Tips for making homemade soap?

[Rachellelogram]

I would like to start making my own soap! Because it's neat, would be totally customizable wrt scent and color, and makes a good holiday gift. I've read up on soapmaking for the past few hours, and am most interested in the little glycerine cubies that you just need to melt, add scent/color, pour into molds, and let re-form at room temperature. But I'm curious to know: how best to make it sudsy? A lot of people seem to complain that the glycerine pre-fab soap bases aren't very sudsy at all. I also have hard water, which would compound that issue. Would I be able to add coconut oil to glycerine cubes and melt it all together to attain higher levels of sudsiness? If so, what kind of coconut oil should I be looking for? Hydrogenated or non-? I've never done anything with coconut oil so I really have no idea.

I'm not personally interested in making cold-process soap, because it takes forever and I don't want to muck around with chemicals--plus I'd be making a lot of it for my sister, who refuses to use animal products. But I welcome feedback from anyone who wants to share that experience, too.

If this belongs in Cafe Society instead, I wouldn't object to a topic move.

[TriPolar]

Umm, ever read Fight Club?

[wheresmymind]

Glycerine cubes? Coconut oil? That's not making your own soap, that's re-shaping soap that you buy. First thing you need to do is start saving all your bacon fat. :-)

Oh, I just read your last paragraph. N/M.

[Rachellelogram]

Melt and pour is real soap, too!

[MsWhatsit]

Originally Posted by Rachellelogram

Melt and pour is real soap, too!

Yeah, but it's not making soap. It's just playing around with soap that someone else already made.

You can easily make all-vegetable cold-process soap, by the way. In fact, that's the vast majority of handmade soaps that I see for sale at craft fairs and the like. Coconut oil, palm kernel oil, almond oil, etc. No lard or bacon fat required.

[papergirl]

I was a soapmaker for years...mostly cold process, but I sold a lot of melt and pour. It's a blast to make, and super easy to do. I'd recommend buying your bases and fragrances online--try brambleberry or wholesalesuppliesplus, perhaps--as the ones you buy at craft stores are not as high-quality in my experience.
Adding oils (any anything else, like oatmeal or loofah, etc) will only make your soap less sudsy. The only strategy for having a sudsier m&p is to find a good sudsy base, then not add much to it in the way of oils and scrubby stuff. You just need your base, some color, and some fragrance. The white bases will appear to be more sudsy, but it always seemed to me that this was more due to the color than the actual quality.
Remember too that suds don't get you any cleaner...bubbles just make us feel like we're doing a better job.
Enjoy! And when you're done, wrap your soaps well in good stretch wrap. (I always used Sams Choice brand from WalMart). Then you can stick 'em on a shelf and they won't get sticky.
Oh, and if you want to layer colors--pour, let cool, spritz with rubbing alcohol, pour the next layer. The alcohol increases adhesion.
PM me if you have any questions...I can talk soap til your ears fall off.

[Leaffan]

I'd make sure you start with a good chicken or beef broth.....

Oh, you said soap.


Never mind.

[Rachellelogram]

I did a lot of research on this today. Yay for Youtube and Brambleberry!

Originally Posted by MsWhatsit

Yeah, but it's not making soap. It's just playing around with soap that someone else already made.

Playing around? Not to get snarky, but melt and pour is an entire subset of soap-making in itself. You make it sound inferior. Adding colorant and designing an interesting end-product is an art form in itself. M&P has a shallower learning curve, sure, and is easier to pick up, so it's pretty easy for kids to make crappy little bars of M&P soap. But that doesn't mean melt-and-pour doesn't have a high skill-ceiling. The M&P technique can make soap that's just as nice as the cold-processed variety, without all the bother of tinkering with kitchen chemistry.

Originally Posted by MsWhatsit

You can easily make all-vegetable cold-process soap, by the way. In fact, that's the vast majority of handmade soaps that I see for sale at craft fairs and the like. Coconut oil, palm kernel oil, almond oil, etc. No lard or bacon fat required.

Thanks for the info, it's good to know that I can make vegan cold-process soaps. But I don't really want to touch cold-processing, due in part to the chemicals involved, but mostly because of the excessive curing period. Hot-processing would be more viable--it uses chemicals, but you heat the lye out between saponification and cooling, so it doesn't require curing. However, hot-processing also requires implements that go beyond dabbling--a thermometer gun, a soap-dedicated crock pot, a stick mixer, and a large mold.

Originally Posted by papergirl

I was a soapmaker for years...mostly cold process, but I sold a lot of melt and pour. It's a blast to make, and super easy to do. I'd recommend buying your bases and fragrances online--try brambleberry or wholesalesuppliesplus, perhaps--as the ones you buy at craft stores are not as high-quality in my experience.
Adding oils (any anything else, like oatmeal or loofah, etc) will only make your soap less sudsy. The only strategy for having a sudsier m&p is to find a good sudsy base, then not add much to it in the way of oils and scrubby stuff. You just need your base, some color, and some fragrance. The white bases will appear to be more sudsy, but it always seemed to me that this was more due to the color than the actual quality.
Remember too that suds don't get you any cleaner...bubbles just make us feel like we're doing a better job.
Enjoy! And when you're done, wrap your soaps well in good stretch wrap. (I always used Sams Choice brand from WalMart). Then you can stick 'em on a shelf and they won't get sticky.
Oh, and if you want to layer colors--pour, let cool, spritz with rubbing alcohol, pour the next layer. The alcohol increases adhesion.
PM me if you have any questions...I can talk soap til your ears fall off.

Brambleberry is awesome! Thanks for that link, I have a whole cart full of stuff now that I can't afford to buy yet (lol). I'm going to get three different bases (wow super cheap, less than $3 a pound!) and some delicious scents. As far as colors, I picked out some yellow, magenta-ish, and cyan-ish mica. I figured that would be best, because it would allow me to make all the other colors. Go go pigment color wheel!

I hope I don't sound like a huge smarty-pants, I've just been researching this nonstop for about 16 hours now. The "soap queen" youtube videos have been a really huge help, so I learned how the alcohol helps with adhesion and removing air bubbles. Thanks again, I'll definitely PM you if I have questions! I can't wait to get started!

[wheresmymind]

Ha! I clicked on your second link to see what you meant. The frantic, driving techno music was the perfect counterpoint to the subject of the video. Not what you'd expect from a craft soap hobbyist! I literally laughed out loud. Good luck with the soap!

[Sateryn76]

Soap Queen is the best - very helpful and awesome!

Don't let anyone make you feel inferior because you do M&P - as you pointed out, there is a lot of artistry there. Some painters make their own paints, but we don't mock those who buy them at a store.

Look to etsy for design ideas, and be prepared for it to take over your life and your checkbook.

I have added some regular table while sugar to increase sudsing, since my husband felt weird about it. It works, and the Brambleberry shaving soap has more lather as well.

Have fun - soaping is great!

[ThisSpaceForRent]

Step One...Buy hog farm!

[MsWhatsit]

Originally Posted by Rachellelogram

Playing around? Not to get snarky, but melt and pour is an entire subset of soap-making in itself. You make it sound inferior.

Well, clearly!

I'm mostly just messing around with you. (Although I do still maintain that M&P isn't "making" soap. It's more like decorating soap. No disrespect intended to the artistry or talent involved, which I recognize is significant.) I've been making cold-process soap for personal use for about, oh, 15 years or so. We've occasionally toyed with the idea of selling it but that just seems like too much work. Mostly we just make enough for ourselves plus enough to give out as gifts at Christmas.

In my personal opinion, you are vastly overestimating the difficulty and danger involved with using lye. Get yourself a pair of safety glasses, follow a few simple precautions, and it's not that big of a deal, honestly. I've made skrillions of batches of soap, mostly solo on my own, and never had any problem with the lye. And as far as the curing process, some of the soapmaking books and sites make it sound like if you touch soap in the curing process it will melt your hand off, but actually it's just that for the first couple of weeks, if you use the soap it will be slightly harsh on your skin.

That said, if melt & pour is your bag, then by all means go for it! Then come back and show us photos of the finished product. Soapmakers live for that kind of thing.

[LegsAkimbo]

You're making me want to get back into soap making, I've been a way a long time. I did the melt and pour, but got to choose and combine my own fragrances. The soap lathered great and smelled precisely like I wanted it to...so I don't really see the downside. And yay for Brambleberry from here too. I don't know if they still do, but when I was ordering from them they often included a nice fragrance sample.

[ceilidh]

This website has some great recipes for free, and if you can't find some of the needed ingredients at local stores, you can order what you need from them.

[Renee]

I agree with MsWhatsit, the whole "kitchen chemistry" thing is not a big deal at all. I don't really get the point of melt and pour soap. It seems like you're just taking soap and making it prettier, which is fine, I guess, but it's quite an expensive hobby compared to actually making your own soap, which gives you great, hand-made soap for not a lot of money.

"However, hot-processing also requires implements that go beyond dabbling--a thermometer gun, a soap-dedicated crock pot, a stick mixer, and a large mold."

Meh. I have no idea what a thermometer gun is (you don't need to take the temp of hot process at all, so you don't even need a regular thermometer), I use my regular crock pot with no problems, stick mixers cost less than $20, and you can use old milk cartons as molds. You do need a good scale.

I still prefer cold process, but neither is a big deal. Takes half an hour from start to clean up, and you have full control of the chemicals and whatnot that are on your skin. It's a great hobby, good luck with whatever you decide on.

[Rachellelogram]

Well, melt-and-pour is the only soap that can be translucent or transparent. It has its place. Cold- and hot-process soap is always opaque.

[papergirl]

If you haven't placed your order yet, spring for a titch of mica in silver or gold or something neutral--it adds a gorgeous shimmer to your clear soap and will look way snazzier.
Cool stuff you can try once you really get obsessed...
*Thinly layer mica gold, clear, clear black, and brown. Cool, cut it into shard-shaped chunks, and call it "tigereye" or something similar. It's really neat and definitely looks like beautiful rocks of some sort. (I used to do several soap "rocks" and they're always fun.)
*Another rock thing to try, but you'll have to google directions as it's a little more complicated. Check out directions for "Thunder egg melt and pour". These are WAY fun and kids love them.
Oh, now I want to make soap!!!!

[Rachellelogram]

Update: my sister bought my whole Brambleberry wishlist as a birthday gift! So, yay! I'm finally getting some soap-making supplies. And I have a question about mica-mixing. All I'm doing is melt-and-pour, so I don't have to worry about cold-process messing up the colors. But I'd like to know, what is the best way to produce a rainbow of colors? I was thinking to buy red, yellow, & blue mica and mix them together. Does color-mixing with mica work like plain-old ROY G BIV? Can I mix primaries to make secondaries? (R+Y=O, R+B=V, B+Y=G) Or would it be better to buy mica in all 6 colors separately?

On my wishlist I hadn't planned to optimize my color-mixing, so I'll just be getting blue, pink, & purple for now. But going forward, I would like to know the best way to get an actual rainbow of colors. I've seen various rainbow-colored soap techniques, and I really want to replicate that.

[Rhiannon8404]

How exciting! I do hope you will link to some pictures of your finished product when you get to that point. I didn't see this thread when it was first posted, but after reading it, well, now I want to make soap!

[Rachellelogram]

I definitely will post pictures. I'm super excited to make some swirly soap in soon-to-be-my silicone mold! The shipment won't arrive until next week sometime, but I'll do a bump with photos.

[Sateryn76]

Originally Posted by Rachellelogram

Update: my sister bought my whole Brambleberry wishlist as a birthday gift! So, yay! I'm finally getting some soap-making supplies. And I have a question about mica-mixing. All I'm doing is melt-and-pour, so I don't have to worry about cold-process messing up the colors. But I'd like to know, what is the best way to produce a rainbow of colors? I was thinking to buy red, yellow, & blue mica and mix them together. Does color-mixing with mica work like plain-old ROY G BIV? Can I mix primaries to make secondaries? (R+Y=O, R+B=V, B+Y=G) Or would it be better to buy mica in all 6 colors separately?

On my wishlist I hadn't planned to optimize my color-mixing, so I'll just be getting blue, pink, & purple for now. But going forward, I would like to know the best way to get an actual rainbow of colors. I've seen various rainbow-colored soap techniques, and I really want to replicate that.

The easiest way to use micas is to mix it with something liquid before adding it to the soap. One uses liquid glycerin ( they have this at Hobby Lobby if you didn't order it) and one with rubbing alcohol. Check Brambleberry for instructions on which is which. But I wouldn't suggest adding it directly in powder form to the soap - it never mixes completely and looks grainy and basically like shit. I would mix the colors after adding the micas to the liquid.

[papergirl]

You can mix your micas. The results can be stunning. I used to have a whole little side-business selling mica cubes--basically, a m&p cube with enough mica to color 2 pounds of soap. I had a bunch of standard micas, with a whole lot I mixed up myself. Because it's m&p, it'll always be pretty, but the colors may not always combine as exactly as you might expect. If you need really specific colors, you might use a dye and then add a similar color mica for the sheen/glimmer. But to just play with--micas are a blast.

[Rachellelogram]

I saponified soapificated maded soap! Here's the photo album: http://imgur.com/a/8qOXz#0. It actually cut into 6 bars, but the bottom layer broke off the bar I'm keeping (none of the others, thankfully). The gimpy bar isn't pictured.

I forgot to add my apple pie fragrance to all the layers, oops. I only got 2 of them, because I was just winging it instead of using written instructions. But it looks great for a first attempt, and still smells pretty good. And it sudses up SO well! Brambleberry's bases are top-notch, and cheaper than the stuff you can buy at craft stores.

Thanks for that tip, Sateryn76. I couldn't find glycerin at Walgreens so I bought... glycerin Fleet enemas. Seriously! Emptied them into a small bottle after removing the lube plugs (a bit gross, ok, I know). But it worked! They contain pure glycerin, and it was a totally great way to pre-mix my micas.

For my next project, I'll either need to buy more base or get some smaller molds. Or probably both, because I'm hooked now! Here's my ingredient list, for the curious (spoilering to prevent the appearance of blatant product placement!):

SPOILER:

1.5 lbs Clear Melt And Pour Soap Base
1 lb Shea Melt and Pour
Glossy Silicone Square Tray Mold
Red Blue Lip Safe Mica
Amethyst Purple Mica
Blue Mica - Cellini Lip Safe Mica
Hot Apple Pie Fragrance

[Rachellelogram]

BTW I know it maybe looks like I didn't mix the blue top layer properly (what with the speckling), but it was intentional. I sprinkled a shitload of blue mica powder directly onto the light-pink layer while it was half-dry, smeared it around with my hand, let it dry, and then topped THAT with a clear colorless layer. I love the effect, because it looks like the ocean! The camera absolutely doesn't do justice to the stunning sparkly blue color.