The Confident Journal: How to Make Soap

Making soap is an awesome past-time. I can't quite explain the sense of accomplishment you get when you make a batch of soap, wait 3-4 weeks for it to cure, and then actually use it. Homemade soap makes your skin feel amazing and clears up a lot of skin problems you thought you had. (I even use mine as conditioning shampoo!) Not only that, but few DIY projects give you the sensation that you are at once doing something mystical and ancient. . .and. . .that you belong on Breaking Bad.

Stuff you will need: Goggles, plastic gloves, face mask, drop cloth, glass bowls, wooden spoons. . .base oils, lye, water, essential oils. . .Wait. Hold on. You know what?--

--Okay, so this post is kinda misleading. I'm not actually going to tell you how to make soap. Why? Because there is this genius woman on Youtube who makes awesome soap making videos far better than I ever could. They are only around 10 minutes each and very informative and entertaining. You can see what I'm talking about here. (Disclaimer: They are highly addictive.) I suggest starting with this video because it's a very easy and accessible recipe to start with.

I took the picture below to show that base oils are really easy to find at the grocery store these days. The two on the left are from Walmart and the organic coconut oil is from Aldi! (Yes, even Aldi has special oils nowadays.) So you don't have to special order your oils anymore. . .unless you want to.

The thing you will probably have to special order is your lye (sodium hydroxide), unless you live in a big city and can get stuff like that at some specialty store. I get mine off eBay. I think it was $10 for 2.5lbs, and I still have at least a pound left. It lasts a long time. I've made a lot of soap already.

To know how much lye (and other ingredients, for that matter) to add to a given recipe go here.

Here are some soaps I made (below). These ones have charcoal powder, bentonite clay, ground up lavender, cocoa butter, shea butter, coconut oil, and grapeseed oil, plus essential oils (for fragrance). You can experiment with oils and additives. . .But honestly, watch some of that lady's videos. She not only goes through dozens of methods, she also does some experiments with ingredients that DON'T work, so you don't have to. She's awesome. I'm telling you. She even makes lotions and liquid soaps! Just watch those videos. I'm telling you.

P.S. The cream colored soap on top there is one my sister, Rebekah, made. I've been making soap longer than she has, but she's the one who turned me on to Soaping101 (the Youtube lady), and since then, my soapmaking experiences have been a lot more fun (and way less scary). Lye is scary if you don't know what you are doing!!!

Here are some more. This one I was doing a marbling technique.