Soapy Hints and Tips
This is a monthly collection of tips,
knowledge, and just plain good advice.
Ricing
I've had several fo's do this wonderful ricing thing on me. You pour in
the fo, start to stir it in and boom! You have what looks like rice soup!
:) It helps to pour it into the soap when it is at a very light trace.
It also helps to just dump the fo in quickly, instead of gently pouring while
stirring. Just be prepared for it. I usually dump and stir and hit
it with a stick blender for a second or two and then pour into the mold and
insulate/cover it. So far, so good! I wouldn't try any
delicate swirls or layering techniques when working with a known ricer. :)
~ Denise in PA, list co-moderator
Soap is still totally fine even with ricing. When you unmold it, it will
probably look completely normal. When I have ricing, I just insulate well and by
the time I unmold, the soap looks great. Sometimes if I add color, it will get
kind of a marbled appearance with the color, but it is actually pretty cool
looking:) Don't even bother trying to get the lumps out next time, they are
going to happen and the more your beat the soap, the more it is going to act up.
Just have a nice trace, pour, and let it work its magic:)
~ Erika
Ricing isn't a seize, it's tiny little
bubbles of fragrance that become encapsulated because soap forms around them
quickly. There are several ways to work around this...and many fragrances
are well worth the effort. Denise was right, don't plan on tricky
multi-color swirls, but other than that, these are my favorite methods for
working with a scent that *might* rice:
1. Use oils and lye solution at temps below 90
2. Add fragrance at thin trace
3. Mix a bit of your base oil (olive, or the melted blend -- but NOT
jojoba) in with the fragrance. If you are using an ounce of fragrance, add
a half to a full ounce of liquid oil to the fragrance, and then blend it into
your soap. Better yet, mix the two together and give them a 10 second shot
in the microwave so the fragrance is warmed a bit.
4. A combination of the three methods above. Even with the most even
tempered of fragrances, I like adding scent at thin trace. I feel as
though it mixes better and gives me more time to work.
5. With good FOs you can also add them to the liquid oils and stir well
and THEN add your lye solution. You rarely get problems this way, and can
be the solution to the must-have fragrance that simply will not obey any other
way (a certain Midnight in Tunisia comes to mind).
~ Sue K.
Oil and glycerin
Glycerin is technically water soluble, but depending on what you are
using it in, it is possible to use it in oil, like say for example sweetening
lip balms....... like honey, it takes some doing but you can get it to stay in
there with a bit of finesse and whipping the tar out of it, lol
~ Becky Erisch, ListMom
Percentage Xantham Gum as Lotion
Thickener
I normally use approx. 1/3 teaspoon in a 16 ounce batch if that helps, : )
~ Becky Erisch, ListMom
Advice on Pricing
The best way to figure this out is to go back to your
recipe and determine exactly how much money it costs you to make your 2 pound
batch; include everything, the oils, the fragrance, the paper you line the molds
with, packaging... everything. Once you have that, don't forget your
"time" that you used while making
the soap. If it takes you an hour to make a batch of soap; figure out a wage per
hour for yourself and add that to the price of the soap. When you have a
workable number divide it by how many bars you get from your batch...bingo, you
have how much each bar costs you to make. Now it's time to do the markup for
wholesale or retail...from what I've read/learned most folks use between 200%
and 400% markup. You may also hear that folks pick an arbitrary number of $1 an
ounce for cp soap...so a four ounce bar would cost $4. I like to know the
*actual* cost, so I prefer the first method. My bars are right around 3 ounces
and I sell
them at $3.00 per bar or four bars for $10. Honest, it just worked out to be a
buck an ounce! :)
~ Denise in PA, list co-moderator
Coconut Milk
One of the nice things about using coconut milk is that you don't have to do
the whole batch, or even half a batch with it. I've found that even a few
tablespoons added to a batch of soap at trace makes a noticeable difference in
the lather.
~ Sue K.
The trick with it, at least for me, is to
discount the water according to how much coconut milk you want to use, and add
the milk to the oil pot before pouring in the lye water. The mixture stays
smooth and does not overcook that way.
~ Miriam
I put it in my shampoo bars, as anything
coconut is good for my girls' hair and dry skin. It DOES make a difference, I am
with Sue on this one. I use castor oil in there as well, but from my own
experience the coconut oil adds appreciable benefits all on its own.
~ Khadijah
The addition of castor oil
Castor oil has very much proven itself to boost
lather/bubbles when used in tandem with coconut oil - it boosts the coconut's
(or PKO) properties by making for not only more lather, but for making stronger,
longer lasting bubbles, and lather. It would be one of my 'top 3 picks' if I had
to narrow it down to such a sum. : )
I have noticed that the higher the shea or cocoa butter content, the higher the
castor content needs to be in order to see the benefits of the castor as you do
in lower SB/CB soaps.
~ Camille, ListMom
Carrot Juice in Soap
I also add a small jar of pureed baby food carrots (per 2 lbs of soap).
I just love the color and I really like the idea of a brown sugar scent. I
haven't made soap in too long...got to get some more fragrance oils.
~ Ellen
Heart Shaped Cakes
For all of you who make heart-shaped cakes for Valentine's day, here's
how to make a heart with no waste. Using your favorite cake recipe, make
one 8 or 9 inch round layer and one 8 or 9 inch square layer. When the
layers are cool, just cut the round layer in half and fit on adjacent sides of
the square layer to form the rounded tops of the heart. Hide all seams with
frosting.
This and other baking tips brought to you courtesy of the folks at the King
Arthur flour company. Standard disclaimers, though I do own one of
Brinna
Sands' cookbooks and used to subscribe to the bakers newsletter.
~ Constance
Best Advice For A New Soaper
I have a few tips that I have learned the hard way:
1) Safety should ALWAYS be first when soapmaking. Goggles are the most important
piece of safety equipment. Just a few weeks back I splattered myself right in
the eye with raw soap while my goggles were resting on the top of my head rather
than over my eyes. This could have been a very costly mistake, but I lucked out
and no damage was done (except I had to replace my contact... that one was shot)
2) Write down everything you do. Don't think that you will remember, because you
probably won't at some point. If you make a blend, make sure you have notes on
how to remake it. If you make salts, deodorants, lotion bars, etc... write down
exactly how much fragrance you need to add in. I have done this many times,
where I will create a new product and then forget the exact proportions of the
recipe. I will forget how much colorant it took to get to the shade I like
best... stuff like that. If you can just have a notebook where you jot this
stuff down, it will save you so much extra work in the long run.
3) Keep it fun. No matter if this is a hobby or a job,
it should be an enjoyable one. If you are making tons of stuff for orders and
getting bored, whip something up special just for you and pamper yourself with
it. While there have been a few days where I just don't feel like getting
an item ready for an order, overall I always have a good time with what I do,
which is exactly the way it should be:)
~ Erika
~ Jessica Miller
