The Soap Box » how to make soap

Looking Ahead in Soap Making

Soap Oils — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:55:36 +0000

For most of us, we’ve just finished packing away the last of the Christmas lights, and tossed away the last leftovers from that insane New Years eve dinner party we threw – but spring is really just around the corner. With the biggest gift-giving day for lovers creeping up on us, we’re reminded that Spring Mother’s Day, and Easter are really not too far off.

Here at Cibaria, we love planning our activities and promotions around what our customers actually need during those special times of the year. We want to know what kind of things you have in store for your special occasion soap making?

Do you plan out ahead of time what soap you’re going to make for the following year?

Are you kind of winging-it?

Do you have new areas of soap making that you’re looking to try out, but aren’t sure how it’ll work out?

We’d love to hear from you – and we’re sure the other soap makers that read our blog will add a great amount of their own ideas on things they’ve already implemented to become a more organized soap maker!

Note: The Soap photo above is an Olive Oil and Shea Butter Soap made by Catherine Filippelli

Common Soapmaking Terms – A Helpful Glossary

Soap Oils — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:28:01 +0000

Ever wonder what all of this means? CP, CPOP, HP, Tare, Trace, etc. Look like Greek to you? Here are a few helpful tips for you!

Additives = Ingredients used that are not oils, butters and fragrance in the soapmaking process – e.g., Jojoba Spheres, Poppy Seeds, Clays and Herbs, etc. – enhancements to your soap

CP = Cold Process Soap
CPHP = Crock Pot Hot Process Soap
CPOP = Cold Process, Oven Process Soap
CS/CSDBHP = Closed System/Closed Sysytem Double Boiler Hot Process Soap
Curing = Amount of time required for batch to complete saponification process

DB = Double Boiler
DH = Direct Heat
DOS = Dreaded Orange Spots
DW/DWCP = Discounted Water Cold Process Soap

EO/EOs = Essential Oils

FP/Flashpoint = The flash point of a flammable liquid is the lowest temperature at which it can form an ignitable mixture in air
FO/FOs = Fragrance Oils

GM/GMS – Goat Milk Soap
GSE = Grapefruit Seed Extract – Antioxidant

HP = Hot Process Soap

INCI = International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients – Listing of ingredient names

KOH = Potassium Hydroxide/Lye (Liquid Soap Making)

Lye – Sodium or Potassium Hydroxide

NaOH = Sodium Hydroxide/Lye (Bar Soap Making)

MP/M&P = Melt and Pour Soap
MSDS = Material Safety Data Sheet

OHP = Oven Hot Process Soap

Rebatching = Rebatching is a method of making unattractive, downright ugly, imperfect batches into beautiful new batches by shredding the old batch and adding a bit of oils and/or liquids. This is also a great method to use to add herbs and clays and/or exfoliants, etc.
ROE = Rosemary Oleoresin Extract

SAP Values = Saponification Values
Saponification = The chemical reaction between lye and oils/butters to make soap
Seize = When a Fragrance Oil makes your beautiful batch turn in to mashed potatos!
Stick Blender = Electric kitchen tool to mix/blend your batch together
Superfat = Measured in percents…The amount of fat left over in the batch after saponification.

Tare = Feature to allow you to “zero out” the weight of your container oon your scale
Trace = Point where you can dribble your batch onto itself and show a trace…A light pudding

Contributed by Kelley Perea-Shaffer of Soapies Supplies. If you are in the AZ area, or plan on being in the AZ area, they are currently offering 3 levels of soapmaking lessons starting in December! They are also having an all day Melt and Pour Soapmaking class with M&P Expert Debbie Chialtas of SoapyLove in January!

How to Make Goat’s Milk Soap – A Photo Tutorial

Soap Oils — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:01:59 +0000

There are many goat’s milk soap tutorials out there, but I make mine a little differently with consistent results, so I thought I would share my own technique. My technique combined many other strategies and then was altered to fit my needs. I saw many milk soap recipes that came out that lovely shade of orange or described a horrid smell, neither of which interested me. I found different methods for freezing the milk, adding the lye to the milk, adding additives to counteract the issues of using milk, but I wanted something simple.

Here is my technique. You can use your own recipe and then change the water to milk or you can use this recipe that is similar to mine from Snowdrift Farms. You didn’t think I would actually give away my “top secret” recipe, did you?

Shea & Goats Milk Soap

by Snowdrift Farms
Makes about 5 lbs. of soap

Oils by weight:
15 oz. sunflower seed oil, high oleic
15 oz. sweet almond oil
8 oz. avocado oil
3 oz. babassu oil
7 oz. coconut oil, 76 degree
3 oz. palm oil
4 oz. shea butter Lye/NaOH/Sodium Hydroxide by weight: 7.4 oz. Water/Milk by volume: 20 fluid ounces

Optional:
1-2 teaspoons titanium dioxide
1 teaspoon pigment
2.5-3 ounces essential oil or fragrance oil

I am assuming you know how to make cold process soap. I should not have to remind you to use proper safety techniques and protective gear, but I will. Please use them. Here’s a link to general lye safety. And here is a link to soap making safety tips.

Now let’s begin.

1. You need frozen goat’s milk. A local farm or a health food store should be able to supply you with goat’s milk. I use raw or unpasteurized goat’s milk. Some methods suggest freezing the milk in an ice cube tray with each cube containing 1 ounce. This is too much work and the milk melts too fast (at least in my S. FL home it does). Note their are 20 ounces of fluid necessary for this recipe. I use 16 ounces of goat’s milk (there is a reason for this – it does not matter your ratio, but you need some water). Measure the 16 oz. and pour into a freezer ziploc bag. Seal and freeze overnight. Since I make a lot of goat’s milk soap, I buy a lot of milk and freeze it all at once. The raw milk does not stay fresh long, so freeze it right away.

2. Melt your oils together.

Place in a glass or plastic container and allow to cool to 115-120 degrees.

3. Have your scent and color ready to go. I have two sets of photos in this tutorial. One is showing what will happen if you add nothing. The other shows my Orange Blossom soap in a light peach shade.

4. Fill your sink with a few inches of water and add a lot of ice.

You want the temperature to be about 5 degrees cooler than the oils. If it’s not exactly 5 degrees cooler, don’t panic. You definitely want the milk cooler than the oils and the temp of the milk should be 105-115 degrees. Sometimes, the milk doesn’t melt completely when the temperature reaches the desired degrees. Don’t worry. It’s the temp that is important, not whether or not the milk has melted. Note the color has gotten lighter. It’s now a creamy color.

8. Pour the lye mixture into the oils, as soon as both temperatures are in the right range. Note that my milk is still in an icy chunk. It will melt while mixing the oil with the lye.

9. Give the mixture a quick stir. Start using your stick blender, and blend to trace. The oils made it a little darker. Just keep mixing.

Sometimes when you add the milk mixture to the oils and start to belnd it, it will immediately thicken and look a little ricey. Don’t panic. Your temps were probably a little off. Just blend with the stick blender. It is falsely tracing and will correct itself as you blend it. It should self-correct suddenly within a minute or two of blending.

Ahh! Now the color is getting pretty light.

When you reach light trace, which typically takes just a couple of minutes, add your color. I added my peach color in this picture.

Then add your scent. I used my essential oil blend for my Orange Blossom soap. You can see it brings a color of its own.

Mix again until trace.

Pour into your molds or log. Here again is my peach colored soap. It will darken a little as it solidifies.

10. Put some saran wrap over exposed portions of soap to prevent ash. There is no need to cover the soap or to place it in the freezer. Just put the saran wrap on it and leave it alone for 24 hours.

Here you can see 3 different soaps. The white is Sweet Jasmine, the peach is Orange Blossom, and the tan one in the back is Brigid’s Amber. It smells awesome but will darken to a mid brown due to the ingredients (surprisingly, not vanilla).

Here is a white bar of Sweet Jasmine.

Some people have the philosophy that milk soap should not gel and needs to be placed in the freezer. This is not necessary using this method. Do not fear gelling. I have never had a problem and my house sometimes gets up to 85 degrees.

This is the Sweet Jasmine curing.

I paint most of my Celtic soaps with mica. This is the finished Orange Blossom with some gold mica. Note the light color. Your milk soaps do not need to be dark, although I do make some dark soaps in the colors I choose, but not by scorching my milk.

Hope this tutorial helps some of you that are interesting in a goat’s milk adventure. If you have questions, please post them here and I will be happy to answer them.

I have another tutorial coming soon for alcoholic soap. No, not soap for alcoholics, soap made with alcohol. I make some with beer and whiskey. You could also use wine and other hard liquors.

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Tutorial and photos by Erica Pence, owner and handcrafted soap maker at Bonnie Bath, and author of the Bonnie Bath Blog.

Bio: Owner of The Bonnie Bath Co. and maker of handcrafted soaps, bath and body products and candles. Column Editor for the Saponifier Magazine and Forum Moderator and volunteer for the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild as well as the Scottish American Society of South Florida. Regional webmaster for FUSTA. Happily married with one beautiful child.

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A Beginner’s Try at Soap Making – An Experiment

Soap Oils — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:34:31 +0000

Hello blogosphere! I am Terra, and I run the internet fun at Cibaria Soap Supply (We Sell Soap Oils / Soap Base Oils. I have to say that I’ve learned quite a lot about soap making in the past month or so. Our company, Cibaria International, has launched a Soap Oil Supply division, and I got to create the website and social efforts. To do this, one must learn the trade… the very special trade of soap making.

I have to be honest and say that I am not a crafty person. You know how some people are just “naturally” crafty and more inclined to create nice things with their hands? Well, that’s not me. I am impatient, and it hardly ever turns into a “good situation” when I try to make things that have anything to do with crafts.

I am a typical computer nerd,/ internet geek – minus being a girl in her mid-20′s. That being said, I am stepping way out of my element in saying this, but I am going to try my hand at making soap! If you asked anyone I knew if they’d ever expect me to say those words, they’d laugh at you.

But it’s true… I genuinely want to learn how to make soap. Some of the creations I’ve seen are just gorgeous! Some of it has been quite creative too, just look at these truly unique soap ideas…

You soapers are truly a special bunch, and I’m excited to get to know more of you! As a web designer first, I have a deep respect for people who can create unique situations out of ordinary products and everyday novelties. I’ve got some great ideas for soap making adventures!

In the meantime, feel free to follow our website’s latest news, special sales, new soap oil additions, and my own soap making adventures at http://www.twitter.com/CibariaSoapOils

[ 7/20/2009 Update: We've been Stumbled like crazy over the weekend - so welcome Stumblers - glad to have ya!]

Cibaria Soap Supply Gets Social

Soap Oils — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:11:44 +0000

Hey Soapers and Spa-ers! Cibaria Soap Supply is on Twitter! We know twitter is a great way to not only listen to our customers and soap makers, but also to make friends! There’s a lot to be learned when it comes to soap making, and twitter seems to hold a constant conversation about all things soaper and soap making related. We are very excited to join in on the conversation! You can count on us regularly updating, profiling gifted soap makers, and holding contests!

The Soap Box » how to make soap

Looking Ahead in Soap Making

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

Common Soapmaking Terms – A Helpful Glossary

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

How to Make Goat’s Milk Soap – A Photo Tutorial

Shea & Goats Milk Soap

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

A Beginner’s Try at Soap Making – An Experiment

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

Cibaria Soap Supply Gets Social

Other Posts You May Find Helpful: