The basics of soap making part 3: The equipment

It’s very important to keep your soapmaking equipment separate from your cooking equipment – don’t go using a wooden spoon you’ve been stirring soap base with to stir pasta sauce – so while you may have some of the items below sitting around, unless they can be donated permanently to your soap making hobby then you may have to buy duplicates.

The list below is the bare minimum you’ll need to make a scented, colored soap.

Base
The soap base you choose is a choice you’ll have to make based on what you want to use, if the soap is for you, or what will work well with the idea for a particular soap you have in mind. Keep in mind that any color you add to a non clear base will never come out as vivid as if you add it to a clear base, since you’re always adding that color to white.

I quite like the Crafter’s Choice soap bases, through Wholesale Supplies Plus. For your first soap project I’d suggest the shea butter base, or the crystal clear base.

I also recommend the soap bases offered by Peak Candle Supplies.

Scents
For several reasons I prefer to use fragrance oils in my soap making (more information on fragrance vs essential oils can be found here).

WholeSale Supplies Plus has a great range of fragrance oils, however if you’re not sure exactly what scents you wish to try out, Peak Candle Supplies have a great sample pack deal, where they ship you 10 1oz bottles of scents you choose.

When selecting scents it’s incredibly important that you pick fragrance oils which can be used in soaps (all sites should say whether that scent can be used for candles, soaps, waxes, etc), and it’s important to know if a certain scent contains vanilla. Vanilla will discolor the soap over time, slowly turning brown over a few weeks.

Colors
I like to use the Crafter’s Choice liquid lake dyes. They’re simple to use and mix, great for someone new to soap making.

Molds
There are millions of soap molds out there, more molds than you could possibly shake a stick at.

I would strongly suggest starting with a silicone mold, since they’re the easiest to remove the finished soap from, are easy to store and clean. The mold you wish to use depends on the shape you have in mind for the final soap, however a great starting mold is a basic rectangular silicone mold.

Accessories

Droppers
You’ll need plastic or glass droppers to measure out your fragrance oils, I’d suggest either these or these.

Alcohol
When you pour your soap you’ll frequently get small bubbles on the surface. To get rid of these you can either poke them with something, or spray them with a tiny amount of rubbing alcohol.

Something to melt base in
An aluminum pouring pitcher works great if you’re using the stove top, double broiler method to melt your soap. If you think you’ll be melting soap in the microwave, a Pyrex jug works for both methods.

Stirring spoon
A basic wooden spoon is all you really need for this.

Knife
You’ll need something to slice up your soap base with, I use a basic chef’s knife.

Wax paper
I find a roll of wax paper absolutely invaluable for home crafting. Lay a sheet or two down on your work surface, tape it down to hold it steady, and it makes clean up many times easier.

Next up: making your first bar of soap.

The basics of soap making part 2: The process

Before you get to the point where you’re ready to look into the materials you’ll need to make your first bar of soap, it’s important to have a good grasp of the process of making melt and pour soaps.

It’s very, very simple.

You start with a soap base, which will typically be delivered to you as a large lump, contained in plastic.

You cut down the soap base using a knife (or whatever you have handy, do this carefully since after a few seconds your hands and the knife handle will be covered with soap) into small chunks, to increase the surface area and reduce how long it takes to melt down the base.

You place the required soap base in a glass or metal container, and start to melt the soap. This is done typically on the stove top in a double broiler, or in a microwave.

When the base has melted, you add the scent and give everything a stir. This is either an essential oil or fragrance oil. Some scents will color the soap slightly, so you do this before adding color. At this stage you can add any additives you want in your soap.

Next you add the color you wish to dye your soap. These are typically liquids or powders.

When the soap base is smelling and looking lovely, it’s time to pour it into a mold.

When the soap has solidified it’s time to pop it out of the mold, and admire your creation.

Next: materials and tools.

The basics of soap making part 1: Why melt and pour?

Anyone starting to look into soap making for the first time will immediately find that there are several ways to make bars of soap (there are even more ways to get lovely smelling liquid soap into your home, however we’re going to focus (for now) on bars of soap).

And it’s at this point that many people stop, turn around and run the other way because they get to words like “lye”, “rubber gloves”, “outdoor or very well ventilated space” and “chemical burn” and decide that this may not be the best hobby for someone with limited indoor space, no outdoor space, and a small child. These types of soap making are called Hot Process (HP) and Cold Process (CP).

Luckily there is a third option for soap making called Melt and Pour (MP for short). With MP soap making you start with a soap base which has already gotten past the whole “volatile chemical” stage, and is ready to be colored, scented, mixed, poured, layered and otherwise manipulated to make something wonderful. When purchasing additives and other ingredients for your MP soap projects please make sure that they’re not designed only for use in CP and HP soap making.

Melt and Pour is a great way to make soap in an urban apartment, minimizing the dangers of chemicals and very hot liquids as much as possible.