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Now that you know about the basics of soap making and the different processes involved, the next step would be familiarizing yourself with the ingredients and equipments used in soap making. You have to remember that although soap making can have a lot of equipments, the process of making soap is not that hard to follow.

With the basics of soap making and by carefully following instructions as well as following the safety procedures, you will be able to produce your very own bath soap without any problems at all.

To start, you will need the following equipments.

The first is the soap making oils. These oils can be purchased in your local health food store or also in hobby supplies and equipments. The oils come in coconut oil, olive oil, or even palm oil. You can use shea butter, and cocoa butter.

You will need beeswax, distilled water, and sodium hydroxide.

You can buy a soap molds but you can create your own. You can use any shape you want and you will find the soap molds for sale are available in different shapes and sizes. Preferably, go for soap molds that can hold 12 bars of soap.

You will need freezer paper, which is used as a mold liner. This will prevent the soap from sticking to the mold once it dries or hardens. A candy thermometer should come in handy when checking the temperature of the soap you made.

You will need rubber gloves to protect your hand from heat and chemicals and the same goes for safety goggles to protect your eyes as the process of soap making will involve chemicals that produce fumes which can irritate or even damage the eyes.

You need a stainless steel pot. Keep in mind that in soap making, you should never use aluminum pots as this metal can react to the powerful chemicals used in soap making. In addition to that, you will need a large heat resistant measuring cups or other heat resistant container, which will allow you to pour lye in smoothly and steadily.

You will need two plastic stir stick, a potato peeler, a knife, and a plate to put your plastic stir stick in. You should have a scotch tape ready, an old shirt with long sleeves, old rags for spills, and two ounces of vegetable oil. An old dish cloth should be prepared as well as a stick hand blender as it will cut your tracing time to minutes instead of hours.

The fragrance and essential oils can be purchased in your local hobby shop or in your local health food store. These are basically the same oils used for creating perfume and aromatherapy candles and incense.

You can choose whatever fragrance you like and you will also be able to choose the type of soap making oil you want for your soap. If you want a milder soap, then you should use olive oil or shea butter. You can use a combination of olive oil, palm oil, and coconut oil as these will provide hardness as well as mildness to the soap.

When making homemade soap, always remember that you will be working with chemicals that can be harmful to your body. You should always follow safety precautions, such as wearing your protective gloves and goggles as well as your long sleeve clothing. Another safety precaution about pouring lye, always keep in mind that you should pour lye in to the water and not the other way around.

Pouring water in to lye can cause the lye to splatter and spit, which can get on your body, especially on your eyes. Pouring the lye in to the water can cause fumes, which can get you to cough. Always make sure that the fumes are blowing away from you, which is why you have to work in a well-ventilated area.

These are the equipments necessary in order for you to safely and efficiently make homemade soaps. As you can see, this is quite a list that you have to complete. When making soaps, always remember that safety should always be your number one priority.

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soap making

safety when making soap

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Soap making? Dangerous? It may sound improbable at first but a lot of experienced makers in the business will tell you to always take that extra step of safety. The combination of heat and chemicals involved in the processes can be ingredients for disaster when beginning soap makers aren't careful. Accidents like fume inhalation, burns or infections can happen. Even professionals who have had years of experience in the business emphasize the use of safety goggles, masks and gloves. Here are a few other precautionary measures:

1.    Always prepare materials before usage
Accidents occur most when one is in a fast mode. Beginners often skip through this process when really, it does not only save time but lessen hazardous mixtures from spilling as well. Sodium Hydroxide or caustic soda in its dry state before mixing with water to make lye is a perilous chemical. It can burn or blind the skin or irritate the respiratory system when inhaled.

2.    Work in a clean, dry area
Unnecessary heat or pocketed air added to your mixture whether by a humid environment or an unventilated work area can be fatal. If your house doesn't have free flowing air, then it is best to work outside. Good elbow room is also important to avoid spilling anything.

3.    Know the reactions of chemicals
Additional research and presence of mind when making soap is a must. While there are some chemicals whose steps of adding can be interchanged, there are some should be followed thoroughly. The making of lye, for instance, is one of those. Caustic soda or Sodium Hydroxide should be poured to the water and not the other way around. Otherwise, your mixture may be burst the same as vinegar and baking soda can cause a volcano effect.

4.    Clean materials thoroughly after using
Although homemade soap can use a lot of home items like pots and pans, it is best to disseminate certain items for soap making only. Lye and other additives from the soap may still remain if not properly cleaned and can burn the skin when touched. Or worse, children and pets may take hold of the items and actually ingest the chemicals. Along with your items for scrubbing, one should also keep ready a bar of soap (ironically) and water to rub the lye off in case somebody accidentally has contact with it.

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Soap-making is fun, and it's a very useful hobby. With the knowledge of this craft, you can easily create your own personalized gifts for people who are close to you. You need not buy commercial soaps anymore, which are chemical-packed and even environmentally dangerous. Who knows, you can even start your own small business selling home-made soap.

What do you need to get started with this hobby? First and foremost, you need to know the two basic methods used in soap-making.

Melt And Pour Method

This is the simplest method of making soap, so simple that even children can make soap using this method. This involves the following processes:

*    Buying pre-made blocks of soap as your base
*    Melting the soap using microwave
*    Adding your desired ingredients like coloring and scent
*    Pouring the new mixture in a mold until it hardens to a new soap

The processes are that easy and simple, and the soap doesn't take a long time to harden! However, you don't have much control on the ingredients in this method, as your base may already have other chemicals added before you purchased it. Plus, there's little space for customization with this process. If you want more control, the next method is for you.

Cold Method

Cold method is a little more complicated, and it's a little more dangerous because it involves the use of lye. However, it gives a better result. This method involves the following:

*    Heating the oil needed (the type of oil depends on you)
*    Adding the lye and water mixture to the oil (be careful with lye)
*    Stirring the mixture until it reaches the right thickness, called trace
*    Adding of all other ingredients like the scent and coloring
*    Pouring of the mixture into the mold until it hardens

The hardening time for the soap made using this process takes a little longer, and more ingredients may also be needed, but it's all worth it. Besides, you can make more varieties of soap once you learn this method.

Now that you're familiar with these two basic methods of soap-making, it's already easier to make your own soap. There's no limit to this art; you can come up with soaps of different varieties in color, scent, and shape according to your creativity. The best thing is for you to come up with your own unique and customized soap that will give you just what you desire.

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This is my attempt at trying to make my own natural colorant for my soaps. I LOVE ALL Natural soaps so go on this experimental journey with me and let's see what happens.

Duration : 0:4:47

Read the rest of this entry

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It was once said by Greek philosopher and physician, Democritus, that the secret to his health is that he applies honey inside him and oil outside. Who would ever doubt his statements when he got to live until he was 109 years old? He lived during 460-370 BC. Through time, honey has proven its effectiveness not only on the inside but much as well on the outside. This is why this popular syrup is now being used in soap making.

Honey, being one of the oldest existing ingredient known to people, has a very long and romantic past. From the past years until now, there are certain people who have claimed that they bathe and use honey because this makes skin smoother and the hair more radiant.

There are some popular people who have proven this point. Cleopatra who is known for her beauty used honey and milk baths to keep her skin looking young. Sarah, the Duchess of Marlborough, developed her own secret recipe known as honey water to keep her hair pretty. In England, Queen Anne combine an oil concoction with honey to make her hair shiny , thick and lustrous. The woman whose claim to fame is being the last mistress of Louis XV, Madame du Barry, used honey on her face as a facial mask. Many Chinese women prove the point because they follow a tradition where they use ground orange seeds with honey and apply this on their skin to keep it blemish-free.

Remarkable Liquid

Honey contains antimicrobial qualities. This also has humectants, or a compound that is able to attract and retain moisture to itself. This makes this remarkable liquid ideal to be mixed with scrubs, lotions and many other skin care products. Its chemical composition gives it the antimicrobial effect that can help in healing scrapes and minor burns and can also treat sore throat and lots of bacterial infections.

With these characteristics, people have utilized honey in the production of soaps. This is very evident in large production and even on home-based soap making setups. The liquid is usually combined with oil to get a lighter effect when used on the skin. When honey is present on the recipe, it turns the mixture into a light tan color. Aside from hard soaps, there are some products that use this syrup on liquid types of soaps that are ideal for bathtubs.

The next time you pour honey on your food, you will be amazed at what else can be achieved through the use of this liquid.

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As much as soap making is fun, it can be sometimes frustrating and expensive. Experimentation can sometimes end in failure and soap batches rendered useless. The ingredients used like lye, fragrances or colorants can cut through the budget if one isn't careful. In order to let some soaps not go to waste, the Rebatching process is usually used.

Rebatching isn't really soap making but more of reusing. It is cutting, grating then melting already made soap in order to let it set again, this time hopefully it comes out just the way you like it. One can use a grater, meat slicer or food processor.

When it is heated in the double boiler or microwave, it should be placed in a boil-proof bag. Water should be added in order to give it the moisture it needs. Beer, milk or tea can also be used depending on the effect that you want. Other soap makers attest to the use of milk to give the batch a smoother texture. Place just enough liquid to wet the batch but do not let it drown in liquid. Using too much liquid will make it more difficult for the soap to harden.

Lye water can be added although the soap maker should be as careful as possible as lye is more dangerous with a semi-hardened batch.

Additional fragrances or colorants can still be used. The soap will not completely melt but will have an oatmeal-like texture that can be moulded or casted again. More water will make it softer depending on what kind of texture one wants. If the soap maker is trying to correct the mistake of having too little fragrances or colorants, use a little more oil than usual because fragrances have a tendency to be swallowed by a semi-solid substance like that of a rebatched soap texture.

Again, as it does not completely melt, the soap maker can now place it by pushing it out of the bag and placing it in moulds. To let air bubbles out, the mould will have to be whacked over and over a hard surface to let the soap base fit the crevices of the mould.

The soap will never be as smooth as the first batch. Instead it will have a very rough, rustic look that may serve other soap makers' purposes while others not. Still, rebatching helps if only because it gives expensive ingredients a chance to be used again.

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The main difference between using bar soaps and liquid soap is the lye used in each process. Liquid soaps require using Potassium Hydroxide while bar soaps use Sodium Hydroxide. Making liquid soap is a more tedious task because it requires a lot of patience on the part of the soap maker to constantly stir and watch over the soap batch. Making liquid soap is a fairly moderate fete for those starting with soap making.

The most basic recipe found so far is this:

*    366 g coconut oil
*    1,424 g canola oil
*    400 g Potassium Hydroxide
*    1204 g water

The usual preparations are done same as making a bar soap. Preparing all the materials prior to usage is essential. Aside from that, it is important to have a lot of endurance when it comes to liquid soap making because it takes a while before tracing occurs and some ingredients will try to break free from other ingredients when not carefully watched.

Potassium Hydroxide, like Sodium Hydroxide is also corrosive and will cause fuming. Gloves, goggles and masks are recommended. Potassium Hydroxide has greater tendency to crackle and separate. 160 degrees is the ideal heat for making liquid soap. Anything under the said heat and the soap will take too long to trace.  A little too much and bubbles will start to appear. Too much heat will make the batch useless.

After boiling the mixture after two to four hours, the mixture will start to turn translucent. This is the signal that the mixture is ready to be scraped off and placed in water for dilution. The mixture is chopped in order to let water seep in easier. The water and original mixture are then heated up and left that way overnight. Depending on the amount of coconut, the mixture will either completely melt or still have remnants of a few chunks. If this happens, it's okay for it to be reheated again until all the chunks have melted.

The mixture is then neutralized using boric acid solution or borax. These two are considered as neutralizing agents and will turn the supposedly now clear mixture into a murky, translucent liquid again. This will go away though presuming all the other steps prior are correct and there are no miscalculations in ingredients. While the soap is still hot, fragrance oils and/or colorants (both are optional) can be added.

That's it! The final step would be just to transfer the mixture into another container and see if you've done a good job. If not, there's always rebatching!

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For beginning soap makers, one will find that the easiest known method for soap making is the Cold process. This was named as such because no additional heat is given to the water and fat mixture considered as the base ingredients to making soap. Instead, the heat generated from the process is relied on to produce a chemical reaction strong enough to make soap. Sodium Hydroxide or the lye and water are added to the oil to undergo a process called saponification. In saponification, these ingredients mix in order to create hard, long lasting soaps the cold process is known for.

While many still debate on what process for soap making is most effective, it is without contest that the cold process is easiest to do albeit a little longer. This is because the amount of time it takes for the lye solution to cool takes more hours.  It is however known that soaps that use this process are smoother and creamier. Many professional soap makers recommend that the lye solution first and foremost be formed in order to let it cool longer in a safe place.

Again, many are warned that soap making can be a dangerous and tedious task. The handling of Sodium Hydroxide used in the cold process must be meticulously measured. First off, it is recommended that safety equipment such as gloves, goggles and masks are used when handling the chemical involved because fumes coming from the lye mixture can irritate the respiratory system.

Most soap makers or hobbyists use 4-10% amount of lye in their recipes so that excess fat still remains. The excess fat will give the soap its conditioning quality. Proper measurements should be done with whichever recipe the soap maker chooses. Excess lye that did not react to water and fat can irritate, and even burn, skin while not enough lye in the batch can make the soap too greasy for use.

Next, the lye is set aside and in a separate pan, all essential oils are mixed together. It is up to the soap maker whatever fragrance or natural oil he or she wants to add. Once all oils are mixed, it is also set aside until it cools to approximately 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

Finally, the lye mixture is poured carefully to the oil mixture and stirred vigorously until it produces a thin pudding-like substance called Trace. If one is stirring by hand, it takes about an hour for Tracing to occur. It is important to emphasize that the Lye should be poured in the oil mixture and not the other way around.

Afterwards, the final mixture is then placed in moulds and allowed to cool. Full Saponification will take about 4 weeks.

For those who want to try the cold process, here is a base recipe for beginners:

*    24 oz. olive oil
*    24 oz. coconut oil
*    38 oz. vegetable shortening
*    12 oz. lye
*    32 oz. distilled water
*    3-4 oz. any essential or fragrance oil 

Measure thoroughly. Good luck!

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Soap-making is an art that has grown much over the years, and along with it came the popularity of organic soap. A lot of factors have contributed to its growth, primary of which is the growing awareness about the different unhealthy ingredients that commercial soaps contain chemicals, colourings, and other substances that are harmful to the environment and to people with very sensitive skin.

Why Go Organic In Making Your Soap?

Aside from the fact that organic soap-making is an enjoyable experience, it gives a lot of other benefits not only to you but as well as to the environment and the society.

The following are some of its benefits:

*    You can choose the ingredients you want to include in the soap, so there's no risk of exposing your skin to all the harmful chemicals that may only cause skin dryness, oiliness, or even irritation.
*    By choosing organic materials, you'll save the already-suffering environment from substances that may pollute it and cause it to die faster.
*    By going for organic ingredients, you'll help local farmers and growers instead of supporting foreign companies with their imported ingredients.

With all these benefits, there's no reason you shouldn't go for organic soap-making. The next thing you need to know is how.

Organic Soap-Making How To

Making an organic soap involves different processes, but here are the basic that you must know to get started:

1.    Prepare your ingredients: lye, oil (the kind of oil will depend on the soap texture you want to achieve), natural scent, and water.
2.    Heat the oil to about 54 degrees Celsius.
3.    Slowly combine cold water (be sure that it's cold) with raw lye (CAUTION: lye could be dangerous when raw, so wear protective goggles and rubber gloves).
4.    Add the other ingredients according to your preference (coloring, scent, etc.).
5.    Stir the mixture slowly and wait for the lye to dissolve in the water (the water will typically heat up with the combination of lye wait till it reaches the right temperature, also 54 degrees Celsius).
6.    When the right temperature is reached, combine the two mixtures (oil and water-lye mixtures).
7.    Stir them until the new mixture gets thicker (about 15 minutes).
8.    Pour the mixture into the mould until it hardens. You can place it inside a freezer for a faster hardening.

Final precaution: Be careful when handling raw lye; it can cause blindness, skin damage, and even death (when swallowed). When making soap using this ingredient, be sure that you're completely familiar with the process.

With the right procedures and the precaution taken, you can now make your own organic soap.

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Unlike before, a lot of supply stores are now stocking a lot of ingredients for soap making. Hardware stores now sell fragrances and colorants for the said hobby. For those who want to go the traditional way, the supermarket and specialty shops are good places to find these ingredients.

Fats

Animal fats are easier to find as a lot of butcher shops and supermarket meat sections have excesses of them. The best time to go is in the afternoon where a lot of meats have already been shaved off their fat. Fat drippings when cooking can also be saved. Pig lard or Cow Tallow, usually called hard fat, produces a course and hard type of soap that produces little suds. Still, it'd be nice to experiment with the effect just for curiosity's sake or to increase one's knowledge in soap making.

Vegetable or plant based oils can usually be found at the supermarket. Vegetable oil, coconut oil and olive oil are readily available. If not, specialty stores or organic stores also keep them in storage. Healthy Options have a wide variety of selections when it comes to oils. Even the hard to find Castor oil is usually in stock at organic stores like Healthy Options.

For ingredients which aren't readily available, hobbyists should not be dismayed. Oils can easily be substituted with other oils. For beginning hobbyists, you might not be able to tell the difference but professionals will note the change in quality. Still, substitution is good for purposes of practicing the craft. Coconut oil can be substituted with Soybean or Canola oil. For Sunflower oil, canola oil can be substitute.

Lye

Sodium Hydroxide, although corrosive, is usually an easy chemical to find. Since it is largely used in a lot of food or soap products, it can be found in chemical stores or specialty craft stores. It is usually known as Caustic Soda (or 100% Sodium Hydroxide). Since it can irritate the skin and can prove fatal for those who don't know how to use it, some stores will usually ask for identification or ask questions concerning the purposes of purchase. Hardware stores carry lye.

Additives

Fragrances, essential oils and colorants are easy to find. They can be found at the local chemical store, drug stores, craft stores, aromatherapy stores or even groceries. Food coloring used as colorant can be found in the grocery.

For serious hobbyists, the most effective tool for finding ingredients is the Internet. Google in 'Soap Making' ingredients and over 10,000 results will pop through. Online forums with other hobbyists can help you find prior discussions on where to find these things in your local setting. Mail order companies usually have a website now anyway so these things are made more convenient to find for hobbyists.

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