Melt and pour from scratch ^_^

Making melt and pour from scratch went really well. Going to be tweaking the recipe for better lather, less sticky, more transparent etc. I'm very pleased with it so far and would happily use it as it is for myself, in fact I have been hehe. The stickiness has reduced overnight so it most definitely needs curing, which was expected, just surprised at the difference. When I cure my lye soaps the only difference I notice in the feel is hardness really and that's over a long time. So today when I picked up my block of melt and pour and felt that it was so different to yesterday I was intrigued. Did a short video on the results and that is here:

This batch was made with propylene glycol but is palm and surfactant free, a big chunk of the recipe being shea butter. I want to see if I can make a batch without the propylene glycol. While I'm not overly fussed about being 'all-natural' for my own personal reasons, I know many of my friends and family are so getting a soap base that uses mostly natural ingredients would be great. I don't have high hopes for removing the propylene glycol but we'll see. I also didn't use alcohol to make this soap, denatured alcohol is a hassle to get in the UK just for a hobby, and I think bypassing the alcohol detracts from the clarity but I'm guessing helps keep the soap from being too drying on the skin, but is just an honest guess I haven't researched it.

Anywho it's late, thanks for stopping by, take care all :) xxx

Waiting on supplies :)

I have two projects that I'm super duper excited about, one of which is making my own melt and pour base. I've never used melt and pour because I love making things from scratch, that way they really feel like my own. However I'm really interested in the ways melt and pour soap is used, that it is very quick, that there is a larger variety of fragrances I can use and of course the beauty and sometimes novelty of melt and pour soaps. I like the idea of having my own base on standby for when I want to jump in the kitchen and create something but don't want to get out the lye and worry about trace and fragrances behaving. I'm pretty sure some fragrances will discolour melt and pour but I won't be worrying about ricing or seizing. I think it might also be a great way to build up stock when I get round to selling soaps.

As it's coming up to a year since I started soaping and I've been asked so many times now to sell my soaps and of course because I truly love making them I've decided I will definitely start to sell. I'm planning on selling next year, hopefully around spring give or take a month- I definitely don't want to rush this. One thing I've been thinking about is Etsy, Artfire or custom website? I'm swaying to the idea of starting with Etsy where I can list soaps one by one and then once I have a good range opening a custom website. Still not sure though and it's on the backburner as I'm concentrating on safety assessments/insurance/HMRC.

It's been a while since I posted and I've only made two batches of soap, one being the second Nippy and the other being a test batch for a fragrance oil to see how it behaved in CP soap. I improved the Nippy HP soap's performance by adding some yummy skin loving goodies. I cut it today and videoed it because it's been a while since I posted on youtube too:

Adding a second superfat at the end of cooking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and some Vegetable Glycerin gave the lather a super soft creamy feel. Anyway my first lot of supplies should be arriving tomorrow-can't wait yay! ^_^ I need to get back in the kitchen and get some things ready for tomorrow, take care all :) xxx