Soap fairies, gremlins at my house today!

Soap fairies and gremlins visit soap makers and make a nuisance of themselves.  They make things so wrong, they distract you and throw monkey wrenches into the process.  They don't do anything serious, but they sure do make a nuisance!
Well, the soap fairies and gremlins were in full force at my house today.  I made 4 one pound batches today.  All the same recipe, but different fragrances.    I was trying out 4 new fragrances from a different supplier. 
1. Kai – a nice refreshing tropical floral
2. Toffee Sugar Crunch – a dupe of Lush's Honey I Washed the Kids – a light sweet honey floral
3. Invigorating – a refreshing Lemongrass, citrus floral
4. Kazi Kazi – a dupe of Lush's Karma – spicy patchouli citrus
Toffee Sugar Crush and Kazi Kazi worked out just fine.  No weird discoloration to acceleration.  Well, actually, a purple colorant that I used for Toffee Sugar Crush turned pink instead, but that was minor.
Kai and Invigorating had issues.  As soon as I put Kai fragrance oil into the batch the batter SEIZED!  Everything just hardened up and I had soap on a stick (it hardened around the spatula).  No time to color, I had to grab the slow cooker and throw the batch in and do Hot Process (HP).  Invigorating fo discolored to a honey color as soon as it hit the batter.  I had added Titanium Dioxide a white colorant in my hopes of getting a whiter bar, I was going to use a snowflake mold.  Anyway the batch turned a peachy tan color despite the white colorant.  Then the batter started to seize.  I debated, should I just try and push the seized batter into the molds?  I did at first, then later once I had cleaned the slow cooker to just throw it in and HP it.  I'm not the biggest fan of HP.  You get really rustic looking soap, which is fine, but I like the smooth pour of Cold Process. 
Then to make matters worse, the plastic handle to my spatula snapped apart, right in the middle of making the 2nd batch.  So I had to make the remaining batches using a spatula with a short stubby broken handle.  Then when I was cleaning the slow cooker (which is a really old one I got handed down from mom) one of the three feet on the bottom broke off!!  So it's all wonkey.  I guess I could glue it back on with silicone or something, but man, why does it all happen all at once?!
I guess it could have been worse.  I didn't dump an entire batch onto the floor or onto myself.  I didn't have any lye burns or anything like that.  But still not what I expected to happen at all today.  I still have Invigorating cooking in the slow cooker, and the other batches are put away, to be unmolded and cut tomorrow. 

Discoloration update

Yeah, so my most recent cupcakes are now a light to medium brown on the bottom and the tops are kind of a dusty brown orange color.  They used to be a sunny yellow on the bottom and pink on top.  I looked at my fragrance oils a little closer.  Sparkling Grapefruit FO has no vanillin content so shouldn't discolor.  Litsea cubeba EO shouldn't discolor.  Strawberry Jam FO…  Ah hah!  There's the vanillin content.  I added a little bit of Strawberry Jam to “sweeten” the overall fragrance because the grapefruit and litsea cubeba are so tart.  Should have looked a little closer.  The cupcakes are still super cute, but they aren't what I was expecting.  Anway… next time I have to pay more attention.
The Peppermint Cocoa base confetti soap has darkened even more to a dark chocolate color. 
A couple of weekends ago I went to Oakland's TKB Trading Big Pour Warehouse sale.  That was great!  They had their micas on sale, Melt & Pour soap base from SFIC, and many base oils and butters.  I'm small time so I didn't buy too much, but what a great sale. Their sampler micas are usually $1.50, they were $1, I got several. Their micas are good for soaps, makeup, etc. I got more glow-in-the-dark powder.  The glow in the dark M&P soaps are so much fun! I got some M&P soap base.  It's great because I would never be able to purchase directly from SFIC because their minimums are so large.  I also got some base oils/butters. There was no shipping to pay for.  I had a good time!

More soapies

I took a bunch of my soap trimmings and scraps and made confetti soap.  This time I used Peppermint Cocoa fragrance oil.  It discolored the soap into a dark chocolate color.  It made an interestingly dark background for all of the embeds.

I also made some soap cupcakes.  I was able to pipe the topping.  The sparkling grapefruit/strawberry jam/litsea cubeba cupcake on the left was a lemon yellow bottom and a pink on top, but it has discolored so that the bottom is tan and the top is orangey.  The spearming eucalyptus cupcake stayed true to color.  Pale white-green on the bottom and light mint top.  Both cupcakes have jojoba bead 'sprinkles' and cosmetic glitter.  The stars are other soaps from before that I had molded and cut up.

I loved piping the tops.  I'll definitely need to make soap cupcakes again.

Making my d20 soap-on-a-rope!

So, some of you may know I have been lured into the world of D&D RPG Gaming.  In my web browsing what do I come upon but a D20 soap-on-a-rope!!  Well, being a soap maker I was fascinated.  How could I make such a thing? 
Well, I purchased a HUGE d20.  2.5 inches (55cm) in diameter d20! 

Oh, for those of you who aren't gamers, this is a count down die.   See how the numbers dial down right next to each other.  So, it's not a legal die to use in RPGA.
Anyway…
Then I went to Tap Plastics and purchased their Platinum silicone molding material (not cheap, by the way).  I chose the Platinum silicone because I really didn't want to make a two part mold and it's the most flexible and tear resistant mold that I could make.  I'm really hoping that it will won't tear too much with use.  But I still have enough the silicone molding material to make another mold if need be.  Here's the mold.

I melted some melt and pour soap added color and fragrance and I made some soap-on-a-rope!

Cool huh.
I suppose I could use cold process soap, but I only have one mold and I couldn't make a batch so small to only make one d20 soap; and CP soap takes 24 hours to unmold.  So, M&P soap it is for this.  I used goat's milk M&P soap base for this one.  I got some thin nylon strapping for the rope.  I really wanted nylon braiding, but I couldn't find any at the fabric store.  And next time I would make the rope longer.  I ran out of soap the first time and had to pour out and melt some more and re-pour into the mold.  It was still not quite enough so it's not quite clean at the top and I had some bubbles in the liquid soap so there are tiny little bubbles near the top and it's not smooth. 
Oh, was this process worth it?  Not in $$.  Sheesh I could have purchased several of these soaps on a rope for the time, effort, and cost that went into making one d20 soap of my own. 
But was I satisfied and did I have fun… heck yeah!
Making my own silicone mold was so cool, and so easy!  I can make more d20 soaps any time I want. 

Fading fragrances and room fragrance

So, some of my soaps have been in use for months and some of the fragrances have started to fade on some of the soaps.  It's really good to note these changes over time.  Some fragrances do tend to fade with time.  In particular the anise and peppermint essential oils have faded.  I only used 0.5 oz per pound of oil for each because I read that they are pretty potent fragrances.  Now I'm thinking I'll just use a full 1 oz per pound of oil the next time I use them. 
Other things I've found with my soaps.  The ones with higher pomace olive oil content at 60-70% to be too soft for my taste.  Although it may be worth it to experiment with the higher pomace olive oil and adding sodium lactate which adds hardness.  Or else don't use pomace olive oil and instead use regular olive oil.   The castile/bastile soaps I made with regular light olive oil made a much firmer bar while the pomace oo soaps were kinda squishy. 
I might take a little break from bar soap making for a little while so I can make a dent in my soap bar collection.  Might…
Although I still want to make some more liquid soap.   
I'm also experimenting with some room fragrances.  I purchased some sachet beads which absorb fragrance oil which I then parcel out into organza bags and hang around the house.  So far they seem to be doing well.  I've also purchased those glass bottles with the sticks.  I haven't actually used those yet, but I have them!  I just have to think of a way to place them out of the reach of the cats.  I don't want spilled fragrance oil somewhere because the cats wanted to play with the sticks.

Bunch o' photos

OK, I haven't posted photos lately, so here goes.
Here's what my liquid soap looks like:
So 1.5 lbs of oil made about 3/4 of a gallon of liquid soap.  It's a really liquidy soap.  I didn't use anything to thicken it up so it's pretty runny.  But look how clear it is!  Yay!

  
And in case you ever wondered where I put all this soap:
Most of it is in the garage.  All the fragrances combined can be quite heady so they live mostly in the garage.  I have a small metal mesh drawer unit which holds most of the soap that have cured and many are packaged.  The green baskets on top which are re-purposed flower baskets used at flower markets I use to cure the soaps.  I do have a smaller stash in the house which are unfragranced or naturally fragranced with oatmeal milk and honey.

Bottom, middle, and top drawers

   
Here's a peek into the curing baskets.  The soaps are all cut up and resting.  Before I use the soaps I give them at least 4 weeks of curing time to evaporate moisture and get harder and longer lasting.

   
The plastic baggies contain trimmings from various soaps.  I can reuse these trimmings and shreds for confetti soaps. 

Oh yeah… milk soaps…

I forgot or ignored the fact that milk soaps, when allowed to gel, turn the soaps medium brown/tan color.  Duh!  The milk sugars carmelize in the heat and darken the soaps.  So it doesn't really matter what colorants I put into the soaps.  Oh well, next time I try to prevent gel by putting them into the freezer after I pour. 
The sodium lactate is WONDERFUL!  I unmolded and cut the soaps at about 11 hours.  That's really quick (I couldn't wait until tomorrow)!  They all came out of their molds lickety split and the fondant texture mat made clean, beautiful impressions on the soaps.  All the fragrances came out really nice.  Champagne, cherry blossom, coffee bean, and white tea and ginger.