Homemade Soap

Angelina-M

whatatwit wrote:

In my Makro leaflet, there is Olive Pomace Oil for £9.59 for 5 Litres (zero vat), just in case Tesco price has changed.

Thanks i'll have a look in Makro. I have a card but havent been in for ages.

Has this thread actually inspired anyone to have a go at soapmaking?

Psykicpup

I''m certainly interested but I'm worried about the time factor & things- may I ask a few questions?
1) How long does the 'cooking' take? (for both types of prep 'cold' & what ever the other is -sorry)
2) how long before I can use the soap
3) Does this soap go off (I've had shop bought stuff go off - smell bad- when I've bulk bought before cos I stored it too long)
4) if I use equipment for soap making can it be washed & used for cooking after? - i dont want to ruin my stuff if I dont like the 'hobby' or want to buy all new for the same reason!
5) I have excema but not sensitive skin so is there anything I should be aware of?

there maybe others by the way lol;)

Angelina-M

:T Right lets see if I can answer some of these:

Cooking times. Well once you have made your lye up and warmed the oils. The actual cooking time can be usually quite short for cold process soap. I use a stick blender and usually get my soaps to trace in less than ten minutes. When i've done hot process, this tends to take a while, probably an hour or so in my slow cooker. But do bear in mind hot process is ready to be used straight away so its worth the hour spent for me to have instant soap.

I probably answered your second question already. Cold process needs a curing period and the recommend time is four weeks but its even better if left longer. Hot process is infact ready as soon as its cool and out of the mould, however even this benefits from a little time as it gets harder.

I've never had soap go off and i've often found it hidden for a couple of years in my knickers drawer lol! Seriously though, I think there is more chance of it going rancid if you have used more perishable ingredients such as milk, but even so I think it would be ok for a year or two.

I usually use items dedicated to my soapmaking, however a lot of them I picked up at carboot sales really cheaply. For instance a huge pan was a pound! The only expense really was for my thermometer so I can check the temperature but not everyone uses these. Also my scales were very expensive but I do intend to sell soaps in the future so they were a must have.

I have had people with excema use my soaps with no probs at all. I think its just a matter of being careful on ingredients that are known to set your skin off, for instance some people are allergic to chocolate so I have to be careful not to include cocoa butter in their soap.

HTH, let me know if you decide to give it a go!

silverbirch1

tallulah_beaulah wrote:

Hey Silverbirch1

I got my coconut oil from a health food shop. It was in the fridge section and in a biggish tub. It looks a bit like lard when you open the tub (but smells really good!). As I said, it was quite expensive because it was food grade, but on the plus side if you have any left over you can cook with it.

I found this site which seemed to have cheaper soap ingredients, of course, there's p&p too:

http://www.thesoapkitchen.co.uk/

HTH

Thanks so much Tallulah Beaulah. The soap kitchen site looks lovely. The tub of coconut oil from health food shops sounds nice too - might get that for using to make a body butter with mmmmm!

Tracey04

OK I have been reading about this all morning and would love to have a go as well as making bath bombs, creams etc. Can you make shampoo's etc and bubble bath ?
What is melt and pour and cold process? lots on ebay seem to be melt and pour.
Im just dont know how to start and what this do I need, ie pans, electric whisk.
What do the soaps set in, and where do you keep them whilst hardening.?
just looked at we bits
https://www.thesoapkitchen.co.uk
if someone has time could you look at the recipe page to see what you think of instuctions and ingredients.
where do I buy things from?
How much will one batch make?
Do they all smell of coconut or is that just a base ingredient?
If say I made rose what quanties would you add
What would make a 'fruity zesty bar' again quanties please.
Thank you for your time.

Tracey04

as above address what are lotion bars (how do you use them !!!)
Thanks

Angelina-M

Melt and Pour is where people buy a ready made base (sometimes these contain sls and other chemicals so beware) They then melt some down and add a fragrance and maybe a colour to it and thats it.

CP (cold process) is where you actually make soap from scratch with ingredients such as coconut oil, olive oil etc and add lye (caustic soda) the oils and lye saponify together and you get soap. You have full control what goes into the soap but you must run your recipe through a lye calculator (freely available on the net, just google lye calculator)

The good thing about M & P soap is that it can be really wild colours and you can get fun moulds and pop things inside to appeal to kids. I dont like M&P as its just a bought base and prefer to make my own from scratch.

By making my own I can adapt to suit my own needs, for example I like to add a lot of shea butter and make luxury soap, whereas a bought base, you are stuck with the ingredients it already has in.

The coconut oil that is ideal for soapmaking is called RBD (refined bleached deoderised) this is odourless so you wont get a coconut smell.

Essential oils, I add approx 2% of the weight of the oils. I dont use fragrance oils as I prefer to keep my soap natural. You mention rose oil, however I wouldnt use such an expensive oil in soap. I usually stick to things like lavender and cheaper oils.

The question about how much soap will a batch make is not answerable. It depends on what quatity of ingredients you use, just as in baking. For instance you would get a lot more soap if you doubled the amount of ingredients. I often make up a 2kg batch and get approx 20 large bars of soap.

Fruity zest bar? Well im not quite sure what you are meaning? If you mean something brightly coloured such as this http://www.freshsoapdeli.com/fresh.php?cat=2&page=info&pid=20410 then you are looking at Melt and Pour, you cannot make this with cold process.

Have a look around the internet and find out what kind of soap you want to make, then research how it is made. This is a good starting point for anyone as I believe its important to understand soapmaking a little bit before launching into buying expensive oils etc.

Tracey04

I was meaning like a lemon and lime bar of soap when I said zesty. Would you use the oils ie from Holland and Barrett.
I really fance trying CP soap, as I would prefer also to know what goes into things, just didn't know if it was alittle difficult to do.
Just thought if you use natural colouings (only know of Tumeric) do you not turn yellow !
What else can I use, or or natural soaps supposed to be clear. I was thinking for family presents if Im any good. Thanks

Tracey04

if you use milk, apples etc in soap do they not go off !!

Angelina-M

Most natural colours dont survive the lye process so you are never gonna get a lovely green coloured soap if you add nettles for instance. Most natural products turn brown or similar shades.

A good one I use is carrots, they stay a lovely orange colour, useful if im making a swirl soap or for adding orange essential oil to make a refreshing orange soap.

I also use chocolate or cocoa powder for brown soaps or for creating a chocolate swirl in the soap.

Turmeric does stay true, but dont put too much in or you'll end up with yellow towels! People also use clays etc for colouring but i've not looked into that.

If I use goats milk and light oils and butter such as shea/cocoa butter etc, then I end up with a nice light creamy coloured bar of soap.

I have never had a problem with fresh fruit or veg going off, however I use the juices from them rather than actually adding the pulp.

You can buy essential oils from holland and barrat or anywhere really but if you are making a lot of soap the cost of buying small bottles soon mounts up.

Homemade cp soap isnt clear. In fact I think making clear soap is a real hassle as you have to use alcohol and its quite time consuming. People often use a melt and pour base that is clear if thats what they really want.

Soaps that are cp are usually nice earthy colours and I like that, im not fond of bright pink squares sitting in my soap drainer!