Learning to make your own soap can be a fun experience. While the final product may not be cheaper than buying the store-made version, it is certainly worth it. People who make their own soap are known as "soapers" or "soapcrafters."
If you want to make your own soap, the first step is gathering all necessary ingredients. The basic soap, known as cold-process soap or “CP” soap is basically made by combining lye and fats such as coconut or hemp oil. Aside from these two basic ingredients, you will also need distilled water, essential oils and colorants, and containers for melting and shaping the soap. If you plan on adding herbs, flowers, or other additives, you will need to get those also. Finally, another thing you need to make your own soap is patience, as the whole process takes about six weeks.
Lye is a powerful chemical and should be handled with extreme care. Gloves and safety goggles are recommended, and working in a well-ventilated area is a must. Lye is caustic and can cause serious burns to the skin and eyes if splashes occur. Lye should also be kept out of the reach of children and pets.
Once you have gathered all ingredients, you can start to make your own soap. To get the right proportion of water and lye, you can use a website tool like Soap-Calc or follow a sample recipe. Next, dissolve the lye in cold water, making sure you pour the lye into the water and not the other way around, as the combination may explode. Next, add the oils, stirring continuously until all elements are properly mixed.
When the mix begins to thicken, a couple of hours later, you can add any additives, including fragrances. If you want to use molds to make your own soap more fun, wait an additional hour or two for the mix to harden. Once the soap is ready, you need to wait an additional 3 weeks before using it. This process is called "aging" and is essential to the quality of the soap.
If you want to start slowly, you can make your own soap using Glycerin "melt and pour soap." This ready-made product can be melted in the microwave and then customized by adding coloring and fragrances. Once melted, this soap base can be pour into molds or set in trays and then cut using cookie cutters.
