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I seem to be having a problem with my loofah's turning out right.
Anybody care to critique what I am doing?
First batch I did.. I used my regular soap recipe.. which is 88 oz of oils. Yes.. ran it through the soap calculator and it is the standard recipe I use on my bar soaps.
You might remember me having trouble getting it out of the tube??
Anyway.. that loofah turned out okay.. once I wicked the oil from around it and allowed to dry for a week or two. The soap on the outside of the loofah pealed off in hunks. But never fear.. I cut them darlin's anyway.. and had little soap loofahs.. :crazy
so... we did another batch.. figuring I had not greased the tube like I ought.. we greased with mineral oil this time.. and poured another batch.. with different FO's. Same thing.. couldn't get it out.. and it pealed the outer soap from around the loofah. The insided looked great.. but the outside.. oily and not stuck to the loofah. This tube was also hard to get out.. (my friend too that one home and decided to give it a go.. and she ended up using hubby's shop tools to get it out also.)
Not to be outdone.. I figured I'd cut the PVC down to loofah sizes.. and then pour one at a time if I had to.. since I needed the loofah soap.. the first ones have sold like hot cakes. Anyway.. I did a 4 pound batch.. which is my small test batch.. and poured it up yesterday morning. Same thing.. oily as the dickens.. with oil, which I assume is glycerin floating on top. I must have gotten almost 1/4 cup from one loofah alone.
Came out easy this time.. cause it didn't stick again. The loofah came out in one big oily mess.. with the soap that was suppose to be on the outside sticking to the tube. I did oil with mineral oil also.
What I did was.. (My recipe is around 5% superfated). made my lye mixture.. melted my oils.. then when at 90 - 100 degrees.. mixed lye with oils.
At light trace.. added my FO, and before coming to heavy trace.. poured over the loofah in a mineral lined 3 inch PVC tube. Just covering the top. Bumped the tube to get all the air from inside the loofah. Coverd and wraped with a hand towel the tube. (did not gel that I could tell although the others did).
This morning.. oil was floating on top of one. and not the other. The one that did not have oil was a partial pour with the soap not covering the loofah cause I didn't have enough to cover that one.
When I poured off the oil.. I let set upside down in a measuring cup to remove it cause it was so much of it.
I pushed in a paper lined box top.. ugggh.. what a oily mess. Looked like the first one I did. The soap that shuold have been on the outside of the loofah.. was stuck inside the tube, even the partial filled one.
I REALLY want to do these.. have a health food store/herb shop/ message parlour that wants them to sell.
Besides that.. I can't stand to be outdone.
Anybody care to critique what I am doing?
First batch I did.. I used my regular soap recipe.. which is 88 oz of oils. Yes.. ran it through the soap calculator and it is the standard recipe I use on my bar soaps.
You might remember me having trouble getting it out of the tube??
Anyway.. that loofah turned out okay.. once I wicked the oil from around it and allowed to dry for a week or two. The soap on the outside of the loofah pealed off in hunks. But never fear.. I cut them darlin's anyway.. and had little soap loofahs.. :crazy
so... we did another batch.. figuring I had not greased the tube like I ought.. we greased with mineral oil this time.. and poured another batch.. with different FO's. Same thing.. couldn't get it out.. and it pealed the outer soap from around the loofah. The insided looked great.. but the outside.. oily and not stuck to the loofah. This tube was also hard to get out.. (my friend too that one home and decided to give it a go.. and she ended up using hubby's shop tools to get it out also.)
Not to be outdone.. I figured I'd cut the PVC down to loofah sizes.. and then pour one at a time if I had to.. since I needed the loofah soap.. the first ones have sold like hot cakes. Anyway.. I did a 4 pound batch.. which is my small test batch.. and poured it up yesterday morning. Same thing.. oily as the dickens.. with oil, which I assume is glycerin floating on top. I must have gotten almost 1/4 cup from one loofah alone.
Came out easy this time.. cause it didn't stick again. The loofah came out in one big oily mess.. with the soap that was suppose to be on the outside sticking to the tube. I did oil with mineral oil also.
What I did was.. (My recipe is around 5% superfated). made my lye mixture.. melted my oils.. then when at 90 - 100 degrees.. mixed lye with oils.
At light trace.. added my FO, and before coming to heavy trace.. poured over the loofah in a mineral lined 3 inch PVC tube. Just covering the top. Bumped the tube to get all the air from inside the loofah. Coverd and wraped with a hand towel the tube. (did not gel that I could tell although the others did).
This morning.. oil was floating on top of one. and not the other. The one that did not have oil was a partial pour with the soap not covering the loofah cause I didn't have enough to cover that one.
When I poured off the oil.. I let set upside down in a measuring cup to remove it cause it was so much of it.
I pushed in a paper lined box top.. ugggh.. what a oily mess. Looked like the first one I did. The soap that shuold have been on the outside of the loofah.. was stuck inside the tube, even the partial filled one.
I REALLY want to do these.. have a health food store/herb shop/ message parlour that wants them to sell.
Besides that.. I can't stand to be outdone.