Hi Leigh,

A warm welcome to the forum.  I can't help with the technical questions you have as I don't make soap, but it would probably be a good idea to weigh your essential oils rather than measure them.  There are lots of discussions that have taken place around the forum on technical issues that might be of some help.

I hope you enjoy it here 

Thanks helen I appreciate that for some reason have not thought of weighing the essential oils good advice though.
Lee

Hi Lee and welcome to the friendliest forum ever.

The advice of weighing your essential oils is excellent advice as this is the truly accurate method of adding it to your product.  Keep in mind that essential oils at 3% are at therapeutic levels and if you are not weighing them to get it accurate you could be going further into levels.  If you are using less than 1 ml then it is accepted practice to measure by drops as well.

Have fun!

Cheers

Dear Lindy,
Thanks it is a friendly forum and a good energy could sense that right from the start, thanks for the advice will always do this from now on.
Leigh

Hi Leigh & welcome!  Sorry you have been finding the soaping a bit frustrating, but stick with it and you will get there...TBH even though I have been making CP for nearly 2 years, I still sometimes come up against little issues, so it's a constant learning process!  You've definatly come to the right place to learn more & for help solving problems!

I really would scale back your batches though.  A 2kg batch is a lot of waste if things don't turn out to your satisfaction.  I strongly recommend weighing EOs too - I use a jewellers scale for this (plenty available on the well known auction site.)

Hi Leigh

Welcome to this very friendly forum


1) go to the reply box
2) click on additional options
3) you see a box with 'attach' beside it
4) click 'browse' and choose the file you want to attach
5) if you've got more than one click the 'more attachments' button and rpt step4

Just be sure you've saved you're image to one of the file types mentioned (jpg etc)
If uploading you should only need a 72dpi (or thereabouts) to get a good image (that helps reduce the file size)

And that should work (I think )

Thanks Denice,
I will give it a go later thank you.
Lee

Hi. 

Eire

Hi Lee and welcome....

Hi Lee...........welcome   

Hi Lee 


Celia

Thanks for all the lovely welcome its most appreciated.
Leigh

Sounds good. I will have to check that out.

If you have a Cass Art shop nearby, they have nicely made wooden boxes designed for installations but they look ideal for soaping, ranging from about 3-4 to 14 quid. I bought a seven quid one that I reckon will make about 10 bars but I haven't used it yet. I use a wooden box that a German friend sent us with printen (German Christmas biscuits) in it, but it is big -  2-3 kg. (I have two - my essential oils live in the other one.) Not having a side flap is a disadvantage but the soap comes out eventually if you line it properly!

Muji has a plastic storage box with good straight sides that isn't too rounded at the bottom and doesn't have an injection moulding blib on the bottom.