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Soap
soapone
5f73646
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No.4792
4795 4798 4801 6576 7440
There are a few things I'd like to do in this thread
- document my soap making process
- document process changes and upgrades to equipment
- detail common problems when making soap
- answer any soap making questions
- eventually let everyone know when and where product can be purchased
Basically everything to do with soap.

I'm not concerned about telling somebody how to make a product that I'm selling either. There are a few reasons for this: Some people won't be able to receive such a product overseas, or it wouldn't be feasible to ship. I'm not so petty to think that trying to conceal information somehow results in "job security". The soap making process is already quite well documented. Finally, I didn't start making soap to make money with, I started because of the memes, but also to have a product to better prepare myself for economic collapse.
I wish to share this with you guys so (you) too can better prepare yourself for whatever is coming.

Lets start with the boring stuff, like what is soap?
I would define soap as a surfactant. A surfactant is a molecule that will bind to water, oil, and particles.
The US legal definition is 'soap made from natural ingredients'. Synthetic soap is often sold as 'beauty bars' or 'body wash' instead of soap, because they are not made with natural ingredients.

Most modern engine and transmission oils, and heavy grease used for equipment will contain detergents. Don't let the word detergent mislead you, it means the same thing as surfacant.

Lye harvested for soap making in ages past is called potash. The potash lye soap making process is a fair bit more involved, and the chemical reactions are a bit different. https://classicbells.com/soap/woodAshLye.asp
Potash soap has been made for a very, very long time. If one of you decides to try this out, please let us know how it goes!

"modern" naturally made soap uses either potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide for the lye. Sodium hydroxide is used for making liquid soaps, sodium hydroxide for solid soap bars.
The easiest way to get sodium hydroxide is from a hardware store selling containers of "pure lye" drain unclogger in the plumbing section. For example https://www.homedepot.com/p/Instant-Power-Crystal-Lye-Drain-Cleaner-1650/204374017

Soap made from natural ingredients is a very sloppy chemical reaction. There are untold numbers of different chemicals and compounds found naturally in any given type of oil. Most of those oils will react with the lye to make some rather complex reactions that result in "soap". It is not uncommon for the soap to change color as it cures for this reason.

Oils are typically mixed and matched to make a nice bar of soap, as no single oil has a good mix of the fatty acids necessary for a good bar of soap.

When making your first batch of soap:
Start with solid bars of soap, instead of trying to make liquid soap. Liquid soap is much pickier about what kind of oils you use.
Use an existing recipe for your first batch, then try to make soap using as much local products as possible. When economic collapse happens, getting those foreign oils will be much more difficult or impossible.
Start with a 2:1 water:lye ratio. If your recipe calls for 12 ounces of lye, use 24 ounces of distilled water. Ignore however much water the recipe calls for.

When building your own recipe, or modifying an existing one, use the following two web pages:
http://soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp
https://classicbells.com/soap/soapCalcNumbers.asp
And when in doubt, ask in here.

This first post is just a boring autistic dump on chunks of important or related information. I'll post a lot more (actual making) soap stuff when I get the chance. I think this is a pretty good start though.

Be sure to ask whatever in here about anything related. Over the last year I've been pretty autistically going over how most people make soap, refining my own process, and doing fairly deep-diving research on the topic and general chemistry.
2 replies and 0 files omitted.
Anonymous
f0352e1
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No.4799
4800 4801 4802 4803
>>4798
>tfw u dont know if soapy is for sexual
Anonymous
f90182e
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No.4800
>>4799
Is that you floor bored?
soapone
5f73646
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No.4801
4803
0001_.jpg
131856.png
>>4792
>Sodium hydroxide is used for making liquid soaps, sodium hydroxide for solid soap bars.
whoops... its supposed to read:
Potassium hydroxide is used for making liquid soaps, sodium hydroxide for solid soap bars.

Continuing soap making tips...
oils are fatty acids. When mixing an acid and base together, there is a chemical reaction. In this case, a strong base like sodium hydroxide mixed with a weak acid (fatty acid oils) results in a slightly basic bar of soap. Because naturally made soap is weakly basic(ph of 10-12), people with certain kinds of skin conditions would be better off getting a synthetic bar of soap that is PH-neutral (PH of 7).

Lye is a very strong base, as said before. One of the things that this means is that it attracts water out of the atmosphere. For this reason, store lye in a very sealed container, and/or put the lye container in a bigger container that is full of water absorbent things. Putting water absorbent things directly in the lye won't work, the lye will suck the water out of them.

Lye also loves to react with the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to make "soda ash". Soda ash is also known as washing soda and sodium carbonate. Soda ash will form on soap if you don't mix it enough to jell or use a lot of water so the soap takes a long time to set up and cure. It forms on the surface of the bar of soap as its curing, and if its really bad will be a "furry layer" on the top of the soap.
The last two pictures of the OP, you can see a powdery layer of soda ash on the soap bars. Soda ash does not hurt the soap at all, and is just a cosmetic issue. A lot of soap makers desire this effect to give the bar of soap a "rustic" look.

The attached picture is soap that was just poured at a thin trace. If you see water separation like this, you need to mix it longer. You will also get soda ash forming on the surface for sure if its poured at thin trace. Mix the soap until it forms a jell, like cream of wheat or pudding/custard consistency.

I like to keep the temp up so the chemical reaction occurs faster. Don't get it too hot or the water will boil and the oils will burn or change colors. The last picture of the OP is what happened when I got the soap too hot while mixing. It does look kinda cool though... worked fine as soap, it just might not be a desired effect, and speeds up the oils going rancid.
The temp I tend to keep the oils are at about 150-175f. This is somewhere in-between what is called the "hot process" and the "cold process" of soap making. One of the main reasons is that it helps keep the fragrance oils fresher when they added before pouring the soap.

At the moment, I'm working 12 hour days because other people don't like to work. Personally I'd rather be making more Aryanne soap for you guys.
Over the weekend I made two batches of soap to test the effects of different amounts of water being used. I wanted to see if it results in a more naturally white bar of soap. So far it seems to. Will take pictures of this when I can.

>>4795
Thanks. Still getting the hang of controlling natural soap color and using dye. They are light pink, but is muted because of the thin layer of soda ash on the surface.
Made a bunch of twilight sparkle soap with a correct amount of dye, but the base color of the soap was not white, so it looks more like a plumb color. Will post pictures of that soon™ as well.

disclaimer: no griffins were harmed in the making of Aryanne soap bars.

>>4799
>tfw
just focus on that feeling when and you will eventually find out
Anonymous
b2bfa6b
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No.4802
4803
twilight - what.png
>>4799
>if soapy is for sexual
Anonymous
f90182e
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No.4803
4804 4806
weener-cleaner-soap.jpg
>>4802
>>4798
>>4799
>>4801
We Need an Aryanne version of this
soapone
5f73646
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No.4804
4805
>>4803
kek
I was thinking that would be more of a changeling "bar" of soap.
Maybe Aryanne ponut bars... but why stop with Aryanne? Also need "princess sized" versions.
Iunno what will happen in the future, have a long ways to go before I can efficiently form soap like that.
Anonymous
f90182e
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No.4805
>>4804
HNNNGGG What a wonderful idea.
Anonymous
b2bfa6b
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No.4806
twilight - what.gif
>>4803
soapone
5f73646
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No.4859
4863 4979
2378529.jpeg
I've been considering making shampoo for a while now for cleaning a mane and keeping it lustrous. The problem is, what cleans hair and keeps the skin underneath clean and healthy too?
Too often shampoos are good at cleaning hair, but leave the skin underneath a wreck. A lot of this comes from the derived synthetic surfactant (surface active agent) soap that I mentioned before. Synthetic surfactants are often made because they can be designed to not form bonds with the minerals found in hard water. This prevents soap scum from forming while still cleaning your skin, hair, dishes, or floor. Soap scum is when a soap molecule bonds to a mineral found in hard water and tends to build up and make clean surfaces dirty again. Dealing with soap scum for home-made laundry soap is easy enough: just add more base (soda wash, borax) to sort of 'power through' the mineral water. Washing your mane or tail though is more difficult in a healthy way. Using a synthetic surfactant shampoo tends to clean the hair well, but destroys the skin underneath, often leading to a dry scalp with extra dandruff problems. Or maybe the shampoo will dissolve the dandruff, but leave the skin a mess and hair over-cleaned.
https://skinkraft.com/blogs/articles/toxic-ingredients-in-shampoos-and-conditioners

I believe the solution is to use natural made soap and deal with the soap scum that may form and get trapped in the hair with a vinegar rinse. This does several things at the same time. Most soaps and shampoos are basic in nature (PH of 9-12). Rinsing with vinegar (a weak acid, PH 3) will bring the PH level of hair and scalp back to an approximately neutral state. The weak acid will also rinse away soap scum and dandruff build up. On top of that, hair has a scale-like structure that gets smoothed down when exposed to weak acids, so the hair will appear and feel more smooth and silky when rinsed with a weak acid (like vinegar).

What kind of vinegar to use? I've seen lots of articles about using distilled vinegar and apple cider vinegar. Overall it looks like apple cider vinegar is probably the best for a mane-rinse because it has all kinds of stuff in it that's healthy for both hair and skin.
So far all I've used is white vinegar. It works exceptionally well for keeping dandruff down, and keeping the skin and hair feeling smooth and healthy.
https://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/blog/posts/make-your-own-apple-cider-vinegar-rinse/

If you want extra mane-keeping points, after cleaning the hair, use a mix of jojaba oil and castor oil and brush a small amount evenly though your hair. This will further moisturize it and give it the extra shine I know all of you desire to have.
https://jojobacompany.com/what-is-jojoba/
https://www.treehugger.com/castor-oil-for-hair-5199075
I generally recommend using a mix of both jojaba oil and castor oil because they are both exceptionally healthy for skin and hair, and castor oil by its self is rather thick and difficult to brush into hair. Mix the two to a desired thickness for hair or skin use.
Anonymous
3bae3a8
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No.4863
4868 4869
>>4859
Fantastic Post, soap pone. I might try some vinegar in my hair when i wash it again. should it be diluted? also the jojaba oils and castor oils, should they be used for dandruff?
soapone
5f73646
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No.4868
4872
>>4863
I've had bad dandruff in the past and used straight white vinegar to great success. Knowing what I know now, I'm pretty sure that was dandruff induced by shitty shampoo. Now that I'm making my own soap, I've started using vinegar as a final rinse (since I have very hard water so there is some soap scum buildup).
It's probably better to dilute it with some water. I haven't tried different amounts of vinegar dilution or how long to let it 'soak' yet. I figure different people have different requirements with different skin conditions with different kinds of tap water. Maybe try a 50/50 mix and go from there.
In general I'm finding that there is a much wider 'good results' band for natural product usage. I'm sure you could eat too much garlic and not be healthy, but how many people actually eat too much garlic to unhealthy levels? Natural soap and vinegar usage for skin and mane care I feel are about the same.

I've read that castor oil helps dandruff, but I can't imagine how much. The idea with using jojaba and castor oil is that they help keep skin healthy. Healthy head skin will grow hair better and be less likely to flake. At the same time, oils in general trap particles. I imagine too much would keep air from getting to the skin and trap all kinds of things next to the skin. Just brush in a small amount of either oil (or ideally a mix). I put a few drops of oil on a comb and just comb my hair, adding a few more drops and combing more until there is just barely a hint of oil in my hair when running my fingers through my hair. Again, mileage may vary.
It does not hurt to mix in some essential oils either. If you use a fragrance oil, make sure its skin safe. Lemon, lavender, rosemary, tea tree, and peppermint are popular essential oils to use for mixing your own hair treatment oils

I hope this helps.
soapone
5f73646
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No.4869
4872
>>4863
>I might try some vinegar in my hair when i wash it again.
Also let us know how it goes.
Anonymous
3bae3a8
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No.4872
4874
>>4868
Would it be safe to put on the oils and vinegar in the same session?
>I hope this helps.
It definitely does. thanks Soap Fren
>>4869
Probably won't be for a day or two.
soapone
5f73646
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No.4874
4875
>>4872
>Would it be safe to put on the oils and vinegar in the same session?
From what I've read, its generally best to comb in the oils for hair shortly after showering while the hair is still damp. Not sure how much it matters though. Probably not much.
Anonymous
3bae3a8
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No.4875
>>4874
Didn't want to accidently gas myself kek.
like this guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxUbARGI-1k
soapone
5f73646
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No.4961
5031
soap natural color test.jpg
Well, my experiment failed because I didn't let the two small batches of soap jell enough. Though that was kinda the point to begin with: testing the visual properties of the soap with different amounts of water and letting it take a long time to set up. It just didn't turn out the way I hoped.
From this test I have concluded that it is rather important to make sure the soap jells up really thick, about the consistency of pancake batter or thicker, before pouring into the mold.

The left three test batches either had slightly different amounts of water, or was mixed slightly differently. The one thing in common was that all but the one to the far right were not mixed until they were thicc batter consistency. They all have serious issues when I tried to cut them (they break up instead of cutting where I placed the knife. They also have a rather thick fuzzy surface from soda ash forming. Bleh.
The one on the far right I let jell up really thick, poured it, and kept it warm for a while after by wrapping it in a towel. There is no discoloration except for a very light speckled dusting on the surface from soda ash forming. Its not white, but it is a rather pleasant neutral skin-tone color.
It might be possible to still obtain a whiter bar of soap with a lot more water, maybe with 4:1 water:lye ratio, but that would take a much longer time to cure before the soap is ready to be used.

When I make pony soap, I just need to adjust what dyes to use to account for the natural color of the soap. I guess some people use colored mica, but that adds quite a bit more cost to the soap as apposed to using powdered dye.
soapone
5f73646
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No.4979
5031
>>4859
I want to expand a little on shampoos and other synthetic soaps a bit more.

Most synthetic soaps do not sud much, if at all. This is kind of important for dishwashers, but not helpful for shampoo or a lot of other applications. They add Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) to thicken and make the shampoo foam. Also used in toothpaste, marshmallows, and crap tons of other things. No it is not healthy to eat either, even though its found in lots of food products.

One of the other things often added to soap is anti-bacterial agents. The thought is that the compound added will also destroy bacteria in addition to the soap washing bacteria away. That's the problem though, its just a thought without any evidence to suggest there is less bacteria left on the skin. Even without using any kind of soap or cleaner, rinsing your hooves (what are hands?) in clean water and wiping off with a clean towel will get off about 80% of bacteria. After washing you can submerse in alcohol or something and kill almost all bacteria, but why?
anti-bacterial agents in general are not healthy for a different reason. First of all it stunts a healthy intake of bacteria. Everyone has a unique culture of bacteria that helps with digestion and keeping out unhealthy bacteria. This is kind of similar to lawn-keeping where the good grass when kept well, will crowd out a lot of weeds.
The other thing anti-bacterial agents do is promote the growth of bacteria that is resistant to anti-bacterials. While this isn't really much of a concern for healthy individuals, it does mean that when you do need to take anti-bacterial pills to get rid of a serious infection, it might not work as well because you already exposed a good chunk of your bacteria "culture" to anti-bacterial agents.
Also, anti-bacterial agents found in stuff that is safe(ish) for use on the skin do nothing to kill viruses.

PS: don't be a pleb, get a real female dishwasher. That kind works the best with the most built-in functions.
Anonymous
5f73646
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No.4992
5031
P1000948.jpg
Finally took a picture of my soap mold. In general this is typical for craft soap: Casting soap in a "loaf" mold, letting it cure for a while, demold and cut it up into bars.
I do not have a nice way of cutting it (yet), so for this first use I just used a kitchen knife, then pressed Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark into the surface as you can see in the picture.
The main difference with this soap mold I made compared to pretty much any other is that its made out of heavy duty steel, and larger than most. Target soap bar size is about 1"x3"x5", but I might make them slightly shorter by just pouring in slightly less soap. Probably will settle with about 4.5" tall bars.

The first use of my soap mold, I pre-heated it to about 160 degrees fahrenheit. This was a mistake to get it so warm because shortly after pouring the soap in, the soap jell started poofing up like bread does when it rises. I think it was warm enough that water was trying to escape causing the rising. After a few hours it finally went back down and left a bit of a cavity along the top and slightly discolored top surface. Oh well, that's part of product and technique development.
Next time I'll try pre-heating to about 100f. The main reason for pre-heating to begin with is to help the soap cure evenly, as too much thermal differences between the middle of the loaf and the outer edge causes discoloration. Still fine to use, just not nice on the eyes.
I think if there is a "next time" for making my own soap loaf molds, I'll make them out of UHMW plastic instead, as its a good insulator and shouldn't need pre-heating, and would seal around the edges better if made correctly.

Twilight Sparkle soap bars need to be a lighter purple, I know. My previous post highlighted the natural soap color issue, and in this picture is the result of the issue. I have white dye coming and will further experiment to make sure the soap bars meet or exceed snowpity requirements.

Ponies deserve the best, and snowpity is the highest standards on the planet.
Anonymous
5f73646
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No.5008
5031
boxes.jpg
stuff.jpg
The soap saga continues.

Purchased white dye, pumice, a different kind of white dye, bottles to try out making snowpity perfume, and a couple books to shore up any information I might be lacking in.
Also got a 10 quart mixer for my soap molds that hold about 7quarts of volume. Should be the perfect size.
Spent about $1.5k USD for everything in the picture.

The jojoba oil I got to try making a post-shower hair conditioner. Will be good for beard, and should be good for moisturizing skin as well.
Jojoba oil and castor oil mixed together is considered premium bear oil, but both are also insanely good for moisturizing skin and helping the skin with certain kinds of health problems. I will mix them with the snowpity fragrance and see if its a good mix. (should be, snowpity mixes well with everything)

Also got a bunch of spray bottles to experiment with making snowpity colognes. No idea how that is going to turn out. Going to try an alcohol base first. The liquid snowpity I have is very strong and needs to be toned down for use on skin, otherwise rashes or sudden ponification might happen.
Wouldn't want that.
soapone
5f73646
?
No.5030
5031 5044
2612568.jpeg
1150859.gif
Shitpost time!

I rather enjoy shitposting about various things, generally about people or various things people make.
For this shitpost, I'm going to go over the only (current) "pony" themed soap that I know of that can be purchased.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SudsandVerse
https://www.etsy.com/listing/615801483/simply-divine-handmade-premium-goat-milk

Lets look at their ingredient list closely from this specific bar of "home made, hand made" Rarity soap
>Premium Goat Milk Soap Base ( Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Safflower Oil, Kosher Glycerin, Goat's Milk, Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Sorbitol, Sorbitan Oleate, Oat Protein, Titanium Dioxide) Shea, Colorant and Fragrance Oil.

The first thing that bothered me about this ingredient list was the "soap base". I've never heard of somebody making hand-made or home-made soap with "soap base" listed in the ingredients. I more or less waved it off though thinking "Well, maybe they bought the oils pre-mixed for making into soap." Lets dig deeper for now.
Near the end there is titanium dioxide, which is a very common white dye (I have some), and "colorant" listed as well. Why would they mention a very specific dye, then use a word for "oh yeah, there is also more dye in it too". Very strange.
The three oils listed are pretty generic but typical.
Glycerin is an uncommon thing to add to bar soap, but it is done sometimes I suppose. More often, glycerin is added to liquid soap, rather than solid bars. Strange, but not unheard of for craft soap. When making soap, glycerine is naturally formed. I suppose some people just like to add more.
To top the ingredient list off, I've never seen Sorbitol, Sorbitan Oleate, or Oat Protein used in home-made or hand-made soap before. At this point I'm thinking "what the crap. Who would mix in these extra factory-produced chemicals into soap, driving their cost up?". Oatmeal is often added to bars of soap for the hippie style, but oat protein?

This ingredient list is whack and smells of commercial-ness. Lets look around and see what can be found.
https://www.bulkapothecary.com/soap-making/melt-and-pour-soap-bases/goat-milk-sfic-all-natural-glycerin-melt-and-pour-soap-base/
>Coconut Oil
>Palm Oil
>Safflower Oil
>Glycerine (kosher, of vegetable origin)
>Goat’s Milk
>Purified Water
>Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent)
>Sorbitol (moisturizer)
>Propylene Glycol (made from vegetable glycerine)
>Sorbitan oleate (emulsifer)
>Oat protein (conditioner)
>Titanium Dioxide (mineral whitener used in opaque soaps)
Interesting... does the ingredient list look similar? Mayhaps exactly the same? The link says its SFIC. Never heard of it, but lets look...
http://www.sficcorp.com/index_dev.php which leads to the ingredient list http://www.sficcorp.com/pdfs/mp-ingred.pdf which is the same thing listed once again.

So, what these asshats are doing is using generic pre-made melt&pour soap, adding some dye and fragrance, and pouring it into (probably) silicon molds.
They call this home made.
>Since all products are homemade there will be some variation...
Home made my ass. But, using the bulkapothecary link, we can get a really good estimate on their cost and profit.
After shipping I estimate their cost is about $1/bar in raw materials, so that's $5 (5x) in profit without any effort put into actually making soap. For perspective, my approximate cost for a bar of soap twice their size/weight is $1 without considering the time/effort to actually make the soap, let alone learning or developing the process.
(mind you, this is pre-hyperinflation, prices will go up very soon if not already)

>My soaps are made from premium goat milk soap which contains no chemicals and has a real goat's milk base. Many people make goat milk soap that contains chemicals that are bad for your skin and use goat milk powder instead of real goat's milk. All the soaps I make use premium goat milk soap.
>all my soaps are made from soap
*facehoof, 2x combo*
Anonymous
ccf744b
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No.5031
5032
>>5030
>>5008
>>4992
>>4979
>>4961
Based Soap Fren, Thank you for all the effort you put into this thread.
Anonymous
5f73646
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No.5032
5033
128152.png
>>5031
conversations feel a little one-sided and lonely, but still trudging on. I still have a lot to learn, and even more to share.
Anonymous
ccf744b
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No.5033
5034
6B2C79EA1E961DCEDEECBA22171A3209-159407.jpg
>>5032
>conversations feel a little one-sided and lonely
That's my fault, im just not really sure what to say most of the time. But i want you to know that i and everyone else appreciates your effort.
Anonymous
5f73646
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No.5034
5035
>>5033
Thanks for mentioning it at least. Hard to gauge if anyone is actually reading anything. I figure the worst case is I can link it to specific people who want to know whatever about soap.
Still good to know pones out in the wild, even if its just a couple, are watching.
Anonymous
ccf744b
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No.5035
5036
>>5034
I Definitely read every post you make. you've taught me a lot about soap making and the oils that go into the process, i find it very fascinating.
Anonymous
5f73646
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No.5036
5037
2663740.png
>>5035
thanks, it means a lot to me
Anonymous
ccf744b
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No.5037
hug.png
>>5036
Anonymous
87834e7
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No.5038
5043
1385264093573.png
I'm here
Anonymous
5f73646
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No.5043
5044
>>5038
Heh, thanks.

What kind of thing about soap do you guys want covered next?
Anonymous
07e346f
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No.5044
5045
>>5030
>"pony" themed soap
I share your skepticism and incredulity. Obviously theyre a horsefucker in some capacity to have made a 'specific' soap for so many ponies, but the functional applicability of the 'theme' to is dubious.
>>5043
Do (you) market soap online in any capacoty? Ngl, I would rub Aryanne's CM all over me.
And the soap too.
Anonymous
5f73646
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No.5045
5046
>>5044
neh, not to the marketing stage yet. There are several more things I need to do first.
Need to get boxes that are a good size for the soap, need to make a cutter for the soap loaf, need to figure out how I'm going to label things, and finally I need to build a website.

There are a couple more things I need to do, like getting the dye to match the color needed for each pone the soap is going to be against. Also need to make cutiemark stamps for more ponies. Right now I have Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle, need to make one for Celestia, Luna, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash.
Aryanne soap is a special case for how I make it, and takes a lot more effort. I don't think I'll try selling such for that reason. Maybe if people know how to ask, just that it will be quite a bit more expensive because of the extra effort needed to make it.

Was also thinking about making and selling perfume using the same fragrance oils I have mixed for Celestia, Luna, and mane6. The fragrance oils are of exceptional quality and my first tests as a perfume is... kind of amazing how long the fragrance sticks around for. Sprayed a paper towel a couple times and could still smell it two days later.
I don't brake out in rashes from it either, like I do with so many other fragrances found in things like soap or cologne. I still can't believe how fantastic of a source I have for the fragrance oils.

Just I've been super busy with work doing lots of overtime. Not much time left to develop these products.
Anonymous
07e346f
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No.5046
5047
>>5045
>expensive
Id be disappointed otherwise, and I appreciate the logistical issues as a barrier to entry.
Having said, if they were to become available even as a limited edition/run I absolutely want a windmill of frenship in my bathroom, and Id not be opposed to a private deal/arrangement direct with you (fuck websites and online storefronts).
Pretty obvious who (you) are (and likely who I am) so if you ever do, hit me up.
Anonymous
5f73646
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No.5047
>>5046
I've ran a business before, its not a big deal, just lots of stuff to do. The main thing is optimizing workflow, as I don't want to get bogged down when things are not set up correctly. I've been there for a lot of years, its not fun.

My goal is to have things mostly ready to go by the time /mlp/con is happening.

I also have tentative plans for larger volume soap making, and I'll probably post about it eventually, but for now I'm sticking to low-level development.
I really do want to make lots of soap. The snowpity oil is strong and long lasting. Super stoked to be working with them.
soapone
5f73646
?
No.5050
5051 5052 5054
P1000951.jpg
Alright, full-size experiment. I was stoked to get a 10 quart mixer, and didn't have a chance to use it till today. Also since I have white dye, I can try making pone color schemed soap again.

Here is my first attempt.
I'll take more pictures after cutting the soap and stamping Fluttershy's butt branding in it.
Of course fluttershy snowpity fragrance was added.
Anonymous
3c3b85b
?
No.5051
>>5050
Yay soap!
Anonymous
ccf744b
?
No.5052
5053
>>5050
Looks like butter, yummy
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5053
5056 5057
>>5052
its "I can't believe its not Flutters!" soap bars.
lol
Anonymous
b2bfa6b
?
No.5054
bath.jpg
>>5050
Anonymous
3c3b85b
?
No.5055
1069070_bil.png
>tfw soap shaped as mare bits is the defacto currency of the new horse order.
Feels good man.
Anonymous
07e346f
?
No.5056
5057
>>5053
lol, just lol
soapone
5f73646
?
No.5057
5058
20220313_0001.jpg
20220313_0002.jpg
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Original Tub Image.jpg
10-12 hours later, I took the soap loaf out of the mold and cut a few bars. Soap was really gummy and was tearing instead of being cut, so I'll let it cure some more before continuing.
I suppose the texture from tearing isn't bad, it kinda looks like a milled bar of soap. Still, I think I like a cleaner look than what you see in the picture.

The bars are 4.5" tall with 8.5 lbs of oil. I really like that size, so I think I'll stick with it.
~7.2-7.3 ounces per bar cut 1" thick, so each bar is 1"x3"x4.5" in size. Curing removes water, so we'll see how much more it will shrink from water loss (mostly in weight, size shouldn't really change much).
I think I used 3 teaspoons of yellow dye and 6 teaspoons of white dye, but I think I can use less, esp. if I mix the dye correctly next time. You can see a couple white streaks from cutting the soap. I wasn't *that* excited. It's from little clumps of un-mixed white dye that got smeared when cut. Mixing the dye correctly means taking some of the 8.5lbs of oil and putting it in the blender with the dye before turning it all into soap. I didn't try this first attempt because I wasn't sure how much dye I was going to use to begin with.

Taking a step back, this is just a small sample of the nuances I've been going through over the last year with making soap, pretty much every weekend and sometimes weekdays. I didn't start a thread earlier because I wanted some good pictures to start off with. My first attempts were... pathetic and enlightening at the same time.

>>5056
>>5053
I think I might just label Fluttershy soap that. Actually, maybe it would be a good label scheme for all of them! LOL
"I Can't Believe It's Not Flutters!"
"I Can't Believe It's Not Twiggles!"
"I Can't Believe It's Not Dashies!"
etc.
Thoughts?

(For those who might not get the meme, I attached an image of the product to help you out)
Anonymous
ccf744b
?
No.5058
>>5057
10/10 soap would eat 50 bars.
>"I Can't Believe It's Not Flutters!"
>"I Can't Believe It's Not Twiggles!"
>>"I Can't Believe It's Not Dashies!"
Based i love it.
Anonymous
deeb129
?
No.5072
Over the last month, using naturally made soap and rinsing with vinegar water. In the first week or so I noticed that I'm shedding a lot less hair than when I was using shampoo. Seems to be less split hair ends too,
The other thing I started doing after that was using a 50/50 mix of jojoba oil/castor oil and combed it into my hair. Exceptional results. I don't get bedhead anymore and hair actually feels nice through the next shower.
The first of the labels
soapone
5f73646
?
No.5105
5106 5107
twiggles_cologne_.png
Been really busy, but not too busy to work on more soap things.
Here is some of the first revisions of potential product I'm going to be selling. Anyone have a preference for which one they like? Any suggested changes?
Will be printed on a 2"x2" sticker for the bottle.
Anonymous
426a1e8
?
No.5106
5110
drawing.png
drawing.svg
>>5105
I would center the logo and perhaps make it in gray so with text over so it "blends in". Attached small mockup of what I mean (also made a version with narrower label if desired).
Anonymous
07e346f
?
No.5107
5112
>>5105
>Snwopity
Somehow, I supect you noticed that and have been waiting for someone to say something
Snowpity Twiggles sounds more fun, and I'd stick to 'spray'
Anonymous
0921e56
?
No.5109
>snowpity spray
Okay, take my money.
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5110
5111
>>5106
Can't really do that because of the way black&white laser printers work. There is either black, or there is the color of the paper.
Thought about getting a color laser printer, but I'm trying to avoid additional costs. I already spent between $2k and $3k this month on this whole project.
Anonymous
426a1e8
?
No.5111
5112
>>5110
Laser printers should be able to print graytones (at least mine can). But could be you have one of those thermal label printers.
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5112
5114
20220324_0001.jpg
>>5111
Alright, I tweaked some things and tried it out.
It appears it will "do grayscale" on the most technical level, but its dithering which laser printers are traditionally not very good at.
Took a picture to show what I mean.
I guess it would be alright for a label.

>>5107
As near as I can tell, for everyone I ask the arrangement of the words and which version they like is a pretty mixed bag.
I'm not getting any obvious trends (yet)
Maybe it is because everyone is busy thinking about throwing money at me for the product rather than actually analyzing things. I guess that would be a good problem.
Anonymous
426a1e8
?
No.5114
5116 5117
drawing-3.png
drawing-3.svg
>>5112
I see what you mean. Have you tried to play with the grayscale level to see if there is a gray level sweetspot your printer likes?
But also remember making it gray might not be the best route artistically so don't take my suggestion as gospel. My artistic skills or aesthetic knowledge is not what you would call good. Only reason my first thought was gray and center was because it felt a bit unbalanced/"left heavy" (or what to call it) so I thought centering it and making it gray it would balance the label overall and also get the "out of the way" of the text.
Made a few more mockups in only black and white, but not sure if they are any better or just making it worse. But added so you have more variations to play with and think of. Added the vector so you can easily move objects around and resize in InkScape.
Logos are hard and I don't really know what to suggest and recommend. Hopefully more people will give their two cents and likely have more knowledgeable feedback than what I can give (and gave).
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5116
5118
>>5114
The other thing to note is that cutiemarks are not "balanced" by themselves either. Luna and Rainbow Dash for example. I'll see how they look when I get around to it, hopefully soon.
Need to decide on where to get website hosting, build the website that can process payments, and what kind of URL I want to use.

Yesterday after playing around with label sizes (cut out some 3x5 cards) to see how the bottles would look with a sticker on it, I ordered 2"x2" stickers along with all the basics for packaging and shipping.
Realistically, the dithering isn't that bad, I think its growing on me. There is another thing I could try too: Give the text a white background, maybe with a blur so that there is only a little bit of dithering for the butt branding where the text and butt branding overlap.

Thanks for the help, anon. Certainly more than I've gotten anywhere else.
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5117
5118
rect127962.png
>>5114
Tweaked things some more...
Anonymous
426a1e8
?
No.5118
5120
>>5116
>>5117
You can also try doing a white outline on the text. This way you can place it above cutiemark if you want to try to see if that looks good also. This way you can place the "Twiggles Snowpity Spray/Cologne/Perfume" on the center of the label.
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5120
rect127962.png
twiggles_cologne.png
>>5118
I don't really like the outline thing. Also I am trying out essence instead of spray.
I think I like spray with the white background blur the best, #2
Resized the cutiemark a bit so its slightly smaller. I think I like it. Should be good for all the other butt brandings too.
Anonymous
3c3b85b
?
No.5124
5126 5129
Ah, a Squirt of Snowpity? A Snowpity Splash? A Sniff of Snowpity? ASoup of Snowpity? Snowpity Mark? Rendered Snowpity? Snowpity Quantized?
Anonymous
3c7762c
?
No.5126
5129
1955187.png
>>5124
>A Sniff of Snowpity?
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5129
5130 5131
20220325_0001.jpg
>>5126
>>5124
phew... got 1 out of 8 done.
Used a bar of soap to prop up the bottle for picture
lining up the images for the label was ass.
Anonymous
426a1e8
?
No.5130
5133
>>5129
Looks really good. Just though of one thing, is there any requirements of listing ingredients (in case you need to make a back label)?
Anonymous
3c7762c
?
No.5131
>>5129
Looking Great There
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5133
5134
>>5130
No requirements. Not for skin care products anyway, like soap, perfume, eye shadow, and similar.
Its literally just two ingredients though
Fragrance oil (snowpity)
food grade alcohol
Anonymous
3c7762c
?
No.5134
5135
>>5133
Can i drink it?
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5135
5137
>>5134
iunno if the fragrance oil is safe to consume. Though, I'd imagine it would be safer than a lot of the processed foods made these days.
Anonymous
3c7762c
?
No.5137
>>5135
Hmmmm, fragrance oil would probably be ok?
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5139
5142
20220326_0001_01.jpg
Finished making the labels for all the perfume/cologne/spray bottles.
Anonymous
07e346f
?
No.5142
5144
>>5139
Troll me if you must, but what is a snowpity?
Anonymous
843de2e
?
No.5144
5146
full (7).png
>>5142
It's not something you can own, see, or feel. It's something beautiful tied to the direct essence of a mare and her kind mares spirits. Lurk moar.
https://snowpity.com/
Anonymous
07e346f
?
No.5146
okie_dokie_loki__by_johansrobot-d9tuk7d.png
>>5144
>implying I didnt do several websearches prior to asking, including that specific site
I was hoping for something a little less vacuous, but okay
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5147
5149 5150
20220326_0002.jpg
Here is the first use of my heat-shrink equipment. Seems to work well.
Need to make labels for the soap, but at least I can use normal paper and slip it inside the heat-shrink bag. Though, I don't think the pone soap needs a label really. Dunno, maybe.
Anonymous
3c3b85b
?
No.5149
>>5147
Very sexy
Anonymous
843de2e
?
No.5150
5154
>>5147
The edges are kinda rough on the dirtpity bars. How are cutting them? Also, crow is a nigger.
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5154
5155
>>5150
Do you mean the soap bars? or the plastic?
Still working on dye, that was my first batch made with my soap mold. Also messed up with the thermal profile, so the middle is caved in along the top for the whole batch as detailed in earlier postings.

The plastic is just being plastic. There are holes in the plastic for a reason... need some ventilation to let moisture escape and for a sniffy place.
Anonymous
843de2e
?
No.5155
>>5154
I was referring to the soap bars. The plastic looks pretty good. Good job, anon.
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.5219
flutters soap label.png
Here is the first of the soap labels
To be printed on 2"x3" yellow paper. I just made the background yellow to more or less get an idea how it's going to look.
(kek, accidentally uploaded the SVG, have a PNG instead)
Anonymous
843de2e
?
No.6191
6194 6725
Is Soapone kill?
soapone
5f73646
?
No.6194
6195
>>6191
Not at all, just extremely busy. Started attempting to soap mill for my most recent soap research project.
Got all the labels done and a website launched barely in time (literally the day it started) for the 4chin /mlp/con and had a 1/2 hour ramble - now I'm recording for /mare/con and will start video editing soon.
Discovered its the lard I'm using that is screwing up my soap, so I need to find a better source for lard/tallow. I got some fat to render from a local BBQ place, but I need a lot more in general, still looking around. Mayhaps local butcher shops.
Made my first batch of soap using Christmas-themed fragrance, which is nice. Until I get soap milling working correctly, it takes a month or more to cure a bar of soap, so I gotta start making soap for Christmas right now.

Over the weekend installed arch linux on both desktop and laptop, going through and setting up various things and importing all the backups I made.
Got a new job a bit ago, mostly done adjusting to that now.

Can't really attach quality images right now, since I'm still importing shit from backups, but you can see some lower resolution ones on pone.social.

Have a website (no international shipping set up yet) https://snowpity.shop
Another place I started posting at: https://pone.social/@soapone

Even have a secret soap project I'm making that is going to be featured in an event I can't talk about until there is an official announcement.
One of the main reasons I haven't posted here yet is because I haven't had a chance to properly document soap making processes... which I'm still adjusting slightly as I go.
Stay clean everyone, I'm working on this stuff as much as I can. I love you all so much.
Anonymous
843de2e
?
No.6195
6725
E S S E N C E.jpg
>>6194
Awesome. It's good to see that you're still around and making progress. Congrats, have a tiny essence mare that I edited with my autism 4u.
Anonymous
356e68f
?
No.6401
ashes.png
513436.jpg
>Easy Free DIY Ashes Soap Gets the Job Done
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akKGDvFxUmc
Anonymous
9058342
?
No.6403
6404
Is it possible to make cum infused soap?
Anonymous
564b128
?
No.6404
>>6403
As a matter of fact yes it is, i don't need to be based soappone to tell you that.
Anonymous
500f842
?
No.6575
6725
soapone plz comeback and tell me how to make lotion
Anonymous
356e68f
?
No.6576
bath.png
maxresdefault.jpg
>>4792
Those bars need improved colors.
soapone
5f73646
?
No.6725
6726 6728 6729 6766 6980
Soap Cutter.jpg
shaving setup.jpg
Snowpity Essence.jpg
Rarity Soap Stamp.jpg
Rendering Tallow.jpg
Alright, finally time for a big soap update of the last... oh dear, has it really been half a year?
First I'd like to thank the anons here who helped come up with the soap label ideas by the power of shitposting and autism.

>>6575 Mix jojoba oil and castor oil together. This is the best thing to use on skin or hair to keep it soft, supple, and pliable. This is what I sell as "Aloe and Lotus Conditioning Oil", there really isn't anything better for skin use than both of those oils. They don't mix though, so you will need to shake it before every use.
>>6195 Thanks, I really like it, even though I haven't even seen that episode (stopped watching around mid-season 7)
>>6191 Basically I took a break from a lot of things. Still kept doing the soap stuff but cut back on a lot of other things and relaxed a bit over the last month.

Hoooo boy lots of updates to cover.
Lets start with dye, where I left off at.
All of the soap bars require a little bit of white dye, generally one or two teaspoons for a batch. Sometimes less and sometimes more (more for Rarity, less for Celestia) because after I changed around temps and how much water I use, the natural color of the soap is pinkish, fair skin tone sort of color.
I mix/blend the dye with a portion of the oil in a blender first, and add that to the mixing bowl just before adding the lye to start the soap making process.
Changed the amount of water:lye ratio to roughly 1.75:1 at 2:1 there is just enough water that the soap just starts to leave a white ashy top surface. While harmless, it does mess with color and presentation a bit. Soda ash forms from the sodium hydroxide reacting with the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I think I mentioned this in previous posts and how it forms depends on how much water you use and what temp the soap is made at.

Alright, some pictures to highlight the progress, starting with the first image
Designed and welded up a soap cutter to use with my steel soap mold. At first I used some wire, but that didn't work very well. After thinking about it for a bit, decided to use heavy duty fishing line. This has worked quite well. Overall quite pleased with it.

Shaving soap! Also toothbrush soap to brush teeth with. The design goal for both is different from a normal bar of soap because the lather needs to stay dense with small bubbles. I have been brushing my teeth with this soap for about 6 months now. It works exceptionally well for both use-cases. I even bought a super nice German made shaving razor to use with it. I am also quite pleased with how the razor works. I tested both without using the conditioning oil and with, and the conditioning oil really helps a ton as a pre-shave. As for using it for brushing teeth with, surprisingly nice. Literally the cleanest I've ever felt my mouth to be, and took off the hardened plaque around the base of some teeth. After a few months noticed my teeth starting to whiten up too.
I think the 'soap tastes bad" comes from two sources, for natural soap if its too old and going bad it will also start to taste bad. Synthetic soap (detergents) probably tastes like shit and shouldn't be used for that to begin with.

Third image is a high resolution picture of the snowpity essence bottles on my website https://snowpity.shop

4th image is of the shitty 3D printer I have making the stamp used for rarity soap bars. I did not build any draft angle into the stamps, though they would probably benefit from it. Maybe one day I'll make some proper stamps out of steel.

Last image is when I got around to rendering my own tallow for soap making. I was rather upset with the quality of lard I was purchasing from my local store. After doing some testing with some tallow I rendered early on, I decided the best thing was to find a good local source and go through the extra effort rendering tallow brings. Bought a couple of big pots and rendered around 8 gallons of tallow.
Making soap with home-rendered tallow is a little different, but overall I am pleased with the results. Not to mention the soap is made with that much more local products. Remember: The more local something is made, the better off everyone is locally, strengthening the community.

Stuff not pictured:
Mare Fair! Early on in the development of mare fair's schedule and venue, I was asked to make soap for all of their sponsor badges. I've been vibrating about mare fair ever since. Seriously, check it out >>>/mlpol/357936 →
I have been researching into setting up a soap milling system. Quite a bit more equipment is needed, and much more expensive to do, but should make the overall quality of soap a little better. Basically soap milling is the soap is made, poured, cured enough to shred, set aside to finish curing (for a week or two in my case), then the soap shreds are mixed with dye and fragrance and finally pressed back into a bar of soap.
Probably some more stuff I can't think of at the moment.

Seriously guys, I am glad for all of you. It's been fun staring the soap project off as just a shitpost and growing it into... well... a much higher quality shitpost that can be sold as a product.
Stay clean everyone, hopefully I'll get to meet some of you guys at mare fair.
Anonymous
356e68f
?
No.6726
6727
d11ba.png
>>6725
>Soap Pone
Glad your back poner.
Anonymous
5f73646
?
No.6727
85083.png
>>6726
>implying I was gone
>implyra
was making random posts on occasion here, just never really enough time to sit down and make a proper update on the soap making project.
Glad to finally get around to it.

I do enjoy the posts everyone else has been doing too
Anonymous
5325221
?
No.6728
Essence Pony - You can call them smells but I call them Essence!.mp4
>>6725
ty u 4 returning, soapone. I haven't read the thread yet, but you're really missing out on the essence mare. Total cute mare. Her and Stellar Flare (Milf of the Season). Sad.
Anonymous
2913acd
?
No.6729
>>6725
Wow, nice work. I look forward to trying some out.
Sadly I'm too poor to go to mare fair this year, but perhaps if things go well I'll be able to sneak it in next year.
Anonymous
7fe8c33
?
No.6766
6767
>>6725
I'm going to Mare Fair, if you're selling soaps there I'll buy some!
Anonymous
356e68f
?
No.6767
>>6766
>I'm going to Mare Fair,
Lucky you.
Anonymous
de207da
?
No.6980
>>6725
Can't wait to see you at marefair, still trying to decide whether to use the Mimosa soap or keep it for the memory can I have two?
Anonymous
812480c
?
No.7103
7107 7135
1691939628980.jpg
Whew, mare fair was so much fun! Was so busy preparing for Mare Fair I didn't have time for much else. Got to meet a few of you though, which was fun.

Also have a bit of a soap update from a bit before the convention.

In this attached picture from right to left: the purple dye I (was) using, the same purple dye inside a little test dish with lye in it, soap with that dye added, soap with the same dye and more blue added, and finally a bar of soap with different purple dye added with (a bit too much) black.
I have two different kinds of purple dyes, and up until that last bar of soap in the image, I was using both purples and some white that should have gotten really close to Twilight Sparkle's succulent purple coat. I just could not figure out why the color was coming out all wrong but all the other soaps I make were mostly correct in color.
Turns out, as seen in the little test dish in the picture, the sodium hydroxide (lye) reacts with that darker purple color I have to give a tan/brown sort of color. Meh.
The other purple I have is a fair bight lighter in color, so I'll mix it with a tiny amount of black. In the picture, I did as much with the very last bar of soap, but added a little too much black, but at least its visibly purple.
From now on I'll only be using the lighter color purple. It looks closer to glimmer by its self, and definitely don't want that, so a little bit of black will be added to get the good Twiggle color.

I also have some other soap stuff I've never done before but wanted to for /mlp/ secret santa, but haven't been able to until very recently. I'll post pictures once my assigned santee posts pictures after they get it.

Speaking of... is there going to be a secret santa event for mlpol?
Anonymous
356e68f
?
No.7107
t5ad.jpg
>>7103
>secret santa event
I want to know moar.
Anonymous
a1aaedb
?
No.7135
7137
>>7103
Has this happened before on /mlpol/? I figure it wouldn't be too hard to coordinate unless I'm severely underestimating the user base here, hmm...
Anonymous
812480c
?
No.7137
7138
>>7135
I don't think it has, and somebody trusted enough would have to be the one collecting doxes to pair people up otherwise most skizos won't even bother.
Anonymous
a1aaedb
?
No.7138
>>7137
I think people would trust you, hell ya already got the dox of everyone who's ordered soap from you
Anonymous
812480c
?
No.7366
7381 7382
76cf8d1d618cc45a.png
efd751cf81830aea.png
shorter shitpost this time
https://sweethaven-soaps-and-sundry.storenvy.com/products/36734801-morning-in-the-library-bar
Got one of their bars at harmonycon and while I was trying to search for their web page I had their soap sitting on my computer desk. In the short amount of time its been sitting here, I got a bit of a headache just from the shitty fragrance they use for their soap.
I'll probably use it once, maybe twice, but I expect to break out in rashes from the shitty fragrance.
Apparently they use a pre-mix of oils sold to soap makers because they can't brain hard enough to figure it out themselves.
They only list a couple of bars of soap on that page but they had a lot more, including bath bombs, at their harmonycon table. They were also one of the only ones wearing a mask other than the furfags.
Their soap is also freaking tiny, less than half the size of a "I Can't Believe It's Not..." soap bar.
At least the colors are interesting with swirls and stuff I guess. Mica is expensive to use for soap dye, but it does offer more control over color and is generally more vibrant.
Their soap bar was somewhat squishy, which means either they did not let it cure long enough to let the water evaporate, or they didn't use enough lye.

Gave them a bar of "I Can't Believe It's Not Appul" soap, maybe they will drop their soap making thing out of shame.

I know I sound like I'm out there to destroy everyone who tries to make pone-themed soap, but its really not the case. There was a lot of dialog while I was talking with them and was never rude about it. They were just starting and were trying their best.
They mentioned they wanted to make some proper old-school soap by collecting ashes and extracting the lye and selling that at a renaissance fair. Good luck Sweethaven Soaps and Sundries, its a lot of extra work on top of everything else.
Anonymous
a38c415
?
No.7381
7382
>>7366
Damn dude you didn't have to rip the newbie a new one like that. They just need to improve their product, not get browbeaten into giving up their hobby.
Anonymous
96bae8c
?
No.7382
7441
>>7366
>>7381
inb4 the brony soap conflict escalates into a full-blown Breaking-Bad-tier turf war in which people actually get murdered over who cooks the best snowpity
Anonymous
2ed94f9
?
No.7440
7441
1595094946126.png
>>4792
Any updates on that beer you were talking about soap?
Anonymous
812480c
?
No.7441
>>7382
kek
>>7440
sure
made a batch a couple weekends ago, about 7 gallons. Need to bottle it now. Probably going to try a few different things before getting something good to take to mare fair.
the yeast isn't working too good, mostly because there isn't a way to regulate the brewing temp and the swings tends to kill the yeast.
I want to get a cheap costco chest freezer and put a temp control probe in it to keep the temps around 66F. Or maybe I can find a used chest freezer.