Making your own soap is a great way to control ingredients, eliminate packaging waste, or just make whatever you want. Cold process soap making relies on a chemical reaction to turn lye and oil into soap. Working with lye does require safety precautions. For a basic cold process recipe, lye is poured into distilled water, then combined with oils such as coconut and olive. The mixture is then poured into a mold to cool. The recipe can be customized with additives such as essential oils, clay, dried herbs, and colorants.
Key Takeaways:
making soap at home allows you to add any ingredients that you want without all the added chemicals.
You can make soap with a cold process so that there isn’t any heating involved.
Lye can be dangerous, but as long as you are careful it’s fine, you need lye for soap to become soap.
“Soapmaking at home allows you to create a fully custom bar of soap – and is surprisingly easy.”
For years we have been using loofahs and others scrubbers in the shower that are good for exfoliating. You can attach some of the wool to a bar of soap that you purchase in the store, or you can make your own soap to attach to the wool. This is a very simple thing to do and it requires no special equipment, and you can give them out as gifts. This also lasts longer than a traditional bar of soap.
Key Takeaways:
A felted soap is a soap bar that happens to have wool wrapped around allowing the soap to come through.
This is an old practice that not many people are using but works as a natural exfoliator being quite useful.
All you need to do this is a bar of soap combined with wool roving.
“The soap suds come through the wool as you lather up and the felting is naturally exfoliating.”
If you are wanting to start making soap, definitely start with the basics. The basics will cover all that you need to do to begin making soap. It will tell you the required ingredients such as lye, and the safety measures that you need to take to work with lye. Then you will need to make sure you have all the right equipment for making the soap. A simple recipe for beginners to follow is the goat milk and honey soap, it is a very natural and easy soap to make.
Key Takeaways:
Making your own soap means you get an all natural product that is high quality.
You get higher quality and you get to save money at the same time. This goat milk and honey recipe is easy and will moisturize your hands.
You’ll just need a spoon, pot, stick blender, glass, kitchen scale, rubber spatulas and a thermometer to do this all on your own.
“It’s personal. It literally touches just about every part of your body.”
Making soap can be intimidating at first, and I know when I started I didn’t think it sounded that hard. The first batch came out great, but then I lost my touch. I decided to take a class and have learned that making your own soap can be fun, and if you want to have control over the ingredients in your soap, then soap making may be for you. Remember to take safety precautions as well as keep in mind the ingredients that you would like to add to it.
Key Takeaways:
One of the best things about making your own soap is you can choose your ingredients and select scents that you like.
You must use lye when you make soap, and it must be 100% sodium hydroxide, or lye in crystal form.
Be careful when you are using lye, as it can burn your skin and make you feel like you are choking.
“Her natural, homemade soap making process is simple, versatile, and teaches many every year!”
You should make your own soap if you prefer to have input into the kind of ingredients that you want in your own soap. It could be a fun hobby or even a lucrative side business, but if you are just wanting to make soap to save money you might not want to get into doing it. The supplies you need to make it can be costly. If you are interested in having a long term solution to wanting your own ingredients in your own soap, then go for it.
Key Takeaways:
Making your own soap can be great just for the reason of saving money. It costs around $7 per loaf which is a lot more than what you get at the store.
Much of the soap you get at the store is a kind of rip off being sort of like a condensed detergent bar.
With real soap you get a product that moisturizes as well cutting out the need for moisturizing lotion.
“We have very rarely needed body lotion since using homemade soap, and many people have that experience as well.”
Making this lime soap is very simple as there aren’t many ingredients needed and it’s a fun do it yourself project. All you will need for this soap is Goats Milk soap base, some lime essential oil, a silicone mold and some fresh lime zest. When you make this soap, you will need about 5 minutes to prepare it, 7 minutes to cook it but you need to let it cool after the cooking process. This recipe will create 6 bars of soap. The lime zest is optional but adds fragrance and texture to the soap.
Key Takeaways:
To make this soap you will need Goats Milk soap base, lime essential oil, a silicone mold and some fresh lime zest.
This recipe makes 6 bars of soap and it takes about 5 minutes to prepare the soap and 7 minutes to cook the soap. You also will need to let it cool after cooking.
The lime zest in this soap is optional but it adds a better scent and it also adds a different texture to the soap as well.
“First of all, it’s easy and doesn’t require special equipment like traditional soap making, you can scent it with essential oils of your choice, you can add pretty additives like dried flowers, herbs or even lime zest.”
If you want to make your own homemade cleaning soap, there are some ingredients that you must have on hand. Coconut oil is a must for this recipe, as is Lye and water. You will also want to use a digital scale to make sure that all of the ingredients are weighed out properly. Finally, you will need some molds to create the actual bars of soap. These bars can be rubbed directly against laundry stains and clothes in general.
Key Takeaways:
One way to save money at the grocery store is by making your own cleaning and laundry soap from scratch at home.
All you really need to make your own soap water, coconut oil, and lye.
You can use DIY cleaning soap to wash dishes and pans or as an on-the-go spot remover for clothes and furniture.
“Homemade cleaning soap is one of the most useful products you can have to save money on cleaning supplies.”
Creamy chocolate and coconut milk soap is very creamy and also does a great job at moisturizing the skin. The natural sugars from the coconut milk allow for a good lather and the cocoa helps get rid of dead skin cells to help make the skin more smooth. Natural cocoa also has the ability to work as an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory. To make this soap you will need distilled water, sodium hydroxide, titanium dioxide, coconut milk powder, unsweetened cocoa, coconut oil, castor oil and olive oil.
Key Takeaways:
Cocoa from this soap helps rid of dead skin while the natural sugars make for a smooth lather.
This recipe only uses 9 simple ingredients that could probably be distilled to less depending on preference.
You want to put safety first by using long sleeves, gloves, and safety glasses while mixing this together.
“I did not add my usual shea and cocoa butter to this recipe as the coconut milk and cocoa add additional superfatting and conditioning properties.”
If you plan on starting a soap making business, you will need to make sure that you are fully prepared. One of the most important aspects of business in general is to be passionate about your product. If you are passionate, that means you will work hard to make sure it becomes a success. You also should try to communicate and build a relationship with your target market. Finally, make sure that you are always trying to learn new things and improve your business. Never get complacent.
Key Takeaways:
If you want to start a soap making business, make sure that you are passionate about your product.
Make sure that you do research before starting a soap making business because you’ll need to get financials done to make sure it will be profitable.
When you are creating this business, make sure that you never want to stop learning and always want to improve your product.
“The way I share how to make soap comes from knowing what if feels like to be a novice.”
We often make our own soaps at our house, because we like to have the luxury of nice soaps at an affordable price, and most importantly, without all the chemicals. We use this shave soap recipe once in a while and we use it in the shower, it creates a nice lather. It’s really simple to make and it requires just a few ingredients. The recipe is easy to follow, and you can double the batch if you want to make a lot of it.
Key Takeaways:
We make a lot of our own soaps, and we decided to make shaving soap because it leaves your skin soft without the chemicals.
This is used most often in the shower because it is easy to use, and easy to make.
There are just a few simple steps and ingredients involved in the making of this soap.
“Over time, I developed my own shaving soap recipes that work better than soap and leave skin soft without the chemicals.”