back to the drawing board

hmmm....I sit here today pondering two things: what to do (again) about those large pores and why my rebatched lye soap never comes out the way I want it to.

I am still using the olive oil cleanse with the combination pore scrubber at least 3-4 days a week. I am at a standstill with the shrinkage of my pores, but I still use the cleanse because I like th eway my face feels when I'm done and I like the way it seems to keep my oily spots cleaner, longer, under my makeup. I also feel good using natural products and am hoping that if nothing else, my skin will have less wrinkles as i age because of the olive oil cleanse.

As for the stand-still pores, I have my hands on a sample pack of DermaDoctor's Picture Porefect on Ebay. This stuff gets rave reviews but is pricey, so I am trying to win a little bit to try without killing the budget.

Now, onto my lye soap dilemna's. When I make my olive/coconut oil lye blender soap, it produces a lovely smooth, hard bar of soap with great lather. Problem there is that as the lye changes as the soap cures, it often ruins my beautiful creations, changing their colors, swirls, and even fading the yummy scents I added. So a few weeks ago when a friend ordered one of my lye soap logs so she could try the rebatching process, I decided to make myself a few extra logs to play with. I keep hearing that if you do a rebatch instead, your pretty colors and scents will stay true and you can add additives then without the worry of the lye altering them. Sounds great in theory. I knew from previous experience that rebatched soap is not as smooth and creamy (or pourable) like melt and pour soap, but I was determined to make mine become that way. I grated it, melted it, and this time not only added additional oils but also fresh coconut milk and regular milk. I then mixed it all with a hand-held mixer. It looked so good! I added my scent and whipped it more. Gone was the lump mashed potato lye soap I had always gotten and in its place with a whipped cream delight! I poured it into my log molds (old Velveeta cheese keeper lids) and even piled some on top for extra "pretties". I threw in a few colored sugar crystals just because I could. Then I waited for it to harden.

Next morning my soap had separated into a watery layer and a foaming layer. back to dumping and remixing with the blender. Again, it foamed up nicely and appeared like a thick meringue. I bet I whipped it on high speed for 5 minutes!

This time the top layer hardened but one week layer, the under layer was still mush.
Dumped it out again, reblended it, added more oils and coconut milk plus some vit. E for preserving it, gave it up and poured it into squeeze bottles for the shower and sink. Now it is an ugly gray-green, runny, creamy liquid soap. It smells great and works well, so I guess I accidentally made some sort of hand soap/bubble bath. Its not pretty but if it works, at least its not a complete waste of time and resources.

What I want to know is, does anyone have the key to making beautiful, SMOOTH and pourable, rebatched lye soap?
Throw me a bone people. If you blend it it makes it creamy but you must have extra oils or waters or milks to do so, thus making it impossible to harden. *sigh*

Still looking for answers!
Lynn

LUSH order

Well, its been about a month on my olive oil cleanse and I am not as excited as I was. My pores are most definitely at a stand-still, major. Not only that but mineral makeup brands really are vastly different. I had to buy some Maybelline mineral foundation and powder and I am back to the shiny nose after 1 hour. *sigh*

I continue on with the cleanse at least once daily though as I figure it'll ward off any more wrinkles.

Dear Sis has dropped out of the cleanse experiment as it is making her break out if she skips a day using it.

She is getting together a LUSH order with me and we will be trying the Coalface soap for large pores. I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, check out my Etsy store as I venture into bottlecap jewelry and glass pendant necklaces; a change from my usual soap.

As soon as I get caught up on reading the 3rd and 4th books in the Twilight series, I hope to offer bath products and jewelry to match the main characters. We'll see how that goes! Always short on time I am.

Happy New Year,
Lynn