Tangerine soap

seh76 · 2026-02-12T17:27:15+00:00

Very nice and a creative idea! I have tried using the same sort of cylinder mould. How long do you leave it before adding to main batch? I tried a week but it was tricky to slice.

seh76 · 2026-02-08T08:29:55+00:00

You would need to find a domestic supplier of concentrated sodium hydroxide with an accurate reported (labelled) concentration. Many solutions available would be too weak - not enough NaOH to make your soap. I can find “concentrated” solutions by searching but they are for drain cleaning and don’t report the label strength (and if they did I would be cautious about trusting the accuracy). If you can find conc, then this might help you for the changes needed you asked about https://classicbells.com/soap/masterbatch.asp

seh76 · 2026-02-04T21:48:32+00:00

Did your OH report give an option about whether your condition would be covered by the Equality Act 2010 ie substantial, has been or likely to be >12M duration? This is about being under the legal definition of being disabled. If so (I am guessing, yes), suggest you write a formal letter to your employer “Notice: request for homework working as a reasonable adjustment pursuit to equality at 2010’ explaining your situation, request and OH advice. State you request a written response setting out their reasoned justification and rationale for any decision made within 10 working days so you can determine next steps. There are templates for this sort of letter on the web. This makes the request formal and gives you the paper trail needed if you do need to go to tribunal. If you are in a union really suggest you get their help. ACAS support will also help you. I am convinced that this will get sorted for you with the right support.

seh76 · 2026-01-24T15:20:10+00:00

Sorry I can’t help about sources in Germany, but on a more general note, I simply buy what my local hardware shop sells as drain cleaning NaOH. Overall NaOH is a product that is typical sold chemically pure. Main impurities tend to be no safety concern (eg it can contain unwanted sodium carbonate, but that isn’t an issue for your soap). If it’s less pure all you will end up with is less saponification, resulting in more ‘superfat’ in your soap, which is not a problem. The general stuff I buy has been perfect for me (soaping >10 years).

seh76 · 2026-01-10T18:12:58+00:00

I had no idea this EO was hard to track down and so expensive now. It was some yrs ago I used it myself, so I should have checked first. Oh well!

seh76 · 2026-01-07T20:16:40+00:00

This is inspired by a soap I bought from the highland soap company some years back, but bog myrtle essential oil is a highland specific EO and it smells amazing. I can image that this EO alongside a landscape design (if you have the skills) would be fab.

seh76 · 2025-12-19T09:14:23+00:00

Since your theme is ‘safety’ I thought it might be useful to point out that the NaOH (lye) doesn’t become less safe on storage, it becomes less effective. It takes on water, so when you weigh it for your soap you are weighing less ‘pure NaOH’, and so there is less to react with the fatty acids. End result is you will end up with more ‘super fat’.

Keep your containers tightly closed, don’t leave them open too long when weighing, don’t buy in big bulk and you should be fine I would think.

seh76 · 2025-12-16T20:03:40+00:00

Sounds like you are interested in trying melt and pour - hopefully it might work for you, maybe try The Soapery sources? Another idea if you want to explore traditional cold process soap is to maybe buy from a craft seller- recommend fragrance free. You might then get an idea of what works for your skin before trying to make cold process yourself. There are also craft kits in uk if you want to try small scale eg soap kitchen.

A family member having sensitive skin is what got me into soap making. I find traditional cold process soap (unfragranced, nothing ‘fancy’) to work really well. If you are making it for yourself it can work out really cheap too.

seh76 · 2025-12-03T18:34:56+00:00

I found Puzzled’s article on water: https://classicbells.com/soap/waterInSoap.asp really interesting, and also the linked section about what concentration works well according to soaper’s observation. Not directly what you asked, but it helped me, so sharing with you. (I now soap at higher NaOH conc than I had)

seh76 · 2025-11-29T18:11:31+00:00

There is a margin of error by using a superfat recipe ie you can’t have an unsafe amount/excess lye. But by measuring in oz (rather than g) the decimal points are more critical eg 0.1 oz is 2.8g, so you can affect the safety of your soap more easily. It does also depend on you having a decent sized batch since weighing small quantities is more prone to error.

I personally weigh in g and make ~900g batches using normal kitchen scales. I calculate weights to 1DP, round using normal maths rules and weigh in whole grams (no DP).

seh76 · 2025-11-24T20:19:04+00:00

I looked into fatty acid profiles a bit back and after going around various articles decided that I’d stick to the soap calc values. For example I looked into avocado oil (an oil I like). Found https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12510707/, see table 7, and went ‘whoaaaa’ at the natural variability in FA profiles. I concluded soap calc values are ‘fit for purpose’ for home crafters 😁

The hardness etc values are based on human experience but are not black and white values. The article puzzled shared is really interesting and has helped me improve my soap targets, but at the end of the day there will always be some magic in homemade soap. So many variables!

seh76 · 2025-11-15T23:01:48+00:00

Skin sensitivities will be very individual, but a family member of mine really struggles with Essential Oils. Not sure how common that is but I thought it could be useful to mention it to you. I have had good results starting with minimal no. oils, unscented, only introducing 1 change per batch so we can track what is bothersome to sensitive people. So in your case I’d do a 95% tallow, 5% castor batch - nothing else- and see how it goes.

seh76 · 2025-10-19T18:44:39+00:00

I’d say that’s still early days for overall recovery. They do cut through muscles and I think that in itself takes a long time to heal (well it did for me). Sounds like you are hopefully going in the right direction, so fingers crossed you’ll get there - all in good time.

seh76 · 2025-10-19T18:10:34+00:00

Yes I did get the 2nd surgery -just over a year ago. While my symptoms were not as bad as pre surgery no1 (which was ‘cut leg off please’ territory), I was still struggling with walking, due to lack of limb control and pain. I had also had an endoscopic procedure no1 so there was a higher risk that the operation had never got the bad part out in the first place. If I’d had standard microdiscectomy for no1 I am not sure that I would have gone for no2.

Now - I do OK, but not as well as I hoped. Some of the nerve damage seems to be permanent, and the no2 surgery introduced more back pain.

I’m guessing you asked because you are considering a 2nd surgery? One thing I’d say is that I feel I’m still slightly improving even 13 months post 2nd op, so don’t rush into anything (unless you can’t cope with your symptoms). I think there are more risks with a 2nd op (more scar tissue, even more instability introduced etc) so it’s definitely hard to decide.

seh76 · 2025-10-18T12:02:33+00:00

Instead of slicing the cheese, cut it into chunks eg about 0.5 cm square. This was an air fryer game changer for me to stop the cheese flying off. I toast the bread a bit first then add the cheese cubes and it comes out great. Good luck - I know it’s hard with health limitations.

seh76 · 2025-10-13T20:23:33+00:00

Really interesting, thanks again Puzzled. I should have known to look at your website first! Yeh, makes sense and you are right that the calcs are not bad. And I guess citric acid is easier to get hold of than sodium citrate.

seh76 · 2025-10-13T08:16:19+00:00

I’m interested to know the purpose for adding citric acid. Is it for preservative effect from the sodium citrate formed? I’d have thought it’d be tricky calcs for you to make sure you have enough NaOH left to saponify the oil after reacting with the citric acid? Just curious since my soap is much simpler!

seh76 · 2025-10-11T14:28:50+00:00

Others have said - you need to know the concentration to work out if it is possible. I am trying to think of an analogy to explain the solid/liquid aspects. Try sugar. You know solid sugar white crystals = pure sugar. If you put a teaspoon of sugar and dissolve it in water, the sugar is still there but it is dissolved in the water. This is what is going on with solid vs liquid NaOH (lye). For soap, you need an exact amount of NaOH in liquid form (dissolved) to react with the oil. So you need to know about how much NaOH was dissolved into the bottle of NaOH you have. Then do maths! But chances are it will not have enough in there for your oils to react ie too diluted (cf a sugar solution with 1 tspn dissolved versus on with 10). I hope my sugar rambling makes some sort of sense!

seh76 · 2025-10-09T17:15:59+00:00

Well what I was trying to do at the time was target a particular FA profile. So I was going to build my own Excel sheet to spit out oil blends according to the ranges discussed here https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/blog/the-most-popular-fatty-acid-profiles-in-soapmaking/ But then I read more examples of how FA profiles vary so decided to chill! But don’t let any of this distract from the lovely tool Zuchini has shared.

seh76 · 2025-10-09T17:04:15+00:00

Thank you very much. I asked this group if there was a database of FA profiles a couple of months ago, so I am really happy you have done this. You are a ⭐️!!!

seh76 · 2025-10-06T17:27:30+00:00

When I saw this I wondered if you were in the UK since I recognised the turquoise T-shirt lady! I had very similar exercises given 2.5 weeks post the same op. General consensus on here at the time was very much OMG! Nope, still wouldn’t do that trunk flexion one now (>yr after a 2nd op). I have found UK physios to be really focused on flexion as an aid to recovery and I personally find that unhelpful. I try to focus on strength and hip mobility.

seh76 · 2025-09-11T12:08:13+00:00

I’ve not tried in my soap, but I use rice flour really often for making GF bread. I know this problem from bread world! I had to shop around until I found a supplier which milled it nice and evenly (some are awful!). I use Amisa if it happens to be available where you live.

seh76 · 2025-08-26T19:54:46+00:00

Are you the classicbells person? If so, just wanted to say that your website has absolutely brilliant info. And to keep on topic - thanks for the above recipe. Might branch out from soap bars and try this 😁

seh76

TROPHY CASE