How to Make Soap?

[~*~daisyhemp~*~]

I buy handmade soap all the time and love it, and although I would love to support these artisans more, I would love to learn the craft myself. Does anyone know of any books, or websites where I could learn how to do this?

[Pedata]

http://waltonfeed.com/old/soaphome.html

This looks like an informative site.

Be careful around lye! :eek:

Peace,
Pedata

[toman]

Yeah, I made soap some years ago and I seem to remember some nasty chemicals. Might be more pleasant just to buy it and let somebody else deal with that stuff...

[aprilawz]

Hey Daisy,

I'm an organic gardener, and in my off season, I make soaps, I might be able to help out here!

First, there is Soapdish.com. It's got tons of info, and a lot of people who would be more than happy to help out a newbie.

Majestic Mountain Sage (mms.com, I think...but you'll have no problem finding it in a search) is also a great resource. They have a really good lye calculator, and you can also buy most everything you'll need there.

The actual process is very much like following a cake recipe. Basically, soapmaking is mixing acids (oils) and a base (lye - sodium hydroxide) to cause a chemical reaction resulting in soap and vegetable glycerine.

Commercially, the glycerine is removed, resulting in a very drying bar...but then, you buy the lotion that they made with the glycerine, right? :rolleyes: Handcrafted soaps retain this glycerine, which results in a less drying bar that will be much nicer to skin.

Now, the varieties of oils that you can use are endless, and all of the oils have different attributes - some are very moisturizing, but don't create a good lather, some lather well, but are more drying, some create a soft bar, some a hard bar... That's where the fun part comes in, you get to experiment until you come up with the perfect combination of oils for your needs. I generally use a combination of 5.

The only drawback in soapmaking is that you are dealing with a very caustic chemical, and you have to be pretty exact in your measurments...although, I use a simple kitchen scale for measuring lye, liquids and oils, and it's worked fine.

Incidentally, if this sounds a bit technical, don't worry. It's easy enough, especially coming from someone who sucked in highschool chemestry! The information is out there, and all the real work has been done all ready.

April