How to start making homemade soap?

Are you attracted to making homemade cosmetics, especially soap, and you don’t know how to start? I am a creative soul who likes to try different techniques. I came across soap making quite some time ago. Back then I bought a soap base, a colorant and an essence, mixed everything together and it was done.

When, after years, I returned to the idea of making my own soap, I started to study various options on the internet. Soap making enchanted me, I wanted to try absolutely everything. Soap making reminded me of baking a cake, with the difference that you don’t gain weight from soap :)

Soap can be made in three ways, and I would like to briefly introduce them to you.

Making soap from soap base

Basically, it is about melting a pre-prepared soap base. Soap bases are available in various compositions, clear, with goat’s milk, glycerin,... Into the melted base you can, as desired, add fragrance essences, colorants, herbs. You pour the prepared mass into a mold and let it harden. The soap is immediately ready for use.

Making soap by cold process

This process is already relatively more demanding. It is a reaction between fatty acids (oils) and an alkali (lye solution). The advantage of this type of making is certainly the option to choose the oils, that is, the option to influence the final properties of the soap. The mixture is easy to color, therefore this method of making is preferred for producing soaps with various patterns. Oils and lye solution react together at room temperature, the process is slower. The soap has to cure for several weeks so that it reaches the desired pH value and hardness.

Making soap by hot process

The hot process is very similar to the cold process, with the difference that it takes place at elevated temperature. After the saponification process, the soap has the desired pH immediately. Before its use, therefore, a shorter curing time is sufficient. A smaller disadvantage is coloring, since the resulting mass is relatively thick and hardens quickly, we cannot create such nice patterns as with the cold process.

In the coming days, we will present all methods of making.

Yours, Lucia.