I will be creating a new poll so I can learn what you would like to read on future blog posts. If you have requests for items to be on the poll, please send them to me. I think I know what you want, now you get to prove my theory right or wrong. You can be specific in your requests: Chamomile Herbal Cold Process Soap or you can be vague : More lotions please

Either way, I’m listening.

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by April 1st for posts during March.

Did you know that you can become a fan of Majestic Mountain Sage on Facebook? Receive the latest updates, blog post notifications and more!

Our new Daisy Pots!

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This is a fun way to enjoy learning about saponification without covering several whiteboards with chemical changes at the molecular level. I wish all confusing questions could be solved this way!

Over on The Sage Soapmaker’s Forum, we have a Pampered Mother’s Day Swap. Come over and join our swap to pamper those special mothers! The last day to sign up is March 25th, so hurry and come on over as we would love to have you join this swap. These swaps are not only fantastic ways to share products, but also help you get great feedback about your submission.

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by April 1st for posts during March.

Did you know that you can become a fan of Majestic Mountain Sage on Facebook? Receive the latest updates, blog post notifications and more!

© 2008 Canis Art

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Jar Breakage PDF

With this sheet, you can now be your own crime scene investigator!

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by April 1st for posts during March.

Did you know that you can become a fan of Majestic Mountain Sage on Facebook? Receive the latest updates, blog post notifications and more!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite ]]> http://blog.thesage.com/2010/03/17/why-jars-break/feed/ 0 http://blog.thesage.com/2010/03/15/milk-soaps-challenge/ http://blog.thesage.com/2010/03/15/milk-soaps-challenge/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:40:31 +0000 Andee http://blog.thesage.com/?p=5908 Donna submitted her milk soaps for our Milk Soap Challenge. Here is her perspective on the process of making milk soap.

Enjoy!

First, here’s the recipe I used — it’s a little varied from my usual mix, because I wanted to use the last of my cocoa butter & shea butter, hence the odd numbers: 400g Coconut Oil 400g Palm Oil 200g Water 200g Coconut Milk 200g Olive Oil 172g Sodium Hydroxide 100g Grapeseed Oil 56g Cocoa Butter 22g Shea Butter 28ml Lemongrass Essential Oil

I did the usual measuring out of the lye & water. I can’t be sure, but I think the lower volume of water made it heat up more. At least, I can only assume that’s the reason that the glass jug I’ve been using for 8 months to hold my lye/water solution broke off cleanly at the
bottom when I submerged it into the water bath. Crap. Well, at least it broke in the sink and not all over my counter. At worst, my sink will drain a little more clearly. Lye all over my kitchen is NOT something I want to think about.

So, I switched to a pyrex measuring cup instead. This worked fine. Phew. Left that sitting in the water bath while I went on to measure & mix the rest of my oils.

The shea butter & cocoa butter were already measured out, because I needed to see how much I had left so I could run that through my lye calculator first. I added the rest of my oils, and measured out the coconut milk and set it aside. Heated the oils, cooled the lye until
everything was about 120F (Yes, I measure my oils in g, and my temperature in F — “120″ is a bit more exact than “50″ so being a degree or two off is less of a big deal.)

Got my stick blender out, and started stirring the lye solution into my oils. Blended in very short bursts — I’ve discovered before that a low-water soap can go from “untraced” to “seized in the pot” SUPER fast, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to end up with a solid lump again. Huge pain in the butt. When I guessed it was roughly halfway to tracing, I added in the room temperature coconut milk, stirred a bit more to get everything fully blended, added in my essential oil (lemongrass — yummy!) and grabbed my prepared mold.

It was starting to trace super fast at that point, so I started lumping it into the mold as fast as I could. I usually make round soaps, using a lined PVC pipe, so the more firmly traced it is, the harder it is to get it into the mold. By the time I was finished molding it up, it was roughly the consistency of playdough, which is ridiculously hard to work with, especially with a narrow mold. Upon reflection, I probably should have grabbed one of my flat pan molds, but I really like my round soaps. Here’s hoping there aren’t any major air holes in there — I pushed at it a lot with my spatula to try to shove it down. Next time, I think I’ll add the essential oil at the
same time as the milk so I can avoid extra stirring.

I had a bit more than fit into my single round mold, so I grabbed one of the washed, clean milk cartons I save for exactly this purpose. They’re neat, they make perfectly square soaps.

So, everything is in the molds, and I’m leaving them uninsulated because… well, it’s a milk soap, and I’m told those heat up a ton. They’re sitting out in my pantry right now, and I’m looking forward to unmolding them on Wednesday.

—
Wednesday:

I unmolded my coconut milk soaps, and hooray, they seem to have turned out! Will wait a few weeks to really try them, but washing the residue off my hands sudded up quite nicely and left my hands nice and soft, so I think it’s going to be pretty good stuff.

As expected, there are a few “gaps” where there were air pockets. Next time, I have to work on getting it into the molds faster, it’s difficult to work with a long narrow mold when you’re at a super thick trace.

Color: Not much different from my normal soaps, maybe a tinge more yellow… although that’s probably from the lemongrass, which has some minor discoloring effects. Next batch I do (I still have another 200g of coconut milk) I will probably try to color a bit. We’ll see.

I scented these a lot stronger than I usually do, and my kitchen smells very strongly of lemongrass. I am totally okay with this, because lemongrass is awesome.

And there we have it. I’m super pleased with it, and definitely plan on making more. I really like the half and half method, it works like a charm (even if I did manage to break a jug trying it!)

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by March 1st for posts during February.

Did you know that you can become a fan of Majestic Mountain Sage on Facebook? Receive the latest updates, blog post notifications and more!

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Recipe:

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by March 1st for posts during February.

Did you know that you can become a fan of Majestic Mountain Sage on Facebook? Receive the latest updates, blog post notifications and more!

Two comparison bottles.

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Collect needed items:

Weigh the baking chocolate, chop into small chunks and set aside.

Measure oils on your scale. Warm on the stove or in the microwave. Once the oils are melted, add the baking chocolate and stir until completely melted. Bring temperature to near 120 °F. Exact temperature is not critical. Add sodium hydroxide to the water. Mix well. Allow to cool to near 120 °F. Once again, exact temperature is not critical.

Combine oils and lye solution. Stir until thin trace. Add fragrance if you desire. Stir well. Pour soap into molds. Allow to sit until soap is firm.

Cut into bars. Stack to allow good air circulation. Allow to cure for several days before using. Longer curing will result in a harder bar.

This soap smells like Devil’s Food Cake and allows any chocoholic to enjoy their addiction even while bathing!

Notes: We only recommend 1/8 to 1/4 to ounce of baking chocolate per pound of fats in a batch. We are primarily using the baking chocolate for scent and color, so a little will go a long way!

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by March 1st for posts during February.

Did you know that you can become a fan of Majestic Mountain Sage on Facebook? Receive the latest updates, blog post notifications and more!

Oils ready for the microwave.

Adding lye to the water.

Mixing the lye solution.

Melted oils.

Adding baking chocolate to the melted oils.

Baking chocolate mixed with the melted oils. Mixing the batch together. The batch is almost at trace.

Adding the lye solution to the batch. Continuing to mix the batch. Soaps sitting in the molds.

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I expect to soon release several series on Swirled Soaps, Beer Soaps, Using Dyes for Other Projects, and Seeded Soaps.

I hope you will enjoy these upcoming posts as much as I will!

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by March 1st for posts during February.

Did you know that you can become a fan of Majestic Mountain Sage on Facebook? Receive the latest updates, blog post notifications and more!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite ]]> http://blog.thesage.com/2010/02/19/upcoming-blog-projects/feed/ 0 http://blog.thesage.com/2010/02/18/blog-reader-challenge-3/ http://blog.thesage.com/2010/02/18/blog-reader-challenge-3/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:50:51 +0000 Andee http://blog.thesage.com/?p=5851 It has been a while since our last challenge, so I believe that it is time to extend another challenge to all blog readers. We just finished a week of milk soaps and now I’d like to see how your milk soaps turn out.

Rules:
1) Submit a picture to show the finished soap. You can show us the whole process or just the finished soaps.
2) Tell us about your opinions of the process. Was it easy? Was it fun? Was it what you expected?
3) Any milk product is available as an option. Yogurt, Half & Half, Soy, Rice, Cow, Goat, Sheep, Almond and many more.
4) You are not required to leave the soap unscented or even uncolored. We want to see how you make your milk soaps!
5) Enjoy yourself and have fun!

Submissions will be due by March 25th. Each guest writer will receive a $25 gift certificate for their participation.

Happy Soaping!

Karol, Tina, Maureen and Laurie, your soap sets left today!

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by March 1st for posts during February.

Did you know that you can become a fan of Majestic Mountain Sage on Facebook? Receive the latest updates, blog post notifications and more!

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What can I put in a Heat Sealable Tea Bag for a bath?
Herbs and Flowers: Peppermint Leaves, Rosebuds, Lavender Buds, Chamomile Bud, Calendula Petals, Lemon Balm, Vanilla, and more.
Grains: Oatmeal and Wheat Germ.

The Heat Sealable Tea Bags are also very useful when making a tea for soap making. You can make your own teas to be used as the liquid in batches of soap to make them even more unique.

What can I put in a Heat Sealable Tea Bag for soap teas?
Herbs and Flowers: Peppermint Leaves, Rosebuds, Lavender Buds, Chamomile Bud, Calendula Petals, Lemon Balm, Vanilla, Hops, Black Tea, Green Tea, Rooibos and many more.

Using the Heat Sealable Tea Bags is so easy, you will want to use them all the time. All you need is a household clothes iron, the Heat Sealable Tea Bags, and the botanicals you want to use. I’m going show you how I make a Chamomile and Oatmeal Bath Soak in a Large Heat Sealable Tea Bag.

Collect needed items:

Set the iron to the medium temperature setting. Using the food processor, grind the oatmeal to make a fine oat flour. Measure 4 teaspoons of the finely ground oatmeal and 1 teaspoon of the Chamomile Tea Blend into the Large Heat Sealable Tea Bag. Gently pinch the bag closed and lay it on the ironing board. Lightly press the iron over the edge of the bag and hold for 3 seconds. The combination of the heat and pressure will seal the bag.

Ta-da! We now have a sealed tea bag ready to be used in soothing bath.

Kathy, your soap set left today!

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by March 1st for posts during February.

Did you know that you can become a fan of Majestic Mountain Sage on Facebook? Receive the latest updates, blog post notifications and more!

Chamomile Tea Blend in the tea bag.

Oatmeal in the tea bag.

Pressing the tea bag.

Several sealed tea bags with various blends.

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Top row of soaps, starting at the top left of the picture:
Cows Milk, Goats Milk, and Buttermilk.
Bottom row of soaps, starting at the bottom left of the picture:
Soy Milk and Almond Milk.

Don’t forget about the 5 Milks Soap Set Special! If you would like to receive all 5 soaps and test them on your own, you can order them for $18 including shipping! Each bar weighs between 4.5 oz and 5 oz and has measurements of 2 1/2″ X 2 1/2″ X 1″. They have not been scented at all, so you will only have the soaps as made on their respective posts. I will only send the set of 5 soaps, no single soap requests please.

Click on photo to enlarge.

How do I order the 5 Milks Soap Set?
1) Go to the Gift Certificate Form on our website.
2) Fill out all required fields for shipping and billing information as well as the credit card field for payment.
3) Give a Gift Certificate Value of $18.00. Type it into the “Other Amount” box as 18.00 (no dollar sign) to prevent problems.
4) In the “Gift Message” box, type the following message “Please send me the 5 Milks Soap Set!”
5) Submit your order request!

What do I get for $18?
1) 1 Cows Milk Soap
2) 1 Goats Milk Soap
3) 1 Buttermilk Soap
4) 1 Soy Milk Soap
5) 1 Almond Milk Soap
6) Shipping is INCLUDED in this total!

Kim & Margaret: Your soap sets left today!

Can I place this through the MMS Catalog Online Ordering?
No. At this time, our MMS Catalog Online Ordering will add a shipping calculation to all orders processed through the system. Our Gift Certificate System will not add any additional shipping charges to your order.

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by March 1st for posts during February.

Did you know that you can become a fan of Majestic Mountain Sage on Facebook? Receive the latest updates, blog post notifications and more!

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