- Beginners Guide To Soap Making
By Jennifer Christine
Making your own soap is a lot
of fun. I love making my own soap for myself and also giving
it as gifts to family and friends. If you’re interested
in making your own soap but not sure where to start, here’s
a brief explanation of the three different soap making processes:
1. Cold Process
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Cold process soap making is really
making soap from scratch. The three basic ingredients you’ll
need to make soap this way are water, oils and sodium hydroxide
(lye). Lye is classed as a hazardous material. It can burn skin
on contact. When using lye you need to be extremely careful and
take all safety precautions, such as wearing safety goggles,
protective gloves, clothing and shoes. You also need to ensure
you use a stainless steel saucepan and have separate containers
for the storing of lye and measuring cups, etc just for soap
making.
It’s very important you
use a good recipe if making soap this way that tells you all
the precautions you need to take when using lye; such as mixing
the water and lye outside or in a very well ventilated area.
The mixing of water and lye first produces a steam so toxic that
it can burn your lungs.
You need to be very responsible
when handling lye and it does sound scary, so a lot of soap making
beginners prefer starting off making their own soap by the following
two methods. |
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2. Handmilled or Rebatched Method
This method involves the grating
of ready made soap (so there’s no lye to worry about) that
is then melted with added water. You can add your own additives,
such as flower petals, herbs, lavender, oatmeal, spices, soap
colors and fragrance. Then you pour it into soap molds and leave
to set. This can take 24 hours but for a truly hardened soap
it can take up to two weeks.
3. Melt and Pour Method
In my experience, this is the
easiest method to use if you’re a beginner. Melt and pour
soap comes in ready made soap blocks (no lye to deal with). You
just melt it, either in the microwave or double boiler, add your
soap color, fragrance and optional additives, pour it into the
mold and leave it to set for a few hours. Once it’s set
it’s ready to use!
When making soap by any of the
methods above, it’s important you use a good recipe so you
get the measurements of the soap, colourings, fragrances and
additives right. It’s also important that you don’t
accidentally splash yourself when dealing with a hot, melted
soap mixture.
Soap making is addictive. Once
you make your first successful batch, you don’t want to
stop! So why not get started on your soap making journey today? |
