Soap Making Beginner’s Guide

As I’m still drafting my next travel post (it takes a while to draft everything because of all the photos I have to choose from), I’d like to continue sharing my journey here about soap making.

I did promise myself to update this blog every day (6 days/week), and this is one of the topics I’m really interested in. I first discussed soap making last week — how I started, my history with it and our plans about it. You can read about it here:

SOAP MAKING HOBBY TURNED BUSINESS

Basically, I just want to make sure that Mahal and I are moving forward with our projects… our passions and hobbies which we’d like to eventually turn into a small home-based business no matter how small a step we’re taking. It’s way better than doing something unproductive like watching the news or watching reruns of our favorite TV series. We only have a small window of extra time every day due to our busy schedule with our baby so whatever extra time we get, we devote it to pursuing our hobbies and passions like soap making. And of course, I’d like to share our journey with you in case you want to delve into soap making too.

So, moving on…

THE PROCESS OF SAPONIFICATION

Just to let you know, soap making involves a chemical process, one that can be very dangerous, hence, the need for gloves and goggles. Soap is formed during a chemical process called saponification which is what happens when you combine an acid (fats/oils in this instance) with an alkali (like lye or sodium hydroxide). Both chemicals must be in liquid form when mixed that is why some form of heating is required. Below you can see the things one will need for soap making.

COLD PROCESS OF SOAP MAKING

Many soap makers these days use the cold process because it’s less dangerous. It still requires a bit of heat to melt the fats and oils, as compared to the hot process where you would need to boil both chemicals. Knowing this, it can be a bit intimidating and scary. But not to fret because soap making is actually just like baking! I did this when I took a soap making course and it seemed quite fun then. I really had a good time learning about it.

HAND-MILLED METHOD OF SOAP MAKING

To lessen the fear of those who want to pursue this kind of hobby, you can use the hand-milled method first which I also did when I first tried making my own batch of homemade soaps.

With this method, you just have to:

Buy an unscented commercial soap
Grate it using a grater.
Mix it with water in a bowl.
Melt it using a double boiler (I used one pot on top of another).
Add whatever natural ingredients you want like essential oils, oatmeal, coffee, etc.
Pour it in a molder.
Dry it
Once dry, take it out of the molder.
Package it however you like.

It’s just like baking a cake using a cake mix! At least you don’t have to boil some lye which is a very dangerous chemical that can cause serious skin burns. Look at what I did before. They actually look very yummy! Lol!

So yeah, for those who would like to try soap making for the first time, stick to this HAND MILLED melt-and-pour technique until you are more confident to do another method and to learn more.

Well, that’s it for now. Til my next soap making post!