Home Made Soap Question

[teresac]

I want to make soap. Have been all over the net and the options go on and on.

Which is the most cost effective way? Melt & Pour or the hot method.

They both seem easy. I live Dove soap. Nothing too fragrant. I do have some red devil lye. It is an opened container, seem almost full.

Help!!! PS I live in a small town where supplies are limited. So ebay or online would probally be my only means of purchase.

Any receipes you have would be great too! Frustrated net surfer!!

 

[Beekissed]

There are several places online from which to order melt and pour. I love melt and pour for several reasons....no dangerous chemicals to fuss with, its quick and easy and you can add so many different ingredients, and there are so many options for the bases. When you buy in bulk, its much cheaper and you can make back the money on the soaps you sell.

Here's a link that will give you some info and maybe some supplier links. Soap has gotten more expensive in the past couple of years as more people are jumping on the soap making bandwagon.

http://soapnuts.com/index.shtml

I would like very much to explore making soaps from rendered fats and lanolin sometime in the future. Freemotion does this, I believe, and would be a great person to talk with on the subject of soaps. FarmerChick makes her own soaps as well and may be able to point you in some good directions.

This is my favorite site for soap bases and essential oils, as well as molds if you use them, which I do not, but they have a great selection!

http://www.brambleberry.com/meltandpour.html

 

[teresac]

I will check those out. From 1lb of base, approx. how many bars do you get?

 

[Beekissed]

Depends on the size of your bars. If you are making 2 oz. bars, you will conceivably get 8 bars from a pound. 4 oz. bars will be 4 bars and so on. Most of your soap molds will be a 3 oz or 4 oz. bar.

I have a box mold and just saw my bars from a slab of completed soap. I find I can be more creative with sizes and that city folks seem to like that primitive, cut soap, uneven look to their bars....makes them look like cold press soaps. This method also makes it easier for me to make a batch.

 

[farmerlor]

Please forgive me for complete and utter ignorance but I too have a couple of questions about soap making. So I'm looking at the recipes and instructions.....the cold process calls for olive oil-any olive oil? Cheap olive oil? Does it matter? Does making your own soap represent any real savings monetarily? Seems like it's going to be rather costly comparatively speaking if you think about the cost of say Ivory at the store.

 

[teresac]

I'm not sure either. I think the inital isn't so cheap but you know what is going in it.

 

[Beekissed]

Depends on what kind of soap you are making and for what purpose. If you are making it for resale, then you will probably make some profit. If you are buying in bulk to make soaps for your family, I don't know.

I don't use bar soaps much, but the liquid soaps in bulk would probably offer some savings in the long run. Same with the lotion bases that you can buy. They are superior to lotions offered in the store and you can mix your own scents in them or not, your preference.

I don't know much about the cold press process, so maybe one of the other soap makers could answer that one.

 

[freemotion]

Hi, just came inside, it is briefly gorgeous outside today so I got some things done!

I am not an experienced soapmaker by any means, but I will be happy to give my input. My reasons for making soap a few years ago had to do with (a) my interest in how my grandparents, etc, did things (b) my love of new experiences and projects and (c) my quest for better health and reducing toxins in my life, as I was quickly heading towards "multiple chemical sensitivity." (If I walked into a room with a scented candle burning or if someone had used carpet sprinkles or if I went into a bathroom where someone had sprayed room "freshener" (hah!) I would get an instant and terrible migraine. My quest has been successful in that I am no longer hyper-sensitive and can live a normal~~~whatever that means~~~life.) Just so you know my why's, so making money or a saleable product or the cheapest product were not my driving forces.

I used a recipe that called for tallow (rendered beef suet, which I rendered myself) and olive oil, which I got the lowest quality in the biggest container at Costco. I think I may have used corn or veg oil, too. I used Red Devil lye, which used to be available at the local grocery store with the drain openers. I made plain unscented white soap. It was wonderful.

I used a plastic storage tote to set the soap up in, and then cut the bars with a knife and let them cure on a piece of that plastic mesh stuff that people do yarn needlepoint with (not sure what it is called, but older women tend to make tissue box covers and such with it around here.)

My massage business took off like a train and my soapmaking supplies went into a big storage tote in the cellar when we bought the house, where it remains. I continued to buy handmade soap from an aquaintance who made it to my standards.

The lye process is very simple and the only heat involved is just enough to melt the fat and to control the temperature. Then you stir, stir, stir, then pour, insulate, and wait. Then cut, spread out the bars to cure, then put them away where mice won't nibble them.

Had I continued, I would have experimented with scenting them lightly with pure essential oils, and maybe coloring them with clay powders sold for that purpose. And additions like ground oatmeal, etc for different purposes.

I plan to take out the soapmaking supplies next fall or winter when, as some here know, I will be able to get many, many pounds of free pork and beef fat to render, so I will learn to make soap without any olive oil, just animal fat. So I can experiment and only spend money on the lye. I will also experiment with goat's milk, if I have enough. If it doesn't suit me, I will go back to the veg oil/tallow recipe, which I liked.

My father remembers his mother making soap in a giant caldron in the fall after butchering season, and he remembers her cutting the soap on top of the water in the caldron and spearing it with a big kinda fork to get it out of the pot. He said they did not use that soap for washing, she used it for other purposes, what he's not sure. He was a little kid with 10 siblings! So maybe it was used for laundry and scrubbing pots or such, too harsh for bathing? Don't know!

I may have to make up my own animal-fat-only soap recipe since most books are geared towards more complicated recipes.

Hope there is a smidgon of useful info in all my yammering!

 

[jackiedon]

I use lard, coconut oil, olive oil, castor oil and some vegetable oil.

I haven't bought soap in over a year. I don't buy a lot of the expensive oils. I can try to answer any questions you have.

jackie

 

[SheriM]

Please forgive me for complete and utter ignorance but I too have a couple of questions about soap making. So I'm looking at the recipes and instructions.....the cold process calls for olive oil-any olive oil? Cheap olive oil? Does it matter? Does making your own soap represent any real savings monetarily? Seems like it's going to be rather costly comparatively speaking if you think about the cost of say Ivory at the store.

Well, I've been making goat milk soaps and lotions for sale for a while now and I've tracked my costs pretty closely. The recipe I use most is just shortening, coconut oil and sunflower oil. It costs me .18 per bar to make. Yes, that's 18 cents a bar. The trick is to buy in bulk if you can, but watch the urge to order large quanities of oil from distant sources as the shipping can really impact your overall cost.

Oh, and to answer your first question, yes, you can use cheap olive oil. In fact, I think it makes a better soap than the extra virgin variety, but that's just my opinion.