Welcome to Your Soapmaking Journey!
Summer is coming and our Technical Support Team is getting some fabulous questions regarding how to get into soap making and how to make great soap. I am always thrilled when I hear another person is wanting to learn how to make soap. If you are just starting on this journey, welcome. I am glad to have you with us. Over the next two weeks we will discuss how to make superb soap without breaking the bank and keep the hobby sustainable. Are you ready? Let’s get started!
Learning to make soap is thrilling, overwhelming and just a little scary. While there does need to be respect of the materials and the process, don’t let it scare you. If you can make a cake with Betty Crocker™, you can make soap. Here are some things I consider really important/helpful to making soap.
Goggles
Immersion Blender
Scale
Gloves
Spoon
Mixing Bucket
Mold
Thermometer
A notebook
All of these items make it much easier to make soap. However if you are on a limited budget and can only choose a few things from this list, my top three items will be goggles, a notebook and a good scale. I consider goggles a must because your vision is so important. A notebook is very important because when things go right, it allows you to duplicate what you did and when they go wrong, we can figure out how and fix it. The scale is also important. Soap is just one of those things you can’t make using volume measurements. Getting a good scale means you can make consistent batches of soap. The rest of the items do make life a lot easier but are rather flexible. You can always use recycled items. Your mixing bucket could be an old ice cream bucket or other container. If you reuse a food container make it large, don’t use drinking cup and remove food markings. Write SOAP ONLY on your containers.
You also don’t need a fancy soap mold. I use a drawer organizer lined with plastic wrap as my mold. (It is my most used mold.) Look around. There are lots of things that can be used. I have used milk cartons lined with bags, shipping boxes, PVC pipe, shoe boxes and even pencil organizers. Have some fun searching for your mold!
Another thing that I consider a must is keeping your soaping equipment and your cooking tools separate. When you get to using fragrance and essential oils you will find that they “stick” to all things plastic, silicone, wood and rubber. You do not want your spaghetti sauce tasting like lavender or patchouli, no matter how much you love how it smells. Check out this blog on how to protect your dishwasher from contamination as well.
Tomorrow we will talk about creating our formulations, calculating the capacity of our found molds and safety. This will allow you to collect the items you need and from there we can get started!
I have been making soap for a very long time….but I just love your posts and am going to follow this one every day. Thank you for your informative posts.
Janet,
We have some cool things planned for this series! Welcome on board!
Love the look of the new website!
Thank you! I’m glad you are enjoying it!
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to start the soap journey with an experienced person.
You are welcome! Thanks for joining us for the journey!
very good thanks
You are welcome!
I’d like my soaps to smell great for a longer period of time. I use only essential oils. I smell other soaps at farmer’s markets and they smell stronger than mine. Any suggestions?
There are a few things you can do to make your soap smell stronger.
1) when the soap has cured you can layer it in a box with paper towels between all layers. Lightly spray each paper towel with the scent you have used in the soap.
2) realize that when your soap is dry the scent will always appear to be weaker than it really is, soap smells stronger when wet.
3) put your essential oil into the soap by diluting into a carrier oil. If you are making a batch that needs 1.5 ounces of the essential oil you have chosen, then reserve 1.5 ounces of fixed oils (such as olive or sunflower) and add this to the soap when it is at trace.
I primarily use the first option but I also add products like scented lotions, hair care, etc to layer the scent on my body. Soap is a wash off product and light layers of scent will do more than just a single washing can accomplish.
Tina
I haven’t made soap yet, however I am in the final research stage and am almost ready to order my ingredients. I am an avid gardener and herbalist. I want to make soaps that have a purpose i.e., that make your feel better, soothe the “itchies”, calm anxiety, make joints feel better, make skin softer, heal and keep the bugs away. I would like to do this with ingredients that I have grown, made or researched an am confident that they are high quality and not manufactured (except for lye….) I also crochet wash cloths and for homemade Christmas this year we will be making up baskets with washcloths and soap and bath fizzes. I was working full time but had to medically retire, but I have to be engaged, so I have managed to keep gardening (at a lower level) and this has all resulted from having to sit more.
Debra,
Your soaps will be wonderful! When much thought and caring goes in to a final product the results are generally spectacular!
Tina
Brand new soap maker here. What is an immersion blender?
Welcome!
An immersion blender is a stick blender or a long stick looking apparatus that will fit into a drinking glass and has a bell covered blade at the bottom.
Worth every penny in soap making!
Tina
The soap calculator gives a range for the water to use in the recipes. How do you decide how much to actually add to your soap mixture? If the range is 22 to 32 oz, how much would you put in? If I chose 24 oz rather than 32 oz, how would that effect the soap?
Good question! There are a number of people who feel they should use the least amount of water possible. This action will accelerate trace and have less water for the soap to get rid of during cure time. I prefer the longer working time and the more beautiful bar that the highest amount will give. I think the longer working time results in better saponification prior to molding and results in a more beautiful bar of soap.
Cheers!
Taylor
I am new to the soap making world and am very excited to start this new adventure. I want to make soap for hair and body, using Potash and vegetable glycerin, if anyone has any suggestions I am very open.
I don’t have any recommendations right now based on my personal experience, but I know Jackie Thompson’s book on Liquid Soapmaking covers this information. You can find her book in our catalog here: https://www.thesage.com/catalog/Books.html#LiquidSoapmaking
I made soap 20 years ago and plan on starting up again!
That’s wonderful, Ruth! Welcome back into the soaping world!