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soapone.png
full.jpeg
image844.png
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Soap
soapone
5f73646
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No.4792
4795 4798 4801 6576
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.
34 replies and 17 files omitted.
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
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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
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No.5051
>>5050
Yay soap!
Anonymous
ccf744b
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No.5052
5053
>>5050
Looks like butter, yummy
Anonymous
5f73646
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No.5053
5056 5057
>>5052
its "I can't believe its not Flutters!" soap bars.
lol
Anonymous
b2bfa6b
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No.5054
bath.jpg
>>5050
Anonymous
3c3b85b
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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
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No.5056
5057
>>5053
lol, just lol
soapone
5f73646
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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No.5109
>snowpity spray
Okay, take my money.
Anonymous
5f73646
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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No.5117
5118
rect127962.png
>>5114
Tweaked things some more...
Anonymous
426a1e8
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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
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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
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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
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No.5126
5129
1955187.png
>>5124
>A Sniff of Snowpity?
Anonymous
5f73646
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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
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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
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No.5131
>>5129
Looking Great There
Anonymous
5f73646
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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
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No.5134
5135
>>5133
Can i drink it?
Anonymous
5f73646
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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
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No.5137
>>5135
Hmmmm, fragrance oil would probably be ok?
Anonymous
5f73646
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No.5139
5142
20220326_0001_01.jpg
Finished making the labels for all the perfume/cologne/spray bottles.
Anonymous
07e346f
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No.5142
5144
>>5139
Troll me if you must, but what is a snowpity?
Anonymous
843de2e
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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
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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
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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
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No.5149
>>5147
Very sexy
Anonymous
843de2e
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No.5150
5154
>>5147
The edges are kinda rough on the dirtpity bars. How are cutting them? Also, crow is a nigger.
Anonymous
5f73646
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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
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No.5155
>>5154
I was referring to the soap bars. The plastic looks pretty good. Good job, anon.
Anonymous
5f73646
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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
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No.6191
6194
Is Soapone kill?
soapone
5f73646
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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
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No.6195
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
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No.6401
ashes.png
513436.jpg
>Easy Free DIY Ashes Soap Gets the Job Done
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akKGDvFxUmc
Anonymous
9058342
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No.6403
6404
Is it possible to make cum infused soap?
Anonymous
564b128
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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
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No.6575
soapone plz comeback and tell me how to make lotion
Anonymous
356e68f
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No.6576
bath.png
maxresdefault.jpg
>>4792
Those bars need improved colors.