little research, I saw that a lot of companies that make artisan soap products, especially the shave soaps I love so much, buy their materials and fragrances from Brambleberry. That said to me, "If they can do it, I can too!" I think my real key to success is going to come in the scent combinations I'll create, as well as producing entire lines of bath products with those scents. I've already got an idea for a very masculine soap, inspired by Humphrey Bogart.

Now if you're not wanting to deal with Lye, which is understandable, then you can still do your own soap making. There's tons of places where you can buy a soap base to create melt & pour soap. All you need is the soap base, a microwave, a mold, and some fragrance oil. Although with melt & pour, you can also make some really visually stunning products.

>>779831
>>779837
You could just drop the trip and name altogether. Information has nothing to do with identity faggot.

>>779858
Everyone gets a bug up their butt about trips, for some reason. Seriously...what's with the hostility about it?

>>779868
You're on an anonymous imageboard.
Continued use of names and trips is the cheapest, most pathetic form of attention whoring.

>>779829
Lmao, I've been making soap for years I guess I could be called a Soap Master, I don't trip though, I'm not that self absorbed.

There's also another soap making thread already going on, the fact that a tripfag just needed to make a thread for himself speaks volumes.

>>779933
>>779873
Alright, alright. I really don't want attention (and I don't want my use of a trip to derail the thread)...I started the thread with the intention of being informative and turning people on to a fairly easy do-it-yourself project. The other soap-making thread is someone asking about making cheap glycerine soap, not a general soap-making thread.

If you've been making soap for years, why don't you contribute? I'd love to hear about your experiences and find out what has worked best for you. I'm planning on making a batch or two today or tomorrow and some advice would be great.

>>779941
>>775351

>>779941
Alright then, what kind of recipe will you do? Palm and olive oil is a time proven recipe by Palmolive, though palm oil has become harder(and morally ambiguous) to obtain because you literally have to kill a tree whereas palm kernel oil is extracted from the seeds. I'd suggest you use that one instead since it has practically the same properties, coconut oil is also great for soap making.

For the market niche you're trying to sell you'd be better off by sticking to "vegetarian soap" without animal fat but lard and tallow are great to stabilize and cheapen the soap so you should take into account that.

I can answer questions if you have any.

>>779946
Also, the thing with sodium olivate is that it takes weeks to cure so if you make a 50-50 palm kernel and olive oil soap it'll take longer to cure and might require better planning on your finished product inventory .

This is fixed by using hot process but as the other thread states, it's very rough if not machine processed which requires a bigger initial investment.

>>779825
>higher quality soap than they could buy at their local grocery store, for half the cost.
But, that's wrong.
Soap and candle-making are not cost-effective in the least unless done on a large scale. The ingredients cost in relatively small quantities is astronomical. The only way you can make it a 'business' is if you're doing it on a large scale and have a distribution channel that moves the product, and at a price-point that nets you enough of a profit to make it worthwhile to do. In small quantities you'd have to charge so high a price for it that most people wouldn't even consider it.

Really, there needs to be a sticky for /diy/, and it needs to include this subject, along with things like why shipping-container houses are a bad idea, 'tiny houses' are not practical, how you fix your goddamn headphone cables, etc. instead of reposting the same threads over and over again.

>>779946
It's a coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, shea oil, and castor oil blend. Biggest one is olive oil, followed by coconut and palm in equal amounts, and then shea and castor in equal amounts. Should produce a relatively hard bar that is also moisturizing. Superfatting at 5%.

>>779946
>>780071
As far as your concerns about palm oil, I buy from Brambleberry. This is what they have to say on that topic:

"In keeping with our social and ethical responsibility goals, our Palm oil supplier is a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an organization that supports sustainable palm oil production."

From what I understand, palm kernel and regular palm oils behave differently and cannot be substituted for one another.

I'm curious..have you ever used apricot kernel oil, meadowfoam oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil, or rice bran oil? I had purchased some canola oil but saw in the other thread that people said not to use it because soap using it turns rancid fast.

And yeah, it seems like tallow soaps would be a bad idea based on the client bases I'm hoping to hit. Maybe for locally sold soaps at farmer's markets and stuff, but not for an online audience.

>>779949
Generally, I'm kind of assuming cold process will be the way to go, and I've factored in a 4-6 week cure time for that. I'm working on about a $2,000 total investment for about the next 3 months.

>>779960
It all depends on how it is manufactured, and the amounts you're doing. If you're hoping to make a single bar of soap cheaper than you could buy in store, you're right...you won't save anything. If you want to make a year's supply for your family, that's a different story. And yes, the larger amounts you buy, the cheaper it gets. That's why I started with greater quantities of everything. But if it were just flat-out not profitable, there wouldn't be so many people selling on Etsy or opening their own online stores. There IS money to be made, you just have to approach the right way.

>>779960
Lol, I make a kilo of soap a month and it costs 8 dollars so that's less than a dollar for each 100gr bar.

Get wrecked faggot.

>>780074
Stick to easily available oils, as far a a soap goes you can make a good bar with only 2 or 3 oils and they don't have to be exotic. I'm afraid you're trying to pander to the gimmicky organic crowd instead of building a customer base based on product quality and affordability.

I wont lie to you I haven't used those oils, only avocado. In my opinion you risk logistic issues by using exotic oils and it'll only make your soap more expensive in the long run when they're perfectly replaceable.

Also, it's true that palm kernel does not replace palm oil, I got that one wrong.

>>780086
For the most part, I am. I may use small amounts of the more exotic oils, like Jojoba. But my choices in oils were mostly based on price. Coconut, Palm, Rice Bran, and Avocado oil, I can buy really cheap. Like, around the same price as Olive Oil. I don't want "gimmicky" so much as I want something that's better than "basic" soap. I want to cater to different people...soaps that are good for sensitive skin, for aging skin, for dry skin, etc. The soaps, for the most part, will have very similar recipes, with small amounts of other oils added in, to be included in the superfatting. With stuff like Jojoba, probably won't do more than 5%. Meadowfoam oil actually is something useful...it extends the shelf life of your products tremendously, as a natural preservative.

This batch accelerated pretty fast once I added in eucalyptus and lavender essential oils. I wasn't able to get it into the molds on thin trace...was very thick by the time it was in the molds. On the right hand side, I put them in the oven for a while to initiate gel phase. I'm not sure I did it for long enough.

Can you give me a basic recipe you use involving avocado oil? I have a shipment arriving on monday with avocado oil in it. Also, have you ever used aloe extract? I have a small amount of that...was thinking that would be good to add in.

What's the ROI on this? Are yall making it for personal consumption or sending your wife to sell it at the farmer's market?

It seems small, compared to whats already available for cheap

>>780100

Avocado oil is highly unsaponifiable and full of vitamins, it'd be better used as a superfatting oil no more than 5% of the whole recipe. You're supposed to calculate at 0% superfat and then add it after trace so that only avocado oil is present in the super fat.

Also seems like you got runaway trace because of fragrance, check that one out.

I've never used aloe extract but some other Anon here used it instead of water and got bad results so just use it as you would use honey, dump it in the pot with all the oils.

>>779823
I've considered making soap for a long time, maybe 2 years now. It was because i had a free ingredient - bacon grease - although i don't collect so much of it now as I used to.
Has it been done before? I didn't find anything last time I google'd.
Anyone want to take it up as a challenge?

>>780103
>What's the ROI on this?

Pretty low. It's done to death. Go to any health store, fashion boutique, or farmers market and you'll find more than one brand.

ive been thinking about making beer soap myself. I work at a brewery and after the boiling we end up dumping about 30 gallons or more of wort because its mixed in with the trub and hop residue

i could take that and make ass tons of soap. to be honest id feel a little gay selling it at farmers markets, but thats my own insecurities getting in the way of profit

>>780167
>>780235

Yea, that's what I figured. So it looks like this is more of a hobby and something to make you happy. If you have access to a waste product that can be turned into soap, then it seems to make sense...

...but to invest several thousand $$ and try to profit on it seems to be a stretch w/ a saturated market of hippies doing this for years now...

>>780251
Anyone can break away in a saturated market by making their products stand out. I'll be honest, though...a lot of it is heavily dependent on marketing and diversification. I can't JUST sell on Etsy. I have to go to the local farmer's market and set up a table. I have to talk to local businesses that I could have a vendor relationship with. I'm on the US/Mexico border, so I have to capitalize on the international consumer as well. I have to embrace social media. Honestly, 25% of the product I'm going to produce will be in sample sizes that I'm going to send out for free. The soap is a part of it, but it's not ALL of it. I'm also going to benefit from the fact that there is really nobody in my area doing this. It's an untapped market. There IS money to be made. You just have to approach it the right way.

>>780235
Wandering /k/ommando/homebrewer here. Got a recipe? Never heard of making soap outta beer before.

>>780269
I think you can generally just substitute water for beer.

How many jews do i need for 1 block of soap?

>>780158
"bacon grease" is normally called lard and it's a very common ingredient in soaps.

>>780235
>wanting trub in your soap

People that put garbage in their soaps or make them from left over cooking fat disgust me.

>>780329
6 gorillion tablespoons

So my first soap came out a bit more....rugged and unfinished than I'd like. Maybe it was just too soft to take it out of the mold. I waited about 30 hours, and it's about 68 in my house. Mistake?

This may sound like a soap noob question but i cant find a steady supply of Jews. What can I substitute them with?

>>780329
>>780700
It was even less funny the second time you faggot.

>>>/pol/

Hardened very fast...no time for a nice swirl. But otherwise, very nice. Unmolded easily, unlike the other soap.

Chop chop.

Looks a little funky but overall, not bad. Have to adjust my cutter...each bar is about 5 oz.

>>780367
There would not be trub in the soap. It settles out to the bottom? I don't know why you think some proteins and phenols would be bad in it anyway.

The reason people don't.put it in the fermenter is because it impedes fermentation and creates haze.

Using products that would otherwise be wasted is quite a stupid thing to hate. I bet your one of those dicks that doesn't eat the crust of their pizza

>>779858
Grow up, anon. You're toxic.

>>779873
Actually, your irrelevant ranting is the most pathetic form of attention whoring. Stop trying to magnify your self-worth by belittling your betters.

Personally I find it practical when OP, or otherwise key posters, uses a name. It's so much easier to get a overview of the thread. And btw, what is a trip?

Back to subject. A long time ago, my Mom made soap from ox, and dear tallow. It smelled for years. But was good like nothing else.

>>781361
a trip is a tripcode

>>781346
>>781348
Way to flame the drama up again faggots.

>belittling your betters.
That is EXACTLY what they are talking about. By your logic I automatically win this argument because I just used a trip. Because being a tripfag makes me better than you pleb anon posters, amirite? No need to post a reply, I trip now, you have no right to question me pleb.

>>781361
I find reading the OP text or subject field is the best way of getting an overview of the thread, but if you are somehow able to glean the entire theme of a thread from a name, by all means share your method.

>>780269
Sorry man, haven't made any soap yet. Got the lye and just need some oils and to bring a bucket for the run off of a brew day.

As far as I know it's like the poster said above you replace the water with the beer. C02 and lye do not mix though and will cause the chemicals to gush everywhere so leave it out over night or longer to let it go flat

>>779829
That beer soap looks delicious

>>779828
>I bought about 50 samples of fragrance oils, to see what I like best
So which ones do you like the most so far? I've only been using a couple essential oils in my stuff and want to get more of a variety of scents.

>>781554
Bonsai and Bamboo both smell amazing. There's also a Lavender and Cedar combo that is awesome. My wife really likes the Heavenly Honeysuckle and Cherry Blossom.

>>779823
Can anyone post a simple step-by-step recipe for soap?

>>781599
Second

>>781599
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=step+by+step+recipe+for+soap

>>781599
>>781759
We can, but you need to understand some stuff first. Get on youtube and look up "Lye Safety". That's your MOST important thing to understand. If you fuck up with lye, you're going to breathe in fumes or burn yourself or spray fucking molten lye all over your room.

But basically...once you do that, it's pretty simple. You can really mix and oils you want, but what I like is 32% coconut oil, 32% olive oil, 32% palm oil, then 4% castor oil. Use a soap calculator depending on how much soap you want to make, and calculate your superfatting anywhere from 0% - 10% (I do 5%). That will give you the amount of lye and distilled water you need.

This picture is my calculations for my last batch.

>>781777
Also, there's this.

http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/free-beginners-guide-to-soapmaking-cold-process/

>>779960
>shipping-container houses are a bad idea, 'tiny houses' are not practical
I'll be right amongst the first to say the same thing

But I do understand the threads, tiny houses are such a wet dream. It's a smaller version of the ultimate diy project, building a house.

>>782049
Admittedly, I thought about it at one point in time too. Then I realized I'm a married adult with a child and I enjoy having a 55" TV and 3 monitors way too much.

>>779849
Hey, can you expand on shaving soap and making it?

This thread introduced me to the concept

And the difference between lye soap and other soaps? Why is it that other soap can look different and how do they feel and function compared to lye?

I mean I'm sure I'm asking for alot but I appreciate your tenacity in researching this much

>>782447
MAKING shaving soap is a bit more difficult. It involves using both sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide, various exotic butters and oils, and face-safe fragrances. I'm not even trying to get into that arena....it's competitive and there are a lot of people making extraordinary products.

All soap is made with either sodium hydroxide (lye) or potassium hydroxide (used for liquid soaps). The looks, smells, and feels of different soaps vary between the main ingredients (different oils), the types of colorants used, the fragrances used, and the processing method. Part of the reason your basic soaps like Dial, Ivory, Dove, Irish Spring, etc. tend to look different and feel very shitty is that they usually bleed out all of the glycerin, which is a skin moisturizer. Cold and Hot process soaps don't.

And hey...these threads are for learning and educating. I've done more book learning than hands-on learning, but that's going to shift fairly quickly. Got my second shipment in, with sodium lactate in it, so I can bust out my silicone molds.

I am practicing my swirling techniques tonight. Check this out...what do you guys think?

>>782623
That looks really good.

>>782626
Thank you! I'm hoping it swirled as well internally as it did externally. Will find out in a couple of days when I unmold it. If the thread is still going, I'll be sure sure to post pictures.

>>782623
Looks sort of like the slime in ghostbusters II

>>782447
Shaving soap is a tricky one. My recipe is coconut oil, castor, palm kernal and stearic acid, and a bit of cocoa butter.

Potasium stearate produces a rich lather, the castor oil makes it luxurious and the palm and coconut oils stabilize.

The problem with these oils is how fast they come to trace. So work slowly.

I process the soap in two batches then bring them together. The stearic acid and 20% of the castor, 10% of the coconut, 20% of the palm get KOH lye. The rest get NaOH.

The two batches are brought to trace trace and mixed together and incorporated slowly by hand to minimize building trace further.

If you are doing scents trace will get away from you quickly with these hard oils. Run the KOH batch first since its slower to trace.

Drop it into your mold and place into a preheated oven on the warm setting on the middle rack. Leave for two hours. Then shut off the oven and leave over night. Slice in the morning.

>>779835
>Isn't lye based soap really bad for your skin?
Only if its been improperly made and has way WAY too much lye. But you will be able to tell that just from looking at the soap.

OK. I'll post my recipe again. This is for a surgically squeaky clean soap with a good lather:
Lard 17 oz = 2 cups + 2 tablespoons
Olive Oil 2.0 oz = ¼ cup
Soy Oil 2.0 oz = ¼ cup
Water 8oz = 1 cup
Lye 3.5 oz = 7 1\2 tablespoons
Orange essence = 3 teaspoons
1) Combine lye and water in a glass jar, stir and set outside for a half hour to react and cool.
2) Combine oil/fat in stainless steel or glass cooking pot.
3) Melt the oil/fat mixture on a low heat.
4) Swish around the lye/water to get all the particles suspended into solution and dump it into the oil.
5) Turn heat down to really low and stir constantly for about 10 minutes.
6) Turn off heat and stir vigorously about every 10 to 15 minutes until the mixture begins to thicken. It takes a couple hours.
7) (optional) Add the coloring and thoroughly stir it in.
8) Continue periodically stirring until the mixture begins to “trace” and then add the fragrance oil of your choice (optional). Some are stronger than others and some can speed up the reaction so operate with caution.
9) Stir constantly from this point until the mixture is like a thick pudding.
10) Pour into molds before it gets too thick. Wiggle the molds around to settle the mixture. Place the mold somewhere that tends to stay warm. That will speed up the hardening process.
It may be a few days before the soap cures enough to easily come out of the molds. Don't force it. Just wait. Pop them out and leave them on a paper plate or something to dry naturally.
After a week put them in plastic bags to preserve the fragrance.
You should wait at least 2 weeks for it to fully cure before you use it anyway.
Remember lye is very nasty caustic stuff and can be very harmful so be careful to not get it in your eyes or breathe dust/fumes. This recipe makes 12 nice sized bars of soap.
If you try to speed up the curing process too much (by heating it) it can force droplets of glycerine out but its good for your skin anyway.

>>780086
>Stick to easily available oils, as far a a soap goes you can make a good bar with only 2 or 3 oils and they don't have to be exotic. I'm afraid you're trying to pander to the gimmicky organic crowd instead of building a customer base based on product quality and affordability.

I agree. Expensive exotic oils are a waste of money and often don't even perform as well.

>>780158
>bacon grease
Yes, but you have to clarify it first. The best way to do this is to melt it down in a big pot with about 1/5th the volume of water. The let it cool and refrigerate it to cool. All the garbage will get trapped in the water layer.

>>782854
> bacon grease

Who in their right fucking mind has leftover bacon grease?!?

you people disgust me

>>782906
Eating it all is less disgusting? Plz go fatass.

>>782921
No, but saving it for frying potatoes, or cooking anything that requires grease in the pan, it is godtier.

>>782937
Was gonna say this

Bacon grease is way too good to not save

>>782937
>grease in the pan
Dogs love a couple tablespoons full on their dry food too.

>>782852
MAKE SURE YOU ADD LYE TO WATER AND NOT WATER TO LYE!

I have a thing where I don't like touching wet hair, and when I soap up with anything the hair gets on whatever I use and I have to get it off and it really bothers me. I can't even explain why, but I hate it.

Anyway, is there any way to make normal body wash so I can just put that on my hands and spread it on?

>>783171
>Anyway, is there any way to make normal body wash so I can just put that on my hands and spread it on?
Cut the soap in small bits, mix it with water.
The smaller the bits, the hotter the water and the energy you put in the mixing the faster it will get dissolved in the water.
Or you can take the lazy approach and put a block of soap in water for a few months.

The ratio of soap/water may take some experimentation to get right. You can always start low on the water and keep adding. Or add more soap if you go overboard with the water.
About 1:10 soap to water seems right.

>>783182
Just...no...

>>783171
Body washes and liquid soaps are best made from Potassium Hydroxide. And it uses a slightly different production process.

Discover your oils you want to use, and find a calculator that supports KOH instead of NaOH. (soapcalc dotty net)

I prefer to use a crockpot to make my liquid soaps, but use what you will on a stovetop. A bigger pot than you think is necessary is a better idea than not.

Melt your oils and mix in your KOH with water until clear. You're going to have your crockpot on low so temperature doesn't matter in this process. Incorporate with a stick blender until the texture becomes like a thick marshmallow creme consistency.

At this point put the lid on and let it sit for half hour intervals mixing in between with a sturdy spatula until it has the consistency of thick creamy translucent petroleum jelly.

At this point you can mix in your diluting water. A potato masher is helpful at this point to help break up the soap to thin it out. It will take quite a while and a lot of effort. So I like to add my water, take it off low and let it sit over night. By morning the soap paste is nice and waterlogged and will mix much easier.

Here's my next batch....still waiting for it to cure a bit. Used rice brain oil in this one.

I know a lot of people have said canola isn't a good ingredient for soap, but I've seen TONS of recipes that involve it. Does lowering the amount used have any impact on the soap going rancid/getting orange spots?

>>783357
>but I've seen TONS of recipes that involve it

Tons of people are cheap bastards maybe? Just use olive oil instead.

>>783171
>Anyway, is there any way to make normal body wash
I hear potassium hydroxide makes a more liquid soap.
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapglossary/f/Whats-The-Difference-Between-Sodium-Hydroxide-Naoh-And-Potassium-Hydroxide-Koh.htm

>>783182
troll troll troll your boat

>>783357
>I know a lot of people have said canola isn't a good ingredient for soap

Canola oil has absolutely no place in soap making IMO. If any of it goes unsaponified it will readily go rancid. If you like to "superfat" or operate at a lye discount greater than 1% then just ignore this shit all together. It's high in oleic acid which is slow to saponify but seems to go rancid more readily than olive oil.

Encouraging a thorough gel phase in recipes that use it can encourage a fast saponification of all the oils eliminating some risk of DOS. You can further reduce this risk by eliminating as much superfatting as possible.

All of my soaps I calculate for 0.5% superfat or less and have never had orange spots even for rancid prone oils like canola.

>>782623
Nice. That's my favorite design. I do that too.

>>782447
>how do they feel and function compared to lye?
Nothing will get you cleaner and make you feel more refreshed than real lye soap, as long as its a quality soap made right. I started making my own about 2 years ago and I will never go back to store bought garbage. Skin problems like acne disappeared permanently, body odor eliminated for twice as long, and I can make it smell exactly how I want so I'm not choking on cheap chemical perfume.

>>783713
Wouldn't less than 1% superfat cause serious drying? I want to make a soap that people wouldn't feel the need to moisturize after using. But yeah, I know a lot of people have had issues with Canola oil in soap making. I've just also seen a lot of the Brambleberry recipes calling for it.

>>783761
Thanks! I've been experimenting with it a bit. Sadly, this faded a bit during gel phase, so it now looks more pink than anything else. This one came out a little better. Used cardboard in my mold to create dividers.

HEY

Quick question, I see all these sites advertising home made natural soap, but is it effective?

All I ever do is buy a 4$ bottle of Pert Plus and use that, so I find it hard to believe I could make something more effective cleaning wise or cost wise.

Unless there was a certain scent that I wanted to smell like.

>>779873
get over yourself. it's a dude talking about soap. go fap

Really enjoying the soap making. I've made a good 10 lbs of soap already. Trying out a crinkle cut for the first time with this soap.

Bumping to keep this thread going. Anyone else been experimenting? I'm actually about to go live with my own online shop...will have about 30 lbs of soap by the time the week is out.

Anyone have any sales tips?

>>785330
I had a rice pudding that looked about like that after a few too many days in the fridge.

>>785334
I'm willing to bet mine smells better. And probably wouldn't make you as sick if you ate it.

This one has coconut oil, rice bran oil, palm oil, olive oil, avocado oil, and cocoa butter. Smells freaking awesome.

Does anybody have any soap recipes that they have found to be particularly popular with women? I've been bored out of my mind lately so I've been planning out Christmas gifts 9 month's in advance and I thought it would be neat to give out baskets filled with lotions, and bath bombs, and soap to the women.

On that note I also wanted to ask if anybody here makes bath bombs or lotion. I know it isn't soap related but I figured there might be some overlap so I though I'd ask here before I went off and made a thread.

>>785696
I'm the anon that made this image >>779829

it appears women like simple soap #2 the most..

>>785732
It's the original soaper! You're my inspiration, man. I'm setting up my own online store and everything. Have people chomping at the bit to get my soap...have about 15 lbs curing right now. Thank you. Seriously. You've helped me discover something I LOVE.

I'm curious...which recipe have YOU found to work the best? Which have you just loved? I've been doing tons of experimenting.

What do yall do with all this soap?

>>785741
Personally, I like to eat it, then crap it into a mold to sell to feminists.

>>785736
i'm glad to hear people like your soap, is is fun isnt it? ;) good luck with the online store, i'll be making one myself soon, currently still selling out of stores.
did you just hand out samples to friends and family to get the word out?

as far as my favorite,
my current favorite and daily driver is actually a new recipe that is not on the compilation image, its one i formulated about 3 weeks ago, before that my favorite was also the simple soap #2, but it had a few kinks to it,
first, it took a long time to get sufficiently hard and even longer to not be drying, only after 6-7 weeks it would get to a point where even after more then one washing it wouldn't dry out my skin, but then again thats just my skin, everyone else that tried it loved it.

my current favorite was an attempt to make a hard bar of soap that is sufficiently bubbly while at the same time not drying and has a shorter cure time, not an easy task but i think i hit the sweet spot.

i'm not currently home so i dont have the recipe on hand so i'll upload it later,
if i remember correctly the soap is made from 40% olive oil 20% cocoa butter 20% avocado butter, 15% coconut oil and 5% jojoba.

this soap is hard right from the first week of curing, its a little less bubbly then the simple soap #2 but not by a lot, its not drying at all, i use this everyday all day, my hands dont get dry even after multiple washes/hour, and another interesting thing i've noticed is that after use the soap dries out much faster then my other soaps, which is a good quality to aim for since most people dont have a proper soap stand that drains the excess water so sometimes the soap can stay wet for a long time.

p.s
i just got back from vacationing in Austria where i washed my hands with two bars i brought with me, the "favorite" and simple soap #2, they both felt so different and frankly 1000x better in Austria's soft snow melt tap water, you have no idea...

>>785741
Wash with it, clean with it, give it away, get sloshed and throw it into a neighbors backyard as they have one of their obnoxiously loud parties.

>>785778
>implying feminists use soap

Soap is a tool of patriarchal oppression to keep a women from smelling like she should.

What is the best soap recipe for that uses coconut oil as a substantial portion of it? I have a shitload of coconut oil that I don't know what to do with, so I figured I could make some soap to use, maybe even sell some at the local hipster market.

>>786315
Give me the coconut oil. I'll pay for shipping.

>>779823
is chemistry ever discussed in these threads or is it just 'how to make soap'?

I just made my first batch of soap.

Surprisingly, it was not a complete disaster!

I used a simple olive, coconut, and castor oil recipe and added some el cheap-o lavender fragrance oil I got at Michael's. It seemed to cause a fair amount of seizure/acceleration halfway through pouring the soap into my mold, so while all of the bars are still usable about half of them are pretty damn ugly.

Would some of the more experienced soap makers care to share some tips on how to help avoid this problem? Should I try letting my lye solution and oils cool back down to room temperature before mixing them next time?

>>786420
Seizing/accelerating is a problem for all soap makers. Here's what I have discovered that helps:

1. Get some Sodium Lactate. It isn't expensive. Add 1 tsp per every pound of soap you are making to your lye water after it has cooled. This hardens the bar sooner, makes unmolding 10 times easier, and is just all around helpful.

2. Make sure your oils and lye water are within 10 degrees of each other.

3. Try to keep your temperatures below 100, to slow chemical reactions. Best way to do this is freeze some distilled water the night before. You can add in the same amount of ice as water, by weight. This will cause your lye water to start off at a much lower temperature. To give some perspective on that, my lye mixed with room temp water comes in at between 175 - 190 F. Mixed with half ice/half cold distilled water from the fridge, my temperatures are usually around 105 F. Cuts down cool time.

5. Spray the inside of your molds with the purest rubbing alcohol you can find.

>>786344
What sort of chemistry would you like to discuss? I'm really interested in the saponification process.

By the way guys, I'm producing a lot of soap now. My online store is up but my soaps haven't finished curing yet. What's your average cure time? I have some that are rock hard and some that are still somewhat soft. I put them in front of a fan to help them dry faster.

Also, if anyone is interested in acquiring some soap in the future, let me know and I'll post my site. If you do buy, put a note in the order as to how you heard about it and I'll give you something free.

>>786422

Much thanks for the advice!

I think the temperature may have been my downfall. I got impatient and there was about a 20 F difference between the oil and lye solutions.

>>786428

I'd definitely be interested

>>786472
No problem! There's a lot I wish I had been told to begin with. I can help a little bit more if you tell me your recipe, temps used, superfat %, etc. I'd be happy to help you fine-tune your recipes. I'm not perfect at it but I'm a fast learner and I've experimented a ton. Also...where did you get your raw materials?

>>786475
Awesome. I only have a couple of soaps that have cured enough for me to be comfortable selling...the rest I have listed as "pickup only" until they're cured. My soaps were all ready to use within 48 hours but some are still pretty soft, so I am letting them cure a bit longer. Basically, whenever each soap feels ready and I've tested their pH to make sure they'er skin safe (they all have been, right around 7.5 - 8) then I will click the option for "online" sales so that people can buy them.

I just really want to make sure everyone is happy with what they buy. My soaps COULD be used now but they'd shrink faster in the shower because of their higher water content.

Here's the site. http://mkt.com/bath-bear-soaps

>>786480

Pic related, I used this recipe.

For a first batch I wanted to go with something with just a few ingredients.

I used 100% lye that I got at Ace hardware, and distilled water.

I used 100% (not virgin or light) olive oil that I got at Sam's.

I used Barlean's organic coconut oil that I also got at Sam's.

Used castor oil that I got at Walgreens (never again. Way overpriced.)

The fragrance oil I got at Michael's. It doesn't have a brand sticker and I threw away the package it was in so I forgot the name. But I didn't care for it and won't use it again.

The temperature of my oils were at about 100F when I mixed them with my lye solution, which was at about 115-120F if I'm remembering right.

>>786486
What are you mixing in? Please tell me NOT aluminum.

This recipe is pretty basic. Not really a fan, to be honest. I like to use, bare minimum, 40-50% solid oils. That produces the most firm bar. Here's a good recipe: 32% Coconut Oil, 32% Palm Oil, 32% Olive Oil, 6% Castor Oil. Cheap, easy, and will give you a nice, lathering bar. Superfat at 5% minimum. If you're adding fragrances/colorants, emulsify them with a little bit of either the same oil mixture OR sweet almond oil (I prefer this).

Honestly, you're going to be much better served buying from Brambleberry.com. Much better pricing on base oils, fragrance oils, molds, you name it. If you want to start going bulk already, EssentialDepot has a great sale on a 10 lb and 32 lb case of Lye. I just ordered the 10 lb.

Sams is great for Olive Oil...I picked up 5 liters for something like 20 bucks. It was an insane deal. Regular olive oil is better for this than extra virgin. Just be 100% sure to look at it and make sure it's pure olive oil and not an olive oil/canola oil mixture. Their coconut oil is overpriced, though. Can get a lot more for less on Brambleberry.

When did you add your fragrance oil? And yeah, get your oils within 10 degrees of each other. Preferably less. I get them to almost the exact same temperature. Usually do my mixtures at 95-100F.

Really curious...where do you live?

>>786486
Also, check both of these soap calculators and this fragrance calculator. Gives you really good info. I find them to be exceptionally accurate.

Brambleberry's
http://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Lye-Calculator.aspx

SoapCalc, which tells you about the QUALITY of the soap you're mixing.
http://soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcWP.asp

Brambleberry's Fragrance calculator gives you a good idea how much fragrance or essential oil to use.
http://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Fragrance-Calculator.aspx

>>786503

No aluminum! I made sure to do as much research as I could manage on my own. I have all stainless steel and glass mixing bowls and sturdy plastic spoons. My biggest fear at first was the lye, but it wasn't a big deal at all.

I admit I was a little too excited and impatient and wanted to make some right away, so I got all the stuff I could locally and paid more because of it. Funny you mentioned brambleberry, I just put in an order through them last night for castor and jojoba oil and several fragrance oils! I'm gonna order every oil I can from them from now on, except olive oil. Thanks for the tip on watching out for olive oil/canola oil mixes.

I added my fragrance oil when my mixture was at what I thought would be considered a light trace, then mixed by hand with a spatula for a short time before starting to fill my molds. The first half of my batch was just fine. Poured nice and smooth. Then I noticed the soap was getting clumpy and thick so I had to finish quickly.

I definitely want to try your recipe and let my mixture get to your temperature recommendations and see how it goes! Thanks for all the tips!

I'm in Columbia, MO

>>786511
Darn. If you were in Texas, I'd have suggested you coming to visit my little soap making setup. I bought this awesome stainless steel workbench at Sam's this week. It's 49" long and is the perfect height for working on soaps. Even has a shelf underneath and castors to move it around.

Brambleberry are loving me right now. I've dropped a good 500 or so on them...actually, probably more. Admittedly, I have a SHITLOAD of stuff because I'm gearing up for sales production levels. You really should consider getting some Palm oil. It's a real staple in soap making and cheap to boot. You do have to heat up the whole bag before using but it's worth it. My only non palm-oil using batch was crap.

When the soap starts to get too thick to pour properly, whip it a bit with a wisk. That will smooth it out and soften it up a little. Usually enough to get it out of your container. I have had my soap set IN the pot though, which was annoying as hell. Happy to give tips.

Seriously though...buy Sodium Lactate and Palm Oil. You'll thank me later.

>>786525

Think I'll have to order some sodium lactate and palm oil tonight then!

Have you noticed any scents in particular that sell well?

>>786315
pls help

>Really wanted to make soap
>Finally managed to make some
>It looked like shit, dark brown, horrible shape with black stains
>Felt too hard
>Barely rubbed
>Smealt bad

>Father found the soap in the bin
>Probably found it funny
>Started making jokes about my soap
>For example left a soap bar in the toilet then called me and said ''you forgot to flush''
>farted in the room then said ''I thinkk someone is making soap''
>Watching Predator
>Get to the scene where it shows the skinned guys
>'they washed with your soap son''

Fuck this shit, I'm done trying to be productive, NEET forever.

>>786315
>>786556
You don't want to use coconut oil in quantities of more than 30-35% or it will be an extremely drying soap. Scroll up a little...I gave someone else a good recipe. It's pretty much my standard for simple soap. There's also an image on here with TONS of recipes. The information is here, you just gotta look.

>>786557
Damn, man. WTF did you do to that soap? Hell, I'd be happy to give you like a crash course in soap making. Hell, even a video chat while I make mine. I don't know how you made your lump of coal, but I'd actually LIKE to know. I could make it and sell it on April 1st as a gag product.

But don't stop trying to be productive. Soap making, if you do it right, is not too hard and is a lot of fun.

>>786557
>''I thinkk someone is making soap''
>'they washed with your soap son''
fucking lmao.
told by your dad.

told by ur dad.

>>786585
Oh, I see. Thanks. I'm wondering, because on Amazon I see a soap that is supposedly made from coconut oil. Perhaps, I could make something similar?

>http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Fiji-Coconut-Certified-Fragrance/dp/B000WUFH1K

>>786617
A combination of different oils is what creates functional and pleasing soap. 100% coconut oil soap will be drying, even if superfatted. I mean, go nuts and make that, but it's not going to be super great. Making soap with just 3 or 4 ingredients can vastly improve it. Hell, my wife's favorite soap is the one I posted earlier, that's just castor oil, coconut oil, palm oil, and olive oil. Me personally, I prefer another one that has avocado oil and cocoa butter in it as well, but that's just my personal preference. I have supremely dry skin.

>>786557
you need to make good soap now. the only way to stop the jokes is to make good soap then distribute it to everyone your dad knows so the joke doesnt make sense anymore.

>>786424
Yeah I want to learn about it. I prefer to learn how to do something than just following recipes. If you have anything cool I can look up I'd appreciate it. Currently my understanding of soap is that it's fat + lye, but I don't know the intricacies of it.

>>786769
Start with this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponification

Saponification is the chemical process by which a combination of fat and lye are converted into soap. While it is sort of about following a recipe, it isn't like cooking where you can "wing it". You use saponification calculators to determine the exact amounts of things, down to 1/100th of a gram, to ensure that you are allowing the chemical reactions to take place precisely how you want them to. Too much lye, and you will have some left over in your soap, making it caustic. Too little, and you will have lots of unsaponified oils left in your soap, causing it to either be extremely soft, never harden, or just be a greasy mess. Different oils change the properties of the soap you are making, as well. Coconut oil lends fluffy lathering and cleansing to soap. Olive oil lends creaminess and mildness to soap. Palm oil lends hardness and lathering to your soap. There's hundreds of oils you can use, each adding a different property to your soap.

You do not talk about fight club!

I am about ready to go live with my website. I'm really excited about this. Have several friends and family members who are already interested in this, and even some random people I just talked to about it have gone and liked us and expressed interest.

To those of you who have sold online, what have you done to become more successful with it?

>>787280
looks very nice, im the "original soap anon" as you've taken to call me, i might use square to set up a shop myself soon, really the only reason i dont have one already is because i just cant figure out a good name for the "company", this so damn frustrating, its like deciding on a tattoo or something lol.

bath bear soap does have a nice ring to it.

>>787554
Thanks! They also give you a free card reader for your mobile phone/ipad, so that's pretty awesome. Bath Bear was originally a bit of a joke between my wife and I. She'd call me her teddy bear, then started calling me her toilet bear when I had some, erm, stomach issues. Then I made a joke that if I was to sell soap, I'd be the Bath Bear...and it just kind of stuck. Looked it up and nobody had the name. And it's simple, easy to remember, and the alliteration tends to get people's attention.

As far as your company name goes, think of a single trait you could use to describe all your soaps, that would appeal to your primary customer base. I think that a lot of companies that go for weird names usually don't get a lot of recognition. Don't worry too much about it...rebranding isn't unheard of, and your current customer base can follow you. Squareup is a good choice because of the lack of monthly subscription fees. The store is a bit limited in how you can set it up, but for free...it's hard to complain. If you decide to sign up with them, use my link. We'll both get $1,000 worth of transactions without fees for the first 6 months, so it's a win-win.

https://squareup.com/i/C61FD85E

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you out. If you checked out our site, then you know our e-mail. You can drop me a line anytime.

>>787564
Soaps made from 100% vegans? Holy fuck, sign me up? Where can I get me some of that shit.

>>787564
Excellent, i'll definitely use that link.

as far as name go i'm at the point where im actually considering going with "Anon's handmade soap" as the name, but im not sure if it a good idea.

>>787280
>To those of you who have sold online, what have you done to become more successful with it?
Working as a webmanager for a company that sells products online, my two best advices are quick deliveries and a friendly and quick customer support.

>>787582
I've never met a vegan with any fat on them, so they'd make pretty shitty soap. Honestly, I made sure to do vegan-friendly soap because they're a big part of the customer base for handmade soap.

>>787601
Well I'd use your name instead of "anon". Heh. There's nothing wrong with that. Just google it to make sure nobody else has used that name. Really, the name just needs to be something that won't alienate anyone and is easy to remember.

>>787605
Thank you!

Those are two things I really plan on doing. I've got my wife and two friends helping with the non-soap stuff, as well. As we all have a background in retail, sales, and customer service, we know the difference it makes, being polite and caring. As far as quick deliveries go, I made sure to put on my website that orders will be shipped within two days. I know a lot of other places will take a week or two to ship and I always hated that.

Do you have any suggestions for increasing my customer base?

>>787699
Well i wasnt planning on actually using "anon" lol, just meant it as a placeholder for my name..

btw, how do you plan of packaging the soap for shipment?

>>787869
I use saran wrap (shrink wrap) to wrap the soaps as best I can. Then I go over it with a heat gun on low, from far away, quickly to get it to shrink and adhere to the soap. Then, at the place where the saran wrap meets, I am putting a sticker that says Bath Bear Soaps and the name of the soap fragrance.

After that, basically just use packaging from other packages I've received: bubble wrap, packing peanuts, newspaper, whatever and put it in a bubble envelope. USPS has flat rate shipping envelopes and boxes. Envelopes will be good for 2-4 soaps, boxes for larger amounts. Flat rate of $6 for shipping.

>>782049
maybe for a cabin in the woods

>>787869
What if...what if you DID call it Anon's Handmade Soap? And you got advertising...on 4chan?

>>788016
advertising soap..... that people use to shower....on an anime website....on 4chan... lol youll go under because nobody that sues this site actually takes showers.

>>788057
4chan has /b/.

Those guys love meme-y things. You could have them order patterns and stuff.

Just search 4chan.org/b for memes and make some samples, put it in the banner and you will surely get some orders.

>>788057
Do it. I think it would work really well.

>>788077
I'm the Bath Bear Soaps guy and OP. I'm actually considering this. Honestly, even a handful of orders would pay for the advertisement. I just need a decent graphic artist to make a banner for us.

>>788081
I wouldn't spend too much money and time on the graphics. A simple clean one would probably get the point across.

>>788082
I'd do it myself but I'm worthless at stuff like that.

>>788090
I think deviant art artists are usually cheap. It's just a banner. When I was younger I used to do that for forum points.

Though that was for those disgusting "cool" forum banners with a videogame character and an abstract background you see.

It shouldn't be a big problem.

original soap anon here,
>tfw i already have the labels ready for "X's handmade soap" (X could be anything)
>tfw i designed the labels myself and making a 4chan banner is child's play
>tfw actually considering it

How would i get meme molds though? its not like anyone actually makes/sells meme molds.. i searched..
i'll probably have to make them myself and thats way too much work if you ask me.

>>788126
>>788117

Making the molds might not be too difficult. Basically, just get a silicone mold kit and work from that. But yeah, you'd definitely need to ask yourself if it is worth the effort.

As far as the banners and stuff, maybe one of you guys might be interested? I might be able to pay you a little. Not much at the moment, because most of my money is tied up in raw materials and stuff. But something.

If anyone is interested, go to my site and e-mail me.

>>788162
what are you aiming for? in general?

>>787869
>>787874
> Packaging soap

Not the anon in question. But I have a soap business that I sell through locally owned barbers and beauty shops.

For my soaps I use wax paper.

If you go to like a self-serve donut section at the grocery store, or a cookie shop they have those sheets of wax paper that they use to handle the donuts and cookies. My uncle is in the food service industry and can get me a case of those for dirt cheap.

They come as a sheet about 6" x 10" and they're folded down the middle width-wise. I place the edge of the bar of the soap on the seam, fold it up like a present and use peel and stick labels to wrap around the bar sealing it closed.

The labels I buy are 8.5"x1" and wrap around the short side of the bar just perfectly. I designed the logo up in photoshop aong with the ingredients and all that jazz. Each scent I make has it's own PDF file and I get 10 labels to a sheet.

>>787699
>As far as quick deliveries go, I made sure to put on my website that orders will be shipped within two days. I know a lot of other places will take a week or two to ship and I always hated that.

I'd suggest try to ship the same day, and make use of customer rating services like trustpilot.com. Basically: there is a metric shit ton of people doing what you do. You need to find why the customers should come to you. Cheapest soap? Probably not. My company gets away charging more from having a very well-liked customer service and surprisingly quick delivieries (that cost money, about $3/order). People are happy to pay more, if they like the service.

>Do you have any suggestions for increasing my customer base?
Relation-building! Get your customer base going with your close friends, families, markets, exhibitions, etc. When you got a solid base, see if you can afford advertising. But yeah, google adwords and stuff like that is top notch too!

>>788204
Simple but relatively classy. Basically our name "Bath Bear Soaps" with the "100% Handmade - 100% Vegan - 100% Luxurious", maybe a nice background, something I can't get sued over. Maybe something I could modify later as well, to put text over and indicate sales, new items, etc. I mean, I'm pretty flexible.

>>788228
Only reason I waited until Monday is that the post office isn't open on Sunday. But that's my intention...to ship any orders that come in that same day, or the next morning. I don't think the cheapest, although I'm not expensive. I think it's quality + value. My soaps are, honestly, one of the best QUALITY soaps you're going to find in my price range. I pride myself in that.

I definitely need to explore local venues I could pursue. A big part of my problem in that is I live on the border with Mexico/Texas, and about half the population ONLY speaks Spanish, and most are pretty...racist against whites. That'll hurt me in direct sales at things like farmer's markets.

>>788206
see i thought about going this exact route, but i dont like the fact that wax paper doesn't let any smell through so a costumer cant smell the soap before buying it.

i've since found that thin silk paper looks the same but lets the smell come through, just a tiny bit more costly.

>>788206
see i thought about going this exact route, but i dont like the fact that wax paper doesn't let any smell through so a costumer cant smell the soap before buying it.

i've since found that thin tissue paper looks the same but lets the smell come through, about the same cost too.

>>788277
I have a beauty shop that wanted it so customers could smell the bars more easily. I pull out a bunch of sheets of the wax paper 10-15 and use a hole punch. It ends up being a hole on the side of the bar about 1/2" above and below the label.

>>788378
>>788277
I have wax paper, but the visual appeal is such a bit part of this that I'd really be scared to sacrifice that.

Bumping...don't want thread to die. Anyone else soaping? Washing your butthole? Eating it to see if you will fart bubbles?

>>788876
my aunt makes soap
not sure exactly what she uses, but it smells like complete shit

Ive never thought about making it myself, is there a way to make it not smell like a musky basement filled with incense?

>>788957
Fragrance oils. Use the correct ones. Also, don't use old fixed oils for soap making. Go check out Brambleberry.com if you are curious. Great selection of fragrance oils.

>>787280
Congrats on setting up your store, hope you get lots of business. I'm currently working on setting up a store on Etsy and have been researching stuff like crazy.

One piece of advice I keep running into is that the photos of your product have a big impact. Personally that's something I notice immediately when I'm buying stuff online, so I would suggest making a simple setup to better photograph your soap. If you look on Etsy (or any store), most products are shown on a white background, maybe with a few little props. There are a bunch of guides online for making a little "studio" out of a cardboard box, white wrapping paper and some well placed lamps. Your soap is pretty, so in the right light it should look even more awesome.

>>788962
Thank you! I wish you lots of luck as well. Be sure to give me the link to your store once you have it set up. If the thread isn't up, e-mail me at bathbearsoaps@gmail.com.

As far as my photos, I admit...they're all from my Galaxy Note 3. The photos were taken inside a photo tent I bought on Amazon. I went with a black background because the wrinkles in the background weren't really visible, and I don't have nearly enough light sources to make it "perfect". I also thought some of my soaps could potentially stain the white, if they are slightly newer soaps and weren't 100% hardened. If you think white would look better, I'll try retaking the photos.

>>788982
original soap anon here, all the pictures i took for the compilation image were made by placing a very large white sheet of paper leaning on a wall, that way it looks like the soaps are floating in pure whiteness, although my camera and lighting weren't very good.

im currently working finding a site like squareup to make my store, squareup would have been fine but they dont support credit cards in my country so thats a no go, when i do find something, i plan on photographing my soap like pic related.

How do you guys rationalize using fragrance oils over essential oils? i know they're cheaper but you have no clue whats in them, not a single brand actually discloses whats in the fragrance oil.. at best they say it doesn't contain this or that..

whats the point of going with all natural soap when you're adding unknown chemicals into the mix?

>>789000
Unknown chemicals are in everything. That's kind of a fact of life we just have to deal with. But we can remove as much as possible. If it was something I was ingesting, I'd be more concerned. In a wash off product, not as much.

>>788999
What country are you in that you would have that problem?

>>789330
i'm in israel.

>>789422
Ah, yes. That would make certain things a bit harder.

>>789425
Tell me about it, i've been trying to get my hands on a specific brand of pine tar that is suitable for cosmetics and for the life of me i cant get it shipped over here for less then $80/liter which makes the whole thing just not worth it..

Dammit i just want to make some pine tar soap..

>>789425
Tell me about it, i've been trying to get my hands on a specific brand of pine tar that is suitable for cosmetics and for the life of me i cant get it shipped over here for less then $80/liter which makes the whole thing just not worth it..

Dammit i just want to make some pine tar soap..

>>789425
Tell me about it, i've been trying to get my hands on a specific brand of pine tar that is suitable for cosmetics and for the life of me i cant get it shipped over here for less then $80/liter which makes the whole thing just not worth it..

pic related, Auson kiln burned pine tar.

Dammit i just want to make some pine tar soap..

>>789518
What are the benefits of pine tar soap?

Everybody here is just giving me a scrub

>>790385
At allows others to smell you coming, so they can avoid you.

>>790385
good for acne and a lot of other skin conditions.

>>789000
I have recently started playing around with soap making and have been trying to avoid fragrance oils. I have been having issues with my essential oil scent fading out completely during the curing process.

Does anyone have advice on which essential oils or blends of them hold up the best over time? .

>>790498
some essential oils from the citrus family like lime, lemon, grapefruit and orange need an additional essential oil added to them as a fixing agent, usually for anything citrus you add lemongrass.

some scents dont need anything, a blend of vanilla and patchouli smells great and almost doesn't fade at all.

from what i found when using essential oils is that
1. some essential oils need to be added at a greater amount then other to have the same effect
2. even though it seems a scent has faded it usually comes back when you use the soap
3.some scents can morph into other, sometimes unpleasant scents.

this is the original soap anon btw, my labels are pretty much ready i think, pic related, rate/hate.

did someone know how to turn liquid soap into bar soap ?
at work we have a ton of industrial liquid soap against lacquer, paint, adhesives resins, etc...
i'd like to make some bars of this.

>>790498
Try adding in Kaolin Clay.

>>790508
I disapprove. You were supposed to do "Anon's Handmade Soap". Heh.

But in all seriousness, very nice. I like.

>>790524
It really depends on what its made of, but its probably a detergent which means you cant turn it into a bar..

>>790534
it turns out that just 3 weeks ago the israeli post office decided to increase the price of mail sent outside the country so now sending a small package with a single bar of soap costs $3.5 instead of the old price of $1.7, so im not sure anyone would buy "anon's soap" when the shipping costs almost as much as the bar..

cant say im very happy with the name, i rather not use my first name and have an actual company name but i cant think of anything, everything sounds like shit in hebrew.
fuck.

>>790566
Maybe your company can be "Hebrewin' Soap"

>>790594
kek, would have worked better if i was making beer..

>>781372
>being this childish

Im sorry you had a horrible family

>>790635
I had a horrible family too, and you don't see me acting like that. Absentee Mother & Father, brother who treated me like shit. Extended family who pretended like we didn't exist. Every holiday was dedicated to seeing if they could make me feel bad enough to try and kill myself.

Some people are just assholes.

I have a question for you guys about cpop soap making.

I've made a batch just using cold process and was pretty pleased with my first attempt, but the cure time is killing me.

Is cpop advisable, and can you use it with any soap recipe or only certain ones?

>>790733
I've had good experiences with it every time, but I'm always pretty cautious about it. I never leave it in the oven for more than 10 minutes or so. Just enough to add in extra heat. Then I cover it, wrap it in towels, and allow the insulated heat to make it go through gel phase fully. It will STILL take a good deal of time to cure. But once unmolded and cut, use a small fan to help accelerate cure time. Mine has been cut by half.

Truth be told, only hot process will get it ready when you want it to be.

>>790733
original soap anon here, all of my soaps go through oven process, i use a small toaster oven that starts at a very low 80c and just use that for the soap.

any higher and you risk boiling the soap and it will have little bubbles on the surface afterwards, i usually leave the soap in the oven until i see its in a complete gel, then i just take it out, that way i can insure i have a complete gel every time.

depending on the recipe's water content it can cut the cure time to a week or two, the higher the olive oil amount the longer the cure.

>>790803
What's your average time? I'm really scared to do it for too long.

My oven goes all the way down to 170 F, so I figure that's a good point.

I was actually planning on making my first soap today.

My plan is a Bastille with 80% Olive Oil and 20% Coconut Oil. Using a Pringles can as a mold.

The only thing I'm having trouble finding out is how much essential oil I should use....

Any tips?

Soap newbie here too. I knew next to nothing about soaps, but this thread made me really interested in trying it out! I have been looking up some equipment and ingredients, but I have to decide what my first try should consist of. Most recipes' I have read are of olive soap, or soap with vanilla/olive scent. I'm interested in doing something otherthan those two, maybe lemon or jasmine?

So, can anyone of you guys recommend me any good starter scent to go for? Maybe one of your personal favorites?
Thanks in advance!

>>791082
It's a matter of personal preference. I can tell you that most people enjoy lavender or a blend of lavender with something else. Also, citrus scents and coconut disappear in cold process soap.

>>790985
Brambleberry has a good fragrance calculator. Just ballpark it from there.

http://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Fragrance-Calculator.aspx

>>790932
Your really shouldn't worry, at 170F you can keep it in until it gels without risking anything.

>>790985
80% olive 20% coconut is a good recipe, but it would take a good while for the soap to harden up if you're using extra virgin, if you use regular olive oil it should be sooner but it would still a while, no less then 4-5 weeks, be aware of that.

>>791310
I typically use a 10" silicone loaf mold. What do you think, as far as time frame? The last time I tried to do longer than a few minutes, everything I cooked tasted like Eucalyptus for a week.

>>791082
I too have practice processing food and making long bars of fecal material, in my own home laboratory and I can tell you that after that process I didn't need soap

>>791314
I use a 10" silicone mold too, as for time, it changes from recipe to recipe, so i cant be sure, i just leave it till i see it gelling, but it always take at least 30-40 minutes at the very least, sometimes over an hour and a half, remember this is low heat, no more then 80c.

And maybe this is just me but i dont use the toaster oven for food after soap, essential oils are 99% toxic if ingested and although they evaporate while in the oven, if you can smell them on food later then some must be staying in the oven long enough to stick to food, i donno man...

Also if you have something to cover the top of the soap mold while in the oven you should, it helps to lessen the evaporation of the essential oils from the heat and preserves the smell better.

>>790985
Castille soap is not recommended for beginners since it takes ages to cure. You should have done 50-50 olive and coconut.

>>791426
No, thats a terrible ratio, you should never go over 30% coconut and thats also pretty high, a 50% 50% would be extremely drying on the skin.

what hes doing is not even castile, castile is 100% olive, his recipe is fine, he can improve it if he adds a little palm oil, replacing about 20% of the olive, would make the bar harder but not more drying.

Here's my half assed spreadsheet comparing costs of a simple recipe to the lengthy one outlined in that one info-graph. Surprisingly cheap.

Cost/oz of goats milk is probably off. Calculations assume 1 bar is a 1 inch thick 3 inch diameter circle

>>791538
What's the end weight on your soap bars? That's going to give you the most accurate idea of your true costs. I always try to aim for making an exactly 4 oz bar of soap, after curing. Usually, I do a water discount and assume a loss of 15% of weight due to evaporation. Generally, I cut my bars to have them weigh around 4.6 oz. Initially, I was not as effective in this. That's why my earlier bars are thicker and weigh 5 oz or so.

>>791577
I based it off of actual size. ~34 oz of soap fills a 3inchround 12 inch high mold (actual volume *0.40). It works out to 2.833 oz per bar.

Although now that i'm looking at a commercial soap of the same size it claims to be 4oz... I'll have to check into this

The more I do it, the less I am sure about gel phase. Seems to make all my colors look like shit.

>>791802
if anything gel phase is what brings the colors out.. what kind of colorants are you using?

>>791871
Micas. I try to go for "all natural" colors. But honestly, I really don't like how the gel phase works. It mutates my colors. Last night, I made a soap that was a deep purple with blue swirls. I wake up this morning, after letting them gel and firm up, and it's a light purple with almost no swirling, and the blue has turned violet.

>>791471
>No, thats a terrible ratio, you should never go over 30% coconut and thats also pretty high, a 50% 50% would be extremely drying on the skin.

Have you done it or are you just repeating shit you read on a blog?

>>790385
If you use it in moderation (depending on who distilled your essence) and not on deep wounds it should be antiseptic.

>>790609
>if i was making beer..
...

hello mindi

>>790932
>I'm really scared
There is only 1 thing you have to be scared of for this project and that is pure lye.

>>791082
>I knew
Its basic stuff, dude.

>>792066
I'm very careful around lye. Never had any issues.

>>791967
Yes i have done it, dont do it, its a waste of oils.

>>791949
those are still good looking soaps in my book, would have thought micas would look bighter/stronger after gel, i've only used powder colorants though..

btw, are you sure micas are considered natural? i think i've read somewhere that suggests they aren't..

>>792065
i dont get the reference im afraid.

Never make any type of soap, ¿what's the most basic recipe?

>>792329
Most basic soap is not the best for beginners. It's Castille soap. 100% olive oil + lye. That's it. Takes a while to firm up, drives some people insane waiting for it.

Try this recipe...it's easy, makes a good soap, and you'll be pleased.

32% Coconut Oil
32% Olive Oil
32% Palm Oil
4% Castor Oil

>>792290
Well anyone who claims micas aren't natural doesn't know where they come from. They're afraid of anything they don't know....and sadly, people like that know very little. Pic related. Mica.

Thank you for sayhing they look good. Appreciate it. I'm trying to make the best stuff I can. My soaps FEEL amazing. I have developed some great recipes. It's just the looks I am working on.

>>792575
There's natural mica and there's synthetic mica.

>>788245
I was going to ask about your soap, even order something, but you're very obviously a racist Texan. How ignorant do you have to be to assume that "most" of the population of a group of people you don't even socialize with is racist?

I don't see the inherent problem you seem to have identified with living near the Texas/Mexico border. Be nice, actually try building a relationship with the community before making bigoted racist remarks

>>792661
And you live...where? Probably not here. That's why you don't see the "inherent problem"...you aren't here. You didn't live it.

You didn't grow up having to ask your teachers nicely to speak English so you could understand what was being taught in the classroom.

You didn't grow up being beaten on an almost daily basis by people screaming racist comments at you in Spanish.

You didn't get stabbed when you were in 1st grade by someone screaming that they were going to cut my "tiny white dick" off.

You didn't get rejected by nearly every girl you asked out because they don't date whites.

You didn't have to deal with applying for jobs and being told, "We don't hire whites."

You didn't have to deal with being told at the food stamps office, when you were starving, that white people "don't need food stamps" because we're the ones who are oppressing hispanics.

You haven't been the victim of multiple hate crimes and barely survived most of them simply because you were born in an area that is 95% a different color than you are.

I went through all of that, and a lot more I'm not going to talk about. And despite that, I'm not a "racist Texan". I'm friendly and polite to everyone. I'd gladly do business with anyone of any color, creed, or any possible thing you could discriminate against. I'd gladly be friends with anyone as well, not caring about any of that stuff. Hell, my best friend is a lesbian, my niece and nephew are hispanic, and my wife is jewish. I don't care about that. I love them all dearly.

But I DO speak from personal experience. It's part of the culture here. It's taught by parents. It's sad that it happens that way. But I don't do anything to reinforce any of those negative stereotypes they might have against people of my color. I want to forge business connections down here. But I know from previous experience in outside sales that I will get told by a large amount of people that they won't do business with whites.

>>792661
I'm sorry if I came across angry about that, but I've dealt with this type of thing my whole life. And people from up north have no idea what it is really like here. Come live here for a while and you'll understand. I stay here because my family is here, and I want to be there to support and help them.

I don't know if you're just trolling or you legitimately believe what you said. Either way, it seems like you formed your opinion of me without really having any information.

And if I'm being honest, I can't say that an entire group is like that. You're accurate about that part. What I CAN say is that the vast majority of people in this area I have had interactions with (and that's a lot, between different schools and over a decade in retail and sales) fit the bill I described.

My response to them is simply kill them with kindness. Smile, nod, and avoid confrontation and arguements. At 5 am, after being up for 24 hours and having an extremely rough day, I'm less likely to do that on the internet.

>>792670
>things that never happened

Hi. I'm new to this and this weekend I will try to do soap using bacon lard, lye and fragrance. Is there anything, or youtube channel that can help me make my own soap?

>>792674
Alright man. Clearly you know my life better than I do. Enjoy life under your bridge.

>>792730
You can try asking the racist white supremacist who runs Bath Bear Soaps. He grew up getting stabbed in kindergarten, girls rejecting him, colored people hogging all the food stamps, racial discrimination when applying for jobs and being told he has a little penis apparently. But he's not racist because he told us he has a jewish wife, one black friend, and TWO hispanic nieces.

>>792823
not the same guy you're besmirching, but you need to get your politically correct "you can be racist to whites!" ass out of this site and back to reddit or where ever the hell you crawled out of, where the fuck do you think you are?

>>792730
100% lard soap is actually a pretty nice soap, heres a video on making lard soap, if you're gonna make less soap then in the video you're gonna have to adjust the recipe down accordingly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfY2-Z0S_io

>>792823
not the same guy you're besmirching, but you need to get your politically correct "you cant be racist to whites!" ass out of this site and back to reddit or where ever the hell you crawled out of, where the fuck do you think you are?

>>792730
100% lard soap is actually a pretty nice soap, heres a video on making lard soap, if you're gonna make less soap then in the video you're gonna have to adjust the recipe down accordingly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfY2-Z0S_io

>>792823
Actually, I'm Native American, but I look white so I guess that's what counts to people that only care about skin color.

If you're going to exagerate, at least try to be accurate. (Of course, exageration is the tool of trolls and people that know they don't have a point, so you're really only helping me out here).

I don't have a black friend. I have a black doctor. Big difference. And hey, here's a fun stereotype for you...all of the black people I've grown up around and known were well educated and in professional jobs. My doctor's black. And I have 1 hispanic niece and 1 hispanic nephew. Well, hispanic and native american.

>>792883
Hey now. He's not from Reddit. Clearly, he's from Tumblr. And really, he's an obvious troll. The question is whether he believes he's trolling for a purpose or if he just likes to fuck with people. I'm going to assume the latter. Or he's a person of color who was once stared at by a white person, so he has an irrational hatred for them.

>>792972
>he's an obvious troll
>i was stabbed in the first grade for being white

>>792973
How is Vermont treating you these days?

>>792975
I live in Arizona, pinocchio

>>792976
Ah. Ok. Then you're right sir. I retract it all. I'm not even in Texas. I'm in Taiwan.

>>792883
I have just one question about something I did not understand on the video for my native language is not english:

Do the lard and water+lye have both to be at room temperature for mixing or the water+lye have to be at 100F and the lard at room temperature?

>>779858
trips actually help to identify who the OP or other contributors are in a thread, but your edges are sharper than you are so i understand why you don't.

>>792990
Room temperature isn't necessary, but you should definitely have your lye water and your lard or oils be within 10 degrees of each other. I tend to mix at around 110F.

Is there a way to reduce the chalky coat that forms from the curing process?

And can I remelt a batch of soap I made a year ago and re-purpose it in a new batch, or has the chemical process ruined that chance?

>>793039
Get the purest rubbing alcohol you can find. Put it in a spray bottle and spritz the top of your soaps after pouring into the mold. You can also, very lightly, rub it off with rubbing alcohol and a felt or microfiber cloth.

Also, you can melt it down and then put it in a mold again, but it's going to look like shit.

>>793050
What if I add it to a new batch, or would that just fuck both batches up?

>>793039
That chalky coat is known as soda ash, there are several way to remove it, the best being steam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3WiX6sD-fY

Nice thread, I have a question and please excuse my poor english.

I want to make a fight club soap for a friend as a birthday gift.

I don't really plan to make the soap from scratch but just melt and cast commercial soap into a mold.

So, I was wondering what kind of material should I use for the mold, like what material can resist hot soap without melting and such.

I would also appreciate if someone has any kind of advise on how to make molds (I've seen some available for purchase online but they cheap, so I'd rather make my own).

I'm not particularly interested in soap making, but I do love tinkering with things and hands-on learning.

Is soap making a good way to learn about chemistry? I've literally never had a chemistry class.

Fuck it. Putting my trip back on. Don't care if people object.


>>793051
Umm...don't do it. You won't really care for the outcome. Just google "Rebatch Soap" and you'll see how to reuse your soaps.
>>793453
Thanks. Melt & Pour would be of higher quality than your regular old store-bought stuff. You can buy melt & pour super cheap online, and can add stuff to it very easily. Your own fragrances, colorants, etc. It's only slightly more money and it'll be very much worth it.

Soap, truth be told, won't be that hot. So you can use a lot of things: plastic, wood (has to be lined), silicone, glass, etc. Virtually anything will work.

So here's a little something to help. I found a prop replica on eBay. You can create a mold of that using silicone.

>>793479
When did you drop out? I got my GED back in 99.

As far as chemistry goes, you will learn some basic stuff if you do research. I find the process pretty fascinating, and you get to see chemical reactions happening right in front of you, so that's cool. Go on youtube and look at some basic "cold process soap making" videos and you'll learn a ton.

Hey a friend of mine is having problems selling soap at a local farmers market because someone else already sells soap and apparently they don't want to have multiple vendors for the same product. Has anyone here had a similar problem?
Link related: gofundme com / qwuvhc

>>793545
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fight-Club-Plastic-Soap-Prop-/111637392453?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item19fe1b6c45

>>793545
>When did you drop out? I got my GED back in 99.

2009, when I was 16. Went to community college for a year and a half, got an internship, got a programming job a few months later, and then dropped out of community college.

Thanks for the info. I'll check those videos out and probably try my hand at a batch of soap. Hell, maybe I'll get really into it.

>>793562
Soap Queen is pretty good. She taught me the basics. She owns the best soap supply company around, Brambleberry. Awesome prices.

If you're gonna give it a try, buy yourself some olive oil, coconut oil, and palm oil. Also some Castor oil, in smaller amounts. Personally, I find it super fun. It's like chemistry + cooking + the only parts of art class I liked.

So I've got a decade on ya. Alright, awesome. Good on you for realizing the system is bullshit.

Nepotism at the Joshua Tree Farmers Market. If you can't sell handmade goods in Joshua Tree, where the heck can you sell them??? This should go viral!

>>793545
>>793559

Cool. Thanks.

>>791538
Yea so I made the expensive one and it's so not worth the cost increase. Now I've got all these expensive oils, i need to figure out a better recipe.

>>793566
>the system is bullshit
>so desperate to make money that you think making soap will solve your financial needs

>>793839
How much do you have of your other oils? If you don't plan on using them, maybe I could purchase them from you so you don't lose out.

>>793855
>is upset that someone implied the world doesn't line up with his tumblr ideals
>thinks his trolling will make a difference

>>793865
okay i am trying to get into the whole soap making thing
From what i understand soap is

lye + filler to make lye less concentrated

lye + water + fat (from say oil on body) = scum

Is that right?

>>794467
There is usually a small percentage of "filler" in the lye container. Usually, it's other chemicals that are part of the manufacturing process or for aid in storage. On places like Essential Depot or Brambleberry, the lye you get is usually 97-99% pure. Mostly, the extra chemicals are sodium bicarbonate, which is harmless.

But the way it works, you pre-measure your water (use distilled and nothing else), add your lye to it and stir. When your lye water becomes mostly see through and has cooled to within 10 degrees F of your oil temps, you can mix them. Your oils are basically chains of fatty acids. Things like olive oil, coconut oil, lard, tallow, etc.

As your mixture undergoes saponification and hardens, the sodium bicarbonate tends to float to the surface, leaving a film or "scum" as you put it. This is known as Soda Ash. You can remove it pretty easily, but best to prevent it by spraying your molds and the top of your hardening soap with rubbing alcohol.

>>782848
Cant you also tell by licking it? Like if it tastes like a nine volt battery, theres too much?

>>794756
Oh yeah, but you won't catch me licking something I'm about to give to someone else. pH strips are the best way to really test it.

I've done about 15 batches of cold process soap with successful results. Now, I'm going to take a stab at Hot Process soap. Anyone tried it yet?

I made this yesterday after reading this thread. Took about 2 hours start to finish, the only thing I had to go out and buy was a jar of lye crystals, which was 500 grams and cost $7 CAD.

I used olive oil and coconut oil, and rolled oats at my wifes request. Went with the hot process to make it, and was able to cut it into bars today. A nice lather, but the smell is very plain. I'd make it again, but I'm going to have soap for ages now.

>>795388
looks like white worms/10

>>794975
looks like the soap is infected

>>795395
Infected with what?

>>795388
You will be better off buying in bulk. Just got 32 lbs for $50 american. Also, you can get colloidal oatmeal that works better than the rolled oats and is virtually invisible. Otherwise, it looks solid. You need to add some fragrance for there to be much scent to it.

But shit...nicely done, man. Nicely done.

did superficial googling. about this

anyone try to use motor oil, or oil based from petroleum. Or maybe mineral oil?

Came across a soap forum where there was a recipie that used turpentine to cut grease.

>>795611
I honestly don't think it would work. And if it did, wouldn't be very safe to use.

>>795388

I tried my first Hot Process soap batch last night. I think it came out pretty well. Coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, castor oil, and shea butter.

>>796292
Shit, forgot pics.

>>779829
Is it even possible to make soap with colorants that doesn't turn super dark?

>>796296
Look at the picture above your post.

>>794513
That's pretty funny though.

>>796384
Hehe.

>>796296
Use of Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide can both make soap whiteish. Not 100% white if you're using olive oil, but still pretty close.

>>796293
looks great, really nice colour. I can see the appeal of adding in extras to make it pretty, especially since girls like shiny things.

>>795508
I want to make some pretty soap now, something that I can be happy to let my family use. Great job with your stash!

>>797065
Thanks man. I wanted to put shrink wrap on my soaps that are ready for sale and put them in a more secure place. I already ruined one bar by knocking it off the curing rack, onto the floor, and my dog biting down on it...really didn't want to repeat that. Plus, my dog wouldn't drop it until I finally threatened a bath.

Overall, I've been really happy with how my soaps are turning out. I definitely add stuff for visual appeal, but I also add stuff to improve the quality of my soap. I make my soaps moisturizing and skin-friendly.

>>797066
Well you could always buy some of mine first....

Eh, I'm mostly joking. Soap making is definitely a fun thing to do. And the great thing is you can make soap that is based on individual needs. Soap for dry sky, soap for oily skin, soap for people with psoriasis, etc.

Don't want this thread to 404. So...here's some more soap. I'm actually going to start making candles too.

Soooooo......

Has anyone had any experience making liquid soaps, bubble baths, lotions, etc? Thinking of expanding my lines.

>>797093

Do you do anything special for curing?

Like run a fan over them, etc.

I get really impatient waiting for my soaps to cure.

>>798774
>half man half whale
Couldn't resist

>>800069
Baking/cooling racks which stack, with a small fan on low pointed at them. Turn it up too high and the soaps loose fragrance kinda fast. Turn upside down after about a week.

>>800073
LMAO at first I thought you meant me.

Actually, it'd still be accurate if you meant me.

>>798774
Remember how you got your shit slapped for being a tripfag?

>>779941


Stop it.

>>798774
That's a LOT of soap.

>>800091
>Stop it.
Stop what?

>>800091
>>800338
It's just someone getting mad that I dared to use a trip. Honestly, the whole arguement over it was stupid to begin with. In this circumstance, it isn't attention whoring. It's just easier to do this and keep it consistent on the comments coming from me, the OP. I don't care about the attention. More just want to keep it consistent. I don't know why I let people argue with me about it to begin with.

>>800091
lol you're just mad because OP is making something with his life

>>800091
y r u mad tho?

>>800378
I made it into my 30s without making anything of myself, so I WAS due. Considering a move to the Atlanta suburbs, to be closer to my friend/mutual investor who wants to be more directly involved. Plus, I'm pretty anxious to get out of South Texas.

>>800343

Just to share my worthless two cents

I appreciate the trip, you've only ever posted worthwhile, helpful information. I appreciate it and you've helped me in the past.

Honestly pretty tired of other anons bitching like teenage girls on these threads, trying to control how people communicate. GTFO if using a trip bothers you so much.

>>800507
Hardly worthless, good sir or madam or other. And happy to help.

There's always someone who will find a reason to complain...that's the nature of the internet.

OP, I don't like the shitty girly soap that leaves me feeling unwashed because of all these sensitive skinned folk.

I want to feel like I've taken a bath in paint thinner hence, solvol is the only soap i really like. although imperial leather is much cheaper and can actually clean skin. what sort of soap would you reccomend for the hardworking man(greasy NEET)?

>>800522
Pumice soap. AKA mansoap.

>>800522
Well, they make like gardener's soap and mechanic's soap that are meant for ultra cleaning. But they dry your skin out. I would not recommend any store-bought product, though. They are all shit. Hell, I could make you something if you like, though. Something with some grit, to exfoliate your skin, without a lot of extra moisturizing stuff. I experimented with a 100% coconut oil bar that has activated charcoal...it is super cleansing. I superfatted it heavily so it wouldn't rip your skin off, though.

>>800560
>bucket of coconut oil
>sand
>dont superfat
got it.

>>800567
Heh sure. If that is what you like, do either a 100% coconut oil soap, superfatted at 10%, with colloidal oatmeal, ground pumice, or ground walnut shells.....or do 32% coconut oil, 32% palm oil, 32% olive oil, and 4% castor oil at a 1% superfat. If you go too drying, you will regret it. And not sand. Seriously. Just....just don't.

>>800567
>sand
heh, do it, i want to see how the mess you make

How are high end commercial soaps so hard? Are they adding something to them? Using a low superfat or are they just letting them cure for 6+months before shipping?

I have some Seattle Sundries soap and a bar from a company called MIG both are very very hard in comparison to anything I've ever made. My hardness numbers are usually around 40, it's hard to get a higher number without compromising the rest of the bar.

>>800701
Usually, the longer you let them cure, the harder they will get. Alternately, you can try adding or increasing the amount of coconut oil, which tends to make a harder bar, but at the cost of good lather.
I used a little bit of bees wax once and that bar came out pretty damn hard.

>>800597
Try coffee grounds. They work really nice and de-stink your hands.

>>800701
A hardness number of 40 should be just fine. Give them time to cure. What are your oil percentages like? Also, are you using Sodium Lactate?

Higher quality stickers on my stuff. Looks better, eh?

>>801229
osaka in bloom is a great name

how much profit do you usually make?

>>801249
Thanks! I sell for $4.99 a bar. It costs about $1.25 - $1.75 a bar to make.

>>801260
How are the sales going? Also the new stickers look super.

>>801345
Appreciate it! I toyed with some different designs and so far, everyone's reacting positively. And since it's all black and white, works great with my laser printer.

Sales are coming along. It's always slow to start with, I know that. But considering I've only really been selling for a month, the fact that I'm getting orders at all is kind of shocking. Right now, it's about an order every other day, always for multiple bars. I've only had one "small" order since I started. What's been really great is the new Mother's Day gift basket preorders. I expected to sell maybe 2 or 3 between now and Mother's Day and so far, I've sold 5. And I only started like 4 days ago.

>>801349
Good for you man, I'm glad to hear you are going well.

>>801351
Thanks. At this point, I'd say I've easily recouped my initial investment. Of course, I've probably invested another 1,000 bucks since then...but still!