My Favorite Soap Making Process

My favorite soap making process

By Joseph Parish

Out of the four suggested methods of making soap I believe that since I am new at this skill, the melt and pour seems most appropriate for me. I decided this procedure would fit my requirements at this time because I am a mere beginner. As I gain more experience, I could progress towards trying the cold process, the kettle or the re-batching methods.

At this point in time the cold-processed soap-making would be inappropriate because of the need to purchase precise weighing and measuring equipment. I feel I am not up to creating soap in such a precision type manner.

The kettle method is also placed on the back burner (no pun intended) as it has the requirement for precise weighing and accurate measurements as well. Eventually this will be the method I will adopt after I gather some experience under my belt.

I feel the least desired method would be the re-batching method. As you may recall re-batching is nothing more than reusing soaps which had previously been made by the other methods. It reminds me a lot of the times when I would make homemade laundry detergent for training in my survival classes. We would grate a bar of soap, mix water with it and melt it. Our next task would be to heat the mixture being certain to stir it continuously and let it sit overnight. Although this is the point, the two soaps would differ. At this point we would remove the soap from the heat and add our optional items to it.

When comparing the hand soap with the detergents, I find there are more ingredients included in the hand soap. The only additional item placed on the detergent was perhaps some essential oils to enhance the smell of the final product. With the hand soap I am reminded that they add such components as natural preservatives in the form of glycerin, various oil or grapefruit seed extract. They also include anti-oxidants like vitamin A, E or C to prevent the fats from spoiling.

I can just about guarantee you that eventually I will try each of the methods to see which produced the best end product, but until I am more proficient with the tools of the trade and the many procedures involved, I believe I will use the melt and pour procedure. The melt and pour process involves using pre-fabricated soap base which is available at your local craft supply stores. These soap bases frequently contain an assortment of preservatives and stabilizers intent upon increasing the shelf life of your soap. All that is required is for you to carefully cut the soap base in small cubes and melt them in a microwave. After it is melted and has become a liquid you can then add scent, herbs or color to your melted soap. Prior to the soap cooling completely, and hardening it is poured into waiting molds which endow it with specific shapes. This is an excellent product for children since no lye is used.

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