Soap Making For Beginners – Do you want to learn how to make soap from scratch? The cold soap making method is what you’re looking for, my friend! I’m so excited to introduce you to making soap from scratch with this ultimate guide to making cold soap for beginners.
From tools and ingredients to the science of soap making, safety and FAQs, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know about making soap from scratch using the cold soap making method.
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A note before you read on: It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’re new to soap. As you read this guide, you may get the feeling that there is so much to learn, so many materials to collect, so many safety rules to remember…
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The lye is first dissolved in the liquid and then mixed with the oils to form soap.
Fat or oil molecules called triglycerides are made up of glycerin and fatty acids. When these molecules are mixed with caustic (lye), the bonds that hold the molecules together are broken, leaving salts of glycerin and fatty acids, or what we commonly call soap.
Without all the modern conveniences that make soap making easier today (such as electric hotplates and ingredients that can be bought rather than made), soap making was a long and arduous process.
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Our great grandparents usually made soap only once a year, boiling water, oil and wood ash together in a large pot over an open fire.
Wood ash (also called potassium lye) had to first be produced by mixing hardwood ash with rainwater, which over time allowed the lye to wash away. This lye water was caught in a bucket and collected to make soap.
Side note: If you’re very interested, check out the down and dirty details of making wood ash lye from scratch in this article from The Spruce Crafts. But today it is not necessary to go that far. You can buy lye from any online soap supplier.
It was also necessary to collect and prepare fats and oils for soap production. Soap was made from whatever oils or fats were readily available.
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In the United States, animal fat has historically been used to make soap. The women saved all the fat from their meat by turning it into tallow, which they preserved in soap. In other parts of the world, vegetable oils such as olive oil were used to make soap.
Because they didn’t have an accurate way to measure the strength of lye, the soap of the old days was often very harsh and heavy.
Today’s scrub soap is extremely gentle and good for your skin thanks to modern tools, ingredients and know-how.
I imagine our ancestors would be shocked to learn that today we make soap just for fun!
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And making soap is a lot of fun. This is a chance to get creative and get a really gentle, luxurious and useful product. This is a far cry from the old soap that the pioneers used to make.
In the hot method, the alcohol and oils are boiled on the stove until the saponification process (turning the oils and lyes into soap) is complete.
Hot soap making is so named because heat is used to make soap. When cooked, the lye / water / oil mixture (or what soap makers call “soap batter”) is very thick, like mashed potatoes. This is because most of the water has evaporated during the cooking process, leaving a pot full of soap that is not yet solid.
The boiled soap dough is spooned and squeezed into a soap mold, left to cool and harden for about a day, then removed from the mold and cut into cubes.
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The cold soap method uses the same ingredients as hot soap: lye, water, and oils. The difference is that with cold soap, the oils are initially heated to melt, but the ingredients are not cooked further. They remain “cold”.
Instead, after mixing the ingredients, pour them into a soap mold and leave them alone. The saponification process takes place in the mold without our additional help.
Second, cold soap batter is quite runny. If warm soap batter is like mashed potatoes, cold soap batter is like pancake batter.
The thin dough of the cold washing soap is easy to process and allows you to create beautiful curls.
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Additionally, the end result is that you get soaps with a smooth, even consistency, unlike the hot process which produces finished soaps with a rougher, more rustic look.
The soap is removed from the mold after about 24 to 72 hours and cut into cubes. Cold bar soaps are actually quite soft and gooey, like soft cheese when they are first removed from the mold. This is because they still contain a lot of excess water.
Remember how the water evaporates from the hot soap when you cook it? With cold process soap, the water evaporates during a process called curing. (We’ll talk more about treatment in a moment, so keep reading.)
The last method of making soap is also the simplest. Thanks to the melt and pour method, you’re not making soap completely from scratch using oils, liquids, and lyes. Instead, you dissolve the prepared soap base and add your chosen color, fragrance, herbs, etc.
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If cold process soap is similar to making a cake from scratch, melting and pouring the soap is like making a mixed box cake.
The advantage of melt and pour soap is that you don’t have to deal with the lye yourself. The downside is that the base is already made for you, it doesn’t technically make a “scratch” soap.
In addition, although there are bases that contain only ingredients of natural origin, no soap base is completely natural.
You have complete control over the ingredients of your soap. Make soap your own way. Make it all natural, eliminate synthetic ingredients and avoid ingredients you are allergic to. You can also customize the soap to your liking in terms of color, scent and appearance.
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Handmade soap is milder than store-bought detergent bars. A properly made cold process soap is extremely gentle and works well for people with sensitive or problem skin.
Handmade soap is more moisturizing than detergent bars. Remember, salts if fatty acids and glycerin are formed during soap production. It is the glycerin that makes handmade soap so much more moisturizing than commercial detergents or soap.
You will save money by making your own homemade soap. If you’re already a handmade soap convert, you know that a good bar of handmade soap doesn’t come cheap, with most good bars going from $6 to $12. You can make your own soap and save money.
However, you should realize that you will not save money by making your own soap if you are currently buying cheap $0.99 detergent bars. Your handmade soap will still cost more, but you’re comparing apples and oranges!
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Compare the cost of handmade soap to the cost of handmade soap to see the real savings.
This is a fun craft that is also useful! If you are a craftsman or an artistic person by nature, and you also like practical crafting, soap is the hobby for you! You can be artistic and create something that is also useful. And when you use it all, you can earn more.
Your soap takes 30 days or more to be ready to use. Surprised? That’s correct. Although you can make a batch of soap in about an hour, it needs to harden for 30 days before you can use it. (You’ll learn why and how to care for your soap in a moment.)
You have to deal with the lye. I went back and forth deciding to call it a drawback since you can safely handle lye and it really isn’t as scary as it sounds. But in some cases, handling lye is a real downside—for example, if you have small children. It doesn’t have to be a breach of contract, you just need to be aware and follow all lye safety guidelines.
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Handmade soaps dissolve faster than store-bought detergents. It’s glycerin again! Glycerin in the soap dish attracts water from the humid air in the bathroom or the damp soap dish and can leave a sticky spray on the soap dish if you’re not careful. Keep the handmade soap dry between uses.
Some colors, fragrances and ingredients are turned into cold process soap. Due to the high pH of cold soap dough, the ingredients can do strange things! Colors change completely, aromas melt into nothingness, fresh ingredients take on a funky shade of brown or gray.
It is impossible to make clear soap using the cold process method. The cold processing method creates a miracle soap, but it is always opaque. If you want pure soap, you should use the “dissolve and pour” method or a (rather complicated) variation of the hot process method.
Even so, the benefits of making your own luxury handmade soap far outweigh the drawbacks. i do my thing
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