Hello everyone! Long time no see. I made about 20kg of soap a couple of years ago, before I fled the country (to stop the oils from going off), and still have a lot of that stockpiled, so there's been no need to make any more.

I returned to the country not long after I left it, and have been living with my parents, too, so it's not really the best environment for making soap; it takes so much longer to clean somebody else's kitchen, and when it boils over, ending up around a gas ring... Not my idea of a good time!

Anyway, I have a friend's wedding coming up and I promised I'd make soap as favours for her. I've done one batch (which is how I know about the boiling over and gas burners), but still have the men's batch left to do. It's going to be a shaving soap, but I've lost the box containing the powdery things I would normally use when making soap, including, of course, my kaolin and butter powder. Although there's no way the butter powder would still be good, anyway, so I'm not annoyed about that...

So, I could do with 6 tablespoons of butter powder, and 6 tablespoons of kaolin. Can anyone help me with either of those, please?

In exchange, I could send you:

• a soap from my last batch (smells like L___'s soap in which the children, darling, are clean, and has rather a satisfying creamy lather. It's HP, so although I only made it two weeks ago it works, although it really needs another two weeks of curing before it's used, which is what all but one of the soaps are getting. It's made with palm oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, castor oil, olive oil and cocoa butter, with a cocoa butter and coconut oil superfat)
• or one from my next batch (same smell but less strong, shaving soap, projected to be made with olive, coconut, castor, avocado and hempseed oils and cocoa butter, probably with a coconut oil and coconut oil superfat, and possibly also with some palm oil in the main mixture as I have a few hundred grams left over from the last batch and I don't want to leave it lying around - can also be used just as ordinary soap, hopefully with a rather excellent lather. Will be round, just as though I moulded it in a Pringles tin, or something equally absurd.)
• or a soap from my archive (can't list them all here!)
• or perhaps a couple of hundred grams (possibly slightly less) of palm oil
• or some fragrance oil I have lying around
• or a couple of soaps, if you think one isn't enough - I am out of touch with the going rate. Actually, probably a couple of soaps would be better, but there's no way I'm going back and editing all that text! If you want shaving soap with holes in it, I could do you a good deal.  :mwaha:
• or suggest something else - would even swap money for it!

So anyway, if you can help, and would like to be one of the few people who get to sample my soaps nowadays (or whatever), let me know! I'm out all day today (collecting a digital piano for the wedding - they take a lot of preparation, don't they? And I'm just the bridesmaid!), but will reply to any messages I get on my return this evening.

Ah, it's lovely to be back. Just think: in three years when I have used up all of my soap and live in a house of my own, I'll be able to make soap regularly again! Imagine that! 

Thanks! 

Hi Abi. Can't help you I am afraid, but welcome back!

Thanks! Oh - I see they have hibernating members now. 

Hello Abi, welcome back from hibernation (have wondered about you from time to time).

I probably have kaolin but need to check re butter powder.

First of all Mrs, WELCOME BACK    You still got that big stick?   :mwaha:

I wish I could help you with the other stuff but hopefully you'll get sorted.

It is really good to have you back and don't worry, you can be awoken from hibernation 

 :buttrf: :buttrf:

Hi Aby,

I have kaolin white clay if it can help ! 

Thanks, everyone! Turns out I'm not very good at leaving the house, and now I'm about an hour late. 

Helen, I probably do still have the big stick, but it's either still stuck in Lancaster, or it's in my brother's room, probably plotting something with my soapmaking equipment. (Seriously - it's bad! The Pyrex jugs I mix lye in are in there, too. I've had to measure lye in a plastic jug, and mix it in the gravy jug which is, thank goodness, stainless steel.) It's probably best not to wake me from hibernation just yet - think of me as a squirrel in the winter of my soapmaking. I'm popping out to search for the conkers I have, metaphorically speaking, hidden, but I'll be back asleep shortly, wondering exactly how many bars of soap I made in April 2010 and forgot to cut. 

Thank you everyone for your welcome back!

It looks like I'll be sorted for kaolin between Elaine and Bambi, and possibly also butter powder. I'll get back to you this evening, when I'm not running an hour late.... Thank you very much!