Roll call and intro thread

[lauredhel]

Welcome to newly arriving members. Will you take a moment to drop us a line?

- Where you from?

- Do you make soap right now? If so, what kinds? what do you like?

- If not, are you interested and researching, or just here for the soap pr0n? Which is fine too.

- Any burning questions? (One free newbie q per introduction!)

Comments

[eowyn_unquendor]

- Where you from?
I'm from Rotterdam, in Holland.
I became interested in soap when I suffered from so much dandruff that Head & Shoulders didn't work anymore. Right now I'm 'no-poo' as they call it; I've started washing my hair with Marseille soap first and when the lovely shampoo soap I'd bought in Germany was all gone. I also ditched shower gel and face cleaners for soap. Preferably natural soap; my favorite is Aleppo soap. Some time ago I bought a bar with Jasminium.
I'm also a scientist; I have a bachelor degree in physics and chemistry, and I work as a chemist :)

- Do you make soap right now? If so, what kinds? what do you like?
Here's the batch of soap I made last December, to give away and to use it myself;



It's made from 75% olive oil and 25% coconut oil and it's very fat. Right now the soap has become white with a green core, which I hadn't expected. I also didn't expect that it wouldn't be that suitable for washing my hair.

It took forever to trace! Since I hadn't measured the temperatures of the lye and the oils it took forever to get them on the same temperature. I ended up putting the lye and oil mixture au bain marie on the gas, and it costed me a whole afternoon before the reaction started.

- If not, are you interested and researching, or just here for the soap pr0n? Which is fine too.
I'm definitely researching. Since shipping soap is so expensive and I would really, really want suitable shampoo soap I think I need to make it myself. The bar I had consisted of olive oil, coconut oil and castor oil, so I hope I will be able to replicate that.

- Any burning questions? (One free newbie q per introduction!)
My current burning question is where I could buy castor oil, in Holland that is :)

[lauredhel]

Did you use a stick blender to make your soap? What was the recipe?

I'm sorry I can't help with the castor oil - not in Holland for a start :) - and I actually was never happy with the results I got with adding castor oil. I know some people do swear by 5% for lathering and for shampoo bars, so good luck in your trials.

Have you tried a dilute white vinegar rinse when you're soaping your hair? I believe some people also use a lower superfat when making shampoo bars, but you have to be careful with that. You could also try dropping your olive oil content and upping the hard oils, recalculating your lye amounts of course.

[eowyn_unquendor]

Argh, I lost the lye calculation!
I didn't use a blender, just a spoon because I didn't have a blender. It worked out fine I though.

Actually, this community inspired me to Google for castor oil, and it seems that the two biggest pharmacy chains here have it. I also read that no more than 1/3 of the total oils should be castor oil, so I guess I can improvise now with your hint; less olive and more coconut oil.

Yes, I do use vinegar rinses. In the beginning I needed a lot of vinegar, but right now I think I need a 10% solution. We have hard water here.