How To Start Making Soap At Home?

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What do you need to know about handmade soap?

Once you start making soap at home, you will never go back to commercial soaps.

Soap is a necessity for people since ancient times. Few items are considered as vital as soap. It is part of our daily lives and let's be honest - we can't really go without it. Many people would prefer to use other means for cleaning when they are outside, for example cosmetic wet wipes or antibacterial gels, but there is nothing that can substitute the "good, old" soap in terms of cleaning properties. If you already know that, then no wonder you are interested to start making soap at home.

Why Start Making Soap at Home?

Homemade soap is known to be a much healthier and toxic-free way to cleanse. Nowadays, with sustainability all around us, it is hard to pass by the flood of handmade products that were curated in a mindful and eco-friendly way. Soaps are definitely part of the wave, and for a good reason.

Firstly, if you start reading what commercial soaps contain, you will find yourself at a loss - what do these ingredients even mean? Isn't soap supposed to be basically saponified oils? Yes, that's the thing - it is! But in order to have a long-lasting product, that smells like a fresh garden or "ocean breeze", or whatever it says on the store-bought label, soap factories need to add a bunch of extra things in the soap recipe. Things, that are definitely not a must to have in a soap, and sometimes can even make the situation worse with drying out your skin.

Then, comes the question - why not skip all that, and simply have a handmade soap bar that only has the ingredients your skin needs? You have two options - buy a certified handmade soap, free of chemicals, or make it yourself. If you are into DIY and feel excited to pick up this hobby, keep on reading, because we'll go into more details on how to start making soap at home.

How did people make soap in the past?

Early soap production dates back to when soaps were rather a luxurious product. Their making was considered craftsmanship and a secret that was passed on from one generation to another - from masters to apprentices. One of the first known and written soap recipes is from the 12th century and was found in a compilation of various crafts' secrets. At that time, soap recipes were developed in a trial-and-error approach and the end product was used in the clothing industry rather than being a hygiene item.

Due to the scarcity of products available for soap making, the transportation fees for importing goods and the fact that the process was kept a secret, soap was a luxurious product, which was only readily available to the rich people.

Nowadays, with the advancement of technology, availability to travel and transport low-taxed goods, as well as the open knowledge sharing, the world of soap making has opened to the public. And while it seems to be a complicated, chemical process, with the right guidance and preparation, anyone can start making soap at home.

How to start making soap at home? Understanding the Basics of Soapmaking

Now, the most important thing to bear in mind is to not underestimate the process. When making soap at home, we must be extra careful with handling the ingredients and the chemical process occurring when mixing a lye solution. In order to start making soap at home, please prepare yourself first - read about the items you will need, plan ahead the recipe you would like to try, buy the right amount of ingredients and make sure the room you will be making soap at, is well ventilated, has enough space to move, with no kids or pets around.

The process of making soap is basically the saponification process - turning base (carrier) oils into soap with the help of NaOH (if making hard soap) or KOH (if making liquid soap). The chemical reaction that occurs when mixing water, lye and oils is what eventually will make a soap. There are three ways of making soap: cold process, hot process and melt-and-pour. You can try all of them when you start making soap at home, or you can already choose the one you prefer, based on their key differences outlined below:

Personally, I only use the cold process, because it gives me full control of the ingredients and is fun to experiment with - one of my favorite things about soap making. Cold process soap making happens when you mix lye with water + the oils you want to use, after which you pour into a soap mold and wait for the soap to naturally cool down and harden. This is a slow process, but very fulfilling and fun to observe.

The hot process follows the same principles as the cold one, with the exception that you are working with high temperature oils, which saponify while still mixing. Then, you kind of have to shape it within the mold, as it would be thick as a cake batter (kind of). Once solid, you can use it almost immediately (after 1-2 days), which is what most people prefer to the 6-week-waiting time of cold process soap curing. I don't like this method as much, because the structure of the soap is not as smooth and to my liking.

Melt-and-pour process is what is best for beginners, though, as you don't have to deal with lye. This is also what most people prefer to begin with, when they start making soap at home. This process provides you with a soap base - yes, already cured soap in a cube or pieces, which you can melt and then pour into your own molds, or add different additives like herbs, colors, etc. Thus, you are only dealing with heating and cooling down that base, but not making it from scratch yourself.

What equipment do you need when you start making soap at home?

We can categorize the equipment you will need to start making soap at home in three categories:

Pots & Containers

You will need a melting pot and a regular pot made of stainless steel. This is where you will melt the solid butters and oils. You can use what you already have at your disposal at home, as the oils you will be working with are natural and often odorless, so you don’t need to worry about buying extra cooking equipment. However, if you choose to dedicate more time and space to soapmaking, make sure to buy a stainless steel sauce pan (or two) that will be used exclusively for your craft.

You will need at least two bowls (not glass, as glass tends to break when exposed to the high temperatures the lye solution is going to reach) for mixing your oils and making the soap batter. Make sure these bowls are marked PP 5 (polypropylene).

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You will need a measurement cup which you can measure your oils, water/liquids with. You can also use pipettes or measuring spoons for measuring essential oils, but this is not obligatory. For measuring scented oils or butters, please use separate containers than what you normally use in your kitchen. The scents tend to “connect” with the plastic, meaning if you measure flour or milk with the same cups when baking, your cake will end up being scented and you don’t want that.

Technical equipment

A must-have when you start making soap at home, is of course, having an immersion blender (or blender stick, as we like to call it) for mixing your oils with the lye solution. You can do that by hand as well, with a regular whisker (that you use only for soapmaking), but if you use oils that are slow to trace, such as olive or sunflower oil, you will need at least three hours of whisking before you reach a trace. Please, also use a different immersion blender than the one you normally use when you are cooking. This will prevent unwanted aromas going in your food.

Another thing you need, is an electric scale. Soaps are made with great precision and every gram makes a difference in the end result. So always use a scale when measuring your ingredients.

Last but not least, you will need an electric thermometer. Because temperatures go high very fast, you need to cool down your lye solution before you start mixing it with your oils. On the other hand, you have probably heated some oils and butters in order to melt them and they need to cool down.

When you start making soap at home, it is important to keep the temperatures of the two mixes (lye solution and oils) within 10-12 degrees Celsius. Also, it is important to have a certain temperature of each that will allow you to work with the batter and prevent speeding up the saponification process that will leave you with either a super thick mix that is difficult to pour, or overheating that causes your soap to “explode”. Thus, always measure your temperatures before starting mixing. And always keep track of them with an electric thermometer.

Ingredients List

What you can’t go without (in cold process soap making) is an alkali base. This can be either NaOH for a soap bar or a KOH for a liquid soap. The natrium hydrogen is usually sold in bulk and looks like small white pearls. You need also distilled water in order to make your lye solution.

The second part of your recipe are the oils and butters that will give the nice nourishing properties of your soap. Read more about what are the most common oils used in soapmaking. And if you are feeling fancy, you can also add essential oils, fragrance oils, colorants or sometimes, even food products, such as milk, honey, coffee, herbs, etc.

Make sure to plan the recipes you want to make in advance, so you can buy all ingredients you need at once. Thus, you will save a lot on shipping costs and fees, which tend to add up a lot when you start making soap at home, as you always want to try different oils, scents or colors.

Beginner Soapmaking Recipes

When starting out, it's important to follow the recipe you've chosen to a T. A lot of things can go wrong, if not done so. Especially, if you are new to using the soap calculator, please don't change oils or grams (or percentages) in a certain recipe. Ingredients and measurements are there for a reason, and any change should be carefully though about ahead of time.

I recommend you start with a simple recipe of 2-3 base oils and 2-3 essential oils first. Make sure you don't start with citrus essential oils right away, as they are notorious for speeding up trace, which can make you feel under pressure and that usually leads to mistakes. The most forgiving essential oils to start with, are lavender, patchouli, sandalwood. If your soap recipe calls for mainly liquid oils - the saponification will occur slower than if you also have hard ones such as coconut oil or cocoa butter.

My first soap try was with a recipe containing coconut oil, sunflower oil, olive oil and shea butter. To this day I consider this to have been probably the best choice to start with, as it turned out amazing in terms of shape, hardness and soap qualities.

If you want to try out my first recipe, or another fun one created by me with detailed instructions, check out my free soap making guide below, as it contains all the info in this article + some really nice recipes for when you start making soap at home:

Useful resources when you start making soap at home

When we started making soap at home, we had to read tons of articles, watch various video tutorials, ask experienced soapmakers stupid questions and re-read our Chemistry books from high school, in order to be fully prepared for anything that we will experience in the process. If you are thinking about starting making soap at home, please consider getting high-quality information from trusted sources.

There are many e-Books out there, which don't really teach you the small yet important things of soap making. A few of the sources we would recommend if you are a beginner soap maker, are SoapQueen, Lovely-Greens, Elly's Everyday. These are our favorite sources of inspiration and our guides when starting out this soap journey, so we believe they will help you learn a lot as well!

Start Making Soap at Home FAQ

This article was all about how to start making soap at home. Learn about safe soap making, how to make your own soap using the traditional cold process, and the equipment you will need before you start.