Month: August 2012

Soap Photography Studio Tutorial

Posted on by Dana

Some soapers’ pictures look so awesome, and I was increasingly frustrated by my own photographs. I decided to make a soap photograph studio, and while I was at it, I thought I’d share my process.

I started with the following materials plus a roll of tape that I forgot to put in the picture.

I recently moved from Georgia to Massachusetts, so we have a ton of boxes around. The other necessary items include freezer paper (which you probably have on hand to line your molds), a glue stick, and scissors. I like how my box informs me it’s designed for multiple uses. This use is probably one that U-Haul didn’t have in mind. (Yes, I know, they meant you could use it more than once.)

Next cut two sides off the box so you have three sides left.

Rub your glue stick on the cardboard and line the box with your freezer paper.

Fold the sides over the box and glue them down. I also used tape to fix the ends. It doesn’t have to be pretty. That part of the box won’t show in your pictures.

See? My tape is not pretty.

Fold the paper over the top and bottom. You will need to cut the paper to get it to fold over corners. If you look hard, you can see my kitty Bella in the background.

Now you’re finished. You can see the purple glue stick hasn’t dried on my soap photo studio yet, but that kind of glue stick turns clear when it dries. I think they make it like that so kids using it have better aim.

Here are some pictures of my soap using my new soap photo studio. Full disclosure: I did neaten up a few spots and cropped the images in Photoshop, but this is not by any means a complete retouch.

I considered using this one for my new banner image. My need for a new banner image prompted me to create my photo studio in the first place.

I love how this one came out. Pretty soap! And for once, I’m not distracted by what’s in my background.

A cropped version of this photo is my new banner image. I love the way the shadows look in this one. I took these in the late afternoon/early evening near my kitchen window with just my overhead kitchen light on. It looks like natural morning light.

So that’s it! Now you can make your own soap photo studio so you can take awesome photos of your soap. You can use whatever color paper you want to line the box. I chose white so that the background would draw as little attention to itself as possible. Plus it’s easy since I had it. I took the pictures with my iPhone, so no fancy camera tricks, lights, or techniques.

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The Everything Soapmaking Book, Alicia Grosso

Posted on by Dana

The Everything Soapmaking BookThe Everything Soapmaking Book by Alicia Grosso is a good introduction to basic soapmaking. Unlike some other soapmaking books I’ve seen, this book also discusses hot process and hand-milling techniques. The chapters on essential oils and fragrance oils were interesting. Not too many other books I’ve read devote so much space to fragrance, and it’s an important reason why people buy soap. Even though essential oils and fragrance oils are expensive, I can’t imagine making soap without them. Also, Grosso dedicates useful space to chapters on packaging, gifting, and selling soap, which is extremely useful information (and probably my favorite part of the book). The book also includes helpful appendices: a glossary, troubleshooting, DIY molds, and resources.

I think some of Grosso’s information may be out of date. I checked the copyright, which was 2003 and was renewed in 2007. I’m not sure what updates or changes were made for the 2007 edition, but Grosso makes a statement that it’s hard to sell soap online, and I’m sure it is hard if you have a stand-alone website and are slowly trying to build a business, but I think storefront sites like eBay and Etsy are changing that. I know eBay was around when the book was published, but Etsy wasn’t. Or at least it wasn’t large enough. Also, I think social networking in the form of sites like Twitter, Facebook, and especially Pinterest can make it easier to spread word of mouth about your soap. I have been sharing pictures of mine on Facebook and Instagram, and I have already have a few inquiries about purchasing it, and I’m not even ready to begin selling yet. I am not saying Grosso was wrong—I think she was probably right in 2003 or even 2007, but I think it’s a little easier to build a web-based business now than it might have been then. You have to be ready to do some serious social networking to move a large volume of soap, I’m sure, and good photography will be critical to your success, but I think perhaps the web is not the near lost cause she intimated it is.

Another issue I have with the book is a lack of pictures. You can’t have a soap-making book without full color pictures of soap! It might be that I’ve just been spending too much time on Pinterest lately, but I am learning that visuals are so important in soaping. I have learned more from looking at pictures and video tutorials than I thought possible when I started making soap. Even an instructional book for beginners, like this one, should have good, high-quality pictures to inspire readers.

That said, this book covers all the basics and is excellent for beginners. Highly recommended!

Note: I borrowed this book via Amazon on my Kindle through the Amazon Prime program.

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Amy Lowell’s Lilac Soap

Posted on by Dana
Amy Lowell
Amy Lowell via The Poetry Foundation

Amy Lowell is a Massachusetts poet. She loved the return of lilacs to New England in the spring and wrote a beautiful poem about it. I love lilacs, too. My grandmother had a lilac bush in her back yard. They were beautiful and smelled heavenly.

I tried yet another experiment this weekend: lilac soap. Who better to name a New England lilac soap after than Amy Lowell? I had intended to try swirling two colors for the first time, but things didn’t quite work out as I had planned.

Ingredients:

  • 8 oz. olive oil
  • 8 oz. coconut oil
  • 12 oz. palm oil
  • 12 oz. coconut oil
  • 13.2 oz. distilled water
  • 5.472 oz. lye
  • 4 T lilac fragrance oil
  • 2 T alkanet powder

Right about Tuesday of this week, I measured out two tablespoons of alkanet powder and 4 oz. of olive oil into a plastic container, stirred well, and put a lid on the container. I put the alkanet and olive oil infusion in a dark cabinet. I took it out today to use with my lilac swirl soap, intending to make two small batches of soap in different colors. I mixed the oils for each of the colors at the same time, measuring out half of the required amount. I put the infused olive oil in my colored bowl so I could remember which batch was supposed to be colored. In case you were wondering, yes, the alkanet infusion stained the plastic, but it didn’t bother me much because I wasn’t trying to prevent staining. If you use colorants and don’t want to stain your plastic, just use a glass jar for infusing instead.

Alkanet InfusionIt was a little scary to clean up afterward. Perhaps it might be best after all just to use something you can dispose of, like a pickle jar.

I had problems with my lye being too hot again, and this time, I was just using distilled water. The common denominator seems to be the lye, which is a new brand. I think I just won’t buy it again once I’ve used it up. It’s too much of a hassle to put my lye in an ice bath every single time I want to make soap. I would expect it when I’m making milk-based soaps, but not water. The lye I bought from Bramble Berry the first time I made soap costs about the same amount, even factoring in shipping, so I will just be ordering it from them.

I mixed the batch without the alkanet first so that I wouldn’t mix colorant from the hand blender into the light mix. I poured 2 T of lilac fragrance oil into each small batch of soap. The trace was too thick when I tried to pour the soap. The lilac fragrance oil accelerated the trace. At any rate, it was all I could do to spoon out globs of the soap into my mold before it hardened too much to use. I had no idea what I was going to get when I cut it open, but I think that’s true whether you spoon it out or swirl it, especially the first time. I just smashed it into mold as quickly as I could and hoped when I cut it the next day all would be well.

Well, I can say this: it could have been worse. I at least have usable soap, even though it isn’t very pretty.

Lilac SoapWhere to begin? Well, the light color is really not very pretty at all, and I suspect that its yellowish tinge comes from the shea butter I used. It actually looks prettier in these photos than it does in person. Trust me. It’s kind of a gross yellow.

Given that the color isn’t very pretty, I wish I had just colored the whole batch purple. Live and learn. As a result of trying to do too much (swirl, in this case), I wound up having the soap seize up on me, and I desperately shoved the soap into the mold, but pockets formed where there was no soap, and it was really ugly when I cut the bars.

Lilac Soap
Look at that nasty air pocket!

I suppose everyone has a batch of soap seize up on them at least once, but at least now I know that working with the lilac fragrance oil is going to be tricky, and I will need to bring my temperatures down a little to slow down the time it takes to trace and add the fragrance at a lighter trace. I also learned that swirling is really hard with floral fragrance like lilac, so I may just need to make the soap one solid purple color instead.

Lilac Soap

I also had some problems with soda ash, which is probably because it seized up, and I wasn’t able to put it to bed as soon as I should have. I had to cut the bars down quite a bit to make them somewhat presentable, as most of them had air pockets on the sides where the soap globs didn’t mash together well.

The soap smells heavenly, just like my grandmother’s lilacs, and I tried lathering up with some of the cuttings as a test. The lather is smooth and creamy. The soap has cosmetic issues to be sure, but it is something that could be used, even if I don’t think I could give it away or sell it (unless I discounted it like those outlet stores do with clothes that have something wrong with them).

I’m sorry, Amy! Next time your soap will be worthy of your name!

Creative Commons License

Amy Lowell’s Lilac Soap by Dana Huff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Suds Life: About.

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Chai Tea Soap

Posted on by Dana

As you might remember, I had planned to make chai tea soap last weekend, but my chai tea fragrance oil hadn’t arrived yet. I think I received it on Tuesday of this week. Anyway, I don’t fault Bramble Berry for taking their time and shipping fragrance oils ground. It’s much safer when shipping flammable oils. I’d hate for a fire to start. But I was kind of bummed out that I couldn’t make my chai tea soap. Next time, I will order earlier.

I made my chai tea soap on Friday instead, then cut it using my brand new crinkle cutter on Saturday.

Chai Tea SoapIngredients:

  • 8 oz. olive oil
  • 8 oz. coconut oil
  • 12 oz. palm oil
  • 12 oz. shea butter
  • 5.472 oz. lye
  • 13.2 oz. chai tea
  • 4 T chai tea fragrance oil
  • tea leaves from 3 chai tea bags

On Thursday night, I made the chai tea in a plastic container using distilled water, boiled, and 3 chai tea bags. I steeped the tea on the counter until it cooled to room temperature, then I put it in the refrigerator. I’m really glad I did that, as you will see in a moment.

After I got home from work Friday, I got out all my supplies and mixed my lye into the chai tea. The temperature shot way up, and it stalled right around 140°. I finally decided to put it in an ice water bath. I have never seen any warnings about tea. Everyone says using milk is tricky, and you should start with frozen milk and add the lye slowly. I didn’t realize the tea would do that. It could be some of the flavorings in chai tea in particular have that effect. There was a vanilla flavor and of course the spices added to the chai tea I used (Twinings French Vanilla Chai, if you are curious).

I was working with a new brand of lye, and it is shaped in little pastilles, which are a little neater in one respect—there is no fine dust left in the container when I add it to the liquid. However, they wanted to roll everywhere, so I would recommend using a bigger container than you even think you will need for lye that comes in little pastille shapes just so that you can collect all of it rather that watch it winging across the kitchen table like I did.

Once I managed to cool off the lye, I noticed my oils were a little too warm. It’s always something, isn’t it? I let them cool off for a minute, then I just added the lye. The soap reached trace fairly quickly. At a light trace, I added the fragrance. I didn’t notice any sort of acceleration or reaction, and the fragrance oil mixed very well with the soap. I cut open the tea bags I had used to make the chai tea and put the tea leaves into the soap at a heavier trace. I stirred them in, then poured the soap in my mold.

Chai Tea SoapThe crinkle cutter was great to work with. It made a cute design with no extra effort on my part, and it helped me cut my soap into more uniformly sized bars. The slots on my cutter mold are wider than my straight cutter, so sometimes my soap is slightly different sizes. The crinkle cutter just fits in the slots, which makes the soap easier to cut to the same size. It’s a good, quality cutter, and I can recommend it to anyone making soap.

The soap came out a pretty caramel color, and the flecks of tea leaves provide a nice decoration. My husband really liked the fragrance. I can’t say it smells precisely like chai tea to me (I drink chai all the time, and this fragrance is missing a sort of spicy smell), but it does smell good, and the vanilla tones of the chai scent came through. The fragrance may change as the soap cures, too, so that is something I need to keep in mind.

Chai Tea Soap CuringI put the soap on my curing rack after removing the first batch I ever made, which has now cured for four weeks and can be used. I think this batch of soap is probably the most uniformly pretty batch. I would feel comfortable selling every single bar from this batch, whereas several bars from my honey cinnamon oatmeal batch are funny looking because they were stuck in the mold, and some of my first batch of lemongrass sage have spots not colored by the essential oil. I think I have to lay credit at the feet of the crinkle cutter. I will probably be using that cutter a lot.

Creative Commons License

Chai Tea Soap by Dana Huff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Suds Life: About.

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The Great Chocolate Milk Soap Experiment

Posted on by Dana

The chai tea fragrance oil I ordered to make my chai tea soap this weekend didn’t arrive in time.

Boo!

But when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right? I could still make soap with things I had on hand or that I could easily pick up at the grocery store. I can’t find a place around here that sells essential oils or fragrance oils, so it had to be something that would be OK without added scent.

I decided that this weekend could be the weekend I experiment with using milk in soap, and I created a chocolate milk soap recipe I really wanted to try.

Chocolate Milk SoapWorking with both milk and chocolate can be more difficult, however, so I had to change some things about my process.

Ingredients

  • 13.2 oz. olive oil
  • 12 oz. coconut oil
  • 6.8 oz. palm oil
  • 4 oz. shea butter
  • 0.625 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate
  • 13.2 oz. whole milk
  • 5.637 oz. lye

First, I measured out the whole milk, put it in a freezer bag, and froze it. This is a suggestion for working with milk (although she mentions it with goat milk) from Heidi Corley Barto’s in The Natural Soap Chef. When you use liquids other than water, it’s a good idea to follow suggestions of more experienced soapers like Heidi, and she’s not the only person I’ve seen mention working with frozen milk. The milk should be at least a frozen slush when you use it. Make an ice bath in your sink, and put the slushy milk into the ice bath. Then carefully, slowly add the lye, stirring as you go. Add a bit, stir a bit. Go very slowly. If the temperature of the lye mixture starts to climb above 140°, add more ice to the ice bath.

Prepare the chocolate with the oils. It should be melted. You can melt it in the microwave if you’re careful. Check this link for tips on melting chocolate. When the lye/milk has reached 100°, add it to the oil mixture. The rest of the process as the same as making any other cold process soap: use a stick blender to help the soap saponify, and once it reaches trace, pour it into the mold of your choice. My recipe fits a three-pound loaf mold.

I knew working with milk would be different, but as it turned out, the main difference seemed to be the amount of time for each step. I think I put too much ice in the ice water bath, and my lye heated up, but then cooled down to about 80° and stalled there, so I put it in a warm bath. Well, a hot one. And I managed to bring it up to 98°, but it wouldn’t budge any more, so I decided maybe I should add it to the oils. It look longer than usual to reach trace. The soap didn’t feel as warm as it normally does when I picked up the mold to put it in the closet where I keep my soap. It seemed to take longer to reach a gel stage, too. I’m not sure if this is just normal for working with milk, or if it was due to the fact that I had to warm up my lye, or what.

When I poured it into the mold, it did look exactly like chocolate milk. Really thick chocolate milk. Like chocolate pudding, actually. I fretted over it because it was slower going than the other soap I’ve made, but once it started to reach gel stage, I felt better.

But it darkened up quite a bit by the time it had cooled, as I figured it would.

Chocolate Milk Soap in the Mold
Cooled Chocolate Milk soap in the mold

When I cut it into bars, I noticed that there was a sort of dark brown rim around the bar, while the middle was lighter. I think it was due to the fact that the soap isn’t completely hardened yet.

Chocolate Milk SoapA few hours later, the color had darkened to a deeper brown.

DarkerI noticed a couple of air bubbles, too, but you know, it’s chocolate milk, and who doesn’t blow bubbles in their chocolate milk, right?

It has a light scent that reminds me more of chocolate cake than milk, but my husband thought it smelled like chocolate milk. I lathered up and washed my hands with a tiny ball of the soap I had made from some trimmings, and it has a nice creamy lather. I was worried the chocolate would discolor the lather, but it didn’t seem to. I will have to test it again after some time passes just to make sure.

Yummy!
Yummy!

Creative Commons License

Chocolate Milk Soap by Dana Huff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Suds Life: About.

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The Best Soap I’ve Ever Used

Posted on by Dana

Lemongrass Sage Soap The first handmade soap I ever used was purchased from Indigo Bath and Body at the farmers’ market in Georgia, where I used to live. I loved the soap. It smelled wonderful (lavender and spearmint essential oils), and it felt amazing. The best thing I’d ever put on my face. Until this week.

I hate to say it because it sounds a bit boastful, but my lemongrass sage soap is even better for my face than the wonderful handmade soap I have been using whenever I can get my hands on it. I even stocked up prior to my move!

I have combination skin. My skin is oily in the T-zone. I rarely have issues with dry skin, but I do use a moisturizer formulated for oily skin in the morning. I have large pores on my nose and surrounding areas, and I have always been embarrassed about them, particularly when I purchased makeup and the helpful cosmetic counter assistants pointed them out to me (as if I didn’t know about them) and tried to steer me toward products that would hide or minimize them. The last salesgirl who pointed out my large pores tried to sell me some kind of mask that costs way more than anything I have ever put on my face, and is certainly more than I can afford. No way. I have tried Clarins’s Truly Matte Pore Minimizing Serum (which was pretty much the most expensive beauty product I’ve ever used on myself). I have tried Mario Badescu’s Silver Powder. I have even tried baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. These things all worked a little bit, but they never had a long-lasting impact, nor did they seem to make more than a small difference.

I had given up and decided that the best I could hope for was simply to mask my large pores under makeup.

When I made my first batch of lemongrass sage soap, I made too much for my mold and balled up the rest into two large “eggs.” I have been using one of the eggs this week, just since Sunday when I cut my soap into bars.

Incredibly, my pores are smaller. Like, tiny. I can hardly believe it. And it’s definitely the lemongrass sage soap because that’s the only new product I’ve started using—the only variation in my routine. I can’t say that it is necessarily the oils I’m using in the soap—olive, coconut, palm, and shea butter—although these oils make a nice conditioning, cleansing bar. I have wiped a cottonball with astringent over my skin after washing off my makeup with the lemongrass sage soap, and there has only been the barest trace of makeup right around the edges of my face. If I used a washcloth, I’m sure I wouldn’t have even that small amount because I can tell the residual makeup is at my hairline, and it’s just hard to get all of it. I have read, however, that lemongrass is good for oily skin and acne, and I have to wonder if the secret ingredient in my soap isn’t the essential oil I added only for fragrance.

It seems kind of silly to spend so much time extolling the virtues of something I made myself, but I have honestly tried everything there is, and I had just given up. For this reason, if no other, I’m so glad I learned how to make soap.

You will be able to buy my lemongrass sage soap from my Etsy store before the year is out.

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How Much Oil Do You Need for Your Mold?

Posted on by Dana

One of the most frustrating aspects of making soap that I encountered as a beginner was trying to figure out how much oil to use to make soap fit in a mold. I knew my soap mold held 3-4 pounds of soap, but what did that translate to in terms of amount of oils? My first batch didn’t have enough, and I wound up with squat-looking soap. My second batch had way too much, and I wound up making a weird looking extra bar (that really could have been two extra bars). It turns out I just wasn’t looking in the right place.

Soap Making Essentials is bar none one of the most comprehensive and helpful websites for beginners learning to make soap. Did you catch that terrible pun? I’m sorry. It turns out they had the answer to my problem on their Homemade Soap Recipes page.  You can figure out how much oil to use with a very simple mathematical formula:

Length of mold X Width of mold X Height of mold X 0.40 = Ounces of oil needed

I just can’t believe this simple mathematical formula is not in every basic soap book. The only one I have found that even mentions is is Anne-Marie Faiola’s Soap Crafting: Step-by-Step Techniques for Making 31 Unique Cold-Process Soaps.

I probably should have paid more attention in math class, or I might have been able to figure out the formula myself, but I’m glad I stumbled on it anyhow. Thank you again, Soap Making Essentials, for the wonderful resource.

So what should you do if you have a round mold? Time to go back to Geometry 101.

The area for a cylinder (which is basically what a round mold is, even if it’s a short cynlinder), is Πr²*height of the mold. If it’s been a while for you, remember that Π is roughly equal to 3.14 and r means the radius, which is half of the diameter—the measurement of of the mold from side to side. So, if you have a cylinder mold that is 4 inches in diameter, then it has a radius of 2. Two squared (the little ² by the r) means multiply 2 times itself, which happens to be 4. Multiply Π and the radius of 2², or 4, and then multiply the product of that calculation by the height of the mold. Let’s pretend the mold is 10 inches. Multiply 4 x 3.14 (Π) x 10, which would equal 125.6 ounces. But wait! Remember we have to account for the water, so multiply one more time by 0.4. 125.6 x 0.4 = 50.24, which means your cylinder mold will hold a recipe using about 50 ounces of oils.

Height of mold X Radius of mold squared X 3.14 X 0.40 = Ounces of oil needed

Note: Be careful that you do square the radius (multiply the number by itself) rather than just double it. It will not always be double. For example, if you have mold with a radius of 3 inches, then squared, it would be 9 rather than 6.

If you have an mold with an odd shape, then it is best to calculate how much oil to use by using a water-volume calculation. You should fill your mold with water and then pour the water out into a measuring cup with volume markers. Then, multiply the number of ounces in the cup by 1.8 to calculate the total number of cubic inches in the mold. Then multiply that number by 0.4. For example, if your irregular mold holds 6 ounces of water, multiply 6 x 1.8, which is 10.8. Then multiply 10.8 x 0.4, which is 4.32. You would use 4.32 ounces of oils to make soap with this mold.

Amount of water in ounces X 1.8 X 0.40 = Ounces of oil needed

A final word of advice: I use grams in all my measurements because I find them more accurate, but these formulas work for ounces. I am sure there are similar formulas for grams, but I have not found a good calculation for metric volume. My advice would be to create a recipe using ounces, and then use the metric amounts given in SoapCalc, which always delivers the amounts in ounces, pounds, and grams for easy conversion. Alternatively, you could calculate your amount of oils in ounces and multiply by 28.35 (the number of grams in an ounce) or use an online conversion tool, such as this one, to calculate how many grams your mold will hold.

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Comments

Lemongrass Sage Soap

Posted on by Dana

This weekend I made a lemongrass sage soap using my own recipe.

Lemongrass Sage Soap
Still in the mold.

Ingredients

  • 18 oz. olive oil
  • 14 oz. coconut oil
  • 8 oz. palm oil
  • 5 oz. shea butter
  • 2 oz. castor oil
  • 15.7 oz. distilled water
  • 7 oz. lye
  • 2 oz. lemongrass essential oil (add at trace)
  • 3 T sage (add at trace).

I tried a trick I read about in Heidi Corley Barto’s The Natural Soap Chef and infused some of the olive oil with sage prior to using it. I’m not sure I’m going to do that again because I had a lot of trouble straining it. I know part of the problem was that I was just impatient, but unless it imparts some quality I don’t know about to do it like that, it was a little more trouble than it was worth for me. I did mix the sage into a paste with the olive oil. I’m not sure if you have to do that, or what happens if you don’t. I suppose you could experiment and just mix it into the soap dry to see what happens.

I had a pretty heavy trace when I added the lemongrass oil, and it really made the soap thicken up. I would recommend adding it at a lighter trace. The soap was a little difficult to pour into my mold, and you might have better luck if you add the lemongrass oil earlier than I did. I added in sage at the same time.

When I poured the soap into the mold, I decided at the last minute to try adding some decorative peaks and swirls, as I have seen other soapers do. My daughter Maggie said the resulting soap looked “deformed.” That really made me laugh.

My husband has been saying the soap smells good enough to eat, and here he was laughing about the warnings in soap books about not eating the soap.

Lemongrass Sage Soap
Finished lemongrass sage soap.

I think I could have stirred the lemongrass oil in a little better. There were some lighter colored areas in the soap, and they were not lye pockets or air bubbles. They are not watery, either, so I don’t think it’s an issue with separation. They are the same color the soap would be if the lemongrass oil hadn’t added a yellowish tint. I think I just didn’t mix the lemongrass and sage completely. Given that I did have some trouble at that stage, I think I understand how it happened and how to prevent it in my next batch. Also, I discovered that lemongrass oil doesn’t like to mix well with soap, so it seems likely that I just didn’t stir it enough. It was getting so thick so fast after I added the essential oil, however, that I was afraid to wait too long to pour it into the mold. Next time, I will add the oil at a lighter trace. Or I might even try a fragrance oil instead of an essential oil. The fun is in experimenting and seeing what happens! However, I should mention that lemongrass oil is supposed to be good for acne and oily skin, so that’s one reason to go for the essential oil over the fragrance oil.

Stack of Lemongrass Sage

The soap still came out pretty enough that several of my Facebook friends who saw the picture of it that I posted requested some. Also, I have decided I like making soap enough to open an Etsy store, especially because 1) I should recoup some of the money I’m putting into it, and 2) if I make soap every weekend, I’m going to have too much, even if I give it away. But given that I have only been soaping three weeks, it will likely be months before I have enough stock to sell.

I ordered a crinkle cutter from Bramble Berry for my next batch of soap. I’m so looking forward to making the Chai Tea Soap in Heidi Corley Barto’s book. The recipe is not mine to share, but I will photograph the results.

I used my husband’s old shoe rack and created a soap curing rack in one of our closets.

Soap Drying Rack

It’s out of the draft and light (when the door is shut, and I’m not checking on my soap). I had the idea after seeing this amazing soap curing cabinet that another soaper’s husband made for her.

Creative Commons License

Lemongrass Sage Soap by Dana Huff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Suds Life: About.

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The Natural Soap Chef, Heidi Corley Barto

Posted on by Dana

The Natural Soap ChefAs I have been learning how to make soap, I’ve been on the lookout for helpful books with lots of beautiful pictures—not just for instructions, but also for inspiration. I have seen several reviews of Heidi Corley Barto’s new book The Natural Soap Chef. It’s a gorgeous book with lots of great tips for additives. For instance, Barto uses baby food instead of pureed fruit, which would be a great time-saver. She also explains exactly how to use liquids other than water (such as goat milk or tea).

The recipes are mostly variations on the same four ingredients: olive oil, shea butter, coconut oil, and palm oil. Those ingredients are the staples of good soap. I think I might have enjoyed seeing a few different types of oils discussed, but it wasn’t a huge deal because of the large variety of ideas. I liked thinking about how many ways I could use the same ingredients to make very different soaps. Also, I think it’s great for beginners to master a basic recipe and still have a chance to experiment within those confines. I had a quibble with Catherine Bardey’s Making Soaps and Scents because she also used the same basic three-oil recipe for almost all the soaps in her book, but frankly, I think what bothered me was that one of Bardey’s ingredients was shortening. I know it can be used in soap, but it just doesn’t seem right to me. I just don’t like the idea of using Crisco® in my soap! However, olive oil, shea butter, coconut oil, and palm oil—I can get behind. They may or may not be more natural than shortening. I honestly don’t know. But they seem more natural, and if I were buying handmade soap, I’d rather see them on the list of ingredients than shortening.

I am confused about one thing. Barto recommends putting the soap into the refrigerator after you pour it, but everything else I’ve read seems to indicate soap needs to cool slowly, and that you should wrap it in towels to keep it warm until it sets a little. I guess I’m having some cognitive dissonance here, and now I’m not sure. My own experience with the first two batches is that wrapping them and keeping them warm works well for me, so I’m not sure I will follow that particular advice. I suppose there are just many ways to make soap, but I admit I am curious as to why Barto does things so differently after the soap is in the mold.

I love some of Barto’s ideas. I had already created my own lemongrass sage recipe, but hers looks good, and I plan to infuse half of my olive oil with sage just like she did, which was something I had not thought of doing (I’m making the lemongrass sage this weekend). Also, thanks to Barto, I now have a good chai tea soap recipe that looks easy (and I already have the chai teabags I need! score!), and I love her idea for creating tissue paper tea bags to wrap those soaps in. Clever!

This is a great book, whether you’re a beginner like me or a more advanced soap maker looking for ideas. Christmas is taken care of this year!

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Smart Soapmaking and Milk Soapmaking
Creating Your Own Soap Recipes
Don't Give the Milk (Soap) Away for Free

Why Soap?

Posted on by Dana

When I tell people I started making soap, they ask me why. It’s a funny question for a crafter. No one asks why someone takes up knitting or painting or woodworking. I suppose making soap isn’t something that occurs to many people, though, so it’s an understandable question.

I decided I wanted to learn to make soap when I started buying soap from Indigo Bath & Body at the farmers’ market where I used to live in Georgia. They make a soap that is just the best thing I’ve ever put on my face. My skin looks so great when I use this soap regularly. I wash my face with it every morning and evening. The bars last forever as long as you follow their directions and wait two weeks (at least) before using them. All of their soaps are so pretty and just plain interesting. I decided I wanted to try.

I started pinning recipes and ideas to Pinterest and reading blogs. My first batch of soap was a basic recipe, and for a first batch, it didn’t turn out bad. My second batch turned out wonderful, and I think that’s what hooked me for good. I loved everything about the process: I loved mixing the oils and lye and watching the soap thicken. I loved checking on it every hour or so to see how it was coming along. I loved how it turned into soap. The chemistry feels almost like a miracle—you combine a few oils with water and lye, and 24 hours later, it’s a solid hunk of soap. How does that work? That’s amazing! I also liked the idea that it wasn’t hard to do and that I could create my own recipes. I just fell in love with the hobby.

I decided to make soap because I was curious, but now I’m hooked. I love the idea that I can make something useful and beautiful with my own hands.

Related posts:

The Everything Soapmaking Book, Alicia Grosso
Amy Lowell's Lilac Soap
Don't Give the Milk (Soap) Away for Free