Basic Soap Making Requirements
Step by Step Instructions
- Stick blender, 5 quart plastic, glass or enamel bowl or stainless pot, wire whisk for hand stirring, spatula, thermometer.
- If melting your oils on the stove, you require a stainless steel or enamel saucepan. If using the microwave, you require a glass or plastic bowl large enough for mixing your soap in. If using the kit oils, which are in plastic bottles, you can remove the caps and microwave until liquid.
- Two or four cup heat resistant plastic or glass measuring cup for mixing lye solution.
- Scale suitable for measuring ingredients (if using bulk oils, etc.)
- Rubber or latex gloves and safety goggles.
- Soap molds or trays.
- Knife or cutter for cutting and shaping soap bars.
- Our preferred mixing tool for soap making is the stick blender. It will reduce mixing time to around 10 to 25 minutes, depending on the type of soap. When using a stick blender, be careful to keep blender on bottom of bowl with jets covered to avoid splashing. Use blender for 15-20 seconds, followed by hand mixing to fully incorporate mixture at all levels. Repeat as required until soap traces.
- A wide range of containers can be used as soap molds. These include a very large selection of soap bar sized molds available from our store as well as simple molds such as wooden or card board boxes, soap kit oil bottles (cut top off bottle), plastic pipes, lined cake or muffin tins, etc.
- For the occasional soap maker, a retractable blade utility knife and ruler can be used to square cut the bars of soap made in a tray mold. A vegetable peeler can be used to shape the edges.
- A wire cutter similar to that used for large cheese blocks can be made very easily using a 12” x 16” piece of ¾” plywood, two 16” lengths of 2” x 2” wood, eye hook, wooden dowel handle and 16” length of piano wire. Screw or nail 2” x 2” wood pieces to 16” sides of plywood to form a base, insert eye hook into side of 2” x 2” wood. Attach wire to eye hook and other end to dowel.
Mark plywood surface with squaring up lines. Draw wire slowly through soap for clean cut.
- Avoid use of aluminum, tin, iron or Teflon in soap making. Lye will corrode these surfaces. Some plastics can become weak in the presence of high temperatures. Wood spatulas will deteriorate over time.
Soap Making