Making some soap, and guess what? Pics...

[modern_pioneer]

I made some pressed/chopped ham soap.... I suppose it could be called spam soap...

and I did make some great soap too... so all is not lost...

 

[Britesea]

I would love your shampoo bar recipe!

 

[Mini Horses]

You just have to take care when handling the lye. Like, no toddlers around, a dog that won't move, etc. Good ventilation where you are mixing, rubber gloves. But, it's only about 30 min you mix. The oils are mostly ones you use to cook with. The lye can be caustic and you don't want to get chemical burns, splash it in your eyes, etc. Use safety glasses and keep a vinegar damp paper towel at hand....in case. Never add oil to lye water, always lye water into oils. My daughter and I do it and have never had an issue. Few "rules" for safe handling.

Really, it's easy after the first batch. Too late to look for it tonight but, I'll give you a couple sites I used that have tutorials, when I started. You do need a kitchen scale, glass or stainless pots, few other such things. All ingredients are by weight. We do NOT use our pots for anything else. It's fun and good soap. You do not have to use goat milk, you can use water.

Mountain Pioneer has a lot of the "fancy" colors, swirls, etc. They are great for sales as people do gravitate to them. Now that's an area I haven't gotten into, so maybe some tutorial from him would work for us both. I've looked at sites with some instruction, just not worked at it. KISS was my goal to start. But would love to give it a try.

 

[mrscoyote]

nice, I want to try soap making someday.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's pretty cool! I want to try my hand at soap making too...someday.

 

[modern_pioneer]

 

[modern_pioneer]

 

[modern_pioneer]

A local feed store supports selling my soaps without adding any extra charges. Currently working on the coding for on-line sales, I find this self sufficient skill as much fun as I do relaxing. If your wondering about the colors, let me tell you some of the organic things I used... Alkenat Root (purple) Madder Root (reds/pinks) Beet Root (browns) it looks pink but during the saponification process it turns brown, Indigo (blue), Chlorophyll (greens), Turmeric (yellow).
The recipe is 4 things, Olive oil, Coconut Oil, Lye and water.... I add things like Jojoba, avocado, shea, castor oil and other things according to a fats chart...
I also have a shampoo bar recipe, facial oatmeal scrub, butter bar soap recipe....

 

[modern_pioneer]

I would love your shampoo bar recipe!

These aren't my recipes, I use them, and I am sure Kelly has had them passed to her... But she has several, a few dozen soap recipes including shampoo bar.... I haven't found any false information on her site and it is reliable information. Some of the coloring takes a little skill to understand, but as you can see I did get my head around it.
http://simplelifemom.com/2013/11/19/7-homemade-shampoo-bar-recipes/

 

[modern_pioneer]

Using some old barn wood that I had gathered from a barn re-skinning down the road... It was set in a pile, I asked if I could have a few choice pieces, and so he gave it to me... I used a sweet potato can from the store and made the handles from 11 gauge fence wire by cutting them to length, wrapping them and stapling them on the box after bending the ends to a 90 degree angle to support the box... To keep the weight down, I used a couple slats for the bottom.... My retail package is pictured here...