Making Cold Press Soap for Beginners: Introduction and Equipment

Welcome

This blog is new in the making. I have gotten the itch to make my own soap and hopefully become an experienced soap maker in the process! As an introduction to myself I wanted to create this blog as my progress continues in learning this old fashioned craft.


My name is Lori and I live in Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada. I am a taxi driver and find that I need to become more creative in my life. It has always been a passion of mine to create things. I have dabbled in interior decorating, sewing and crochet, making Christmas Ornaments etc., but none of these ever really inspired me. Until I got introduced to making soap!

Christmas in Alberta

This past Christmas I went to visit my sister Donna, who lives in Alberta. She gave me some handcrafted soap that a friend of hers makes in in Pennsylvania, (Sandy Wilson from Little Meadows Sheep Farm) Her soap is just heavenly....I love it! ...and... I got hooked on the idea of trying this out. When I got back to Thunder Bay I began doing research I ordered books through the Internet, went to the library and scoped the Internet for how to's. Sandy who has become my far away friend sent me some starting out information and pictures with advise on what to do first. I found it very mind boggling.

Sandy makes wonderful soap I am anxiously waiting for her Dead Sea Soap to arrive I can't wait! You can check out Sandy's website here to order some for yourself www.littlemeadowsheepfarm.com

To make soap it sounds as though you really need to be chemist because all the ingredients need to be measured exactly, what oils to use, fragrance or additives. You need to be aware of the caustic factors with the ingredients "lye" especially. It really sounds scary to be handling poison.

Soap Making Resources

It is now middle of February and I have yet to try my hand at a first batch. What I want to do is make Cold Processed Soap (Soap made from Scratch) The book I am finding most resource full is "Basic Soap Making: All the skills and Tools You Need to Get Started" by Patsy Buck, Stockpole Books. This book has great step by step instructions and pictures and a good itemized chapter for the equipment you need. Best of all it is written in layman's terms which makes the process more easily understood. Seems like the process of soap making is like baking, mixing your ingredients together with a recipe. If you want to order this book go to Chapters or Amazon.com

Equipment

So much for introductions lets talk about the equipment. This is the first thing you should gather up before you start making anything. From Sandy's advise and from the tons of research and reading all the books I've gotten my hands on I decided to make myself a list of things I need. Here is my list of equipment:

2 - 8 quart stainless steel pots

1 - Coffee Grinder or Mortal and Pestle (I prefer the grinder) check the thrift shops

2 - Glass Thermometers (used for candy making or deep frying)

1 - 1/1/2 quart heavy weight plastic mixing bowl

1 - 4 quart heat safe glass measuring cup with handle

Variety of 1 quart freezer weight plastic containers to measure and hold soap making ingredients until they are mixed. "NO ALUMINUM" never ever!

1 - Digital Scale that hold up to at least 11 lbs. and has a Tare feature (weighs to zero)

1 - Stick Blender

Soap Moulds "non aluminum" there are molds you can buy made especially for soap making, I ordered a 5 lb mold from Suds N Scents for 15 bucks your primary mold should be at least
3 1/2 in wide by 2 1/2 in deep by 6 in long. I found an ice bucket at the thrift shop heavy plastic perfect measurements you can use anything such as this. There are all types of molds for fancy soaps but if you are just learning I would go with just a regular mold.

Stirrers: Wire Whisks, long handled rubber or plastic spoons, rubber spatulas

Old blankets/towels

Rubber gloves, eye protection goggles, face mask, for protecting you against splashes and fumes of the lye (sodium hydroxide)

Apron or lab coat

Vegetable peeler for finishing your edges of soap

Soap Cutter for cutting your bars, you can also use a large sharp knife or a drywall taper tool from a hardware store. Soap cutters are cheap and readily available to order online

Freezer paper/Butcher paper to line your soap molds

Vaseline or petroleum jelly to grease your molds

Drying racks for drying your soap (curing) plastic needlecraft canvas, good because it has holes, window mesh. I have decided to purchase a bookcase with open slats as shelves and then line with plastic canvas.. I figure that I can line my soap on the shelves to dry and label the shelves.

So that is about it for tools, not too bad of a list, a lot of stuff you might have in your kitchen already and you might have to do a bit of shopping to get the rest. One thing to remember...once you take something from your kitchen do not use it again for food prep keep your tools away from food prep areas and store away in a storage container marked "Soap Equipment" You don't want your food tasting like soap. Also use of wooden spoons I wouldn't as the lye breaks down the wood fibres and you you don't want that going into your soap.

you can go to Canwax for lye from here www.canwax.com

For oils and other essential oils and supplies you can go to www.sudsnscents.com

I haven't even made soap yet but I think with all the information I've absorbed over the last month and a half I am truly learning the concept. I am am excited to get started.

Why I wanted to start this blog about learning to make soap is because with all the info on the internet and there is tons...nothing really expalined how to step by step go about making a batch of soap and no easy instructions. My blog is going to take you through my trials and tribulations of the soap making progress... failures to perfections, my step by step learning experience, recipes. Together we can learn to do this.

I've watched a bunch of Youtube but they only show someone making soap and miss all the technical know how and nothing is really explained in a minute on You Tube. I am going to expalin it all here so you can learn from me.

Thanks for your patience and stay tuned for the next step: Where to get ingredients, where to buy lye, and my first basic soap recipe. I will include pictures as I get it all together so you can see first hand what I do. I am waiting for my ingredients to come in had to order most of them as no one in Thunder Bay really sells any of the essentials. Get your equipment together in the meantime and we will be ready to do it together.

Lori