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Post by elizaloo on May 19, 2015 22:18:18 GMT
I took a class from a friend who makes/sells soaps and I LOVED IT. It's been over a month and I just started using the soaps I made and they are fantastic. I've ordered some supplies and oils and can't wait to make more. She spent quite a bit of time on safety so I'm prepared to be wary of mixing the lye but I can't wait to experiment with clay and colors etc. I've joined a bunch of soap making FB forums and I'm excited to be here to see what everyone else makes/ does.
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Post by Muller's Lane Farm on May 20, 2015 16:11:07 GMT
Welcome to the addiction, elizaloo. I run the FB group Tallow Soapers ... it was a Yahoo group previously. A lot of beautiful soaps from those folks. |
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Post by farmchix on May 21, 2015 12:43:14 GMT
It is addicting, for sure! My family will use nothing but the soaps I make. They even put in their 'requests'. On a personal note, even as I am older, I was struggling with blackheads. I have a red clay soap that has improved my complexion so much, I feel like I need to buy an infomercial slot on the local television station!  |
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Post by elizaloo on May 22, 2015 0:23:28 GMT
Thanks for the welcome and replies. I have supplies arriving next week so I hope to have some soap to show off soon! |
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Post by feather on May 22, 2015 1:51:42 GMT
Elizaloo, have you looked at Columbus Foods...Soaper's Choice. I haven't found a better source and I don't own stock in them. www.soaperschoice.com/I use them for 50 lb boxes of base oils (like vegetable, lard, coconut). (I render my own tallow) Brambleberry has good essential and fragrance oils. I'm not a personal fan of their service near the holidays but the quality of the oils is good. www.brambleberry.com/They come in glass jars (trust me, plastic won't hold up to them--the plastic bottles melt over time in contact with those oils) and they last a long time. I don't have a confident source for color or pumices or any odd extra thing, but I'm sure others might. There are spices and herbs, lettuces and beets, that when dried, can color. Goats milk, really, any milk can be substituted for the liquid portion but it burns quickly, so it should be frozen first, so it doesn't burn. I make cold processed and then I remill it (remelt after the lye is less activated), so some is remilled and some is just cold processed. Making soap is a fun thing, especially if you don't have little one's traipsing around, that lye solution is no nonchalant thing around children. I completely stopped making soap when my kids were little and I wouldn't do it much around pets either. Being focused is important. Enjoy it and when you've got the basic soap under your belt, then make laundry soap, your homemade soap and washing soda and borax, that saves a bunch of money. |
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Post by elizaloo on May 23, 2015 2:22:00 GMT
Elizaloo, have you looked at Columbus Foods...Soaper's Choice. I haven't found a better source and I don't own stock in them. www.soaperschoice.com/I use them for 50 lb boxes of base oils (like vegetable, lard, coconut). (I render my own tallow) Brambleberry has good essential and fragrance oils. I'm not a personal fan of their service near the holidays but the quality of the oils is good. www.brambleberry.com/They come in glass jars (trust me, plastic won't hold up to them--the plastic bottles melt over time in contact with those oils) and they last a long time. I don't have a confident source for color or pumices or any odd extra thing, but I'm sure others might. There are spices and herbs, lettuces and beets, that when dried, can color. Goats milk, really, any milk can be substituted for the liquid portion but it burns quickly, so it should be frozen first, so it doesn't burn. I make cold processed and then I remill it (remelt after the lye is less activated), so some is remilled and some is just cold processed. Making soap is a fun thing, especially if you don't have little one's traipsing around, that lye solution is no nonchalant thing around children. I completely stopped making soap when my kids were little and I wouldn't do it much around pets either. Being focused is important. Enjoy it and when you've got the basic soap under your belt, then make laundry soap, your homemade soap and washing soda and borax, that saves a bunch of money. No little ones, , in fact DD17 went with me to the class and enjoyed making soap too! My soap-making mentor uses Soaper's Choice too so when I get a few $$$ together I will order from them and BB too. Thanks for the tips on using milk, it's on my list to try! I tried laundry soap just the other day but it's complete liquid; never jelled. Research showed that it's due to hard water? I'm disappointed because it smells great. I think I'm going to use it as is and see how it goes. |
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Post by feather on May 23, 2015 3:49:06 GMT
Okay well, I don't know for sure but I've got terribly hard water so let's just take that out of the equation. My laundry detergent gels.
I use about 12 oz of shredded homemade soap, then a cup of borax and a cup of washing soda, and in hot water, I start with 1 gallon and boil the soap in the water, and then add 2 more gallons of cooled water after everything is dissolved, once it is dissolved (soap, borax, washing soda) so it's 3 gallons of disgusting gelled laundry soap in a 5 gallon pail. The gelling takes until the next day, until it cools off. The texture is disgusting if you aren't a mucus kind of gal, (I'm not good with mucus or blood, the reason I'm not a nurse) and I'm not. It works well though, so that is what I judge it on. I put in a few drops of 'good smelling' type of essential oil in it.
You can use Zote or Fels Naptha or any other brand name soap, but I see no difference in using a homemade soap.
About every 3 or 4 months, I use a detergent, notice that a laundry "SOAP" is not a "DETERGENT". So once in a while, I wash my clothes with detergent and not the "soap". I don't get my clothes cleaner with a detergent, but, any residue from soap gets washed out. When I wash with laundry 'soap' I get out any detergent residue and the smell that comes with it.
It's the difference between $16 dollars or more every 6 months to $3 dollars every 6 months. That is a conservative view.
I go through about one package of detergent, every two years. My clothes are clean and smell good. It's less expensive to do this, to use detergent only 4 times a year. Or maybe less.
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Post by Muller's Lane Farm on May 24, 2015 3:09:29 GMT
Zote & Fels Naptha contains whiteners & brighteners.
I prefer using detergent over soap for washing clothes. I have to use borax & washing soda even with the detergent to get the clothes clean. I use the homemade laundry soap for soaking.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2015 12:11:56 GMT
I'm a bit like you feather. Except I use detergent on the whites and laundry butter on most of the rest. Laundry butter is made similar to your gel but uses way less water and looks and feels way better. Plus you aren't scrambling for containers it's condensed a lot more.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2015 16:08:57 GMT
Thanks for the welcome and replies. I have supplies arriving next week so I hope to have some soap to show off soon! Do we get an update? Have you made any soap yet? |
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