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Here is my suggestion for a great starting recipe for soap:
It’s a great starting point, well balanced, great additives. And, it’s a pretty standard recipe. Which simply means, you can swap out one Oil for another run it through soapcalc, and hit the ground running. Not to mention, it can take a bit to come to trace, so if you choose to hold back a cup of soap and colour it, then spread it over top like a sandwich… will still invoking the Happy soap dance.
So! Take oodles of pictures for us, so we can relive our first Soap Making experience through you! I’m envious of you! If I could do it all over again and try making soap for the very first time I so would! It was crazy!
Okay. I like this soap project. I’ve printed it out. Ordered what I don’t have…lye. And tapped my friend for my mold. I’m so freaking excited. 😄 And nervous. What if it doesn’t get solid? What if there’s ash? (We spray alcohol on it, right?) I’m trying to make a checklist so I won’t muck up.
Yeah, my OCS has surfaced. Someone make it stop. I’m starting to obsess about all that can go wrong. 😭
Dang it! I know I wrote a long reply to this and now I don’t see it! Grrr! I’ll type again this evening, if I can remember all I wrote. I’m sure it was brilliant, whatever it was! *eyes rolling*
Unless you have checklist and the answer if o can use my canner pot for soap, then I do not know. *screams* how am I going to do this?!
Is your canner pot stainless steel? Then yes. Aluminum NOOOOO!
Ash? It’s just a cosmetic issue. Doesn’t affect soap other than the way it looks. It washes off. No, problem!
Let me see if I can find my early notes on Soapmaking to help you.
Just type in Google “beginners guide to cold process soap making” and lots of things pop up. Soap Queen’s is the first one I see. Gives you terms, tools you’ll need, a basic recipe (use Marie’s), and a step by step guide on what to do. Once you have all your tools and ingredients, you’re ready to go.
You’ll be nervous. I know I was! But just take a deep breath and do it! Once you make soap that first time, you will know why we keep making soap! It’s really an addictive hobby!! You can do this!!!
Before I made any soap, I read and reread different people’s first experience making soap. There’s lots of people out there who post about making it who aren’t “experts”. I then watched lots of YouTube videos about beginner soap making. Then one day I just said “I’m doing this!” And I did it! Everything went very smoothly, I didn’t do anything fancy at all, just used a simple recipe with no scent or additives, and I had soap! I molded it in some Gladware containers since I didn’t have a mold. It was funky shaped soap, but it was soap! I didn’t like it for bathing, so I used it to wash my hands. It worked great. The next recipe I made was one of Marie’s. That one I scented with some essential oils and bam! A lovely bar of soap I could use to bathe with. And so it started…..
It’s the big blue black one you can buy in a kit. I’ll have to pull it down and see. I think it’s enamel coated something. Lol
That sounds like a resounding NO! Stainless Steel only! I bought a SS pot at Target for maybe $15. It wasn’t expensive and it was smaller that a regular soup pot, which worked perfectly.
Okay….so… do I need 2 qt= 2 litre bowl with handle or 8 quart stock pot? These options are killing me!
Um, I don’t know? How much soap are you making? A 500 g recipe? Do you already have this bowl?
My stainless steel soap pot is plenty big, especially since I’ve done a couple of hot process soap recipes in it. One on purpose and one because my dang soap batch seized. The second reason is a GREAT reason to have a SS soap pot for mixing your soap up in! You can throw that sucker on the stove if your soap batter seizes and do the “hot process hero” method Soap Queen has on her website. And, even if you have NO IDEA what you’re doing (me), you still have soap! Ugly soap but a really nice creamy, bubbly lather soap! Haha!!
Lmao. I’m preparing for little and future batches here. I figure the biggest batch I’ll make at once would be 5 lb, unless I go nuts. Lol
That’s why I’m asking. I can get either, both, but want to make sure I spend wisely. The one steel stockpot I have, I was told, no touchie!
For smaller batches, a glass bowl or one of those large 8 cup (or however many it is) Pyrex measuring cups would work well. A handle and pouring spout would be helpful. Or , I got at Target, I think, a nested 3 plastic bowl set and the bowls have the rubber grip bottoms so the bowls don’t slide all over the counter. They also have pouring spouts and rubber handles on one side. I use the largest bowl for my 1500g oil recipe. That’s a fairly full bowl so I have to stick blend carefully or I could slosh it out over the sides. I’m messy and skilled like that. I use my soap pot for any size batch, even the smaller ones. The pot works great if you’re not trying anything fancy and just want a uniform colored bar of soap, colored with clay or something, then poured into the mold. I use the plastic bowls for mixing up the soap batter and the red plastic measuring cups I got at the dollar store for splitting it out and mixing different colors out of the soap batter then making some fancy design I hope this makes sense. I am falling asleeeeeeeeeeee______________
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