Soap! I can now check soap off my growing list of easily-bought-from-a-store-but-why-bother-when-you-can-go-to-the-trouble-of-making-it-at-home projects. First it was bread. Now soap. Next will be candles or lip balm, me thinks.
It's definitely a science, this soap-making business, and that's not usually how I tend to operate. I like recipes of the "add a little of this and a bit of that" variety. But I've made four batches now, stockpiling for holiday stocking stuffers, and am pretty excited about the results.
The batches I made most recently were successes (albeit after a bit of trial and error) and proved that making soap at home can be a highly satisfying personal venture. Not to mention the fact that they're honest-to-goodness sudsy, cleansing, fragrant bars that truly function as any respectable soap should.
Here are the tips I've learned so far:
1. The longer the bars have to dry, the longer they last and the less they leave a slick, soapy film on your hands after you've rinsed them. So wait at least 8 weeks before using your homemade soap.
2. Be bold with essential oil fragrances, and avoid using any citrus essential oils because they do not hold their fragrance. To get ideas for soap flavors, I like to visit boutique or on-line shops that sell specialty soaps. But be careful not to add too much essential oil because this will alter (I think) ratio of oils to lye mixture and thus mess things up. Also, the fragrance of the soaps I've made so far tend to change (mature?) with time, so if you're not totally satisfied with a fragrance at first, give it time - it seams to get better.
3. If the soap doesn't harden in 24 hours after pouring the molds, melt it down again, let it cool (stirring constantly), and re-pour - that should do the trick.
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