How to Make Your Own Soap at Home

By Della Upsher

If you've had trouble finding a soap that's just right for you, and have struggled with cleansers with overpowering scents or artificial ingredients, then perhaps it's time to learn a thing or two about creating your own brand of hand-milled soaps. You'll first need two to three bars of plain white soap. Grate the soap into flakes - enough to make two cups.

Grab a couple of soap molds, which are sold at most craft retailers, and coat them with a small amount of petroleum jelly. Pour one half a cup of water into your measuring cup filled with the soap flakes, and set the whole cup into a sauce pan, which should be filled with about two inches of water. Turn the burner on to medium heat, and bring the water to a simmer. With a wooden spoon, occasionally stir the soap mixture, which should at this time be slowly melting. The soap will appear chunky at first, so break up any chunks as they arise until the mixture begins to appear a bit smoother. Once the soap looks a bit thinner - nearly like pudding - pull the measuring cup from the water.

In a separate bowl, mix together one tablespoon of olive oil, a half a cup of water, a quarter cup of palm oil chips, twenty or so drops of your favorite botanical scent, and two to three drops of soap dye if you wish to add coloring. If you would like your soaps to have a weaker scent, add only about fifteen drops of the fragrance. Pour the bowl of mixed ingredients into your soap. Gently fold in the mixture until completely blended. Fill your molds with the soap and allow them to cool before you remove them. Let your soaps rest on a baking rack for about three weeks before you use or wrap them. Be your own botanist!

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Soap Making Molds - What Are Your Options?

By Steve Paul

Using the right soap making molds to shape your finished product should never be overlooked. Although the quality of the soap and its skin care benefits are the priority, creating a unique look and feel can help you stand out from the crowd.

There are a variety of options for shaping your soap. Which one you choose will mostly depend on your personality, preferences and soap making goals.

The first, and definitely most popular soap molding method is using individually pre-shaped soap making molds. Individual molds can be purchased in all shapes and size and gives you the added convenience of not having to slice your soap into bars once your mixture has hardened.

Unfortunately, using pre-shaped soap molds does have a few drawbacks. First of all, pouring your temporarily liquefied early stage soap into small 4 ounce soap bar molds is rather difficult to say the least.

Once you finally have your molds filled, you must then figure out how to thoroughly insulate each one using blankets and towels for proper curing. Trust me, it's an arduous process to saran wrap and insulate each mold individually, especially if you created a large batch.

Furthermore, you have to be careful that you do not use melt and pour soap making molds when creating soap from scratch using the cold process method. Cold process soap is extremely caustic during its initial stages because of the incorporation of sodium hydroxide. Many molds made for melt and pour soap making are not formed out of the proper materials needed to withstand this chemical.

The second method of shaping your soap is to create a large soap loaf and then cut it into traditional bars. This is my personal favorite soap molding method as it makes the creation of larger batches much easier.

You can buy a loaf soap mold from various online dealers or even your local craft shop. They usually reveal their size by displaying how many pounds of soap they can hold. I personally own a 4 pound mold and absolutely love it, but I've seen them as large as 12 pounds.

The final method is to get creative and make your own. Wonderful soap molds can be created out of every day household items. In fact, I've seen people shape their soaps using everything from PVC pipe to large sea shells. If you're on a budget, and really don't want to fork over the money for a professional soap making mold, then this is definitely the way to go!

Do you want to learn everything there is to know about soap making molds and other important soap making information? Visit Steve's site http://www.soap-making-resource.com. Here you will find one of the largest known resources for this fun and exciting craft!
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Soap Safety Guidelines - Just Don't Get Burnt!

By Steve Paul

Soap making is a wonderful craft that can be enjoyed safely if you adhere to these vital soap safety instructions. In order to make soap, a chemical known as sodium hydroxide (lye) must be combined with various oils to create a reaction called saponification. Lye is an extremely caustic and dangerous substance that should be treated with the utmost of respect.

Although working with lye is definitely the most intimidating aspect of the soap making process there are other potential hazards that you must be aware of.

Please do not be scared away from this fun and addicting craft! There are potential risks involved in everything you do, including getting out of bed in the morning! As long as you follow some of these simple soap safety instructions, you will be absolutely fine:

Rule 1: Get to know your ingredients. At this point, you already realize the hazards of lye, but don't underestimate some of the other components like essential oils, soap making dyes and even all natural skin care nutrients. Are they allergens? Can they burn the skin? Are they poisonous? Make sure you know all about every ingredient you incorporate into your soap.

Rule 2: Keep a bottle of vinegar close by your side. When poured over lye, vinegar will neutralize the chemical and render it harmless. This is a must have in order to control potential lye spills.

Rule 3: Be sure to wear protective gear. This should include rubber gloves, goggles that completely enclose the eye and thick outerwear. If you want to practice soap safety to a tee, you can even wear a rubber rain coat for further protection.

Rule 4: Make sure to label all your soap making tools. Much of the equipment used during the soap making procedure is found in the common kitchen. If you use a particular utensil for soap making, never use it again for cooking. In order to avoid confusion label all equipment "for soap making use only". Even if you feel that it's not contaminated, it's just not worth the risk of touching your food with a utensil that's been in contact with harmful chemicals.

Rule 5: Get rid of your distractions. Pets, kids, spouses, TV, music etc. can all become distractions. When making soap, you need to give the craft your sole attention.

Rule 6: Find a safe place to store your soap making supplies. Make sure that you store all chemicals up high where children or pets can't get to them.

Rule 7: Educate your family about soap making and its potentially hazardous elements. Knowledge is power!

As long as you keep these simple rules in mind, you will have a wonderful experience making soap! You'll find that the initial stress is well worth the reward - beautiful all natural skin care products that your friends and family will love! After your first few batches, the fear will diminish revealing a true passion for this craft that will demand to be fed.

To learn more about soap safety and other vital soap making information, please visit Steve's site http://www.soap-making-resource.com/. Here you will learn everything you ever wanted to know about this exhilarating craft.
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All About Soap Making: Clear Glycerine Soap

By Gary Everson
In this article I explain the misnomer of glycerine soap, offer advice on how to make clear soap at home and explain what glycerine is and what it does, its benefits and properties
Glycerin is a sweet tasting, colorless, thick liquid that has a high boiling point, it freezes to a paste and is a humectant, which means that it attracts moisture. It is also a natural by-product in the soap making process. Commercial manufacturers remove a significant quantity of glycerin from soap to be used in more expensive lotions and creams.

Glycerine was first discovered in 1779 in the saponification process, today, glycerine is found in and sourced from animal fats, vegetable oils and synthetically from petrochemicals.
It is generally thought that Glycerine is an ingredient added to handmade soap but as stated above it is actually a by-product of the soap making process (saponification). Clear soap is often mistaken for glycerine soap when in fact all handmade soap contains glycerine, a treatment using alcohol and sugar is what makes the soap clear and this is what people generally refer to as glycerine soap. You can add extra glycerine to improve the moisturizing properties of the soap but it is not a necessity. Glycerin soap combined with selected oils can be a great way to relax and mixed with carefully selected herbs and essential oils can be great for acne suffers, it is also very mild and gentle so can be used by children. The most often used method for making glycerine soap is the melt and pour method. This is simply done by taking an opaque soap base melting it and then adding the alcohol and sugar to turn it clear.

Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia found that glycerine makes skin look, feel and function better by attracting moisture and by helping skin cells mature properly; they also discovered that it helps convert fats or lipids in the external, protective membrane. All cells have this layer, but skin cells secrete extra lipids to form a protective barrier. "Think about it. If there was not some sort of barrier, when you took a bath, all the water would go into you and you would blow up like a balloon." This research is not news to natural soap makers who for years have been telling the virtues of real soap over mass-produced chunks of soap full of chemicals that are cheap, but not skin-friendly.

Transparent soap can be purchased as a clear Melt & Pour base, or made at home, but this is a moderate to advanced technique. It is created by taking previously made cold process soap, re-melting it and adding high proof alcohol such as strong Vodka or Ethanol, dissolved sugar is then added to the mix and depending on the type of oils used and the effectiveness of the alcohol, resulting in soap almost as clear as glass.

I have purposely kept the description for this technique very general to pique your interest and also because the exact technique is quite difficult, exacting and far too involved to describe here. If you are interested in the exact technique, try searching the internet for "make clear soap" or "make transparent soap" without the quotes.

Want to learn All About Soap Making, but haven't a clue where to start? Gary Everson's FREE course will show you how, from the basic techniques with a detailed explanation of theraputic soaps, to cold process and melt and pour recipes, followed by comprehensive safety and legal information and finishing by turning it all into a business, with an extra bonus at the end.
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