How to make soap - part 1

"You MADE that?????"

This is always the reaction I get from my friends and family when they are the lucky recipients of a bar of handmade soap. And that's not surprising. No one else I know in real life (ArtFire and Etsy friends aside) makes soap, or even thought about making soap, or heck, even knew that some people still make soap by hand in this day and age, and that yes anyone can buy handmade soap and enjoy its many benefits. In fact, just a few years back I did not know about handmade soap either. I'd buy a bar or two at places like Pier 1 or TJ Maxx, all made in exotic foreign countries and love the soap, but I never actually thought of making it myself until a few years back. 

Why would you want to use handmade soap, whether you make it yourself or have your favorite soaper make it for you? Well there are many reasons. Commercial soap has a whole bunch of chemicals, whose job is not to do anything wonderful for your skin, but to make the soap cheaper to manufacture, or longer lasting when it languishes on the warehouse shelves etc. It was all about what was good for the soap makers not for the customers. Handmade soap gets around this problem by simply using oils and butters to saponify (a technical term meaning "turn to soap") and form soap. 

Eliminating icky stuff is one part of the equation, and the second part of it is adding the good stuff! Small businesses making soap can add in a whole range of skin friendly ingredients which would be too expensive or too difficult for commercial manufacturers to use. You will find a lot of soaps with botanicals such as rose buds, mint leaves, apricot seeds, calendula flowers, walnut shells etc. Or soaps will use various types of sugars or salts or french clays, or exotic butters like mango butter, apricot butter, or other soothing ingredients like aloe vera, oatmeal etc. The possibilities are endless!! 

And then there is a whole world of scents, colors, shapes and designs. After "you made that????" the next thing people say to me when they get soap from me, is "oh this smells so good!!". Soap can be molded, shaped, cut, carved, colored or painted, and many handmade soaps are little works of art. 

So coming back to the subject at hand, how to make soap, let's talk about the 4 basic kinds of handmade soap. There are glycerin soaps, cold process soaps, hot process soaps and french milled soaps. I make and use all 4 kinds, and love each of them for different reasons. I will write in detail about each of these, but here's the basic info on each: 

1) Glycerin soap: This soap is made using bases sold by bath and body suppliers and is also called melt and pour soap. This soap is wonderful for artistic soapers, because it lends itself to intricate designs, shapes, sizes, colors and special effects, and makes for very beautiful soaps. 

2) Cold process soap: This type of soap making starts with oils and butters of your choice, which are mixed in specific proportions and combined with sodium hydroxide at specific temperature to saponify. This soap has to set for 4 to 6 weeks, give or take a few based on the recipe, to form usable soap. This soap is an excellent choice to make smooth and silky soaps from scratch, and to make soaps for specific purposes, such as acne soap, or winter skin soap. 

3) Hot process soap: This soap is somewhat similar to cold process soap, in terms of the initial part of the process with combining oils and butters and sodium hydroxide. Instead of curing for weeks, this soap is cooked to hasten the process. This method produces rustic looking soap, and is the closest method to the days of old when soap was made in a large vat over the fire. 

4) French milled soap: This soap is made by taking cold or hot process soap, and further working it by grating and cooking. This method allows you to add delicate additives to the soap which will not withstand any other soap making method, and produces an exceptionally mild bar of soap. 

I will write more about each type of soap in the future! Let me know if you have any questions.