An Introduction to Homemade Soap
Your crafty hobbies can often make for messy activities! Painting, candlestick-making and scrapbooks might leave you covered in unwanted gunk and glue! With that in mind, maybe it’s time to try a hobby that leaves you cleaner, instead of dirtier?!
A century or so ago, most people would know how to make soap at home. They rarely purchased their soap from stores, and instead would make it from cooking fats! That was until WW1 when there was a shortage of fats and companies began to develop synthetic soap.
If you don’t like to rely on synthetic soaps that are usually sold in supermarkets, let’s take some tips from the past and learn how to make soap at home using natural ingredients. Soap making at home can be a complex process, so I’ve made it as simple as possible. Have a few tries and you’ll be able to produce a super soapy surprise!
How to Make Soap at Home
The scientific term you’ll want to know for your new hobby is “saponification”. This process describes the chemical reaction that happens when an acid and a base react together, leaving a soapy or salty deposit.
Check out this simple homemade soap recipe and watch saponification happen before your eyes!
You will need:
- Beeswax
- Soap-making oils
- Sodium hydroxide (lye)
- Water
- Fragrance
- Vegetable oil
- Soap moulds
- Stainless steel pot
- Large measuring cup
- Stirrers
- Knife
- Vegetable peeler
- Candy thermometer
- Scotch tape
- Freezer paper
- Stick hand blender
- Old rags (to clean up with!)
- Old t-shirt with long sleeves
- Rubber gloves
- Safety goggles
The method
- Heat the oils. Add your oils and beeswax into your pan and turn it onto a low heat. At the same time, add a little vegetable oil to your mould and line the bottom with the freezer paper (shiny side up). Tape the edges down to keep it secure.
- Take the heat off. Remove your oils from the heat just before they’re fully melted. There should just be some small pieces of wax left. The temperature should be at around 150 degrees now.
- Mix the lye. And be careful here as lye can burn the skin. Use the appropriate safety equipment, always pour lye into the water and not the other way around, and try to keep the fumes blowing away from you. Add the distilled water into your measuring container and follow with the lye. Keep stirring it for five minutes to avoid it hardening and sticking to the bottom of your container.
- Get the temperature right. At this point, the lye mixture should be 105 degrees and the oils should be 115 degrees. If they’re not right, leave them for about half an hour to re-adjust. If they’re still not quite right, adjust the oil temperature by putting it in the fridge for a little bit. You can cool down the lye by placing the container into cold water.
- Mix the ingredients. When the temperatures are close enough to what we need, you can pour the lye mixture into the oils. Continue to slowly stir as you do so. This is where you need to be patient, as stirring can last for as long as 30 minutes! Use your hand blender if you prefer, but keep it on a low speed and never let it blend for more than four minutes at a time. When the soap has started to thicken, you can stop.
- Add the extra ingredients. Now you can add in your fragrances, herbs and colouring. Mix them all in with your blender. Pour the whole thing into your moulds and be careful not to let it splash. Cover with an old cloth at room temperature.
- Let the soap sit. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours. Because of the chemical reactions that happen, you might notice it heat up. This is completely normal so don’t panic!
- Cut the bars of soap. When it’s all set and is looking like big chunks of soap, you can begin to cut and shape it. The size depends on your own preferences. Gently lift the soap away from the mould and cut it into shape with a sharp knife. You can use your vegetable peeler to soften the edges if you like.
- Give it some more time. Leave the soap for 6 weeks, if you can wait that long! Dry soap is harsh on the skin and the longer you leave it to sit, the more mild it will become.
Benefits of Making Soap at Home
Take full control of the ingredients
When you buy soap in a shop, you can’t always be sure of the ingredients that have been thrown in there. If you learn how to make soap at home, you get to follow your own homemade soap recipe and you will always know what has been used.
An added advantage here is that you can make your soap from completely natural ingredients, just like it used to be! This is better for your skin (less dryness and irritability!) and the environment.
You can also add extra health benefits to your simple bar of soap. Using essential oils and herbs can help to moisturise the skin and offer aromatherapy benefits while you shower.
You get to mix-and-match
With so many soap-making materials on offer, you’ll never be limited to the different homemade soap recipes you can attempt! Purchase different oils, scents, colours and moulds and your bathroom will resemble a high-end soap display!
Save money
Quality soaps can cost a lot of money, although discount soaps are available at a cheap rate. But this is your skin we’re talking about – it’s an extremely important organ and you should look after it! Discount soaps are cheap for a reason, and you should always be aware of the ingredients you’re using on your body.
Buying your own ingredients in bulk can save you money in the long-run. You can even use some ingredients, like herbs and essential oils, for other purposes.
Earn Money for your Homemade Soap
Knowing how to make soap from the comfort of your home can offer more than just health benefits. You can actually turn your craft into a money-making adventure and sell your unique soap to buyers.
You have to be committed to your new business, though, as you have the headache of some legal obstacles to overcome. There are many laws out there surrounding the selling of soap, as it’s a cosmetic product to be used on the skin. These laws are designed to give the user peace of mind about the safety of the ingredients.
Before you start making soap for money, make sure you’ve nailed the process and sampled your own goods. After this, you can pinpoint the style you’d like to focus on and start building a brand. Choose the price you’d like to tag onto your soap and set up an online stall in the favoured website among homemade soap-makers, Etsy. Etsy specialises in handmade products, so people browsing may just be interested in what you’re selling
There are other online marketplaces you might want to try, such as Handmade at Amazon. The good thing about newer or smaller markets is that there is less competition, but there also may be less buyers.
If you’re feeling confident, why not surpass online marketplaces completely? Build your empire and create your own website or set up a real-life store!
Inspired to try a fresh hobby that will leave you clean and sparkling? Soap-making can be time-consuming and requires practice, effort and adherence to many safety precautions. But don’t let that stop you! If you’re passionate about learning how to make soap, you can create a bubble of success around your hobby!
Recipe reference – http://www.islandartisansupply.ca/soapmaking/instruction.html
