Soap making supply sources are very numerous on the Internet. It’s actually puzzling where to go for supplies and information.

Consider these five categories of soap supplies that you must choose for your soap making project.

1. Oils

The most basic material you must choose are your base oils, the actual oils that turn to soap. If you’re making only small batches, you may choose to use what’s available in your local grocery store.

As your production volume goes up, you may choose to buy in larger volume. Here, shipping costs are a major factor.

If you do order your oils, consider Columbus Foods in Chicago for excellent quality materials at great prices.

2. Scents

If you scent your soaps, which you probably will, the choice of a scent supplier is difficult. Thee are so many to choose from.

You must choose whether to use synthetic fragrance oils in endless varieties. Or you may decide to use natural essential oils.

There are suppliers who specialize in each or some carry both types.

The choice of the scent oils may be a large part of your cost for a bar of soap.

3. Colors

Colors can be commercial pigments approved for cosmetics. These are often clay based.

Or there are many natural materials that produce muted earth tones. I’ve used and enjoy rose hips, spirulina, turmeric, kelp and many other natural plant-based materials as colorants.

Some soap making supply sources carry both types.

4. Lye

Lye is used to turn the oils to soap. It is a necessary ingredient in soap. But it is classified as a hazardous material so it’s expensive to ship. Luckily it is available through many of the soap supply source companies.

Lye can sometimes be found in building supply stores in the plumbing department.

The best place to buy lye is locally through an industrial chemical supply house. You’ll most likely need a tax exempt certificate or some way to prove you’re a business. Your wholesale cost will be far less than any other way.

5. Information

There is a bewildering amount of information about making soap available online.

Much of it is very good. and from reliable sources. Some of it is worthless.

A good inexpensive basic printed book is Soap by Ann Bramson. It’s a classic.

With some good guidance and a little work you can find the best soap making supply sources for your soap making projects.

Al Bullington writes about rural living and small scale business topics. He has made and sold soap for years.

For ideas about the best soap making supply sources as well as professional tips on making and marketing soap get his Soap Business Kit at www.soapbizkit.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Al_Bullington

Soap can make us feel a certain way depending on the scent or color. It of course always makes us feel clean, but certain types of soap are best for us.Soaps with a wonderful aroma aren’t cheap in the stores. That’s why it is better many times to make your own soap the way you like it. I love washing with vanilla scented soap or sometimes a refreshing scent such as china rain. Soap scents can bring back many good memories.

Soap in the stores nowadays just doesn’t smell as good as homemade soap. You have to pay a lot of money to find a soap in the store with a good lasting fragrance.

You can make your own homemade soap fairly inexpensively and the scent would last you for a while. You can choose any fragrance you want. There are all kinds to choose from such as rose, vanilla, lavender and so many more.You can even put herbs, flowers or other things inside the soap such as toys or cute erasers. Would you like to try?

We will start with a basic recipe. There are hundreds to choose from but it’s always better to start out simple. Remember, sometimes it takes a few tries to get it right. When you get the process down it becomes easy and fun to create your own soap. Ever since I started making soap not even my husband wants to use another soap. He broke out when he used a store bought soap so he says he just wants to use the soap I make.

Heres the recipe, followed by a backlink that will help you find more recipes and soap and bath products to help you. I prefer melt and pour because this soap is not only easy to make but very gentle on the skin.

Basic Recipe For Melt and Pour Homemade Soap

Ingredients:

1 pound clear melt and pour glycerin soap base
1/2 oz (20-30 drops)of fragrance or essential oil, herbs or anything you want to add to the soap

Things you will absolutely need:

a microwaveable container or bowl
Wooden spoon
Soap molds

Put the pound of m&p soap base in the microwave safe bowl. Place in microwave on high for 1 minute. Take out and stir. If not completely melted place in microwave on 1 minute. Keep checking until soap is completely melted.

Next, pour the fragrance or essential oil or herbs, toys etc you want put in the soap. Stir and pour into soap molds. Let set about 1 or 2 hours. If mold still fells warm let soap set until completely cooled. Then pop out onto wax paper.

Then wrap in pretty package such as plastic wrap with a bow or soap bags or boxes. Then label soap and put what scent it is or use it right away. These soaps make great gifts.

www.amandassoaps.com This website has soap and beauty recipes. It also has handmade soap and bath products for sale at great prices.
I hope you have fun with this project. Check out the other recipes and products on my website amandassoaps.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Amanda_Sullivan

Making natural soap at home is a great hobby for anyone. In addition to the fun, you will also be able to enjoy the healthiest user experience with the exact knowledge and complete choice of the ingredients. For those who are yet to try your first batch, you may wish to know exactly how to make homemade soap.

This process is easy, if you follow the right guide. To put it short, the essential part to make homemade soap is the saponification of basic ingredients such as lye or sodium hydroxide, fats and oils (derived from animals or vegetables), and water, which neutralizes the harsh effects of lye to produce a substance called glycerin in the soap.

There are several methods for making natural soap. If you are a beginner, you may want to start with the melt and pour method. With this process, a pre-made glycerin soap base is melted and poured into molds. Depending on which formula you would like to use, different oils and ingredients are added to create a specific soap blend. The beauty of this method is that you do not need to deal with lye. In the meantime, however, as your work starts from on a half-made soap base, you do not have full control of all ingredients in the soap.

A second soap making method is called cold process. As its name suggests, this process does not require heat for saponification. After you blend the lye with the oils/fats, you will need to wait (for as long as six weeks or so) for its moisture content to decrease until the soap takes form.

As contrast, the third method for making natural soap is called hot process, where heat is used to give saponification a boost. While heating the mixture of the ingredients, you shall keep stirring until your product starts to harden. With this method, there is no need for you to worry about the exact concentration of the lye solution.

Making natural soap is fun and rewarding, but it may cost a beginner repeated trials to get it right. Now, information is available to teach you how to make homemade soap, mostly in the form of e-books. However, if you are like me, who still experienced quite a few failed attempts after one e-book and another, you may find that a visual guide will be more effective than mere words. If you like the idea of a visual guide, make sure you check out http://www.soapmakefun.info With a master soap maker showing you how to make homemade soap step by step by performing the whole process right in front of you, you are sure to cut your learning curve and avoid those frustrating mistakes.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brenda_Lee

Soap making is an easy and fun craft hobby. But soap making can be a great part-time business. Many folks pull in an extra thousand or two a month with a part-time venture.

What’s the appeal of handcrafted soap? Commercial soaps are usually drying and many are actually synthetic detergents. Your kitchen crafted soap can work better. It has a special, moisturizing luxury feel. Plus you have the option of customizing it with different ingredients … especially scents in literally infinite variety. This can be a goat milk soap recipe or any other kind of milk as well.

This gives you one of our proven recipes and the basic instructions to put it all together.

Our specialty is milk soap. We made over 30,000 bars of soap like this in our kitchen sink over a four-year period. We sold all that soap at craft shows and festivals and through our own catalog. Though you can make soap using water instead of milk, you will like the milk soap better … guaranteed!!!

Lightly Lavender Goat Milk Soap Recipe

11.3 ounces (320 grams) Coconut Oil

11.7 ounces (330 grams) Palm Oil

15.5 ounces (440 grams) Olive Oil

3.9 ounces (110 grams) Almond Oil

6.1 ounces (175 grams) Sodium Hydroxide

15.5 ounces (440 grams) Whole Milk

2 1/3 Tablespoons Lavender Essential Oil

1 Tablespoon Almond Oil

Now for some “inside information”. To make any soap, you mix fats and an alkali or lye. All soap is made that way. The cured product is harmless. You can brush your teeth with it. You can even eat it. It won’t hurt you!

But the lye and the uncured soap mixture are very caustic. It will burn your skin. It will blind you if it gets in your eyes! You absolutely must wear goggles when you make soap and it’s best to wear rubber gloves and long sleeves too.

Equipment You Will Need

2 Stainless Steel Pans

1 Plastic Pan

Rubber Spatula

Thermometer (90-200 degree F Range)

Scale For Weighing Material

Molds For Soap (Plastic Tub)

Hand Held Stick Blender (Optional)

Soap Making Step-by-Step

1. Weigh oils and combine in stainless steel pan.

2. Heat slowly until everything melts. Cool to about 110 degrees. Do not include the scent oil or the small amount of almond oil.

3. Weigh lye in a plastic container. Remember the gloves and goggles.

4. Weigh milk and pour into a separate stainless steel pan.

5. Put 2-3 inches of water in your sink and add ice cubes. Put your pan with milk into ice water.

6. Slowly pour the lye into the milk. Take twenty minutes to do this, stirring all the while. Monitor the milk temperature and keep it below 150 degrees so it does not burn. When all the lye is added, let the mixture cool until it is 110 degrees.

7. Add the lye/milk mixture to the oils, stirring while you do so; now stir the soap mixture until it begins to gel. It’s time to stop stirring when a thin stream of soap drizzled on top of the soap mixture lays on top. This is called tracing. If stirring by hand this may take 45 minutes. To speed things up the trick is to use your hand blender to stir the soap for 30 seconds, let it rest for a minute and repeat until it traces.

8. Add scent oils and the extra almond oil.

9. Pour into prepared molds. Let sit for 24 hours. Remove from molds. Cut into bars and set aside to cure for 4 weeks.

These are basic instructions. Lots of soap making books are out there, but many make it so complicated it’s tough to get going. Even if you consult some of those books, return to these instructions for the basics. Try this recipe. You will love the results.

For those familiar with cold process soap making, the lye solution uses sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for saponification to produce bar soap. If you want to learn how to make liquid soap, the first thing you need to know is that liquid soap does not involve this type of lye. Instead, to make liquid soap you will need potassium hydroxide (KOH), known as potash lye. Both of these types of lye are extremely caustic and will burn your skin, so extreme care must be taking when you’re learning how to make soap.

Before you attempt to make liquid soap, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the cold process of soap making first. Beginners will find it more difficult to try to make liquid soap first, as it is a bit more complicated and requires a great deal of patience as well as a bit of extra time!

Similar to the cold process in that the lye mixture and fats are blended, liquid soap requires a lot of blending but instead uses heat to saponify the liquid. Reaching trace is a lengthy stirring process; to make liquid soap you will need to keep stirring or blending for about 30 minutes so a stick blender is a must if you want to know how to make liquid soap without getting cramp in your arm! Once the mixture reaches trace, the next stage is a waiting game. With an occasional stir every half hour or so, the soap will take up to 4 hours to cook, and its state will change several times throughout this period.

The next stage in your quest to make liquid soap is to test the soap mixture, to make sure it will stay clear. If all is well, water is added to dilute the “gloppy” mixture, but it is not quite ready yet to turn into liquid soap consistency you have been hoping to make! After several rounds of waiting and stirring, the paste will eventually dissolve and you’ll be ready to neutralize the liquid soap mixture. This process involves adding boric acid, and is required to get rid of the excess lye that is involved when you make liquid soap.

To make liquid soap smell pleasant, you will now need to add essential oils or fragrance to the mixture, and if you’d like a bit of color in your liquid soap, a coloring additive can also be used. Leave the liquid soap to cool and pour it into large containers to rest.

Now that you know how to make liquid soap, you are ready to divide up your mixture into individual containers, bottles or dispensing jars. Your soap is now ready to place in your bathroom and use for washing hands, as shower wash or shampoo, depending on the recipe you have used to make your liquid soap.

Making homemade soap can be fun and it’s really easy to do once you know how to use basic soap recipes. First of all, you’ll need a few important pieces of soap making equipment; heat resistant glass or plastic mixing bowl, kitchen scales, large stainless steel pot, stick blender, food thermometer and soap mold. Rubber gloves and safety goggles are also required when mixing lye. Soap recipes come in a huge variety, but the essential ingredients are always very similar.

Soap recipes – ingredients:

Lye* – as you can’t make soap without lye, all soap recipes will include this. Make sure the Lye is 100% sodium hydroxide, as any additives will affect your soap recipes.

Water – soap recipes will often just show cold water in the ingredients, but it is best to use distilled water or rain water.

Fat and oil – lard is the most common fat used in soap recipes, but you’ll also see other animal fats as well as vegetable fat. Olive oil, or coconut oil also appear in soap recipes, as they give the soap its lather and moisturizing properties.

Fragrance and other additives – you’ll see essential oils or fragrance oils in soap recipes, to give the soap a nice smell. Coloring can also be added, and some soap recipes also include abrasives such as seeds or oatmeal for exfoliating soaps.

Soap recipes – method:

The lye solution is made first by adding the lye to the water. Both are carefully weighed first according to the quantities given in your choice of soap recipes. Next the fat is melted and combined with the oils, and the mixture is cooled to the correct temperature shown in the soap recipe. Once the lye mixture and the oils are at the same temperature, they are combined in the soap pot and blended until thickened, known as “trace”.

The soap recipe’s ingredients may have listed fragrance oils or essential oils, such as sandalwood, lavender, or vanilla. The fragrance oils and any other additives are put into the soap pot now, and after blending everything together the soap mixture is poured into a mold. Soap recipes will usually tell you to line the molds, to make it easier to remove the soap after the “saponification” process.

Good soap recipes will instruct you to cover the mold with a lid and then wrap your soap mold in blankets to insulate it for around 18 hours. After leaving the mold open for another few hours, the soap is ready to cut and left to dry out for at least 2 weeks to cure.

Soap recipes – making your own:

Once you master the basics of soap making, creating your own soap recipes will be easy and fun to do. You can experiment with different colors and fragrances, and even use more attractive shaped molds to design your own soap products. Beginners should however make sure they follow the soap recipes’ instructions to make sure that the quantities are correct.

*An important word about lye – lye is a highly caustic substance which will severely burn your skin and eyes if you come into direct contact with it, or if the lye solution splashes on you. You must use safety precautions and take extreme care when handling lye!

Homemade soap making is easy when you have the right tools, equipment and ingredients. Soap making supplies start with the basics, but there are also plenty of additional products available to help your soap making projects more interesting.

Basic soap making supplies – essential tools and equipment:

? A good set of weighing scales. These should be accurate and reliable, and be cable of measuring small amounts. ? Heat resistant pitcher for measuring your soap making ingredients. This must be capable of withstanding high temperatures, so a good tip is to look for a dishwasher safe pitcher. The container needs to be at least 2 quart capacity in either glass or plastic for soap making. ? Supplies of stainless steel spoons, or a few small cups for measuring oils and other soap making additives. ? The soap making pot, with lid. Ideally this will hold at least 8 quarts and should be stainless steel or enamel, but smaller soap pots can be used for lower quantities of soap making ingredients. ? Plastic or wooden stick for stirring the lye soap mixture. Your stick or spoon must have a long enough handle to safely stir the soap, making sure that your hands don’t reach too far into the pot. ? Stainless steel thermometer. This is needed to accurately gauge the temperature of your soap making solution. ? A soap mold to pour your soap making mixture into, to let it set. ? Safety goggles and rubber gloves.

Other handy soap making supplies include a stick blender, which makes the soap making process a bit faster, and litmus paper to test the pH of your soap.

Soap making supplies – main ingredients:

Lye – or sodium hydroxide is essential for soap making. Supplies of Red Devil Lye can be found at grocery stores, but may be behind the counter, so be sure to ask if you can’t find it on the shelves.

Water – for soap making is best if it’s distilled water, bottled water or even rain water supplies to keep it as pure as possible.

Fats and oils – the most common fats used in soap making are pork lard and beef tallow, but vegetable fat can also be used. Oils such as coconut oil or olive oil are added to give the soap its moisturizing properties as well as making it lather. Supplies of fats and oils are easily sourced on your supermarket shelves.

Fragrance oils – added in to the soap making process to give your soap a pleasant smell. Essential oils are also a popular choice in soap making recipes.

These are all the tools and ingredients you need to start making your own homemade soap. Soap making supplies are easy to find locally, but there are also many products available online, including starter kits for beginners.

Soap is a craft that is fun and easy to make. It’s a great project to do with your kids.Simply follow the instructions below and you’ll be on your way to one of your first bars of soap… where you choose all the soap colors and shapes.

You will need the following materials:

- One bar of color free soap

- Essential oils of your choice

- Food coloring of your choice

- Almond Oil

- Vitamin E Oil (optional)

- Oats

Instructions:

1. Shred soap in a blender or food processor.

2. Boil a pot of water and put a glass bowl over the pot.

3. Put some almond oil into the bowl.

4. Place the soap into the bowl.

5. Take the water from the pot and pour it into the bowl until the soap changes into paste.

6. Add oils, color, and Vitamin E as you prefer.

7. Let your soap cool in the molds of your choice. (Your mold could be ice cube trays, cookie cutters, or anything else that you might come up with.)

8. Allow the soap to air out on wax paper for a day or two.

Best of luck and be sure to experiment with different colors and shapes for your soap.

Commonly called bath bombs or bath fizzies these fun bath time additions are pretty easy to make. Store bought fizzies often contain chemicals like Sodium Laureth Sulfate which is a foaming agent. I can be really harsh on skin though, so make your own fizzies easily and avoid unnecessary ingredients like that. First you’ll need to gather your basic ingredients- distilled water, a light oil (like sunflower, almond or grape seed, but mineral oil can be used as well)skin safe fragrance oil of your choice, Epsom salts, baking soda, corn starch and citric acid. Citric acid can be found online easily, there are two grades and often suppliers aren’t clear on which grade they carry. Ive seen the finer grade labelled as ‘food grade’, ‘grade A’ and ‘Super Fine’ this grade is preferred, its easier to make bath bombs with but the coarser grade will be just fine as well.

The recipe and directions are pretty simple:

Dry ingredients:

• 2 parts baking soda

• 1 part citric acid

• 1 part corn starch

• 1/2 part Epsom Salt

wet ingredients:

• 1/2 T. oil

• 3/4 T. water

• 2-4tsp. fragrance

First sieve the dry ingredients and mix them well. Then combine the wet ingredients together in a bottle or jar and shake well. Slowly drizzle the wet into the dry and mix quickly and thoroughly until it will hold its shape like wet sand does if you squeeze it in your hand. This is the trickiest part of making bath fizzies, after a few tries you will be able to identify exactly how much liquid you need to use. Once you have achieved the wet sand consistency its time to mold your bombs. The easiest way to do this is in a muffin pan, just pack the mixture into the muffin pan, wait a few moments and turn them out very carefully. If they all crumble you either need to pack them harder or use more liquid. You can use these right away but they are best after they have dried completely.

By Shelley Fluegge

Making the basic bath fizzie or bath bomb is pretty easy, but if you want to make something superior there are several things you can do. First of all the use of cocoa butter can yield a much harder bomb and a more luxurious bath. Simply substitute up to half of your oils with melted cocoa butter. Let your new mixture cool before using because hot or warm oil/water mixture will set off your bath bomb mixture much faster than room temperature oil/water.

A quicker drying bomb can be achieved with the addition of kaolin clay, rather than using Epsom salts substitute with kaolin clay at the ration of 1 part salts to .5 part clay.

Cracked bombs- cracks in bath bombs results from using too much liquid, scale back the liquid and you will have better results, you can also try adding in a few pinches of kaolin clay to your next batch to keep those cracks at bay. The bombs are still good, just not pretty.

Bumpy bombs/’growing’ bombs- too much liquid again, or too high humidity. If you live in a humid climate you may want to invest in a dehumidifier if you plan on making a ton of bombs. Make sure you seal your bombs in a dry container or shrink wrap them as soon as they are dry in humid climates.

Round bombs aren’t staying together- this is a real trick if you use kaolin clay in your recipe you may have better results. Never letting your molds touch when packing the bombs also helps. Scoop each of your molds full of combined bomb mixture and get them both heaping full and press them gently together, being careful not to twist or set them together off center. Once you have firmly pressed the molds together, and they were full enough not to touch after being packed together wait a moment and carefully begin to lift off one mold. Once one side is unmolded flip it over in your hand so the unmolded side is in your hand and gently lift off the remaining mold. Now press the bomb together with your hands and smooth the seam down slightly. Set on a soft towel to dry overnight