Soap You can not only take it on the counter, you can easily cook it yourself, at home. For this you need alkali, animal and vegetable fats, oils.
In this case, by alkali we mean sodium hydroxide (NaOH), which can add soapiness to fats. Instead, ash or lye based on it will do. Today we will master soap making for beginners and a detailed master class, which you will find below, will help you take your first steps in this direction.
Before start mastering soap making from scratch Let's look at the ingredients for making soap at home. First we need soap base. You can make it white or transparent. Transparent bases can be found commercially; this component is called titanium dioxide. It will make the soap matte. Next, the base composition must be melted in a water bath. Then add the main fatty oils, you can take coconut, palm or castor oil, lanolin, glycerin, grape seed oil, cocoa butter. They will nurture your skin to become soft, soft and supple. Which oil to choose depends on the desired result and the presence of ingredients. At the end of the article you will find step-by-step master classes on soap making for beginners, and having mastered the basics of this craft, study different recipes for making soap at home , which you will also find on our website in the Soap Making section.
So, let's throw it into the lineup dyes, give preference to dry or liquid dyes, which can be purchased at specialized points of sale. You can also add mother of pearl and sparkles (glitters) to make the soap shine beautifully.
The next stage is filler. Here, take everything your heart desires: coffee beans, oat flakes, honey, chocolate, milk, and so on. The filler will make the soap not only aesthetically pleasing, but also very useful. Honey and coffee beans provide an exfoliating effect, and oats and milk will help moisturize dry skin. By choosing certain herbs and flowers, you determine the type of your soap: healing, anti-inflammatory, or antibacterial. For beginners who are still learn soap making for beginners We recommend that you start by making the simplest soap with your own hands, consisting of basic ingredients plus one or two fragrances.
When the base has cooled, add flavors and fragrances. Don't overdo it - you only need a couple of drops, no more. If there are no special fragrances, you can use essential oils. You should not combine one with the other; the result of using a tandem will be negative. Essential oil smells pleasant, adds color to soap, and has healing properties.
Cups, various containers, and bottles of cosmetics will serve as molds for pieces of soap. Everything ingenious is elementary. Homemade soap will make an original gift. Brag about having such a hobby to your friends and acquaintances. And if you are afraid of ruining something, we recommend purchasing a soap maker kit, armed with it you will feel like a professional. This set can also be given as a gift to an amateur soap maker.
Learning soap making for beginners. Master class on making a simple scrub soap.
Master class for beginner soap makers. We make colorful soap with our own hands.
Dear readers, I think you will agree how nice it is to pamper yourself with something as pleasant and fragrant as natural, high-quality cosmetics. And how happy ordinary, familiar soap can be! Although why does he have to be ordinary? And we can even make it completely extraordinary if we cook it ourselves.
Today Svetlana Sarycheva will tell you how to make handmade soap. Like many needlewomen, she took up soap making while on maternity leave and began regularly making homemade cosmetics, accepting orders, participating in fairs and conducting master classes. I think we will have a lot to learn from her. I give her the floor.
Hello, dear readers of Irina Zaitseva’s interesting and useful blog! I hope my recommendations and step-by-step master class with photos will help you master a new exciting task - how to make soap.
Where to start
Natural soap is useful. In addition, handmade soap is the same hand-made product that does not have to gather dust on distant shelves.
For some time it will remain as a decoration for the bathroom, but in the end it will certainly be used.
Making simple homemade soap is easy. I will tell you how to take your first steps in soap making without much expense. After which you can decide for yourself whether you are ready to seriously engage in this and whether you should purchase everything you need to create more complex versions of soap, peelings, scrubs and other types of home cosmetics.
What do you need for handmade soap?
- cutting board;
- knives;
- cup or mug (plain inside);
- spoons for stirring;
- microwave or two saucepans for a water bath;
- form;
- soap base (or grated baby soap);
- powdered sugar (optional);
- food coloring;
- spices or cosmetic clay;
- oils, honey, tea broth, milk for adding to soap.
Soap base
In principle, kits for beginner soap makers can now be bought even in a children's store. However, I advise starting differently. To make your own soap at home, purchase a small piece of soap base from a craft store.
This basic soap base is made from vegetable fats. It is not tested on fauna. This base does not contain free alkali, which can irritate the skin.
Essentially, this is a semi-finished soap without fragrance, which can be white or transparent.
Nowadays, solid bases that already contain certain additives of natural origin (oils, crushed plants, etc.) are becoming increasingly widespread. There are also soft bases, suitable primarily for making shampoo, gel, mousse, milk, etc.
Look carefully at any soap base before purchasing. If it was carefully transported, stored and packaged, then the blocks should be clean, without small debris stuck to them. Opaque bubbles in a transparent base mean that it is spoiled (most likely, the base was kept in the cold).
The highest quality brands of solid bases for homemade soap melt smoothly and quickly and fully accept aromatic oils.
Which soap base is best? What to choose?
Handmade soap made from them hardens and foams perfectly. Experienced soap makers include the English Crystal, Belgian Tensianol and the German Activ and Zetessap bases as such high-quality bases. Regarding the latter, it is worth keeping in mind that it is produced exclusively in transparent form and without any additives.
Some sellers also offer a white solid Zetessap base, but in fact it is still the same transparent base that those who bought it at the factory independently melted in combination with titanium dioxide. This substance colors the base white and is practically insoluble in water.
Slightly above average level - Chinese basics. They may not be suitable for creators of complex cosmetic products, but for soap makers working with fatty oils, everything will work out. If you do not add the required amount of oils and fragrances to this handmade soap, it will noticeably smell like the “original” soap and dry out the skin a little. However, foam will still appear.
Malaysian soap bases are also considered quite satisfactory for handmade soap.
However, I do not recommend buying bases made in Russia (Myloff, DS-CLRC, ProLab, etc.) and Bulgaria (Re-St, Relina MSDS, etc.). These cheap bases can dry out or, on the contrary, release moisture, and also not completely harden in the molds.
The best temperature for storing solid base is +15..+20 ˚С.
You can save on soap base by using crushed baby soap instead. Although rubbing hard soap with a grater is a rather labor-intensive process. And you need to melt it in the same way as a soap base.
How to make soap
And now my master class with photos on how to make your own soap. Here's my recipe, let's get started! Cut a 100-gram piece of soap base (mine is white, without any additives) into cubes.
Prepare the molds. Since I’m talking about my first experience, including from a cost-saving point of view, existing silicone muffin molds are quite suitable. Rinse them with cold water first.
Let's return to the soap base. The cubes should be melted in a microwave oven or in a water bath. Perhaps a microwave is more convenient. Just remember that you need to take not just durable dishes, but ones that have no patterns, shiny stripes, etc. inside.
Do not melt the base completely. At high power, a couple of minutes is enough. The base should not boil! Otherwise, the moisture will evaporate and the required ph level (acid-base balance) in homemade soap will be disrupted.
If you don't have a microwave, make a water bath. To do this, take two pans - a larger one and a smaller one. Pour water into a large one and heat it. Place soap base cubes in a small bowl.
Important points:
Take a large saucepan with a thick bottom - this will help avoid strong boiling;
You can lay a linen or cotton napkin on the bottom;
do not place a small pan in a large one until the water has boiled;
Cover the small saucepan with a lid.
When placing a second pan in the first pan, make sure that its bottom only lightly touches the water. This is how you get a water bath: the future soap that you put in a small pan will heat up and soften due to the action of hot steam rising from the water from the large pan.
The remaining cubes will dissolve on their own during further stirring.
Stir the mixture and let it cool slightly. If you have food coloring in your kitchen, add a couple of drops.
We supplement the base with natural oils
Now you can add oil to the base. I have solid cocoa butter.
You may have previously purchased solid or liquid pharmaceutical oils for cosmetic and medicinal purposes. For soap, a small piece or a few drops is enough. Olive oil and glycerin will also work.
Glycerin moisturizes well and protects the skin from adverse environmental factors.
Softens the skin and makes it soft. Forming an airtight barrier on the skin, it prevents it from drying out by retaining moisture. This oil is hypoallergenic and suitable for children.
Cocoa butter has softening and regenerative properties.
Apricot kernel oil has a regenerating, rejuvenating, tonic effect. It helps restore skin firmness and elasticity.
Nourishes and softens dry skin.
Grapeseed oil reduces pores, tones and refreshes.
Gives a rejuvenating effect.
Calendula oil has an antiseptic, bactericidal, anti-inflammatory, softening and moisturizing effect.
Suitable for supporting dry, damaged or aging skin. It promotes cell regeneration and strengthens capillaries, relieves swelling and redness, and eliminates flaking of the skin.
Other soap additives
You can also add tea infusion, honey or milk to handmade soap for smooth and soft skin.
If you add a mixture of spices to the soap (cinnamon, ginger, etc. - choose according to taste and desire) or a small amount of cosmetic clay, it will have a slight peeling effect.
After all the additions, stir again so that there are no bubbles or lumps. If in the future you will prepare several bars of soap at once, a mixer or blender will come in handy. Don't worry: the soap base and other ingredients come off easily!
Pour the mixture into the mold.
In silicone form, homemade soap will harden quickly (you will have to wait a maximum of an hour), but then be sure to dry your fragrant creation for another hour or two.
How to make liquid soap at home
From the remains of solid soap you can make liquid soap, which will last for a long time. Dry the remaining soap and grate it. Boil water and mix it with soap. Add a few drops of glycerin (to achieve a gel consistency) and lemon or orange juice (for flavor).
Mix the solution again, and then pour it into a container with a dispenser. Leave for three days, remembering to shake periodically.
If you have made both solid and liquid soap and you like both the process and the result, then keep experimenting! Try new things. Choose flavors. Master complex shapes and make colorful soaps. Take coffee, oatmeal, clay, crushed dried flowers and make scrubs. Use fragrances and pigments, glitters and pearls... And even water-soluble paper!
NATA KARLINSoap making - where to start at home? This process is becoming increasingly popular. Now not only women are interested in it, but also men who are trying to look after their own and their family’s health. Despite all the tradition, this activity is very exciting. The process is somewhat reminiscent of ritual potion making, plus the opportunity to amaze loved ones and friends with original gifts for the holidays. However, the greatest advantage of this hobby is that from now on you will begin to use natural, handmade soap, prepared at home, with your favorite additives and fragrances.
Soap making is a process that anyone can master. Once you make your own soap at home, you will never want to use store-bought soap products again.
All about soap making and making soap at home for beginners
Recipes for beginners on how to make soap at home are not very different from each other. The difference is when to add oils, fragrances or herbs to the mixture. The most common soap you can make is a soap base product that has no fragrance. Soap base There are two colors - colorless and white. The colorless one contains glycerin, the white one consists of oils: coconut or palm. You can purchase soap base at craft stores. The process of making soap at home with your own hands according to a recipe requires some skills and caution.
The aggressive alkali that is included in the composition can cause injury to human hands and eyes.
The final product combines the following components:
Vegetable and animal fats;
Soda (caustic);
Fillers.
In the process, saponification of fats occurs and we get soap in the form in which we are all accustomed to using it.
How to make homemade handmade soap using a recipe for beginners?
Many housewives melt down the remaining soap and make small blocks out of them that can still be used. However, here is a homemade soap recipe from the basics to the very end.
The list contains everything you need for soap making at home:
Ordinary, but so varied soap
An interesting recipe for handmade soap from a soap base - soap balls for the bathroom.
They are gentle on your skin, exude your favorite scent and are a reflection of your personality.
To make bath balls:
Baking soda;
Citric acid;
Starch (preferably corn);
Favorite essential oil;
Spray;
Molds (round).
The operating procedure is as follows:
Combine soda, acid and starch in an enamel bowl, mix everything;
Pour essential oils into a spray bottle;
While stirring the bulk ingredients, spray the oil on them. Test doneness with your fingers - if the mixture placed between them sticks, move on to the next step;
Add decorations or additional ingredients to the mixture (lemon slices, ground zest, rose petals, cucumber rings, etc.);
Place the mixture into molds;
Refrigerate for 6 hours;
Remove the soap balls from the molds and place them in a cool place for 24 hours;
Place in a plastic bag and in a cool place.
Before running your bath, place a soap ball (or two) in it.
Homemade liquid soap recipe quite simple. Mix coconut and olive oil in equal proportions, add water and shea butter to the desired consistency. Heat the mixture in a water bath, stirring thoroughly, add alkali and potassium to it. Using a blender, beat the mixture until a homogeneous, almost transparent mixture is obtained and leave until cool.
It's a start! Now you can make wonderful, fragrant and beautiful soap at home. There is no need to experiment and be afraid that additives, stabilizers and fragrances in store-bought skin care products will harm you by causing allergies. Then everything depends only on your imagination and ingenuity. “Conjure” your works of soap-making art, delight yourself and your loved ones with beautiful and fragrant gifts. Invent new recipes. Nature has everything for a flight of creative imagination: herbs, essential oils, flowers, milk, honey, fruits or vegetables. Once you try to make soap with your own hands, you are unlikely to give it up in the future.
12 April 2014, 18:53
Are you looking for an interesting and useful hobby? Try making soap with your own hands at home: recipes for beginners, informative video instructions, and detailed description of the process you will find on our website. Read, cook and enjoy the results.
Just a decade ago, making soap with your own hands was almost impossible. There were not enough components, materials for work and basic practical knowledge. Today, soap making at home has become a pleasant hobby that allows create natural and affordable cosmetics at home, as well as the opportunity to show your creative ingenuity.
For many, the process of making soap has become a source of additional income, because organic cosmetics are extremely popular today. But before you move on to mass production of homemade soap, study the main points of making natural cosmetics, familiarize yourself with the components, and consider the technology in detail.
Homemade soap can be made in many ways:
- from soap base;
- from ready-made baby soap;
- from remnants;
- You can prepare the base yourself.
Soap can also have different consistencies and shapes:
- solid soap, which should be given a round, oval or rectangular shape, or poured into a special shaped container;
- liquid soap with various essential additives.
Homemade soap is also convenient because you can independently select the ingredients for it according to your skin type, add natural scrubs, fragrances and essential oils. In fact, it all depends on your imagination, capabilities and mood. Next, we suggest studying and repeating simple master class on making soap at home.
Soap making for beginners: homemade soap based on children's soap
In order to take your first steps in soap making, it is not necessary to buy special bases and expensive ingredients: you can make do with the means at hand: natural additives, herbal decoctions, essential oils, etc. The base will consist of baby soap, which can be purchased at any household store.
So, let's take a closer look at such a fascinating and useful process as soap making for beginners - recipes with photos will help you do everything yourself and without extra effort.
In addition to 100 grams of regular baby soap (without fragrances or additives), you will need:
- 100 ml milk;
- 1 tablespoon olive oil;
- essential oil of your choice (just add a couple of drops of cinnamon or vanilla oil to get a rich aroma);
- 1 tablespoon of honey or sugar.
When preparing, you should also tinker a little with the dishes:
- prepare a steam bath;
- choose a spoon or wooden stick for stirring the soap mass;
- remove a metal grater from household use;
- prepare containers for pouring soap: These can be silicone muffin molds (which you no longer use for food purposes), any plastic boxes, low glass jars from which you can easily get the finished product.
Let's move on to the process of making homemade soap
How to make natural soap with your own hands?
Soap making is a very creative process., allowing you to unleash your full potential and give pleasant moments spent doing your favorite activity. The approach to making homemade soap is completely varied. In addition to baby soap, as the main ingredient you can use a special soap base, diluted with milk, cream, herbal infusion and “seasoned” with base oil.
Also Soap base can be made from scratch using natural coconut, castor, olive, cocoa, grape seed oils, as well as palm, mustard, and sunflower oil. Natural oil also contains alkali, water and superfat (SF). The secrets of homemade soap-making magic lie in correctly selected proportions and a harmonious combination of all ingredients. When making homemade soap, you can safely use any essential oils and flavors, add natural dyes and your imagination.
Fresh ideas for making homemade soap
Natural soap today is not just a hygiene product. This is a beautiful work of art, a fragrant adventure, a celebration of tenderness and harmony, as well as many pleasant emotions. You can add any ingredients to your cosmetic creation and create a unique bouquet of aroma and texture.
Soap made at home can be a real masterpiece of handicraft.
Cooking it yourself is not at all difficult, and the process itself is captivating.
In addition, you can add any individually beneficial ingredients, favorite fragrances and desired colors to this soap.
Homemade soap recipes for beginners are simple and fun. And knowing certain rules will help you avoid the most common mistakes.
Homemade soap: how it differs from store-bought soap
Homemade soap has a big advantage over what is on supermarket shelves. The composition of purchased soap is often monotonous, and the list on the packaging is always subject to great doubt. As a rule, store-bought soap dries the skin, tightens it, and leaves a residue.
And only home-made soap will have all the qualities required by a certain skin type. Homemade soap recipes for beginners do not require any unusual ingredients. Everything you need for exciting soap making can be purchased in specialized stores.
When preparing soap at home, use it you can add essential oils and herbal decoctions, which will fill it with a lot of useful properties.
So, for example, soap with tea tree oil or calendula decoction Ideal for washing oily skin prone to breakouts. It will have a disinfecting effect.
Fir as part of a soap bar will relieve pustular rashes.
Soap with orange will help in the fight against cellulite and will energize you.
If you add it to soap lavender essential oils, it is ideal for evening hygiene procedures, will calm you down and set you up for pleasant dreams.
When preparing soap at home, you can add any essential oil to it. This will give it both beneficial properties and your favorite aroma. Essential oils do not contain fats that could clog pores. The main thing is not to exceed the permissible number of drops, because this can provoke allergic reactions.
Buying in a store soap-scrub, you often have to doubt that it contains natural particles that will remove dead skin cells. But if the manufacturer replaced them with a synthetic analogue, then the skin will suffer from such chemical exposure. Homemade soap with a scrubbing effect will not only do its job perfectly, but will also heal the skin at the same time. Healthy oatmeal is usually added to such soap as a gentle but effective scrub. Ground coffee in soap will help provide real exfoliation for the body, but will not injure it. You can also add any cosmetic clay and herbal decoctions to the scrub soap.
Soap, to which will be added, can rejuvenate the skin and moisturize it. seaweed during the cooking process. Initially, the soap base can be diluted with milk or herbal infusions, which will also have a beneficial effect on the condition of the skin.
The recipe for an invigorating, refreshing soap at home for beginners includes menthol. The secret of this soap is to completely dissolve the menthol crystals. To do this, alcohol is used at the initial stage instead of water. Only alcohol will completely dissolve the menthol, distributing it evenly throughout the soap base.
When thinking about what to give to your family and friends for the next holiday, homemade soap will be one of the best options. After all, it can be made not only extremely useful, but also beautiful. To give beautiful shades, you can use it as natural dyes – coffee, juices of fruits, vegetables, berries. So are dyes sold in specialized stores. In addition, dried flower buds, pieces of chocolate and other healthy and beautiful ingredients that only the imagination is capable of look beautiful in pieces of soap.
Making soap at home (for beginners): what you need for this
Before you begin the exciting process of making homemade soap, you need to acquire all the ingredients, auxiliary items and utensils:
Soap base - it is sold in specialized stores, it can be white and transparent. But for soap-making beginners, it is better to use simple baby soap;
Water, herbal decoctions, milk - to dilute the soap base;
Base oil – olive, grape, almond, apricot. Any of these and other oils can be purchased at the pharmacy;
Essential oils - they will give the finished product the desired aroma and beneficial properties;
Glycerol;
Additives - they are chosen taking into account the purpose of the future soap: moisturizing, scrubbing, healing, soothing, tonic, etc.;
Dyes - soap can, of course, be transparent, in which herbs, flowers, and citrus zest will be clearly visible. And if not, then dyes purchased in the store or prepared with your own hands from natural materials are used;
Dishes - containers for setting up a steam bath, as well as various molds for soap, which can be either specialized or any plastic, glass or ceramic forms;
Alcohol is needed to degrease soap molds and get rid of bubbles.
Homemade soap recipe for beginners: ingredients and sequence of steps
The homemade soap recipe for beginners is quite simple and a pleasure to make. When everything you need is already at hand, it’s time to start preparing:
1. Set up a medium-intensity water bath on the stove;
2. Rub the baby soap on a coarse grater or cut the soap base into pieces and place in a water bath so that the base melts;
3. In the process of melting the base, you need to add oil to it, which plays a basic role. Take 3 tablespoons per 100 grams of soap base;
4. At the same time, add water, milk or herbal decoctions to the resulting mixture. This must be done gradually to obtain a creamy consistency;
5. Remove the completely melted mixture from the water bath and add essential oils (no more than 5 drops per 100 grams of product), dyes and ingredients as desired, and a teaspoon of glycerin;
6. Pour the future soap in measured doses into molds that have previously been wiped with alcohol;
7. To get rid of bubbles on the surface of the soap, spray it with alcohol from a fine spray bottle;
8. Leave the molds with the mixture in a cool place for several days.
After 2-3 days, the mixture in the molds will harden and dry completely. That's the whole homemade soap recipe for beginners. Already on the first try, you will get an amazing, healthy soap that will delight not only its manufacturer, but also those with whom he shares his masterpiece.
Making soap at home: the main problems for beginners
Making mistakes is common to everyone, and especially in such a creative process as soap making. But in order not to translate ingredients so often, it is useful to know some rules that will help you avoid mistakes.
A homemade soap recipe for beginners should be well studied, and all ingredients should be prepared in advance on hand. But besides this, you need to accurately calculate the dosage of each additive:
The soap mixture can only be prepared in a water bath. If you do this directly in a container on fire, then everything will simply start to burn;
Additional components are added to the slightly cooled mixture;
Do not use a mixer for mixing, this will lead to a lot of bubbles;
For 100 grams of soap base, take no more than 3 tablespoons of base oil. Otherwise, the finished soap will not lather;
No base oil is added if the output is expected to be clear soap;
Essential oils should be added drop by drop, not exceeding the total amount of 5 drops. Otherwise, it is easy to provoke an allergic reaction caused by an overdose of ethers;
When preparing soap for children, you should not add essential oils at all;
Poorly ground herbs or adding too much of them will scratch your skin unpleasantly. The same applies to coffee, and oatmeal, and everything else that is usually used for scrubbing soap;
Flowers and herbs are added only in dry form;
It is better to add additives for scrub soap when the soap mixture is already poured into molds. This will allow the particles to linger evenly throughout the soap bar;
If you add salt during the soap-making process, the mixture will break down into its components and the preparation will be interrupted and the product will be spoiled;
Figures can only be made from a still very warm soap mixture. If it cools down, it will begin to disintegrate when you try to twist something out of it;
Of the natural dyes, only beet juice can color the product red;
Colors and smells should not be mixed during the soap making process, as the result may be unpredictable and not the most pleasant;
In the process of preparing multi-layer soap, the surface of each previous layer must be slightly cut and sprinkled with alcohol;
The alcohol must be pure and cannot be replaced with vodka or other alcohol-containing liquids;
Soap molds can be kept in the refrigerator for no more than 10 minutes;
Soap molds should not be left to dry in the open sun.
These basic rules will help you avoid the most common soap-making mistakes while guiding homemade soap recipes for beginners. In addition, you should make it a rule to write down every successful recipe and never rely only on memory.
