Soap making?

[lpe_bratz]

I just recently went to a local craft store finding something to do with my upcoming summer vacation and multiple friends' birthdays. I was torn between candles and soap but figured people will use soap more often. So if any of you have tips or pictures or anything, post them here! I'll try to post some soon!

 

[dreams91]

First, I love that show that your saying comes from.

Second, are you making soap from scratch or from the ready made soap you buy and melt down? I've done the second one before. It can be tricky if you want to embed a piece of shaped soap in the middle of the other soap.
Good luck.

 

[lpe_bratz]

First, thank you very much! I love it too and it basically describes how I've been feeling lately!

Second, I bought a starter kit that came with 4 molds (square, rectangle, hexagon, and circle), 1 scent (cucumber melon), and a pound of white soap, and a pound of clear soap that you melt down. So far I've made two. The kind with the little chunks in it. There's instructions in there to make lemon/lime/orange slices. They're very cute and I think I'll try it over summer break to give to my niece for her birthday in May! She's very into all of the Bath and Body Works soap, lotion, lipgloss, etc. and loves anything like that! She'll be turning 4 and I think the citrus slices she would like because they're bright and colorful and also fit into summer!

 

[lpe_bratz]

(bump)

 

[lpe_bratz]

went to a local craftstore last thursday. in the kit i got theres instructions to make soap shaped like fruit slices (orange, lemon, and lime) so while at the craft store i got orange scent, sour apple, and pearberry to sort of the coordinate with the colors! so excited..think i'll make soap later...

 

[lpe_bratz]

^^ making these hopefully sometime this weekend.
orange color - orange scent
yellow color - pearberry scent (didnt have lemon or anything really)
green color - sour apple (no lime)

making them for my niece's birthday in may...she'll be four and they remind me of summer since her birthday's near june!

i might make all of them orange scent though so they're all citrusy!

those were the pictures from the site where i got the kit but i'll post some of mine later..i've made two that are chunk bars...i'll post some sometime.

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

Just found your thread. Did the soap bug completely bite you since this thread started in April? If so, I was looking to see if I could find other DIS soapers.

I do mine from scratch and have a small shop out in my garage for it. I played with Melt and Pour when I was pregnant with my girls. Now that they are old enough, I have finally found time to go at it full-tilt. I made 9 batches one day a month ago and almost all are finally ready to use. Now I'm gearing up for Christmas!

If you have questions, you can give me a shout or a PM!

 

[kinglake]

i brought a soap making starter kit and made a rather nice bar of soap you can see it on my blog if you care to take a look xx jo xx

 

[TinkPinkPoem]

I am so glad I found this thread!

I would start one about soap making if none existed. I am interested in soap making too!

I will go to the crafts store on Friday and I was planning on buying a soap base (that's what I read you have to buy first ) and some molds. I'd then see what else I might need.

So any suggestions? Should I buy a starter kit too and maybe a step-by-step book?

 

[TinkPinkPoem]

Anyone?

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

Sorry - forgot to do a subscribe on the thread - fixed that now. I have all sorts of advice. More than you want.

If you really want to try it, don't get the soap from the craft store. Go online to a soap supplies website like From Nature with Love or Snowdrift Farm or Brambleberry. Their soap is really high quality and you have a ton of fragrances to choose from. You can also get cosmetic grade colors and pigments - not jut food coloring. Never use food coloring.

I do cold process - from scratch with lye. CP soap is a weird mix of cooking and chemistry - and has all the creativity of both. M&P - where you buy the premade soap blocks, allows for a different sort of creativity, but you can't control the basic product. Look at the Primal Elements site for M&P ideas, too.

I would go on Amazon or Barnes and Noble and check out some of the books on soapmaking. They will halp a lot when you go to start and give you some basic recipes. They also help you with a lot of the terms used, like rebatch, trace, etc. (Rebatch is basically what you do by doing M&P - using a base recipe to make all different kinds.)

You will need different things depending on what you want to do.

Melt and Pour - M&P - requires a microwave, a bunch of different sized pyrex measuring cups, silicone (high temperature) spatulas, glass pyrex prep cups/dessert bowls, for mixing colors or additives, and any shape of mold you want. I like to do my M&P in Pyrex loaf pans with embedded soap pieces/shapes.

Cold Process and Hot Process require more things and I can go into it if anyone wants. These include stick blenders, non-reactive bowls/pots, and of course a safe place to lock your lye up.

Yay! People who are interested! I'll need to upload some of my soap photos on Flickr, so you can see them. I have some of both types of soap.

 

[TinkPinkPoem]

Sorry - forgot to do a subscribe on the thread - fixed that now. I have all sorts of advice. More than you want.

If you really want to try it, don't get the soap from the craft store. Go online to a soap supplies website like From Nature with Love or Snowdrift Farm or Brambleberry. Their soap is really high quality and you have a ton of fragrances to choose from. You can also get cosmetic grade colors and pigments - not jut food coloring. Never use food coloring.

I do cold process - from scratch with lye. CP soap is a weird mix of cooking and chemistry - and has all the creativity of both. M&P - where you buy the premade soap blocks, allows for a different sort of creativity, but you can't control the basic product. Look at the Primal Elements site for M&P ideas, too.

I would go on Amazon or Barnes and Noble and check out some of the books on soapmaking. They will halp a lot when you go to start and give you some basic recipes. They also help you with a lot of the terms used, like rebatch, trace, etc. (Rebatch is basically what you do by doing M&P - using a base recipe to make all different kinds.)

You will need different things depending on what you want to do.

Melt and Pour - M&P - requires a microwave, a bunch of different sized pyrex measuring cups, silicone (high temperature) spatulas, glass pyrex prep cups/dessert bowls, for mixing colors or additives, and any shape of mold you want. I like to do my M&P in Pyrex loaf pans with embedded soap pieces/shapes.

Cold Process and Hot Process require more things and I can go into it if anyone wants. These include stick blenders, non-reactive bowls/pots, and of course a safe place to lock your lye up.

Yay! People who are interested! I'll need to upload some of my soap photos on Flickr, so you can see them. I have some of both types of soap.

Thank you for the all the helpful information!

I have been really busy these past few days and I didn't make it to the craft store. I'm so glad I read your post before I went though!

I'm not sure whether I want to make soap using lye, which is really dangerous,so I'll try to look in some alternatives.


Food colour for soaps didn't make much sense when I first read about it in some online soap making suggestions and now it seems there was a reason why it didn't!

I checked with my local YMCA, hoping they would have soap making seminars but they are doing candle making this year I might try to look for an art place but sadly those are far and few between where I am.

Crafts stores here provide a wide variety of books, so I'll check those too.

Thank you again for everything!

 

[YoYoAurora]

YellowMickeyPonchos,

I'm interested in soapmaking too! I'm very much a DIY crafter, and soapmaking is one of the skills I want to pick up this year. I have a Chemistry degree, so this really appeals to me!


Count me among those who was going to head to the craft store for a kit. Thanks for stopping me!


What additional hints do you have for a beginning soap maker? Is it better to start with the hot or the cold process? What, in your opinion, are the items you have to have in your first soapmaking kit?

Thanks! And I look forward to seeing the pics of your soap!

-- Susan

 

[TinkPinkPoem]

Hello, YoYoAurora! It's so nice that we are all interested in soap making! We can keep this thread going with our soap making adventures

YelllowMickeyPonchos, I checked the sites you recommended and they are really good. Not sure whether they would ship to Europe though, but I thought that even if they did it would cost a fortune so I am going to check locally for some things.I could use ebay for books or molds though!

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

Hey all.

First - TinkPinkPoem - I had no clue you were in the UK - you have your location set to private. I have a contact for you. I met a UK soaper from Middlesex at the HMSG conference last year and have her card. She was super nice and could help you out. Her name is Sima Dadamiya and her soap line is called Jumana. Her email is jumana@london.com.

Second: Tink - Lye is a caustic chemical, but it isn't dangerous to you if you handle it properly. It just needs respect and a lock and key if you have kids. Most of the cleaners under your sink are the same way in that concentration. In fact, you can't have soap without either lye (sodium chloride) or potash (potassium chloride), even if it's glycerin soap. The folks at your local Lush will try to tell you different - I've had it happen to me. Even the blocks you buy in the store for M&P have been made with lye. Look for Sodium _____- Palmitate (palm oil and lye after it's reaction) is common, and other variants of that linguistic.

Third: YoyoAurora - Hot or Cold? I started with cold process. Hot is okay to start with, if you know what to look for with cold. Basically, all hot means is that you are doing cold and then using a heat source - like a crock-pot - to push the chemical reation through the gel phase before adding scent and additives. It's fast and you have to be on your toes or you are screwed. Also, the soap ends up with a slightly different texture. I've done both and I've screwed myself up on both. Frankly, I would recommend playing with cold, then get a cheap crockpot (or get yourself a spiffy expensive one for food to replace your old one which will be now dedicated to soap) and try hot. It's really easy to give yourself a Mount Vesuvius of molten semi caustic soap when you are doing hot for the first time and that gets in every crack of your crockpot that you can't wash out (unless you can remove the inner lining). Been there. Hot gives you a quicker drying period - the time it takes for the water you use to dry out of the final product and have it harden or cure. Cold can be easier to deal with at the onset, but has to sit longer before use. Some fragrances dissipate more with hot process due to flash point (temp they become voilatile at - fragrance gets too hot and goes away). Sometimes you can use less, since the soap has already gone through the gel cycle, but the window you have to add it and get it thoroughly mixed is much shorter.

4) What to keep in your soap kit.
- a couple good books on soap - look through them carefully to make sure they don't want to use rebatched/grated soap in every recipe. Good books will tell you all of the equipment you need to buy or salvage from your kitchen.
Susan Miller Cavitch has no photos, but excellent advice, Melinda Coss has nice photos and is a UK author. Kevin Dunn's Caveman Chemistry is a good basic on the science. Kevin (who I have met) has a great interest in soap and is a HMSG member.
-Get yourself some good stainless soup pots (cheap is okay) - I got one for $3.98 at the grocery the other day. They have to be stainless or enamel coated. You don't want non-stick or aluminum, as it will react.
- I also keep an electric warmer/burner plate handy. I melt oils for one batch while measuring another. I also have multiple pitchers for lye that I can pre-make and refridgerate my lye/water to keep it cool while measuring oils.
- If you are dead serious about soaping, a copy of SoapMaker software - available online. It does inventory/finances, recipes, and product inventory. That way you can really keep track of your stuff and know when you need to reorder supplies.
- molds can be made from simple household PVC tubing. Get a long length from the hardward store and ask them to cut it into foot long tubes. The get the flat end caps. These don't require any extra prep as molds and you can make fairly large batches. You can use them for M&,as well.
My recipes with 44 oz of oils usually fill 2 of these.

Gotta run back out to the garage to finish cleaning up - just made two batches this afternoon and prepping for a couple more tomorrow. Not too organized today or I could have done 3 more batches. I have to get a whole bunch of stuff done this week, since they need drying time before the holidays. I'm playing with a new liquid colorant for one of the batches and am crossing my fingers that it dries the right color!

 

[YoYoAurora]

YellowMickeyPonchos,

You rock!

Thank you for the information. We're heading to WDW next week, so I have to wait a while to start learning to make soap. I'll try the cold process first and let the group know how I do with the making and curing.

I'll also be doing some melt and pour after I get back, to help a friend's 9 y/o daughter (my "niece") with a project. She made one batch that didn't turn out so well and several others that are ok. I wasn't there, so I can't give details. I'll be coaching her on the technical aspects: measuring, timing, following the recipe and not experimenting (yet). So, I have to make at least one batch myself, by myself. I'll post pics.

Thanks again!

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

My best advice on M&P - don't let it get too hot - that's probably what happened to her. It's really easy to over-microwave it to melt. My sugestion is to go in 30 - 45 second increments and melt it until you have a tiny bit left that's unmelted. Kind of like when you melt butter for a recipe. Then, just swirl it in the measuring cup til it melts all the way.

For M&P it's really good to have a bunch of Pyrex measuring cups - I have about 4-5 - a couple 2 cup, a couple 1 cup, and an 8 cup. That way, I can pre-melt and mix a couple different colors at one time and have them ready for re-melting when I need them. Also pick up a couple inexpensive candy thermometers. Meat thermometers work well, too - just make sure you can read the temps.

Also, make sure you have a spray bottle with isopropyl alcohol handy. When you pour, spritz the soap in the mold afterwards and it will help get rid of the bubbles on top. If you are pouring a layer and want to put a second color on top, spritz the color in the mold with the alcohol before pouring the next color on top (and don't let the alcohol dry. It will help the two seal together. I use my freezer and refridgerator to help the soaps set up quicker.

While at WDW - go to Basin at DTD. They have both M&P (from Primal Elements) and CP. Their shampoo bars are a hybrid of types. Look at them closely - grated soap suspended in glycerin/M&P, Looks like they are actually produced with a small grinder/molding press machine to get that shape and density.

Have fun! We were supposed to be down there in a couple weeks, but our trip got postponed until the first week of January.

 

[YoYoAurora]

Hi Nancy,

Oh yes, make me go to DTD to shop! I will stop in Basin and look closely at their soaps. Oh gosh - I hope they don't mind my groping and sniffing the soap!

I can't wait to get home and get ready to try my first batch! Hey, this will help my post-vacation blues!

And I'll have a drink at the tequila bar for you too!

Me + Disney + shopping = DH's nightmare

Thanks!

Susan

Me DH

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

See you need a part-time/seasonal CM job at the Disney Store to offset that!

At least with DVC we get a discount at Basin, although with as much soap as I've made in the last 2-3 weeks, I don't need it!!!!

Now is definitely the season to get soap on the shelves. You need at least 4-8 weeks for CP to fully cure (get the last of the excess water evaporated out so that the soap doesn't dissolve away in the shower).

Have a good time. I'm jealous that you get to do F&W Festival. My favorite time of year. Make sure you pick up the cookbook at the Festival Store in the Wonders of Life Pavillion. (Going in there always makes me sad....)

 

[YoYoAurora]

Hi everyone,

I'm back from Disney, and I'm soooo ready to get in the car and go right back!

We stopped by Basin, as Nancy suggested, and it's great! I didn't buy anything, but they didn't seem to mind me fondling the samples.

We also stopped by the gift shop in Canada, where DH bought some soaps with fun names for some friends we go to GA Tech games with. Doesn't the thought of bathing with moose spit soap just make you want to jump in the shower?

Now I need to get the cold process soap kit ordered and stop by the local craft store for the melt and pour kit. I'll let y'all know how it turns out. First though, will be the melt and pour so I can help Rachel. I'll post pics when I get some finished.

-- Susan