Creating swirled cold-process soaps can be intimidating, but with a little patience and knowledge, it’s a craft that is fully worth it. Swirling natural colors can involve many techniques, such as towers, hangers, skewers, pouring methods, and a heavy dose of creativity. You can use artificial colors, but natural colors, such as that of a carrot, tend to look better and more organic. You can achieve the colors through powders from root vegetables, activated charcoal, cocoa and coffee, and so much more.
Key Takeaways:
Before trying to swirl soap with natural colors, you should be comfortable with cold-process soap making.
Natural soap colorants include annatto seeds, cocoa powder, spirulina, turmeric root, and more.
The key to success is slowing down trace, so avoid water-discounted recipes and saturated fats.
“Swirling cold-process soap with natural colors is a technique that not many soap makers do.”
If you want great stock photos for your business, you might need to spend a little money, you don’t want to use a stock photo that a lot of other businesses have used. It won’t cost as much as a professional photo shoot so it will be worth the money. Also keep in mind that you aren’t doing this for yourself, you are doing it for your business. You might fall in love with an image, but that doesn’t mean it is the best one.
Key Takeaways:
The same copyright laws that protect your soapy photos from theft also protect all of those pics that pop up in Google’s image search.
Keep records of your downloads. If someone tries to hit you up for cash, claiming you stole a photo, you want proof that you did your due diligence. A screenshot of the download page is insurance.
Smart spending on stock photos will help you stand out from the crowd and save money over trying to DIY.
“Quality, on-brand images are a must. But, believe it or not, they don’t always have to be taken exclusively for your company. Stock photography websites can be great resources to pad your stash of marketing images.”
A lot of soap recipes require you to cut the soap cake into a vertical cut, but other types of soap are better cut horizontally. When you cut into a cake of soap horizontally, it keeps a better design if that is what you are going for. There are some examples of how to make this cut, and you don’t necessarily need a special tool to do this, you could just as easily use a knife to make the cut.
Key Takeaways:
When you make soap in a loaf mold, you typically cut it vertically, into slices.
You’ve probably heard of the mantra swirl, Taiwan swirl, circling Taiwan swirl…all of these require a stacked cut.
I have a fancy cake cutter from Plowboyz Woodshop (I don’t see it listed at the moment). It has one long arm to slice up a cake soap. You could also use a log splitter type of cutter, or even just a
“Some designs, require a horizontal cut! I call this a stacked cut design. It is like the bars of soap are stacked on top of one another. The top of the loaf and the middle of the loaf are the surfaces of your bars.”
Neem and turmeric are very useful for skin as they have both anti ageing and anti inflammatory properties. These two oils/minerals can help with different types of skin issues such as dandruff and acne. Neem oil comes from the seed of the neem plant and is great with regards to moisturizing the skin. This soap gives you those properties that help with skin care as well as keeps your body clean. It is important to let the soap rest in a mold for at least 24 hours so it can harden.
Key Takeaways:
Neem and turmeric both have anti ageing and anti inflammatory properties and are used to treat different skin issues.
Neem oil and turmeric are mixed in this soap recipe to protect your skin while also keeping your body clean.
When you finish this recipe, you will need the soap to stay in its mold for at least 24 hours so it can harden.
“Neem oil, which is derived from the seeds of the plant, is rich in vitamin E and acts as a good moisturizer for the skin.”
There are a lot of articles out there espousing the benefits of making your own soap. A lot are simple tutorials that can be done without digging too deep. However, a lot of us haven’t done this before and want a more in depth breakdown of how you can make soap yourself. Soap is made by mixing lye and oil. Lye is a pretty dangerous chemical but shouldn’t be scary as long as you follow all the steps.
Key Takeaways:
You can’t make soap without lye, you cannot have one without the other, since they go hand in hand.
It can be dangerous to use lye, because it can clean drain pipes, but as long as you follow safety measures, you will be fine.
The purpose of the lye is just to eat up the oils that are in the soap to help make it more firm.
“Picking oils is the most fun part of creating a soap recipe. Each oil will bring its own property to the finished product.”
Making natural soap is much healthier than buying soap from the store. In addition to having a soap that is moisturizing, the Goat’s milk in this recipe is great for inflammation. Included with this recipe is honey and we will be using a mold. It’s only a few steps where we break down the soap into pieces and save half of the goat milk for later. The results is a very soft bar of soap that you will never want to be out of.
Key Takeaways:
This soap is easy on the eyes, and it is great for your skin too, the ingredients are soothing and moisturizing.
Once you melt your soap base, you will want to add any color to that you want at this point.
After you pour it into the mold, you should allow it to completely cool before removing it.
“The whole OGT team raved about this soap, and we all think it would make a perfect gift!”
Both types of process, hot and cold, yield the same or similar results when it comes to making soap. The hot process gets it done a lot faster if you are in desperate need of soap, you can follow along with the hot process of making soap. The cold process of making soap involves the use of lye. Lye can be a dangerous chemical if precautions are not taken, but it’s impossible to make soap without it and it is perfectly safe as long as you are.
Key Takeaways:
In cold process soap making, an alkali (lye) is mixed with a fat such as tallow, olive oil, or cocoa butter.
Use protective gear when working with lye and make sure children and pets aren’t around.
Essential oils, oatmeal and mica powders can be used to add fragrance, texture and color, respectively.
“No farmer’s market would be complete without the beautiful array of homemade soaps.”
There are some mistakes you can make when you start out making soap. The most common ones are people not being as safe as they need to by. Soaps are made with lye, a compound that can be dangerous if not used in the right way. If you wear the right safety gear and follow the instructions, you will have fewer chances of something detrimental happening. You also need to make sure you measure the ingredients properly.
Key Takeaways:
If you follow the instructions carefully, you can make a great batch of soap on your first try.
If you don’t use safety equipment this is your first mistake, you need to protect yourself from the lye.
Another common mistake is measuring ingredients incorrectly, the accurate measurements are for a reason.
“If you can follow a recipe, you can make your very own soap.”
If you are looking to make some soap because you don’t like any of the chemicals that are in store bought soaps, then this will be a perfect recipe for you. If you are a beginner, it is an easy enough recipe to follow that will yield results that give you smoothing and softening results. The soap uses all natural ingredients as well as a fragrance enhancer that smells of mango. If you follow the instructions it will come out just how you want it to.
Key Takeaways:
When it comes to making soap, this recipe is a good starting point with just a few moisturizing ingredients.
The soap that is used is a very hard butter that way it doesn’t fluff up and can be used many times.
There aren’t too many oils in it so it’s an easy soap to make, and then mango added for the luxurious scent.
“This is a great hand soap because it is hard, very cleansing, but not drying at all.”
Homemade body wash is a natural, DIY alternative to commercial beauty products. Honey and coconut add anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, plus will remove excess oily residue from skin. In addition to raw honey and coconut oil, this recipe uses liquid Castile soap, vitamin E, and several essential oils. Heat the coconut oil in a microwave, then whisk in the honey, essential oils and vitamin E. Slowly add the Castile soap while gently stirring. Transfer to a bottle. Note that the body wash will separate, so shake before use.
Key Takeaways:
I want to replace all my unnatural products with natural ones, honey is a great product.
There is a reason honey is in so many products now, because it has great anti inflammatory properties.
You can pretty much replace all your beauty products with four natural products, coconut oil being one.
“Whipping up a homemade body scrub is an addicting starting point because soon you’re thinking, what about the stuff I use everyday?”
