Olivia's Entry into the B&B Hall of Fame

[Olivia]

Please allow me to introduce myself:


Username:
Olivia

What is your real name?
Antje (for my mother)

What are your nicknames/aliases?
Olivia

Where do you live?
I'm a bavarian, stranded in Berlin, Germany

What is your age (or) generation?
post WWll but Jimi Hendrix was already dead

What are you in the real world?
self occupied soap maker

What is your favorite shave setup?
Since I'm a woman I don't need that much. Its mostly one of my test soaps and a gilette blue two. A little EdC afterwards and I'm fine.

What are your hobbies and favorite activities?
Well, primarily actually its my cat.
She's cute, I like to talk to her and find out what she needs.
The poor thing had a couple of rough years before I got her so I guess she deserves a little "queen training".

Computer comes next. I run an american soap making board, love to play games and occasionally repair these nifty little machines for friends in trouble.

Indoor - and outdoor plants are on the list, too, but I wish I had more time for them.

What else should the members of B&B know about you?
I love good movies, politics, languages, studying humans and apart from my job everything thats new to me.

Nice meeting you all!

(Thread generated automatically by the Hall of Fame Submission Form)

 

[Jonnybc]

Welcome Olivia, I'll be ordering some of your soap soon I should think!

 

[Dinder1]

Welcome Olivia.
Cheers, DJ.

 

[Phog Allen]

Hi Olivia! I really enjoy the whisk. I haven't posted there in a good while but I check the posts from time to time. BTW, did you just add the English language version to your website? I seem to remember it being only Deutch the last time I was there. Your products look simply splendid.

Regards, Todd

 

[Olivia]

Hey Todd
How are you doing?

I just translated the shaving stuff site this week. The girl who does my e-mail orders does not write english very well and we had some orders I had to take care of myself, translating everything individually.
Hope its easier for you guys now.

Thanks for the kind words. Yet have to take new pictures of some stuff.

Have you made a soap yet?

 

[Phog Allen]

Naw Oliva, I haven't. Yet I really want to. I have just made up my mind to wait til the fall. It's nearly 100Farenheit here every day now and I just don't want to deal with it. I hate the heat. Besides, I want to hp my soap and this will just make it more humid in the house. I think I'll start off with a basic animal fat shave soap and see how it goes. I'm thinking something like 65% tallow, 25% coconut, 5% cocoa butter, and maybe 5% stearic acid. I don't know about that stearic in a hard soap. Let alone a hp soap. It may turn into soap on a stick. BTW, does stearic typically get used in hard soaps? I know it's a huge part of cream soaps but does it's lather stability translate into the hard cakes? As you can see, I've stuck to saturated type fats. I just seem to get great results with shave soaps that keep it simple with a tallow base. How about 1-2% superfat instead of the normal 5%? I've found that extra oils in the bars are lather killers. Thanks and please stop by often. These gents really appreciate good soap info.

Regards, Todd

 

[Olivia]

I see... over here its hot as well and I can perfectly understand.
Still feeling tempted to make a real big batch of shaving cream, cause its simply good and I like to dish it out. Bought an extra sturdy BIG pot for that.

Stearic in solid soap is useless IMO. You can't use more than 4 % with cold process, otheriwse the recipe is too speedy. Hot process might be a way around, but I doubt it will add what you go for.

After all my experiments (and I guess you have followed most of them) I'm back at a high castor castille. Keeps everyone happy.
Tallow was an option I did not stress enough. Maybe I'll give it another try cause I have quite some stash both beef and goat.
The german wet shavers started to become real fond of my animal oil based soaps and some still are, but the percentage of lather problems was still too high for my taste.

Too high superfat can be a killer of lather in toiletry soaps, but shaving soaps do behave totally different. (My "sensitive" has 10% and still works fine)
Going too low on that may get you at risk, getting a lye heavy monster like the Golddachs. Doesn't soften the beard much better btw.

Why don't you just try a real simple cream soap? I ran all the whiskers into this project. Its the same stuff crackstar is talking about in his reviews.
I pmmed you the recipe back then. Hard to fail, plenty of supply and a first success to build up on. I love the scent while it cooks.


Thank you guys for the warm welcome btw

 

[crackstar]

Olivia, I'm so impressed with your soaps and creams, you have no idea! Oh, by the way, you speak excellent English, I wish my German was as good. I used to speak it perfectly, but I left Europe 37 years ago, so I forgot a lot of it. I have 3 of your cream, the Eichenmoos, bay rum, and Churchill, and do they ever smell delicious, they lather wunderbar, and my skin feels great after I shave with them. I recently received some of your ZEDER soap, it's unreal, I just shaved with it this morning, and I don't think my skin ever felt better! A friend of mine sends me these beauties of yours as gifts.
Ich wunsche Sie verdanken noch einmal!

Jeff

 

[Phog Allen]

Olivia, I still have that message! A cream it may be. However, yours is so tempting that I may just order it. BTW fellas, Jeff isn't kidding. Olivia has been around this a long time and knows her work. I have a cream soap that was provided to me by another soaper using similar methods and it worked great. Thanks for clearing up the stearic acid question. Castor/Castille eh? Who'd a thunk that a nearly all olive oil soap would make up a good shave lather.

Regards, Todd

 

[Olivia]

Really makes my day, Jeff!
Todd can tell how long I've been finetuning this stuff and meeting you guys' requirements is such a wonderful reward.
The Cedarwood is brand new. I had it as a toiletry soap for long, but recently somebody ordered a shaving version, so I made it.
Guess the goat milk adds quite some quality.

English is fun. Gets you to discover wonderful places like this one


Todd, the brush makes the difference. Wouldn't work lathered up by hand.

 

[mrob]

Welcome, Olivia!

Have been in Bavaria twice, on tour with my band--love the people, the scenery and the weis bier!

guten Abend and Tschüs!

 

[EL Alamein]

Hi Olivia,

Congratulations! I just sent you an email to order some stuff. You're site looks really good can't wait to try the products.

Chris

 

[Kyle]

Welcome, Olivia.

 

[letterk]

NO! Get back! My wife is going to kill me if I order more soaps.

 

[inkling]

Willkommen, Olivia!

 

[Tito]

Hola...

Tito

 

[Mama Bear]

All of my CP soap buddies seem to be members of The Wisk.. is this yours? I am a melt and pour addict tho.. I prefer the superfatted (10-20%!) CP soaps in the bath on hot days tho.. in the winter I stick to the glycerin. I am using my own CP soaps, but don't feel confident enough to sell them I guess...

It is lovely to meet you! I hope to get to know you better and hope you have a lovely weekend!

Sue (Mama Bear)

 

[roughrider]

Welcome to B&B.

 

[SSLStudio]

Great to see another soap maker make it to B&B aint this place just full of love..

I dont know just had to think of that word when I saw the lovely Rose Sue gave to Olivia .. I have been to Olivia's site a couple of times cant decide there are too many nice things there.

und ja Willkommen Olivia , Deutsch ist kein problem fur mich den ja ich bin deine nachbar aus Holland.