Handmade Soap - How to make soap at home

Handmade Soap: How to make soap at home

If you want to make washing your face a more enjoyable experience every day, consider using handmade soap. With handmade soap, you can choose the ingredients and the scent that you prefer, whether it's minty, citrusy, or calming like lavender. Not only can handmade soap make your daily skincare routine more enjoyable, it can also help fight wrinkles, dry skin, and large pores. In this article, we will discuss how to find the right handmade soap for you.

The Basics of Soap

In ancient times, people made soap from fat and ashes. It was used for medical purposes, such as treating skin diseases and cleaning wounds to speed up healing. In Europe, soap factories didn't appear until the 10th century, and the soap they produced was expensive and only affordable to wealthy people. French soap, made with essential oils from Provence, was considered the best at the time.

Handmade soap

One reason that handmade soap is becoming more popular is because each bar is unique. With a home soap maker, you can create soap in any shape or color that you want, and decorate it with dried plants or mother-of-pearl. Not only is handmade soap a fun addition to your bathroom, but it also makes a thoughtful gift for friends and loved ones. Plus, making your own soap allows you to control the ingredients and ensure that they are natural and good for your skin.

Keep in mind:

  • Hand-made soap tends to have a shorter shelf life than factory-made soap because it doesn't contain preservatives. As a result, it's best to only purchase small amounts at a time and use it within six months. This will ensure that the soap remains fresh and effective. It's also important to store the soap in a dark, dry place to help extend its lifespan.
  • The color might change, get lighter, or fade over time. Put the soap somewhere dark, dry, and out of the way where it won't get wet.
  • Before purchasing or making soap, it's important to check for any potential allergies to the ingredients. For example, if you have high blood pressure, you should avoid using rosemary essential oil in your soap, as it can raise blood pressure. It's always better to be safe than sorry, so make sure to do your research and consult with a healthcare professional before using any new skincare products.

Hand Soap Recipe: What needs to get started

Tools:

  • Kitchen scales with at least 1g of accuracy
  • Pots of the right size for a "water bath"
  • A bowl for melting soap base and mixing ingredients
  • Mixing sticks (glass or wood)
  • Measuring spoons, syringes, and Pasteur pipettes
  • Digital temperature gauge
  • Molds (silicone or plastic)
  • Personal protective equipment (respirator, apron, gloves, goggles)

handmade soap recipe

 With these tools, making handmade soap will not take much time and effort.

Ingredients

  • Soap base: This is the foundation of your soap, and is typically made from a combination of glycerin, propylene glycol, and sodium stearate. You can also use natural oils like palm, coconut, laurel, sea buckthorn, and castor to give your soap additional moisturizing properties.
  • Base oils: If your soap base does not contain any oils, you may want to add some to give your soap extra moisturizing properties. Some common base oils include olive oil, grapeseed oil, and almond oil.
  • Essential oils: These are derived from plants and give your soap its unique scent. Popular essential oils include mint, tea tree, orange, rose, and eucalyptus. Each essential oil has its own unique properties and benefits, so choose the ones that suit your preferences and needs.
  • Dyes: You can use a variety of natural dyes to color your soap, such as coffee, chamomile tea, curry, and beetroot juice. These dyes not only add color to your soap, but can also provide additional benefits, such as the antioxidant properties of coffee or the soothing effects of chamomile tea.
  • Scrub components: These are added to the soap to provide exfoliating properties, and can include ground coffee, dried plants, and oatmeal. These ingredients gently remove dead skin cells, leaving your skin feeling soft and smooth.
  • Additives: You can also add other ingredients to your soap for additional benefits, such as honey for extra moisturizing properties, or activated charcoal for its purifying effects. Experiment with different additives to find the ones that work best for your skin.

If you're new to making soap, it's best to start by following a recipe closely and gaining some experience before attempting to make any changes. As you become more familiar with the process, you can start to experiment with different ingredients and techniques to create your own unique soaps.

Additionally, any leftover base oils and essential oils can be repurposed to make bath salt mixtures with dried flowers. These make for a thoughtful gift for a friend or can simply be enjoyed by yourself. As you gain more experience with soap making, you can experiment with different combinations of oils and flowers to create your own personalized bath salts.

5 Steps to make hand soap at home

Step 1: Make the soap base liquid by cutting it into small pieces and melting it in a water bath. Keep the temperature below 60 degrees to avoid bubbles and ensure the soap looks good.

Step 2: Add base oil to the melted soap base. Use one tablespoon per 100 grams of soap. Different oils have different properties - palm oil makes the soap solid, castor oil creates good foam, and coconut oil helps the soap clean well. Olive oil is good for babies and people with sensitive skin. Avoid using sunflower, flaxseed, or corn oils as they can make the soap worse.

Step 3: Add dye to the soap. Use food colorings for a bright and rich color, about 5 drops per 100 grams of soap. For natural soap, use mineral pigments like titanium dioxide for bleaching, chromium oxide for green, and iron oxide for red.

essential oils for handmade soap

Step 4: Add essential oil to the soap. Most soap bases already have 1-4% essential oil. If you're making soap from scratch, use heavier oils like cedar, neroli, or cinnamon up to 1%, and lighter oils like orange, tea tree, or eucalyptus up to 10%.

Step 5: Give the soap the shape you want by filling the chosen mold with the liquid soap and letting it cool or placing it in the fridge for a few minutes. The setting time will be indicated on the soap base package. Once the soap has hardened, remove it from the mold by dipping it in hot water. Let it dry on a piece of paper for two days.

10 Handmade Soap Making Tips

Even people who know how to make soap by hand can make mistakes when they use new ingredients. We got 10 tips from people who make soap to help you with your experiments.

handmade soap making tips
  1. Use woody essential oils like sandalwood, cedar, and patchouli to keep light citrus scents in the soap for longer.
  2. Mix the pigment with the base oil before adding it to the soap to prevent clumps.
  3. You can't use food coloring to make multi-colored or layered soap bars, as the colors will blend together.
  4. Instead of using dyes, try using blue, yellow, or red clay in your soap for added skin benefits and a soft, pastel color.
  5. Mix essential oils according to the table for the best results. For example, mint and jasmine, rosemary and grapefruit, and ginger and orange all work well together.
  6. Be careful not to create bubbles when mixing the ingredients.
  7. Use a miter box to cut large soap bars into smaller, uniform pieces.
  8. Layering soap can create a nice effect. Spray alcohol on the previous layer before adding the next one.
  9. Use only well-dried fruit, seed, flower, and herb pieces in your soap to prevent mold.
  10. Wait for the soap base to cool before adding essential oils, as the heat can cause the oils to "evaporate" and lose their scent.

Useful effects of handmade soap

To make hand soap, you need base oils and essential oils. These ingredients give the soap its useful properties.

When choosing base oils, consider the skin type you're making the soap for. Olive oil is good for all skin types, including dry and sensitive skin. Coconut oil heals and whitens the skin, and also creates a protective film against UV rays. Castor oil is great for very sensitive skin.

Grape seed oil is a good option for a moisturizing soap. It contains fatty acids that are easily absorbed by the skin and nourish it. In addition, it helps control the sebaceous glands and keeps oily skin healthy.

Avocado, mango, apricot kernel, and wheat germ oils all help fight signs of aging. Sea buckthorn oil is good for treating acne and helping wounds heal faster. Cocoa butter tightens and smooths the skin.

useful effects of soap

 

Let's look at what effect you can expect from the most popular essential oils:

  1. Sweet orange oil rejuvenates the skin, gets rid of comedones, tightens the skin, and promotes collagen production.
  2. Verbena oil works as an antiseptic and antidepressant, making people feel better and calming them down.
  3. Cedar oil can get rid of bad smells and treat skin diseases.
  4. Lavender oil prevents the first signs of aging and black spots, soothes irritation, and makes blood vessels more flexible.
  5. Neroli oil gets rid of rosacea, comedones, and cellulite.
  6. Patchouli oil softens the skin and prevents cracks from forming. It also helps with dermatoses and makes scars less noticeable.
  7. Tea tree oil has antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties, making it useful for people with frequent herpes, fungal infections, acne, eczema, and other skin diseases.

When you use handmade soap, you're using natural ingredients that are good for your skin. Vitamins, fatty acids, and other trace elements found in nature are bioactive and help your skin regenerate faster. This keeps your skin fresh, elastic, and firm for a long time.

Where can you buy handmade soap?

Not everyone is willing to make soap at home because the recipes require many expensive ingredients and the process takes time and skill. Additionally, mass-produced soap is not always available because it is difficult to manufacture in large quantities. At Soap Candle Shop, we specialize in handmade soaps and candles. When looking for information about a brand, it's important to rely on reputable sources, like us.

buy handmade soap & candle

 

What did we learn so far

  • To make soap by hand, you'll need some tools and ingredients, including a soap base, oils, dyes, and decorative pieces.
  • The process for making handmade soap from a soap base involves five steps: melting the base, adding base oil, color, essential oil, and pouring the mixture into molds.
  • If you're new to making soap, it's best to follow recipes and advice from experienced soap makers. As you gain more experience, you can start trying new things.
  • The usefulness of soap depends on the oils it contains. You can make soap that refreshes, moisturizes, tones, or brightens the skin.
  • When shopping for soap, it's a good idea to read about the company that made the product. For example, the Soap Candle Shop in Canada. Look at the ingredients, how the scents mix, how well it foams, how it feels on your skin, and how it looks.
Creating your own bath mixtures can be fun if you enjoy the process of making soap. Natural ingredients like salt, oils, and dried flowers can be mixed together to create something useful.
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