Simple Soap Making – How to Make Soap at Home
Author: Meryl Bliss
I’ve always loved crafty people. The kind that could take a pile of rags and make the prettiest quilt you ever laid eyes on or could make candles in their kitchen that could pass for art. These people always amazed me. So when I was able to make something that had other people commenting on how neat my creation was, I was thrilled. True, my creation is one that is in most every home but not all are made by hand. My craft that I perfected was soap making.
Soap making, once learned, is not a hard thing to do and it leaves you with something that the whole family can benefit from. One of my favorite soaps to make is goat’s milk soap but there are endless variations that you can try. Many people like to try soap making using glycerin as it is easier to find and can make some really pretty bars. If you get really creative you can add colors and fragrances to create soap as pretty as you would find in any sore. But you don’t have to stop at just colors and fragrances. There are many additives you can add to your soap to be for function or beauty such as oatmeal, herbs or flowers. The list is endless. If you want to start soap making to make soaps for kids, you can make glycerin soaps with a toy hidden inside for the kids to find. Thinking outside the box is something that can also pertain to soap making.
One of the main things that you need to remember with soap making is safety. Many of the soaps that people make have an ingredient in them called Lye. Lye is something that has been around for centuries and is one of the oldest types of soaps known. This ingredient can be made by filling a hopper full of ashes and then pouring water through it and catching the water that comes out. Of course there are many types of Lye available online or in hardware stores making it easier than ever to make Lye soap. But do remember, even though Lye doesn’t look all that scary, when you mix it with another ingredient it becomes extremely hot. When this reaction takes place you can become burned and if it splashes up in your eyes, it could cause blindness. So safety is something that doesn’t take all that much time or money but can really pay off in the end.
Once you have mixed your ingredients and placed your liquid soap into the molds, patience will have to kick in. This soap will need to be allowed to dry for approximately three weeks before it is ready for daily use. Allowing the soap to “cure” is necessary to add time to the life of your bar. If you were to use the soap right away it would turn to mush in a short amount of time. I guess you could say that one of the necessary ingredients for soap making is patience as well. You need your lye or your glycerin, but it’ll never happen without the patience.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/crafts-articles/simple-soap-making-how-to-make-soap-at-home-641186.html
About the Author
Meryl Bliss has been in the soap making business for over 15 years and is an expert in making soap. To learn more about the soap making method and read some of Meryl’s unique and original recipes, click here to visit her website: www.thesoapmakingsite.com
Where Can I find the best Information on making soap at home?
I want to start making my own soap and perhaps selling it at craft fairs and so on. does anyone no the best places to look for infomation on this. Or any soap making tips generally.
How do you make soap at home?
Thanks!
Hi I want to make some soap Special this year for Christmas at home. I know it can be done frailly cheaply how do I do this thanks?
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Making Soap at Home Question?
What is the quality of homemade soap compared to store bought?
Want to start making home-made soap?
Hi! I am a stay at home mom-to-be and I am looking for something to occupy my time. I am an extremely crafty person and I would like to start making my own soap. I am a very first timer so I need the best answer to have everything I have to know. EXACTLY what I need to buy, general cost, where to buy these things, etc. Links to websites are greatly appreciated. Ideally, I am looking to start out making the square shaped bars of soap, leading on to other fun and creative molds. I would like to know where to get stuff that I can put into the soap (such as glitter,etc) I plan on using the CLEAR soap and possibly some dyes. Please recommend places to get the dyes, molds, fragrances, actual soap base, and the fragrances along with letting me know what I need to actually make the soap (double boiler, cutting tools, wax paper.. etc.)
Person with the most helpful information gets 10 pts as soon as y!a lets me
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! (:
How can I make soap at home?
I am curious about how can I make a soap in an easiest way. Waiting for your answers…
I am curious about how can I make a soap in an easiest way. Just share your opinions about how to make soap at home if you are knowledgeable about this issue. Waiting for your answers..
found a web site for you has many different soaps that you can make home. Here you go http://www.soapcrafters.com/recipes_scratch_basic.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_2027286_make-soap.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_5911_make-homemade-soap.html
With a video:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Own-Soap
The quality of home made soap is good; I’ve done it but I got too lazy to continue.
I recently became interested in soap making. The first thing I did was to buy a cheap kit it was very easy and it had everything you needed.
Then I found a website http://soapkitchen.co.uk there is so much information on their site. They sell starter kits or you can purchase everything seperately that you mention above. They also have recipes. I am very much a novice but hope this helps.
You saponify animal fat with concentrated caustic, converting the fat into glycerine and the sodium salt of the fatty acid. Glycerine is removed since it is a liquid (costly chemical in itself by the way); the excess water is removed and you end up with the sodium salt of the fatty acids – also known as soap.
You can add colorants and odorants if you want to.
Caution! Caustic has to be properly handled and it is very reactive. This is best not handled by people who have no concept about its risks.