Making soap at home is an extremely hot market, but is it safer than you may think? You could make soap at home using some key ingredients, but there are things you need to know first. You will need lye, a good quality glycerin base, and your choice of essential oils; apricot oil, almond oil, olive oil or grapeseed oil all work well.

Different Ways

There are two different ways you can make soap at home. The cold process and the hot method, and each has its pros and cons. For those of you who have never made soap before the cold process is probably best suited to you if you have some experience. It’s not too difficult to learn this method; it’s just putting the moulds that come with the soap-making kit into the melt-and-pour soap maker and going through a few steps. For those of you who want to make soap at home but don’t have the experience, the hot method may be best suited to you.

To get started, you will need to gather the following materials: two jars of liquid soap, glycerin base soap, and a fragrance. You also need a double boiler, soap mould, and a double boiler brush. Depending on what brand of soap you are making, you may need to buy some additional items, such as a double boiler brush, a fragrance, a whisk, and an eight-ounce container of lye. If you plan on doing the cold process you will also need some distilled water. And make sure you have all the other items mentioned in this article.

Let the soap mixture sit in the container with the fragrance for about three to five minutes before stirring it. The fragrance will sit in the container and begin to oxidize while it sits. This is when you will add the oils. Make sure you wear rubber gloves for this part.

Equipment

Next, make sure that you have all of your equipment on hand and have read the directions on the container very carefully. Next, make two layers of a flat bottomed bowl and pour in enough oil to cover the soap making mixtures. Then, put the double boiler into the pot of hot water and make sure that the burner is turned to medium heat. Once the oils are heated, pour them in. Stir constantly so that the oils do not separate.

After the oils are mixed thoroughly, pour them into the soap mould. Fill the mould with the soap mixture and place it into the double boiler again. This time around, you will want to try to mix in the essential oils. Continue this process until all of the oils are mixed in. Allow the mixture to continue to heat up for about five to ten more minutes, which will cause the soap to start to bubble.

Finishing Touches

Once the soap has finished bubbling, remove it from the mould and allow it to cool down. Then you can pour it into your lined soap moulds, which were mentioned above. You may want to pour some of the leftover soap from the original batch into another container and store it in the fridge so that you do not have to keep mixing the natural soap ingredients regularly. Once they have cooled, you can finish the saponification process by putting the moulds into a pot of hot water and gently boil the soap for about fifteen minutes.

Once you have completed the saponification process, make sure that you sterilize your mixing spoon by placing it in a Ziploc bag and then sealing it with wax paper before use. Sterilizing your mixing spoon allows you to make soap without having to worry about cross-contamination. Although it is unlikely, you could unknowingly transfer bacteria from one batch to another when mixing your lye and water. Also, make sure that when you are finished rinsing off the soap mixture that it is completely dry.