Let me explain…

I’ve been playing with some formulations and ideas (R&D I think it’s called), and have found a cool way of making gel soaps. The thing is, because it is made with a combination of two alkalis (potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide), I’m not sure it fits into a liquid soapmaking book.

I’m leaning towards putting it into a future book on mixed alkali soaps, which would speed up the liquid soapmaking book as that is almost done.

Aargh! I’ll be sure to update you when I’ve made my mind up. Sorry if you are waiting for the liquid soapmaking book, but at least you know why it’s been delayed.

This will hopefully be the first of many podcasts – hope you like it

With really easy methods, some lovely formulations, and lots of handy tips’n'tricks, it shows how to make lovely liquid soaps for you and your loved ones.

I’ll update when it is available.

Yes, you did read that right. Non-American authors who publish ebooks with Amazon, will have 30% of their royalties withheld by the IRS.

That is rather a large chunk of your earnings to have kept by a foreign tax office. Fortunately however, if your home country has a tax agreement with the USA, you can stop this daylight robbery. Most countries do have such an agreement, and it is surprisingly easy to get your royalty cheques in full.

First of all, you need a tax identification number from the IRS. As a non American, this can either be an ITIN (individual tax identification number) or an EIN (employers identification number). An American would be stunned that an individual can get an EIN, because domestically, out is reserved for limited companies. For non Americans however, it can be used by a sole trader – like authors.

The ITIN application process requires you to send your passport to the USA, or to an American embassy. This is because they need to be sure of your identity since the tax number is for an individual.

The EIN application process however is very straightforward and doesn’t require ID. There is a specific phone number for the IRS department which issues EINs for foreign applicants only.

Phoning America might sound expensive, but I used Skype, and a half hour wait before my call was answered cost me less than 50p. I called +12679411099 and the man I spoke to talked me through the application process. I was told my EIN over the phone before the end of the call, and received a letter confirming it a few weeks later.

Now armed with a tax id, I filled in the form W8-BEN I downloaded from the Amazon website. once this was filled in, it was posted to Amazon – the address is on the self publishing help pages. A few weeks later Amazon emailed me to say everything was in order, and I would not have tax withheld any more. Hurrah!

So it really is straightforward to get all of your royalties from kindle ebook sales. One phone call and one form to full in and post – job done in a couple of days.

If you publish ebooks (or ever decide to try), don’t let the IRS keep your hard earned royalties, it is easier than you think.

Whenever I try to see ‘what if’, I am often surprised by what I discover. That is why soap R&D is sooooo much fun.

Most people who make soap at home, start out making solid soap, with oils and sodium hydroxide solution.

Some home soap makers then try out making liquid soap, with oils and a potassium hydroxide solution. Learning how to home hot process soap as they go, they can use the same technique to make sodium soaps quicker.

Others may try their hand at transparent soap. Making a very hard sodium soap using the home hot process method, then adding alcohol, glycerine and sugar solution to dissolve the soap paste. These solvents prevent the formation of long soap crystals as the liquid cools. The soap produced remains transparent.

Then some hardy souls will try the most challenging of home soaps – cream soaps. Cream soaps are made with a mix of hydroxides – sodium and potassium. Originally developed for making shaving soaps, mixed alkali soaps are certainly a challenge.

The resultant cream soaps can be well worth the effort though. Being any consistency between a pourable cream, and a plasticine paste, it can be developed for many uses too.

I love playing with soap R&D.

Lots to be done this year – a new kindle book is in the pipeline for a start

The first (and biggest) is sea salt bath bombs. Many bath bombs have oils or butters added to them as a lovely moisturising agent. The only problem with that though, is that they aren’t suitable for people who have difficulty getting in and out of the bath. Even a small amount of oil can make a bath too slipery for those with mobility problems.

For that reason, we’ve added sea salt as the conditioning ingredient in our bath bombs. They still fizz like mad, and are still scented with essential oils – they just don’t tend to make your bath slipery.

We chose the same oils as used in our Extremely Gentle soap to make sure it was suitable for even the most sensitive skins. It isn’t the bubbly-est of soaps, but it gets your hands clean gently.

Many soapmakers believe that it is impossible to make a completely clear liquid soap and have a small superfat. << For non-soapmakers, handmade soaps usually have a slight excess of oils to make them milder. This is referred to as superfat. >>

Well, our extremely gentle liquid soaps have a 3% superfat and are beautifully transparent I’ll be explaining how easily it is done in an upcoming kindle ebook on liquid soapmaking

Suppose you thought I’d given up or something? Well I haven’t

Been doing lots or research and development. Written (and published) another ebook on kindle. Even started making bath bombs – well it is nearly Christmas. Good Christmas prezzie is bath bombs

Nearly bed time though, so I’ll go into a bit more detail tomorrow and into next week

Aimed squarely at the complete beginner with absolutely no prior knowledge, it can be downloaded from the following links:-
to buy in pounds
to buy in dollars
to buy in euro

If the beginners book sells well, I have plans to add further books on more advanced soapmaking.