Hi Crete Artisan, I am trying to make first a POP leaf casting, and then use it to make a re-useable silicone mold using Marlinska's Photobucket tutorial as a guide. (Thank you Marlinska). She uses the Murphy's as the release agent between the POP master and the silicone mold. I recently found this GW posting by Nofu which seems very thorough. "I personally like dry mold releases rather than greasy ones. For porous materials like plaster, I like to buff in several coats of Johnson's paste wax, leaving only a micro thin layer on the surface and then allowing it to completely haze over before making the mold. For non-pourous surfaces, like glass, I take Ivory dish soap and mix it 1:3 with distilled water. Use a soft artist's brush and swish the sudsy mix over the surface of the model while drying with a blow drier in the other hand. The result should be a thin soap film that is relatively dry to the touch. Petroleum jelly (Vasoline) will also work, but is messy to clean up. I don't like PAM or other cooking sprays. Silicone sprays make great mold releases for everything EXCEPT silicone. They tend to become part of the mold and may actually increase adhesion. Also avoid petroleum based lubricating sprays. They are messy and make it difficult to brush the silicone over the surface evenly.' From what he says, I would be better using a wax paste rather than a soap-based release? That will be the next thing I can't find here, sigh....

If you use Grey water, or if you empty a tub of soapy water someplace other than the drain that leads to the waste system, you would be placing soapy water on where you dumped it. That could be the garden, the compost pile, maybe the grass. Seldom, after washing the car, do I take the soapy water in the bucket into the house to put down the sink drain it will go into the compost or on the garden someplace. Lorna, you could find what the Food and Drug Administration had to say about those antibacterial/antimicrobial soaps by searching their web site. Simple logic does not necessarily follow the sale and use of these products. The Michigan Department of Commerce requires all day care and pre school places to have the antibacterial/antimicrobial soaps on site, but are is telling these places to not have children wash with them because that "might" limit the childs exposure to "germs" and limit the development of that childs immune system, but they do not tell people that the use of those products allows disease pathogens to develop immunities to antibiotics/antimicrobials.

SoftSoap makes a 'moisturizing' liquid soap with ALoe Vera. It is very mildly scented, my DH says he can't smell it all. I also object to perfumed soap, and for bathing use oil of olay in bar form, which does have a faint scent [not at all perfume-y] which is noticeable only while it's wet. If those are objectionable to him, try your local health store for hypo-allergenic brands [most of which are not scented] or find someone who will make soap for you without the added oils or extracted perfumes.

Froth is an indication that one is using enough soap to properly clean as well as keep soils/hard water minerals and muck suspended. This is why most every soap product from laundry to bath advertises or advertised "mounds of rich creamy suds". Pure soaps by design will create suds, quite allot of them, while detergents can be either low or high sudsing. Anyone brought up to do laundry with soap will tell you that if one does not see suds, then more soap was needed. When Ivory Snow was powdered soap, directions on the box recommended a 1 to 2 inch layer of creamy suds throug out the wash cycle as an indication one had added enough product. The problem with using soap in front loaders is even one inches of suds can cause problems, and you have very little control over how much soap to use. If you add too little in the drawer, you may not have a way to add more during the wash cycle. Add too much, then you have other problems. There is also the fact that even a one inch layer of froth may trigger a washing machine's internal "over sudsing" system to abort the wash cycle. The tumbling action of front loaders will cause even more froth to form, which not only will decrease cleaning results, but can damage the washing machine as well. Simply put soap softens water (by binding hard water minerals), and also cleans like all "detergents". Differnece is detergents are "built" with additives to soften water, while soap will do this by itself, but one must use much of the product depending upon water conditions. It is the binding of hard water minerals that causes soap crud which forms on everything washed in pure soap. Besides creating froth, which is bad for front loading washing machines; the first several rinses after laundering with soap must be either hot or at least warm water temperature to prevent soap and the muck it has released from becoming trapped in textiles when coming in contact with cold water. Soap is very difficult to rinse from laundry (just because the froth is gone, does not mean all soap has been rinsed from garments), indeed the fats and oils used to make soap will leave a residue on textiles that can build up over time, resulting in dingy, tattle-tale grey fabrics that can turn rancid smelling. Zote, is still widely used in Mexico and other parts of South America as bar laundry soaps have been for ages; to do laundry by hand in either a river bank, wash tub/sink or semi or totally automatic top loading washing machine. Personally wouldn't use soap in any of today's low water front loaders, with the exception of soap based products such as Persil's "Perwol". Do have bars of vintage Fel's soap, but use it more as a pre-treat than to do actual wash loads. C.dS