Learning How To Make Your Own Soap
The main benefit of soap making at home is that glycerin remains within the soap. Glycerin is a humectant and attracts moisture. The glycerin in store bought soap is extracted and sold separately for use in higher priced products. Commercial soaps may make you clean but they will also make your skin dry. It is more appropriate to call it soulless, mass-produced, synthetic detergent than soap.As well as saving you money, homemade soap also makes a great gift for your friends and family and it contains a lot more thought than the token book many receive as gifts.
You could even have a soap party where you teach those attend how to make soap. Doing this you set yourself up as an authoritative figure in front of your friends and family. You could even start your own business and these could be your first customers as well as your biggest promoters.
Soap making kits are readily available, but some of the equipment you may need is probably already lying around your house. The cold process needs an accurate scale weighing 1/10 oz, a stainless steel or enamel pot, a large spoon, a thermometer, a stick blender, plastic containers and two plastic pitchers with at least one lid.
On the pitchers should be written lye dangerous, in very large black letters so it can never be mistaken for something else. For safety, you should wear goggles, rubber gloves and an apron.
The necessary supplies are 11.2 oz lye, 32 oz water, 1 pound olive oil, 3 pounds of lard, 1 pound of coconut oil and 1.4 oz fragrance for a basic recipe.
Put 32 oz of cold water in a plastic container. Slowly pour the lye into the water. Always add lye to water and not vice versa, or a volcano will be the result. The lye will react to the water and get very hot, releasing a gas you wouldn"t want to breathe. Leave the mixture to cool for two or three hours, or even overnight.
Lye can burn the skin and kill if ingested, so while it shouldn"t be feared, it should be respected. Make sure everybody in the house knows what it is and that it is not to be touched.
When the lye settles to room temperature, it is time to add fat. Heat the fat, stirring often if a stove is used. It will gain temperature quite quickly. Stir it well before its temperature is taken. You"re aiming for a temperature of 120-130 degrees Fahrenheit.
When this temperature is attained, pour the lye solution into the fat. Use the stick blender intermittently. Without a stick blender, costing perhaps $20, stirring takes 1 ҽ hours, so the purchase of one is justified and you"ll find many other uses for it. Your wrist will approve of this idea. In about five minutes you should make a thick soap or reach what is known as trace.
Add fragrance with a spoon, mix well and then pour the soap into the molds. Some molds don"t require oil or grease. Allow your creation to sit in a warm room for 24 hours, whereupon the bars can be removed.
If this is problematic you can always use a hair dryer on the back of the mold or you can wrap your mold in a number of towels to provide insulation.
The bars should be allowed to cure for four weeks. Although the soap could be used immediately, a well-cured soap lasts longer and has a better lather.
Next you"ll want to test the pH of your soap, hoping for a result of 7-9. The last step of the exercise is to sit with an exceptionally smug look upon your face, and nice smelling hands. It give you a great sense of accomplishment when you create your first batch of soap and it"s then that you realize just how easy soap making is. You"ll soon go on to bigger and more interesting projects.
You can learn more about how to make your own soap at our website Soap Making Made Easy .