You can use any “flavor” of melt and pour soap base that you like. You just choose the fragrance you want and the type and quantity of soap. Spoon the soap into your mold, tapping your mold gently on the table to avoid air pockets. Pour the batter into your soap mold. Feel free to work with used coffee grounds (dried and re-ground or de-clumped). Here are just a few: I love this part! One option to avoid using Lye when making homemade soap bars is to use a melted and pour soap … If you are not able to get suspension type soap, let it cool so it becomes a thick liquid. Make these pretty little soap bars for gifts or to inspire your bath routine. While soap making can seem intimidating, once you learn the basic steps it’s really quite simple. Slowly pour the oils into the lye mixture and stir well with the silicone spatula. In 2019 Soap Startup conducted a study of preferred soap bar sizes. Mar 10, 2019 - Learning to make homemade soap barsfor beginners...the ingredients, procedures, and precautions, no stone left unturned in this guide. Live near a beach (or a craft store)? Kudos to Olivia! If you want to get really creative, try a specialty type of melt and pour. In a third large bowl, weigh the ice cubes. A double boiler works well because the water surrounding the top pot is what heats the pot – not direct contact with the stovetop burner. Both companies make excellent products. There are different ways to make soap, from super simple to extremely complex. In a ventilated space, slowly sprinkle the lye into the container with the ice cubes while stirring until you have added all of the lye. If you have a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol that’s also a plus. Cover your work area with newspaper. Lye is a necessary ingredient in the soap-making process: without lye – no soap! I’m not going to explain it here, just know that you want the number to be as close to 160 as possible so the batter is easy to work with. The link that she has is for a skin contact rated product, which is what you want. Don’t guess when it comes to adding fragrances or essential oils. Boil the water until the solid fats in the bowl are melted. After 12 hours, unmold your soap and slice into the sizes and shapes you prefer. Ideal Beginner’s Soap. Many people (myself included) love lots of … While you are stirring, take the temperature of the oils and make sure they are within the correct range. So while you can, that doesn’t mean you’ll be making the best soap you possible can be. Personally, I wouldn’t add lavender to the batter. If you have a microwave safe bowl, a knife, and a microwave – you have all you need as far as tools go. Use a soap bar mold that you LOVE. Cut the soap into bars. Smooth the top of your soap, if desired, and set aside to cool in the mold. Your bars will end up with a pH of about 7.5 regardless of what liquid you use. It is such a lovely bright combination! This means metal spoons left in for long enough will get hot and any plastic stirrers will need to be heat resistant to at least 180 F degrees, which is about how hot the soap will get if you melt it in short bursts. You MUST run any substitutions through a soap calculator so you know the appropriate ratio of water and lye to use in your soap recipe. After you have reached trace, use the immersion blender to fully combine the essential oils if using. Learning how to make soap is a valuable homesteading skill that everyone striving for greater self-sufficiency can acquire. The moment it has cooled and hardened you can use it. The short answer is yes, you can make soap with only lard or tallow, or any other animal fat for that matter,  but the composition of each oil in your recipe lends different properties to your soap. Filling it halfway gets me a pound of soap base to work with and the lip or spout makes it easy to control when poured. I’m talking about highly customized melt and pour soap. Simply melt the soap in the microwave, add fragrance and color, pour into molds, and let it harden again.Melt and pour soap is not organic or even natural. For large batches I use an electric soup warmer or double boiler. Start with a simple recipe like this lard soap. The only danger is overheating the soap. For example, coconut oil will help create a lather, while castor oil is great for bubbles. Chop up your Shea Butter melt and pour soap base into small squares and place in a microwave-safe glass mixing bowl. The basic ingredients in any soap recipe are fat, water, and lye. Lavender essential oil is an inexpensive, pleasant option, but my favorite combination is 50/50 lavender essential oil and lemongrass essential oil. There are even got how-to videos and links to great recipes to start you off! Plus, downloadable PDFs make these guides a handy ... create a bar of soap. With more traditional soap making methods, like cold process, you wait 4 to 6 weeks before you can use your creation. So use whatever milk you have! Stand back while you stir to avoid the fumes. Beginner Soap Making Equipment: Soap Knife – This set of soap knives includes a wavy and straight option to cut soap bases into workable amounts. To make bar soap from scratch you need to measure your ingredients and put it on your safety gear. Animal fats will give your bar a hardness that will help it last longer with proper care. IF I add fragrance it gets very pricey. Can I pick the lavender from my lavender tree and add it in the soap batter? This is another nice to have for glycerin soap making. One big part of that change was being more aware of washing... How to Make Melt and Pour Soap Lather More. It doesn’t have to be a plain old rectangle. Stir well to distribute the color. No it will not. An absolute must for hot or cold process soap making but just a ‘nice to have’ for melt and pour. Put the container for lye into a bigger one with icy water or even ice. Based on personal experience, it’s worth it to spend $15 on a decent no-touch laser thermometer if you start doing cold or hot process soap at some point. So now I freeze all of my liquids first when making soap. I don’t want to make light of the dangers of lye, but if you take the proper precautions there is nothing to be afraid of. By gathering a few supplies, most of which you may already have on hand, you can start making soap! Olive oil is another moisturizing oil you can use but it does make a softer bar, especially in combination with lard. One cup of coconut oil is the same size as one cup of sweet almond oil but it is not the same weight. optional (my favorite scent is 50/50 lavender and lemongrass). Please Note: You cannot simply substitute other oils in a recipe.