Soap Makers Help!

[Sooner]

Night girls. I'm dead on my feet.

 

[galanie]

Miller's soap also has an Excel spreadsheet you can use to make your own recipes:

http://www.millersoap.com/worksheet.html

And here is a GREAT tutorial on making hot process soap. I didn't really understand it till I saw this page: http://allcrafts.tripod.com/index.html

 

[MSDeb]

Thank you all for reviving this thread. I've been reading it and books on soap making for months and still have not gotten up the nerve to try it myself but, have slowly been gathering the ingredients. Maybe with all the enthusiasm you are bringing to the thread I will be able to do something soon. Hope you don't see me as a butinski I'm just another wantobe soap maker. Deb

 

[Sooner]

Deb we have all been where you are! Please jump in & have fun (thread & soap making) everyone here has always been so helpful to me when I was learning, scratch that I am still learning!

 

[savingdogs]

This thread taught me to make soap and how to research it! Welcome!

 

[Morgaine]

Man, y'all were busy last night, lol!

As far as a mold, I started out using a shoe box with a walmart bag as the liner. Super easy to do! I liked that it had a lid so that I could cover it with towels. I have never used PVC, so can't comment on that, but a lot of people will line them with those flexible cutting sheets. I'm not a huge fan of individual molds, mainly cause I like to gel.

Cutters can be any knife (chef's knives work better than steak knives) A cheese cutter would be good too, a putty scraper or a pastry scarper.

Here is a good basic recipe made with oils you can get from the grocery store. This makes a 3 pound batch which will give you about 12 bars

Olive Oil (50%) 680 grams
Coconut Oil (25%) 340 Grams
Lard (25%) 340 Grams

Water 430 grams
Lye 186 grams


I have used the Riobic and Rooto brand lye and both worked fine. Course you can get it way cheaper on line, but just starting out, those are the best deals since you don't pay shipping.

Herbs are a great way to get some color and scrubbies in your soap. I use poppy seeds, lavender buds, parsley, peppermint, tea leaves. I stay away from rosemary leaves now, ouch!

I would like to also say you need some rubber gloves and goggles! Safety first.

If you want scent, get some peppermint eo from the heath food store if you don't want to order on line first. Peppermint is very well behaved and it only takes a little to get a lasting scent. .5oz would be plenty to scent the above batch.

I have a lot of resourses listed in the soapmakers reference thread. The link is in my signature.

Have fun, this is a truly addicting hobby!

 

[NanaKat]

Morgaine, you have been an inspiration to many a budding soap maker.
I hope all the new folks take time to go thru the entire thread and see the great soaps by the wonderful, creative and supportive people here.

 

[sjarvis00]

I havent had time today... I wanted to badly but had the granddaughter today and was washing laundry.. It will have to be a tomorrow project to go thru this thread.

 

[NanaKat]

Quote:
How is your laundry soap working for you?

 

[MSDeb]

Quote:
Thank you for the kind welcome. When I saw a current bunch of enthusiasts it got me re-interested too. Maybe this time I will jump in and see how it goes. As you can see I am not in CO like you all so one of the issues I'll have to work with is the really high MS humidity.

Any thoughts?