Ingredients, Necessary Tools and Equipment

Now that you know about the basics of soap making and the different processes involved, the next step would be familiarizing yourself with the ingredients and equipments used in soap making. You have to remember that although soap making can have a lot of equipments, the process of making soap is not that hard to follow.

With the basics of soap making and by carefully following instructions as well as following the safety procedures, you will be able to produce your very own bath soap without any problems at all.

To start, you will need the following equipments.

The first is the soap making oils. These oils can be purchased in your local health food store or also in hobby supplies and equipments. The oils come in coconut oil, olive oil, or even palm oil. You can use shea butter, and cocoa butter.

You will need beeswax, distilled water, and sodium hydroxide.

You can buy a soap molds but you can create your own. You can use any shape you want and you will find the soap molds for sale are available in different shapes and sizes. Preferably, go for soap molds that can hold 12 bars of soap.

You will need freezer paper, which is used as a mold liner. This will prevent the soap from sticking to the mold once it dries or hardens. A candy thermometer should come in handy when checking the temperature of the soap you made.

You will need rubber gloves to protect your hand from heat and chemicals and the same goes for safety goggles to protect your eyes as the process of soap making will involve chemicals that produce fumes which can irritate or even damage the eyes.

You need a stainless steel pot. Keep in mind that in soap making, you should never use aluminum pots as this metal can react to the powerful chemicals used in soap making. In addition to that, you will need a large heat resistant measuring cups or other heat resistant container, which will allow you to pour lye in smoothly and steadily.

You will need two plastic stir stick, a potato peeler, a knife, and a plate to put your plastic stir stick in. You should have a scotch tape ready, an old shirt with long sleeves, old rags for spills, and two ounces of vegetable oil. An old dish cloth should be prepared as well as a stick hand blender as it will cut your tracing time to minutes instead of hours.

The fragrance and essential oils can be purchased in your local hobby shop or in your local health food store. These are basically the same oils used for creating perfume and aromatherapy candles and incense.

You can choose whatever fragrance you like and you will also be able to choose the type of soap making oil you want for your soap. If you want a milder soap, then you should use olive oil or shea butter. You can use a combination of olive oil, palm oil, and coconut oil as these will provide hardness as well as mildness to the soap.

When making homemade soap, always remember that you will be working with chemicals that can be harmful to your body. You should always follow safety precautions, such as wearing your protective gloves and goggles as well as your long sleeve clothing. Another safety precaution about pouring lye, always keep in mind that you should pour lye in to the water and not the other way around.

Pouring water in to lye can cause the lye to splatter and spit, which can get on your body, especially on your eyes. Pouring the lye in to the water can cause fumes, which can get you to cough. Always make sure that the fumes are blowing away from you, which is why you have to work in a well-ventilated area.

These are the equipments necessary in order for you to safely and efficiently make homemade soaps. As you can see, this is quite a list that you have to complete. When making soaps, always remember that safety should always be your number one priority.