February has been a whirlwind with the release of my new book, Pure Soapmaking. To celebrate, I’m giving away a signed copy of the book, along with a $50 Bramble Berry gift certificate to one grand prize winner. Two runner up winners will win a $25 Bramble Berry gift certificate. Want to win? Entering is easy!
To enter, comment on this blog post with your favorite soaping tip. This tip can apply to other bath and beauty projects, such as lotion, lip balm, candles or bath fizzies. The tip could be simple or complex, there are no limits. Then, sign into the Rafflecopter widget to let us know you commented.
In addition, you can earn bonus entries by completing the various tasks listed in the widget below. From tweeting the contest link to signing up for the Bramble Berry newsletter, bonus entries are easy but completely optional.
This contest is managed by Rafflecopter, which makes entering the contest really simple. Follow the steps below to enter:
- Sign into the Rafflecopter widget below using your email. This makes it easy to contact you if you win! By entering the contest you will be signed up for Bramble Berry’s newsletter. We do not share or sell your email address to any other party.
- Select “Leave a Blog Post Comment” on the widget, and leave a comment on this blog post telling us your favorite soaping tip.
- Receive bonus entries by completing tasks via the Rafflecopter widget. Complete them all to increase your chances of winning!
- Contest ends on Wednesday, March 9th at noon, PST. Winners will be chosen at random.
Rules and Fine Print:
- To enter, you must comment on this blog post with a soaping or crafting tip.
- We are unable to send a Pure Soapmaking book to international residents. International residents are still eligible to win a Bramble Berry gift certificate.
- Winners will be chosen at random via the Rafflecopter widget on Wednesday March 9th, at noon, PST via the Rafflecopter widget.
- The winners will be contacted via email. If a winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen.
I can’t wait to read all your soaping tips! I will collect my favorites and share them in a blog post after the contest ends.
My tip is to save time with clean up: BY spraying soap bowels and utensils with a solution of vinegar & water then wiping with a microfiber towel.
That’s a great clean up tip! Thanks Janet. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Line your ingredients up in the order of use and you’ll never leave one out by mistake.
That’s a great tip! I’ve forgotten some ingredients before, so I like the idea of having them lined up by order. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
When using colorants, check if they are oil or water dispersable. I made some soap two days ago using very intense turquoise colorant, which I added to some oil before adding it to my soap batter. My soap did not turn turquoise at all. It was a muted army green. Yesterday I tried again using the same colorant, but dispersed it in water first and my soap is super vibrant and turquoise. The muted one now turns your hands turquoise when you make it wet and wash your hands with it, which is also interesting 😉
That’s great advice Dennis! Thanks for sharing. This contest has ended, but we will have more in the future. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
When I make my lip balms or body balms, I use a small stainless steel tea pot to pour my batch. It really gives you more of a steady control over the flow.
Thanks for the great tip Yolande! This contest is over, but we will have more in the future. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
You can never have too many mistakes! All it will mean is more stuff for you to keep for yourself!
So true! Even experienced soapers make mistakes. It’s part of the process. Thanks for entering Haliegh. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
The night before soaping I like to weigh all of my ingredients and put them in plastic containers with lids with tape on top to name the ingredient.. It makes it so much easier for me the next day to just have everything ready to go for soaping…
When making 100% coconut oil soap (20% superfat), whether it is brine soap or not, it will get very hard very quickly. For this reason, many soapers only make it in cavity molds, but you CAN make it in loaf molds with success. Watch carefully for the perfect time to cut. For me it is just five hours out of the mold! Loaf molds are easier to clean and you can make more in one go ( if you are like me and don’t have many cavity molds, but do have 5+ lb loaf molds).
I have several soaping tips:
1. When making intricate swirls or when you simply want your batch of soap to behave do not over mix! Put the stick blender down! I usually pour half of my lye water in my soaping pot, stick blend for about 5-10 seconds, and stop. At this point you can tell if you have an EO of FO that accelerates and have some time to figure out what to do. Then add the rest of your lye water and mix with a whisk, if your batter is still at very light trace then stick blend in intervals of 5-10 seconds! You do not need to reach thick trace to pour in the mold 😉
2. Use wire tires as your “hangers” for hanger swirls! The can bend and re-bend to any size and shape that fits your needs!
3. Pre-mix your colorants in the same containers that you will use to separate you batch! This equals less dishes to clean up 😉
4. If you have a soaping room and live in a humid climate, do try using a dehumidifier, it helps with curing soap in a more reasonable time frame.
5. Add you FO or EO into your oils BEFORE adding lye. Too many pretty unscented soaps under my belt :(. When you add your lye sometimes you are so focused on adding colors and getting swirls done before your batch gets unworkable that you forget to add you fragrances! Guilty of that more times than I like to admit 🙁
6. When measuring oils, do check out or mark off the oils as you add them! This will help you keep track of what oils have already been added and won’t let you forget any of them.
7. I usually melt my hard oils and then add my soft oils at room temperature. This helps keep my batch cooler and that means my soaping will go smoothly.
8. Try to soap with your lye and oils within 10 degrees of each other. I usually soap at 80-90 degrees and this really does help control trace.
9. Don’t let soap control you. YOU control your soap 😉
Mary,
Thanks for the great tips! May I ask a question? When soaping at cooler temps, as you do, how do you get the soap to go through a complete gel phase? This is a real problem for me. I have a lot of partially gelled bars that look terrible. At higher temps I get a lot of cracks.
I appreciate any help.
Tamara
To pour lip balms, I discovered that small stainless steel pitchers (probably used for cream for coffee, I got them at a local Amish housewares store) work great for pouring. I keep them in a water bath on the stove. If it sets up, I can quickly heat it up again and they clean up real easy too!
I love that idea! Thanks so much for entering Marita. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Lots of good information!!! I know all of you probably have at least on of the reheatable bags that your oils come in from Brambleberry. I actually cut the top off across one of them to make it a open bag. It works perfectly for rebatching soap in and works even better for melting your waxes in. I use the double broiler method and it is a awesome way to melt things down in. So never never throw away. They are really useful for this purpose
Sincerely,Kristie
Oh don’t ever double broiler,I meant double boiler. 😄
My favorite tip is to add the fragrance or essential oil to the oils prior to adding the lye. I find that even if a fragrance moves quickly, I have more control over it than if I were to add it after reaching trace. I read in the interview with Sudz by Studz that they do that too!
My tip for making lip balms/body lotion bars!
Use beeswax pastilles instead of bars, it will save you so much time(I had the pleasure of cutting 23 1oz bars into meltible chunks!), and everything will melt at about the same rate!
Want a quick recipe? Melt in double boiler equal parts coconut oil, beeswax and cocoa butter and pour into desired mold, it will set within 20min!
I use milk (or custard) cartons that I’ve aquired from small businesses locally. Love the idea of reuse.
When Making 100% olive oil soap, soap at a warmer temperature to speed up trace. Around 50 degrees celsius or 122 degrees fahrenheit.
My tip is for melt and pour soapmaking, 🙂
So when you clean your melt and pour cup, just let the soap dry first, and then peel it right off! Then I like to squish it into a ball, and no wasted soap-plus easy cleanup! You really don’t even have to wash it! Don’t wait too long, though, or else it won’t come out. 🙂
Emmeline
Emmeline – My daughter LOVES doing that! She was the one in this household that discovered it and it really is a great tip. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Having caught the soaping bug so very recently it is hard to provide a tip! I would like to thank everyone here for the wealth of wisdom in these posts. You have all taught me so much today. My tip is to myself: to keep exploring, reading and trying to introduce more difficulty with each new project. I managed to pull off some of my own recipes already using melt and pour bases and various clays and herbal additives, colorants, etc. (I am a klutz at times, so I still haven’t gotten up the nerve to make the leap to lye. Having read each and every tip posted, I think you all may have just given me the nudge I needed! ) thank you brambleberry for such a robust and helpful space to learn!
To get the most efficient mixing, keep your mixing implement at a slant. This mixes on two axes! Keep the tool submerged for less air in your product, or on the surface to fluff things up!
Don’t ever be afraid to try something new.
There is no need to take it so serious there’s no longer and joy in it.
Working with lue is no joke. It’s the one thing TO take too serious.
*lye
Trying new soapy techniques is so much fun! Each one is a chance to learn even more. Great tip Janelle. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
My tip is to invest in a thermometer. In the beginning I had too many batches with wrinkled tops and other unsightly flaws because I was soaping at a high temperature. Laser thermometer is definitely not something to skip out on when starting to soap.
My tip is: learn from others (so most mistakes can be avoided). Some of those soaper with YEARS AND YEARS under their belt-they have made mistakes…well, even us newbies hehe. But I think that advice from other seasoned soapers does me wonders. I have learned to freeze milks from the soap queen, i have also learned how to formulate a better recipe (making a harder bar, etc). Those who have more soaping wisdom-are gold to me. I am always looking to them to learn from their errors (and how not to make them myself). Take advice and constructive criticism.
When making CP soap, measure your lye in a container that’s just big enough and your water in a container slightly larger so there’s no mistaking pouring water in your lye:)
In this day and age everyone is busy, busy, busy! With that said when prepping and weighing oils and butters to create soap sometimes we get distracted and forget to add an oil or butter so I recommend: Gather all oils and butters and position them to the right side of your scale. After you are done with each oil or butter move it to the left of the scale. With this technique you will know for sure all your ingredients are in your soaping pot.
My tip: Keep a Sharpie marker & a Dry Erase marker on hand. I make several batches at a time, (not all are always the same size!), and can quickly grab a Dry Erase marker to mark pitchers of lye with the size mold it is for, or to quickly mark on any of my containers. After getting a batch in a mold, I grab the Sharpie and make notes on the essential oil bottle or on the fragrance oil bottle (A = accelerated, R = riced, etc) Then I can transfer that information to my notes later. Or leave it on larger bottles for easy reference during next use.
That’s a great way to keep track of everything! Thanks for your tip Kimberly. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I only have a half dozen recipes under my CP belt but here is my best tip. I keep a notebook with the recipes I have tried. when I decide to make a soap I write the original recipe on a new page. then below it I rewrite how I’m actually going to do it. I keep the notebook with me while I make the soap to follow along my recipe, jotting notes down like the temperatures, if I encountered any problems etc. I also note observations after I cut it, and a couple times after as well as any lessons I’ve learned or what I would like to do differently next time. I enjoy going back on my notes and looking for ways to improve!
My tip is very simple… Watch videos. I have learned all i know from watching youtube videos on soap making. I feel that is all i watch lol
My tip is to never stop educating yourself about the soaping process. You can learn something new and fun from many sources. I have really enjoyed all these tips.
We burn wood for heat and I prewarm my oils by the stove so they pour from the bottles. I also set my molds close to the stove so they are warmed before I pour.
My tip is to keep track of the expiration dates on your oils. If you find that one of your oils is getting close to its expiration date use it up! Create a special recipe that will use that oil as the majority ingredient. Say your olive oil is about to expire. Make that the majority of your base oils then to balance out the recipe you can add coconut oil, palm kernel, cocoa butter, or shea butter.
This will help your bottom line in the long run and you won’t be wasting any products. The worst thing to happen to any soaper is to spend money on gallons of oils and they expire before you get to use them!
My tip is for all products in general. Packaging, this is an extremely important part of soaping and other products. This is the first thing a potential customer sees. My tip is to take time and pride on how you package your products. Presentation is key, if your presentation/packaging is bad, it will have an impact on your business. You might have the best quality product, but if the packaging is less than good quality you can deter a customer from even trying your product.
Research packaging ideas and put your own twist to it, just like you do your product. Take pride on how your product looks to customer before they even try it. Take pride in your business by making sure the presentation of your products is good quality.
Packaging can definitely catch someone’s eye! Thanks Candice. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I always have a mason jar or tall bowl to hold my stick blender and any spoons/spatulas that are covered in raw soap so I don’t make a big mess. Then to clean up, I just put some water in the jar and turn on the stick blender (take out the spoons/spatulas first though). This can also be used to clean any other containers.
My tip is to reduce, reuse, and recycle: You know those medicine cups that come packaged with children’s medicines? I don’t like just throwing them away, so I use them to mix mica with oil/glycerin and my fragrances with vanilla color stabilizer. If you don’t have a dropper, the medicine cups are great for measuring the fragrances because the milliliters are printed on the cups. Almost everybody has them piling up in their medicine cabinets!😃
Tip One: Have you ever had fragrance and essential oils dribble down the side of the bottle when you’re trying to measure out that last .5 oz? I did, until I thought about how I solved that same problem when pouring wine–use a “Drop Stop”! Its a round flexible disc of a heavy mylar material that you roll and stick into the bottle and it prevents any drips–you can really stop pouring at a drop! They are in most wine accessories aisles, I DO NOT own stock in them, I just love to use them because I got tired of wasting product and cleaning up a messy bottle!
Tip Two: Invest in a large stainless steel barista pitcher and stainless steel bowl for lye. I started out using mason jars and a cardboard box, in case the jar broke from the heat or other accident, and was always nervous. I set the pitcher in the bowl and while I feel safer mixing the lye that way it also allows me to control temperature. If my lye is too hot for my oils I carefully (don’t get it into the lye) add a ice water bath to the bowl to speed cool, and I can add hot water to the bowl to heat my lye if it was mixed earlier.
When making cold process with liquids other than water, I like to know that I have enough frozen black tea / coconut milk / etc. for my batch. So, when I get a new ice cube mold, I fill it with tap water, freeze it, and finally weigh the ice cubes the whole tray makes vs. one ice cube. Then I write it down in a permanent marker on a side of the ice cube tray. This helps me count and also tells the housemates that liquids in these trays should be left alone.
Lip balm clean up tips… I spread out wax paper on my work area to keep the mess contained. Then I wipe up the containers with paper towels while they are still warm to get all of the wax out. Even just these 2 simple steps have saved me so much time cleaning things up. When making lipstick I like to measure out my micas and have the flavor oils ready before I heat up the base. This helps me get everything ready and finished without remelting the base. I also like to use squeeze bottles to make a big batch of my favorite oil combos so I don’t have to measure it out every time. And the last time I made lip balm I made 12 oz of it as a base that I can use next time, so I can just melt down what I need and add the flavor and color in just a few minutes.
If you have issues with moisture beading up on your soap the fix is very easy… cover the soap when it is still hardening with saran wrap and when you are ready to pop it out have the containers ready to put it in. I bought predecorated zip lock baggies from the craft store for mine.
My tip is relevant to almost any kind of crafting, but soapmaking especially. No matter how much or how little of an ingredient you have leftover, LABEL IT. You don’t want to be guessing exactly which type of essential oil you are about to put into your soap!
Labeling is always a good idea! Thanks for your submission Cindy. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Although alcohol is rather cheap, I hate wasting things! Whenever I needed to pour alcohol in a spray bottle, I always spilled the alcohol! UGH! It never failed. Then one day I realized that the sprayer from the spray bottle would fit ON the alcohol bottle! Now I just put the sprayer on the alcohol bottle and never have spilt alcohol anymore!! 🙂
I hate to waste even a tiny bit of soap. After I’ve poured my mold and scraped as much of the batter from my pot as I can (the KitchenAid silicone spatula is my go-to), I let the pot sit and any leftover batter trace even further while I clean up. When it’s good and thick, I scrape the rest into a little pile on a piece of butcher paper. I let it cure with the rest of the batch, and that’s my own little “sample bar,” either as a sniff tester, or my own bar to use from that batch. Also makes washing the pot easier.
I have a few tips:
1. If you buy oils in jugs, cut the top off and make soap in it before tossing. No clean up!
2. If you have a designated soap space or are making a lot of soap, open a cardboard box and use it as a rug. It will absorb lots of oil drips.
3. I use several different colorants and I leave a mini scoop in each one to use only with that color. No washing scoops!
4. I save yogurt cups and use solo cups for mixing colors. No clean up!
I know this is making me sound really lazy but I’d much rather make soap than do the cleanup!
5. I’ve just started a Facebook group called Soapmaking Tips and Tricks. Join me there to continue helping each other.
My favorite tip is add .8 ounces fragrance oil or essential oil per one pound of soap to make the scent last longer.
Don’t be afraid to try new things. I almost never use water in CP soap anymore. Tea, juice, boiled beer, milk, are among my favorites.
I am brand new to soap making but I find that I like the soaps to take the color of whatever I am making it with rather than color it. I like how it looks different every time. I really enjoy the green olive oil colors
When I’m making a Taiwan or Mantra swirled or otherwise complicated soap, I increase the batter recipe a little to cover for soap lost to dividers, or if I misjudge the amount needed (better a little too much than not enough). I keep a silicone bar mold, such as Brambleberry’s 12 Bar Square Silicone Mold, ready to mold any unused soap into bars when I’m finished with the main soap. I keep track of the batch number so that I know what’s in it later when I use it for samples, embeds, or family soap. If I don’t find a need for it, I donate it with other saved soap scraps to Clean the World, a non-profit that rebatches soap into bars “that prevent millions of hygiene-related deaths each year.”
Sodium lactate for a quick release from molds and looow temps. for swirls.
I’ve only been soaping a few months but I’ve found that cheap fragrances often smell cheap!
My tip is so simple but it has helped me many times. I always place the fragrance oil and any additives I will be using inside of the mold I will be making that particular type of soap in. I have forgotten to add my fragrance oil, a clay or a some poppy seeds etc. into my soap at the appropriate times before and since I have started this simple trick I have not had it happen again. 🙂
Oh I love that tip! That way you get an instant reminder when you go to soap. Thanks Lisa. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Great tip and so true! I do this also!
I like to make sure and read at least 3 times [ 😉 ] about the fragrance oil so I realize how it will behave when mixing into soap batter. I have had one batch too many seize on me or rice away. That isn’t a pretty sight. It still smells good though! It’s just not a batch I love to sell. Definitely read about the fragrance oil and how it will act, or if it is even suitable for cold process soap.
Elfa Narrow Drawer racks and 3 1/2 deep mesh baskets makes a nice soap drying rack.
Take detailed notes of everything you do, from prepping your oils to colors and design techniques. You may think you’ll remember, but once you’ve tried a few different designs etc, it’s easy to forget the small details.
Get a scale that you can tare after adding more ingredients. I always start by mixing the lye – I use half the water called for and make up the remaining liquid for the recipe by adding ice cubes. Then when you add the lye, it cools down much faster. When you measure your oils, start by weighing and then nuking the oils that are hardest at room temperature (e.g., cocoa butter), then add the slightly softer oils and allow the first oil to melt the others, cooling down in the process. Liquid oils should be added last, which will help your batch of oils cool down faster.
I’ve shaved a good 20 minutes off of my soap making by not having to wait so long for things to cool down. I also put my lye in the freezer and oils in the fridge to make things go even faster.
Be sure to lubricate soap molds as it nearly impossible to get the soap out when complete.
Couldn’t resist sharing another tip: Removing soap from PVC pipes can be super easy… let soap harden then drop them from about 2-3 feet onto concrete. No lining needed, and the soap will slide right out!
Learn to love “failures”. By this I mean, don’t be upset when your soap doesn’t come out exactly like you wanted it. Some of my favorites are the surprises i see in swirls that came out all “wrong”. As long as it cleans, it’s soap, and it’s a success! If you “failed” so much that it doesn’t clean, then you probably learned a lot from the process!
That is such good advice! Even if it doesn’t turn out like you planned, the soap will still feel and look beautiful. Thanks for your tip Kandra. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
The tip I give all beginning soap makers is to start their lye solution with half and half ice water to avoid lye fumes. IF the recipe calls for 12 oz water then use 6 oz water and 6 oz ice. It’s still quite warm after the lye dissolves.
I raise dairy goats, so naturally all of my soap is goat milk soap. I prefer the cold-process method. My favorite best seller is Bramble Berry’s Apple Jack Peel. Folks of all ages and sexes LOVE this one. To get the red color to complement this fragrance, I empty a couple of pomegranate tea bags into the lye solution. The lye extracts all of the color from the tea and dissolves it at the same time. When the soap is poured, it is blood red, but by the time it has cured, it is the perfect shade of pale apple. I have had similar success with other flavored teas as well.
My best tip is to freeze all liquids in ice cube trays then let the lye melt it down to temperature. I’ve used beer, coffee, goat milk, green tea and have always had success in not getting too hot or too cold.
I have two tips…the first one is the most valuable to me, since I soap sometimes with two different types of batches (sometimes three!) going on at once. I do both hot process and cold process. What I have found is that I pre-measure everything first, and then LABEL it with a sticky note. For example, I had three batches going, and used my soap calc print out to get everthing organized. Each batch had different oils, and I was using a “O” superfat. I learned this tip from someone else, but making your superfat low or zero, means that in hot process soap making you can add extra fats after the soap has cooked for about an hour. I can add more expensive fats, and the lovely moisture from them stays in, and doesn’t cook out. I label each oil, superfat, and essential oil/fragrance oil so that I don’t put the wrong smell in the wrong pot! (yes, it happened twice before I figured this out!). My second tip is a spin off from the first, which is to use lanolin in your soap, OR dead sea mud. Both are super soft and moisturizing, and can be used in CP or HP. I use them in my shaving soaps, and the dead sea mud in my facial bars. Hands down, my personal favorite feel in softness when taking a shower! I make a selection of soaps every season, and then make body butters to match the scent for gift giving…always a crowd pleaser, and I don’t get bored re-making the same stuff.
My favorite tip is a simple one…when you need to pour fragrances (and small amounts of oil) and don’t want to spill, pour it along a chop stick and it will go right into your container instead of dripping all over the place.
If you are not having fun, you are doing it wrong. Relax a little, read about your art, follow a few blogs for inspiration, look at lot’s of pictures, then read some more. When it comes to soaping you really can bite off more than you can chew so learn the basics (read) decide what you want to try (look at lot’s of pictures or lurk on a few soapy blogs), then read some more. Research the ingredients you want to work with, then start with a basic, tried and true recipe and simple swirls, whether it’s cold process or melt and pour. Repeat. Relax. Grow.
My soaping tip is something I learned recently; spray your soap with the 99% isopropyl rubbing alcohol AFTER the soap has lost its wet sheen. I have had more success preventing soda ash using this method than spraying the soap right after pouring it!
I have made soap from dollar store glycerin soaps poured into ice cube trays. My tip, which is probably known to all but me, the ice cube trays can’t be used for other purposes because the scent from the dollar store glycerin soaps is very strong.
We definitely recommend having dedicated soaping containers! That way you’d don’t accidentally ingest any soap residue. Thanks Rig! 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I’m a newbie to soaping, so this is probably common sense to y’all but it helped me out once I realized what to do. When working with melt and pour soap, you should use your infared temperature gun, but you should also watch the consistency and texture of the soap! I learned the hard way that my temp gun was not consistent and therefore my soap congealed on me to where I’d have to go through the rigamarole of having to remelt it on the stove top and that was pretty tedious the first few times it happened. So like I said don’t rely only on the temp gun, use your other senses – your eyes and hands. When you start seeing and feeling that it’s not as liquidy as it was before, it may be fixing to gel up on you! Hope this helps somebody. 🙂
Make sure to read the directions all the way thru… even several times… That way when you see water on the ingredient list for making bath fizzies, you don’t just add all the water listed in with the other ingredients instead of waiting to add it little by little as needed. {Oops!}
I learned to wipe my tools off with old dish towels and let them cure before washing as a green option to paper towels, but then when I needed to clean a doggie mess I reached for a paper towel and soap. Now after that “eureka” moment I wipe my tools with paper towels then lay them stacked on a plate to cure. I make my own pre-soaped paper towels for those messy messes and I can actually use them more than once! They get reused and I don’t feel guilty for tossing like I would if I had only used them once!
We love working with natural ingredients like clays and charcoal. It helps so much to disperse them in a little oil with the hand blender RIGHT before you add them.
If I’m making bath bombs, I watch the weather! A damp and humid day does not yield good results for me. Instead, I like to make them in the winter, when there’s little to no humidity in air.
Pre-planning. Either the day before or right before you start (I recommend both) take the time to run through what your plan is. Even though I have had some beautiful mistakes I find that taking the time to do some kind of trial run, even if only mental, gives me a certain focus to be able to handle whatever may happen with a calm that I don’t have if I just jump into something. Definitely preplan.
Organize, organize, organize! I always line my wood molds the day before, take lots of notes (learned that one the hard way), and always start with a pristine area, free from clutter. Then before I jump in, I always enjoy doing a bit of research, whether it’s reading an article or just gawking at other soap pics, I always get inspired! And, of course, experiment!
Experimenting is definitely important! Thanks Rachelle. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I love to listen to music while soaping! It keeps me upbeat and entertained. I usually put on a pandora station. The only problem is skipping a song while wearing soaping gloves 🙂
After studying and getting some batches under your belt, My tip is to be adventurous, experiment, and try new things for yourself. Don’t use other people’s recipes, create your own! Of course, if you do use a recipe you didn’t create, make sure that you run it through a lye calculator first, no matter where you found it!
Anyway, back to experimenting, making sure you keep detailed written records, try mixing natural colorants to create your own shade or even a new color (people have been trying to get me to tell them how I get my blues and purples for years). Try mixing essential oils (keeping in mind that you need to respect the max use rate(s)) or even fragrance oils in order to create unique scents. Just use qtips or scent strips to add drops so that you don’t waste precious and costly oils. Mix until you like the scent and, again, make sure that you respect the max use rate %s in your batches.
Have fun and enjoy the journey!
A great tip I learned (from Mold Market) is to add 2 tsp of borax to each 6 ounces of lye water to help you unmold cold process soaps from plastic molds. I think it works better than sodium lactate.
Thanks so much for sharing your tip Toni! 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I like to add a bit of sparkly silver mica to the soaps, It completely transforms the appearance with shimmer on it. Enjoy
Keep a completely separate set of bowls, spoons, spatulas, etc. for your soap making so there’s no chance of mixing them in with your kitchen sets. I picked up most of my supplies from second hand stores 🙂
If you want to add a little texture for a gentle scrub, use poppy seeds. I use blue seeds for a little visual contrast and they work great.
I wasn’t able to leave a comment on the widget thingie. can I leave my tip here??
Always be carefree and expect the unexpected. Even experienced soapers can have something go as unexpected whether it is a color that morphed or a FO that causes a soap to trace into a lump in seconds. A batch is going to not turn out as expected, but it is alright. Most of the time they can be saved. You just need to go with the flow.
Yep, this is the place to leave your comment! Thanks for the tip Christine. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I’m new to soaping, so my tip is for us beginners. Because I use wood molds, I line my mold with freezer paper FIRST before I even assemble ingredients to make a batch. That way, I keep my focus on my recipe and not rushing to line the mold while I’m in the middle of mixing!
I have a great technique for folding the liner so there are no leaks, and my batch pops right out of the mold.
Can you share your tip of folding the liner so there’s no leakage? 🙂
Google U Tube for lining soap molds and select Perfected Method for Lining A Wooden Soap Mold–she’s great! My wooden molds are not nailed on the sides, they are removable, so IF I had a leakage I could still push them out the side, but it never happens now, even when pouring when super thin for a design.
MY TIP FOR REMOVING THE TAPE: Fold over the end of each piece of tape before sticking onto the mold to create a pull tab!
I’ve only been making CP soap for the past month. No failures (thanks to the terrific info found on Brambleberry and SoapQueen)!! Although, I have had a few less than stellar results. I’m still on a learning curve!! I have discovered one thing about organization tho. I always make my mold liner first before I start to assemble ingredients. I have wood molds (thanks to a skilled woodworker friend!!), and I use freezer wrap with precise folds. No leaks in my molds and the soap pops right out!
Don’t stress! Easier said than done but don’t stress and have fun making your soaps. The more fun you have, the more creative you’ll be!!
It is so important to have fun! Thanks for entering Beth. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Boil/simmer the alcohol content out of beer and freeze it into cubes. Use the cubes as a substitute for water (full amount) in cold process shampoo bars to get thick lather.
same goes for wine soaps. but even if you do boil wine, still put your container in a sink before adding the lye. I made wine soaps several times but just recently when I added the lye it boiled up out of the container into the sink. Glad it was the sink and not the counter. One can never predict what might happen.
I’ve got a tip for how to get the best quality images printed onto water soluble paper, AND the best way to lay those images out. (I’m a veteran word processor in New York law firms, so I was able to draw upon my Microsoft nerdiness to arrive at these tips.)
To process images for water soluble paper so that you get the best, most vivid images into your soaps, select the image in Microsoft Word (or use any image editing program). Increase both color saturation and contrast, and then lower your brightness or exposure just a tiny bit (to counteract the increased contrast, which can wash out some of the subtleties in the image). This will ensure that the images underneath the clear layer of soap don’t look so “washed out” (so to speak).
Also, to get the most out of your sheet of WSP, go into Word (this works in 2007 and 2010, and though I haven’t used it in Word 2013, I’m pretty sure you’ll find the same dialog boxes there, too) and create a table with enough rows and columns to accommodate the number of images you need. (So, if you need 16 images for your soaps, you might want to create a table with four columns by four rows. Also, adjust your margins to .3 all around.) Now, with your cursor in one of the cells, right click and go to “Table properties.” In the Table tab of the dialog box, you’ll see a button called “Options…” Click that and uncheck “automatically resize to fit contents.” This will keep your cells the right measurements when you paste your images in.
Now, with your cursor in the cell in which you want to paste an image, go to the “Insert” tab and select “Picture.” Navigate to the picture file on your computer and select it. Resize the picture by grabbing a corner and moving it in or out, as needed, to fit into the cell. This will keep your images nice & neatly laid out, and get the most out of every square inch of that WSP!
That is such an amazing tip! I have to try that out. Thanks Vittoria!
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Organic spinach powder makes a lovely natural green in cold process soap. Ungelled comes out minty, pastel green, while gelled soap is the color of pine needles. If you play with water discounts, the green changes. I love it. So much versatility in this natural colorant. Doesn’t fade (after 9 months at least. I found this powder about 9 months ago), is not scratchy. I use a mini mixer to disperse it in oil before adding it at trace.
my tip is to use the fondant impression mats for a beautiful effect on outside of soap as well as a easy way to get soaps out of molds. simply place in mold, I usually use it on bottom as well as sides. it also seems to insulate soap and ready for unmolding quicker. beauty and simple removal- I love it.
Have a soaping buddy! It’s fun to compare recipes and have a second pair of eyes and hands around.
For sure! A soaping buddy is fun to have around. Thanks Diana! 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
As a beginner soap maker it’s been great to read all of the tips from everyone else! Why I don’t have any technical tips the most important advice I can give is just do it! Take the risk you think might not work! Know that you will probably fail at some point but mistakes happen so don’t let that deter you from trying again. Oh and premesure premesure premeasure as much as possible especially on your first batch!! I don’t make soaps for profit but only personal and gifts because I have such sensative skin and commercial bought soaps are just to harsh and I needed to find an alternative and now it’s just fun to create endlessly!
My tip regards painting embeds for tops of fancy, piped soap. I use straight melt and pour soap without thinning it out with liqid soap, etc. I simply nuke the melt and pour, mix mica colorant into it, and paint my details on ASAP. Yes, it takes many trips to the microwave and lots of brush wiping, but it dries almost immediately.
I was planning on making some soapy snowballs, and I wanted them to stay as round as possible. Setting them down on any kind of flat surface was inevitably going to make a small flat area. So, my husband and I took a trip to Costco to get a few things, and after we got home it hit me. We bought some apples and as I was putting them away I noticed the big container they come in has a round cavity for each apple. Perfect for my round soaps so they don’t lose their shape! I washed the container and gave it a try, and it worked like a charm. It would also be perfect for bath bombs! My goal is always to try and use whatever I have at home before buying whatever it is that I need and this time it worked great!
On of the best tips I ever heard about releasing bath bombs from the mold was to tap the outside of the mold with the back of a spoon all around the mold. It seems silly but it really does work. The bath bomb releases easily and stress free 🙂
I like to soap around 110 -100 degrees. Any hotter and I have problems with acceleration and can’t do those fun swirls. I usually do CPOP with my silicone mold, but if I use another mold it works great to cure it overnight in the microwave with the light on underneath. That little bulb is just hot enough to keep the floor of the microwave cozy and the soap is also out of reach of my little people.
Thank you for this wonderful contest!! Ill try!! =) I LOVE to decorate everything I create and with M&P I use a grater and place grated shea butter on tops for extra moisture for skin, looks yummy and with a lil glitter sparkle so pretty too!! =) ..I think presentation is very important. …I sometimes use my heat gun to adhere it better. For shows, since soaps are wrapped and cant really be smelled well I put a lil dab of the oil on my wrists for customers to smell….then they LOVE it!! =)
Oh that sounds very luxurious on the skin, not to mention really cute. Thanks for entering Dawn. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
My tip is drill extra wholes in the head of your stick blender. That way air can escape easier and it is less likely to have air bubbles in your final product.
I use rice bran oil in my melt and pour soap. It gives extra lather to the coconut base soap base I use. I have had locals take my business but their soaps never measure up to mine because they add other oils to their coconut soaps. They never can figure out my formula of goat’s milk powder mixed in the rice bran oil about a teaspoon mixed of both will do about 4 – 3oz bars. I also use it in my lotions and my lip balm to give a smoother base to both formulas I make of my own. I sure do like it when they say its the best home made soap they ever buy !
Really good pat on my back I do to myself that I look on here at what I might be able to use with my melt and pour soap to make its awesome different. Thanks for your blog.
Hi, I admit I didn’t read all kagillion tips here lol. I’m sure there are some great ones and I do not know if this has already been suggested but my tip for a good cp bar of soap is: do not worry about having a high cleansing number on soap calc. Actually your focus would be better put to use trying to keep that number DOWN, like below 13. So long as you have not used some funky ingredient like Dead Sea salt in your soap it WILL be cleansing with a low cleansing number and in fact the higher the cleansing number the more not mild the soap will be. Focus on hardness, conditioning and bubbles and keeping the cleansing factor below 13-15. That means using less coconut oil. On the other hand disregard the numbers altogether if you want to make an all coconut oil bar which CAN in fact be quite mild (despite a cleansing of 67 and a conditioning of 10) if you SF at approx 20%. This normally would be too high a number for SuperFatting but coconut oil soap is the exception to that rule. In that case just use soap calc to determine how much lye you will need for your oils and SF at 20% and you’ll end with a nice, very bubbly, cleansing AND mild AND hard bar. So a tip with an exception is what we have here (aren’t there always exceptions to every rule). Finally one word of wisdom is that just because a bar is not bubbly does not mean it’s not cleansing. So that if you do not particularly care how many bubbles you have, say for instance you are fond of Castile bars which if 100% Olive Oil, water and lye only and nothing else (i.e.: zero additives, like sugar or milk both of which will add bubbles) will have zero bubbles yet be very cleansing (and note Castile has a cleansing number of zero yet it cleans just great!!!) so that there are truly some much batter ways of achieving bubbles than using a lot of coconut oil (babassu oil is the only other oil I know if that behaves as coconut does in that it will create high cleansing and bubbly numbers). I guess that’s more than A Tip. I hope that’s ok. It’s hard for me to ever stop talking soap lol.
Good Luck Y’all!!
Cynthia
Set goals!
I do not have any tips since I have never made my own soap before but I am trying to switch to homemade EVERYTHING in my household! I am the one who needs tips actually! lol
The most annoying problem I have when soaping, especially with M&P, is layers not adhering to each other. I would say pour as soon as the previous layer has formed a skin so that when you touch it, your finger does not make a dent. You don’t have to let it cool completely. Also, scoring the layer with a sharp object helps, too.
Have you try spraying the first layer with isopropyl alcohol before pouring the next layer?
I, too, have just encountered this pesky problem. I let the first layer set too long while handling an urgent interruption. I sprayed the top layer very generously with alcohol and still experienced a distinct “crack” looking line between layers. I wonder if a 15 second burst in the microwave might help? Anyone try that?
make sure you have your scents and all your supplies ahead of time
Good prep work can help the process go smoothly! Thanks so much Karrie. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I’m pretty new to soap-making, but if you’re making a pure coconut oil soap, or anything more than 70% coconut oil, be sure to cut it within 72 hours or it’ll be much more rock solid and difficult to cut!
Use silicone loaf molds. It makes releasing your soap so much easier and the shape of the soap smooth and lovely.
Keep a list of the weights of your containers. Double check that you have weighed all your oils properly by weighing the container with all the oils in it when you are done. It’s also good to know the container weight if your scale goes off while you are weighing. You can tare the scale and add in the weight of your container to finish pouring the oil/ingredient.
As a new soaper, my tip- where those long sleeves. I have gotten some new soap on me a few times and it is a bit stingy!!
Long sleeves are a definite must! Thanks Shannon. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
If you stamp your soaps and have a problem with get soap getting stuck in the stamp, place a sheet of plastic wrap over the soap before you stamp. The impression comes out fine and no soap gets on your stamp.
When buying the safety supplies (eye protection, gloves, apron, and more) try it all on together before you throw away the tags. This way if it doesn’t work together (did not realize I should have gotten googles that could go over my glasses lol) you can take it back 🙂 lol
Before I start making soap, I put my 2 pups in their crates with the door closed and my cat in a room with the door closed. I don’t have to worry about them being around my soaping area. When I’m done, I thoroughly clean and vacuum the soaping area before letting my fur babies out.
I like to use different fragrance oil in my soap. I think it’s really important to understand how the FO will react with your oil+lye mixture beforehand so you know what to expect. Thank you BB for having this contest!
Being a pretty new soaper myself, the best tip I can give is not to give up. I’ve had many failed batches that really discouraged me. However I keep trying and will continue to do so. I have joined numerous online soaping communities and glad I did. I have received so much support and valuable tips that I will definitely be keeping with me for years to come. Relax and jeep soaping!!
*keep soaping..sheesh! Wouldn’t advise soaping in a Jeep! LOL
Ha, Jeep soaping may be a bit of an adventure! Thanks so much for your entry Sara. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I totally agree…RELAX…it is the key to soap making and if it doesn’t come out remotely close to what you had hoped. Use your failed projected and create a new project. Some of my best soaps have come from remelted failures. I find when I follow a recipe loosely my end result comes out better than when I follow a recipe to the t!
I got tired of ruining my favorite t-shirts with oils that wouldn’t wash out, so now I wear a lab coat. My husband says I look like a mad scientist with my coat and safety glasses!
Too funny Jennifer. I do the same with lab coat and goggles. My husband says the same thing “You look like a mad scientist!”
As a fairly new soaper and one who has only made a few batches of cold process, my tip is to not panic. Lye can be really scary, especially to inexperienced soapers. However, there is a fine line between freaking out about it and being cautious. The more calm you are, the better your soap will turn out.
It’s true, sometimes taking a deep breath really helps! Thanks Ranoah. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
My mom was recently in the hospital. When they give her her medication they put it in a tiny clear measuring cup. We saved them to upcycle and use them to mix soap colorants. This keeps them out of the trash and landfills. Plus they have measurements on the side.
When soaping gets frustrating or stressful, take a break. Remember why you started creating soap in the first place! For me, after the holidays I always take a breather. I soap for fun, making small batches and experimenting with colors, scents, and techniques. I stop comparing my work to that of others and relax into the process of creating. I usually wind up making something lovely or at least learning something new without the pressure of sales, deadlines, or expectations.
Always wear your safety gear when making soap and scrape out your containers so when it is time to clean up there is less of a mess.
Safety is so important! Thanks for entering Nadja. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Save soap trimmings and scraps to recycle them as imbeds in CP method to create beautiful and interesting bars.
I make a marshmallow root soap for sensitive skin. My tip is instead of making a hot tea/infusion, make a cold infusion. Fill about 1/4 of a mason jar filled with marshmallow root and top off with room temperature water. Soak over night in the refrigerator and strain in the morning, to get a nice thick demulcent goo. I, then, freeze mine into measured amounts to add with lye for making my soap base.
My tip is to be prepared! Having all of your supplies & tools ready before you start is key! I like to have extra tools and supplies in close range while making soap! That way I’m not searching frantically for something I might randomly need 🙂
Another thing I do is place my recipe on a “stand” on my counter so I can see it easily. Thank you Brambleberry!!!
My favorite tip has to do with infusing herbs or colorants into oil for making cold process soap.
Just place your herbs and/or colorants into a clean jar with your oil and place it in your oven with the oven light on. The light will provide enough heat to speed up your infusion process without the use of a crock pot or other heat source. I pop mine into my oven before Imleave for work, and they are ready to use by the time I get home that night.
My tip is for Lip Butters or Balms with Shea Butter or other butters that may crystallize. I had this happen to me on a batch of lip butters with a recipe I had made up. I had used shea, had poured them, and after I had made 100 realized the next day that the shea had crystallized. I did NOT want to do them over again. After using one a bit (and my husband and son trying it) they commented that they liked the feeling because it was like a massaging lip butter. So, instead of trying to pop them all out and remelting them I sold them as is labeled as having the shea butter crystals for a massaging effect. They were a hit! Now I just have to make sure to have that mistake happen again :). Sometimes our mistakes end up being our biggest successes. 🙂
Oh what a clever idea! Thanks a bunch for sharing Anna. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I like to check off ingredients as I use them. I forgot to add one of the oils once 😳 so now I’m extra careful.
My house is kept rather cold (thanks, hubby) which makes getting a good gel on my cp soap a challenge sometimes. My secret? A cheap pizza stone! I pop it in the oven at 170 while I make my soap, pull it a few minutes before I’m ready for it, then set my mold on the stone (usually I put a thin towel between the stone and mold), cover with a towel, and let it go. The heat is enough to encourage the gel, but it dissipates just at the right rate–not too fast, not too slow, so I get a perfect gel every time. I use a cheap, thin stone since I wouldn’t want to ruin a high end one, and the high end stones tend to hold their heat longer, which I don’t really want.
One more of my favorite tips: use old shot glasses for mixing colorants. They are the perfect size to fit a mini mixer in, and the sides are deep/ steep enough to keep the splatter to a minimum.
One tip I have is to keep a soaping notebook or binder with all of your recipes. Keep a log of what scents and colors you used, and when you made it.
I have sections for soap recipes, soaps I want to make, scent blends, colorant swatches, and Bath & Body recipes.
It’s been really neat to go back and read my old recipes and see how they’ve changed.
I’ve only worked with melt and pour so far so my tips relate to that.
I heat my soap in a liquid measuring cup(yay heat safe Pyrex!) for easy pouring.
I also like to microwave a small amount of plain m&p until it tries to foam up the sides a bit, then I dump my scraps in and stir until it’s nicely melted. This is useful for people (like myself) who don’t want to melt down soaps with mica or scent in them. I feel the heat fades the scent from the scraps quite a bit, sometimes its enough to add a new scent entirely or you can choose something that mixes well with your scraps. 🙂
My biggest tips are to make sure you have everything prepared before you begin. This save time and frustration in the end. Always have your colors mixed before hand, weigh out and prepare the lye in advance, if you are adding goat milk or anything like that have it in the freezer in advance.
Also I always use doggy pee pee pads to cover the counter so my kitchen counter top does not get ruined. When we first started out we used wax paper and quickly learned if you spill anything it tears through the paper. The doggy pads are thick and absorbent and can be reused.
Take your time and don’t rush. When you rush that seems to be when the biggest mistakes get made.
All awesome tips, thanks Peggy! 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Reading the comments for a fragrance oil can help you learn how a fragrance behaves in cold process soap before you use it in a batch. You don’t want to try to swirl a soap and then find out it accelerates. Even then, it is still best to use a new fragrance in a small test batch first to see how it behaves before making a large batch.
Regardless how many times, I’ve tried soaping with GM, the easiest way I have found to use it so it is never scorched, discolored, or “ruined”: Use just enough distilled water, to dissolve the lye. Once it has come to room temp, add in your remaining amount of needed liquid using your cold (or room temp) GM. I use it on the cooler side since I soap at cooler temps most of the time.
The above box isn’t allowing me to post as I should-my ‘tip entry’ goes along with this idea 😀 -but what works for me with GM is to freeze it and I never get discoloration-also the ice cube trays I use-each compartment provides a 1 oz portion-so I can get super close to weighing my GM just with the cubes and add just enough liquid milk to bring recipe up to weight.
After seeing a Pinterest image of a nicely organized spice cupboard, I remodeled a hardly used cabinet in the utility room. Adding extra “short” shelves, where I can reach most of the way back, allows me to nicely line up my Brambleberry Fragrance oils and essential oils so I can see when it is time to reorder. Making the shelves just high enough for the tallest bottle, let me place two extra shelves, one at the bottom for colorants, herbs, clay, sea salt and other goodies packaged nicely in old spice bottles, tubs and short jars, and one at the top for bottles of oils.
Gear ties are cheap and work awesome as a hanger swirl tool and can be shaped for all sorts of fun!
To find a perfect soap recipe, tweak only one ingredient at a time. This way you will know what really makes a difference.
As a new soaper, my favorite tip has been to get creative and use what you have on hand. I received my first soap making supplies ,via bramble berry, this year and have made lots of soap already without breaking the bank. I have used old boxes for molds,thrifted and/or old bowls and utensils, and essential oils and butters I had on hand. Where there is a will ,there’s a soapy way. You don’t need expensive tools or supplies to make your 1st loaf of soap!
This has been my secret for making perfect stick lip balms for years. I don’t like the top of the lip balms to have that sunken down look, or that tiny hole. To make the top perfectly smooth, and no mess down the sides, try this: When pouring, don’t fill it to the top. Stop when you are within 1 or 2 millimetres from the top. Fill about 10 balms, by then the first one should have set. Use a very small spoon half filled with liquid (a full spoon is a little harder to work with) and carefully drip 3 to 4 drops of liquid to fill your lip balms perfectly even and smooth. As I finish with the spoon drips, I keep my liquid on a double boiler so you don’t have to hurry at all.
My top tip is to have everything you need within reach and organized by step before you start the project.
That’s a great one! It can make the process go a lot smoother. Thanks Summer. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
My soap making tips:
1. Cut CP soap as soon as it reaches room temp (I try to fully gel most of my soaps). It will be soft and will probably have some bubbles or rough surfaces but it’s easier to cut and you can later make soap curls with a beveler that are nice to hand out as samples or to keep in your purse while at the same time smoothing out your soap for a better appearance. I use a wire cheese cutter and when soap gets harder, cutting it gets harder and the soaps get uneven and still may need trimming. This also keeps the wire from stretching or breaking on the cutter. Earlier cutting also means earlier drying. I don’t know about you, but I want those soaps out of the mold so I can see how the patterns turned out and I’m not waiting days. Most of my soaps are made in the afternoon and cut in the morning, sometimes even before I’ve had my coffee!
2. Use plastic cafeteria-style trays for a lot of things. I put one next to my microwave and do all of my weighing and setting up there – fragrances or EOs, lye, colorants – I put my scale right on one and wipe things up if they spill as I go along. Very easy to clean up, re-usable, protects your counter or table surfaces and are great for drying soaps and carrying them around to show them off. They are inexpensive and no matter what color they are, you can line them with a bit of parchment paper for a good background for soap pictures. If you get the ones that are 12” wide, they fit conveniently in standard cabinets or bookshelves.
3. Lard containers: I use lard in a lot of my soaps and buy the 4 lb. buckets at the local grocery store. These are perfect containers for mixing 2-3 lb. batches of CP soap. I was doing a lot of mixing in pitchers but they were too high for heating oils in the microwave and these are perfect. Plus, you get them “free” with the lard, which I have found to be an awesome soap ingredient.
Favorite tip: Be patient. Don’t ruin a soap loaf you worked hard on by removing it from the mold too soon.
To help with organizing and faster soaping. I make up my lye water in large mason jars and store them for when I’m ready to use. I do the same for my oils and butters. This is normally done when I’m having a slow day.
My tip is use all ice (distilled water) to mix your lye water. It cuts the temperature way down so you don’t have to wait forever for your lye water to cool.
Plan and prep! This is one thing that I’ve really had to work on. I’m a creative person and I like to wing it sometimes. But, I found if I spend time thinking it through and doing the math on dividing my soap colors up, having everything set up and ready and have some kind of plan in place (sometimes a drawing, sometimes a list), that the soap comes out so much better than I expected.
I wish I could remember where I read this tip … it has been very useful! When trying to create a new blend using essential oils, dip a toothpick in each oil then hold them all together and see if you like the scents together. That way you will know whether you like the blend or not.
Steaming soap is one of the best effective ways to remove soda ash, and it gives the finished product a more beautiful vibrant look.
can you explain a bit more about this process? I have a batch that I got soda ash on-but I like the pattern on the top and colors-and don’t want to lost that effect just to ‘clean it up a bit’ and THANKS-
LL
Hot things will be HOT. Things to that can splatter will. Said splattering thing will probably also be hot. LOL My tip would be to make sure you have safety processes in place, at least know what you would do in those cases. Oh and have fun with it!
That is so true! Definitely a piece of common sense that is often forgotten. Thanks for the tips Brynn!
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
Hi Diana here, my tip would be not to be complacent with safety I have been watching YouTube for a long time. And there’s people who have been soapers for a long time that send the wrong message don’t do a YouTube with out wearing all safety gear #1 gloves LYE burns.
I would definitely say the best tip I have found, even though it is so simple, is to burp the blender. When I first started, I didn’t know this, so it had saved my soap making from many bubbles.
Here’s the best way to unmold round soap made in a PVC pipe mold. Trust me, putting PVC in the freezer isn’t enough, contrary to claims. For best results , line the PVC mold with a flexible cutting board (which will form itself to the sides of the PVC nicely. Cut the width so the ends meet in the mold.), then line the flexible silicone cutting board with freezer paper. At unmolding, pull the cutting board easily out of the PVC and then peal away the freezer paper (if you omit the freezer paper your soap will stick to the cutting board for a rough surface.). I avoided round soap because unmolding was so miserable until I discovered this method.
remove my last name, please.
I have updated your comment. Thanks for the tip Michele!
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
Not sure which fragrance and/or essential oil combinations might blend well together? Ever create a blend and have no idea how to recreate it? Here’s a suggestion:
Supplies: a variety of fragrance or essential oils, square cotton pads (used for make-up) or cotton balls, small zip-lock bags, clean pipettes or droppers – one for each FO and/or EO being tested, note cards or other method to record results.
Choose the FO/EO combination you would like to test and make sure to have a note card ready to record results. Using a pipette or dropper, drop the FO/EO one drop at a time onto the cotton square or cotton ball, making sure to record the amounts/drops used of each scent. Once you have achieved a satisfactory combination (and made sure the increments have been properly documented), put the cotton into a zip-lock baggie, seal it, attach the note card to the outside, and set it aside. Over the next few hours, or even days, you can periodically come back to the baggie to gauge the result. If you adjust the scent by adding more, or different oils, make sure you document each addition.
To use a scent combination in a product you are making, use the drop ratio from that combination as the guide. For example, say you came up with a combination of scents that used 1 drop of X and 3 drops of Y. The product you are making calls for 1 ounce of fragrance. You would then use .25 oz. of X and .75 oz. of Y.
Wow, such a great idea! Thanks for sharing that with us!
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
I prefer to do hot process soaping. My ‘tip’ is that once you’re done cooking, make sure you let the soap get below 160 degrees F before adding any essential or fragrance oil so it doesn’t all flash off in the heat. 160F is a pretty good catch all but you should check with the manufacturer of your oil to make sure that’s low enough. There are some that are lots lower than that.
Immediately after pouring into mold, Generously Spritz the top of cold process soap with 90% alcohol to prevent soda ash.
Find something that Inspires you. For me, Inspiration leads to motivation to create something beatutiful. Nature is full of gorgeous, intricate patterns. Nature has mastered the abiliary to fill space in the most efficient manner. Wood grain, a rosemary sprig, fiddle head ferns. Its absolutely infinite. Look closely at something you would normally pass over and find inspiration it it.
My tip is that I have found it so much easier if I soap with a lye solution I prepared the night before. Get all your items ready even oils melted the night before and just reheat them, start soaping. I have not had a batch fail yet by working with a solution prepared the night before. Makes for a fast batch or 3. I like doing 3 batches at a time. All the same fragrance and colors. Makes for more time with my hubby. I then get up early get it all done, clean up and ready for the next batch the next evening after I unmold those beauties.
I always try to keep everything organized in dedicated bins, and I always prepare by pre-measuring and lining up all ingredients/tools in order of use. However, the most important thing I do now is to give myself the time to enjoy and appreciate the process – if I’m pressed for time, I don’t always see the soaping magic!
I hate being rushed when soaping too Crystal. Such a good tip!
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
I just need to be super organized. I line up everything my recipe needs on my counter, and then I set them aside one by one as I use them. That way I don’t lose my place or wonder if I already added that oil or not. I also put things away as I finish with them, keeps my space open and clean and I’m not having to hustle to find a work spot if I need to move with my soap batch!
My tip is to be creative with your molds. Look around your house (and goodwill!). That silicone brownie pan works great for flat swirled soap. That cardboard milk carton you were about to chuck in the trash is actually a loaf mold (line it with parchment paper) That box your packaging supplies came in last week? It just happens to fit your silicone lace mats. (Also line with paper).
My other tip is don’t be afraid to try new techniques. A swirl is a swirl even if it dosen’t look exactly what you intended. Sometimes they totally flop and that’s ok, but you never know what you can do until you try 🙂
I find soap making is so much easier if I am well organized. So, I like to prep everything… get all my supplies laid out and pre-measure everything before I get started with the mixing. This way I know before hand if I am out of anything before I start. My best tip is to buy a cutting board just for soap cutting, and draw lines onto it with a permanent marker– it really has made cutting process much easier for me. Also, I have found that my bowls/molds/tools are much easier to clean if I wait a few days to clean my equipment. Whenever I clean-up right away it’s a greasy mess! But after a few days, the grease and lye turn to soap, and I just soak everything in hot water and it cleans right up.
My tip is to be creative with your molds. I use silicone baking dishes at goodwill, recycled cardboard milk cartons for my loaf molds and shoeboxes. Line the last two with parchment paper. This is very cost effective and works well.
I like to replace the water content in my shampoo and shaving bars with cold aloe vera liquid. It gives a great, soothing lather!
Make sure you get your oil and lye to the correct temperature! Don’t rush!
My favorite tip I learned is from the mad scientist himself Kevin Dunn. I love how he breaks down soap making with Mythbuster techniques.
One of the things I learned from him is that to keep lye fumes away is to mix no more than 50% ice to your remaining water before pouring in your lye. IE: For your batch you need 1000 grams of water, then use 500 grams of ice and 500 grams of water. The lye will melt the ice and there will be no lye fumes! He has shown that your lye water can be cool and you will still create soap! Love, love this tip!
Thanks for the tip Nikie! I will have to try that 🙂
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
First off when adding herbs or flowers to Cp toss them in a little oil, it’ll help preserve the color
Bonus tip when making bath bombs put any flowers or decorations in your mold first, then add your colorant into your spray bottle with your water (or in my case witch hazel ) it mixes in much easier
Don’t fear the beard. Keep it healthy, soft and aromatic with beard oil. When making a masculine soap, set aside a small amount of fragrance oil to make a companion beard oil.
Don’t fear the beard. Make it healthy, soft and aromatic with beard oil. When making a masculine soap, save a little fragrance oil to make a companion beard oil.
My “tip” is simple — have fun with it! I have tried so many different combinations, scents, colorants over the years and yes, have “ruined” many batches along the way, but I find that my family and friends are happy when I gift them even the most unsaleable bars 🙂
My favorite tip is to Make Your Own Silicone Soap Molds! It sounds intimidating but it is actually a lot of fun. I’ve used 2 pounds of silicone up making one set of molds for a friend’s party. I saved money too. The type of silicone I’m talking about is not the kind you buy from the hardware store. The silicone I use is for making silicone molds only.
Of course Brambleberry is awesome and has silicone for sale. If you need larger quantities you can find it online too. Bramble berry is so nice to have such a selection. But yes mold making is my biggest tip from this new soaper. Works for MP CP CPOP HP
Second tip just buying silicone molds. LOL.
I love making silicone patterned mats, like in the Jasmine Lace Tutorial below :). The Pourable Silicone works so well!
Jasmine Lace Cold Process Tutorial: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/jasmine-lace-cold-process-tutorial/
Pourable Silicone: https://www.brambleberry.com/Pourable-Silicone-P5446.aspx
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
I don’t use palm products in my soaps and I’ve found running the de-humidifier in my curing area speeds up the time it takes the soap to get hard.
For easy clean up after making body butters, mix a batch of bath bombs in the same bowl. Just be sure to add the body butter ingredients to the list of those for your bath bomb.
Love that tip! We have also used the bowl with melt and pour before too, and it adds just a little bit of extra oil and butter. I will have to try it with bath bombs too 🙂
How to Clean Oily and Waxy Containers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifXYG1MH0W0
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
My soap making tip, always do your research! It took me a long time to figure things out because I never sat down and read about how the oils I was using would mix or what soap base would be best to use for a specific issue. I finally starting making notes on all the oils, essential oils, and bases and have had much more success since then!
So I’m a relatively new soaper (like three weeks ago I made my first batch) so I’m sure I don’t have any great wisdom that anyone hasn’t heard. But one thing I heard that I will share (in fact, I think I heard it from a Soap Queen book, lol). Mix the lye water and oils within 10 degrees of each other between 90 and 120 degrees. The last batch I made I got impatient and they were both probably around 115 degrees. It took awhile to get to trace and I thought I was doing something wrong because the first batch traced within five minutes, but I used a different recipe where you don’t melt the oils first. So I didn’t even check temperature of the lye water. I think next time I will be patient and wait until they are cooler.
Another tip that I take to heart is to add additives like scents and colors and other stuff until the very end, at trace. That way you can mix them in and pour them into the molds immediately.
I love this new hobby and I’m so envious of the beautiful soaps people can create. I will attempt my first colored soap this weekend. I am nervous and excited! I hope I win this book! I might have to end up buying it anyway if I don’t win it, though. Thanks for the opportunity!
Welcome to the fun world of soaping Sara! It sounds like you have certainly done your research 🙂
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
If you’re a scent junkie like I am, the best tip I can share is to keep detailed notes on your FOs and EOs. I use Google Drive and designate a folder for each scent with the purchase date so I’m sure to use the fragrance in it’s prime. In the folder I keep a copy of the website’s description, IFRA usage sheet and MSDS sheet. Then I make a document for each product I used it in and take notes on the percentage used and how well it performed- discoloration, separation, acceleration, staying power, etc. and also note the scent strength of the finished product (light, medium, strong). After taking notes I’m able to color code the folder- green for the ones I love and red for the ones I don’t. This makes a nice reference sheet for when it’s time to reorder fragrances and helps you put out the best products without repeating any mistakes.
I’ve never made soap before but am interested in starting. I read somewhere that if you put soap, unwrapped, in a lingerie drawer and let it harden, not only will you get the nice fragrance in your lacies, but the soap will last longer as well. Does that work for homemade soap too?
Here is my tip I came up with that’s made my soaping easier. I live on well and septic, so I never seem to have ice cubes for cool water baths. And if you have kids, you know they never refill the ice. So I came up with the idea of using an old ice cream maker to cool my water? I keep mine in the freezer. When I am working with a recipe that requires ice cold lye water, like whipped soap, I put a bit of water in the already frozen ice cream maker. My pitcher of lye water can then sit in the cold water in the ice cream maker. It’s ice cold and completely wraps around the pitcher. Bringing your water down to 60 degrees can be achieved in only minutes.
My #1 tip is in regard to sanitizing cleaning surfaces and equipment. Know your cleaner and its properties. Here are couple that are commonly used improperly:
70-90% Isopropyl (rubbing) Alcohol: the dwell time (how long the product is allowed to remain on the *wet* on the surface) for alcohol is 10 minutes or more. 70% is best for sanitizing equipment because of chemical mechanism that kills bacteria needs the “extra” water. 90% does the job, just not as well.
Chlorine bleach: my favorite for rinsing equipment! BUT (that is a big but…haha) none of the fancy scented, splashless, thickened, or off-brand products marked bleach are disinfectants. Surprised? I was! They are cleaners & deodorizers and it says so right on the label. (Bleach is bleach…right?) Use regular, old Clorox or a standard bleach that indictates on the label that it can be used as a disinfectant. The ratio is 4oz bleach to 1gal of water. Dwell time for bleach solution is 5 minutes on a pre-cleaned surface.
I love silicone molds! Cylinder, small 8 bar loaf molds, and smaller cavity molds like to hold onto our soap like crazy. Rubbing a thin layer of Crisco helps release the soap from these smaller molds. This works for me every time. No more soap left in corners or the sides. Sherry
My soaping tip is to get off of the soap calcs and not worry about the numbers so much. Learn the fatty acid profiles of oils and how they react once saponified. Just start! So many soapmakers get hung up on the numbers that a lye calc spits out at you, and they just need to make soap!
My biggest tip is for clean up, I bought several cotton tea towels. I wipe all my utensils and containers with the tea towels before leaving them to wash a couple days later. the towels remove the soap and dishes are easier to clean. I throw towels in wash and then they are ready to reuse. This saves on buying paper towels and washing items is a breeze.
Whatever recipe/ product you are making be sure to organize your (clean) work space with all your needed tools and ingredients before hand. Pre-measure all you can. You will thank yourself.
My tip is set yourself up for success by getting organized. Before you begin, or even if you know the night before that you’ll be making moisturizer, for example, pull out your recipe, raw ingredients, and don’t forget the pipettes, packaging, color, and essential oils. There’s nothing as frustrating as beginning the process only to find out you don’t have enough of an ingredient on hand.
Is anyone else unable to enter a comment with the widget?
Hi Jennifer! No need to enter your comment in the widget, just click the “I commented” to officially enter. Thanks so much for your tip!
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
My favorite life saver tip is to use ‘Glad Press n Seal’ wrap to line my vertical mold. Because it’s slightly sticky I can make sure each insert piece is cover…wrinkke free. No more thumping, or using knives to pop of the pieces. It does leave a slight checkered pattern, but it is hardly noticeable. Try it.
For perfect size lotion bars I use a muffin tin ( silicone). When cooled, they pop out easily and are the perfect size. Then I use seashells ( scallop, quahog etc.) to use as lotion bar dishes. 🙂
Don’t be afraid to be different. There are many wonderful tips and recipes on brambleberry but don’t be afraid to be yourself. Anna-Marie might have used peppermint in a particular recipe but don’t be afraid to ditch it for something that’s more you. Experiment!!!
Love that tip Toyin. That is what I love about soapmaking, it’s so customizable! 🙂
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
What a great contest! Many good tips here. I have been a soapmaker for 15 years now and had a soap business for 8 years so I have made an awful lot of soap. My tip is to KEEP IT SIMPLE. I made so many different soap recipes over the years thinking I had to try every new oil and additive, but in reality, the soaps with 6 or 8 different oils or this clay or that silk, were never really any better than my basic 4 oil soap recipe. You end up putting such small amounts of so many ingredients in, that in the end, there really isn’t that much of the fancy stuff in the actual soaps and all it really does is look good on the label. You only need 3 or 4 basic oils to make a very nice bar of soap. And don’t even get me started on fragrances. Do your wallet a favor and keep that simple too.
Most of us started making soap because we wanted something more natural and pure that would be good for our skin. Then after a few batches, we turn around and complicate the whole process with additives, all kinds of oils, fragrances, colors and packaging. Don’t underestimate the power of a good, simple, well made bar of soap.
Tip number 2. ADD MILK. I love milk soaps and to me it is the single most important additive you can use. I make 100% goats milk soaps and I love them, as does everyone who tries them. Milks make soap with lather that is so creamy and silky and I find them to be very decadent. Forget all the expensive additives and go for the milks.
My favorite soaping tip is to have your oils and butters at the temp between 80 and 90 degrees and lye temp between 80 and 90 degrees . It keeps the soap fluid and very easy to to work with for all the lovely designs
Use a crockpot for melt and pour! Use a crockpot for rebatching soap. I also use it to make liquid soap. The steady, even temperature makes melt and pour very easy. You can melt glycerin soap in there without adding additional water or milk, which means your bars will be a bit harder and set up faster. For liquid soap mix right in the crockpot and let the heat do it’s job (mixing often until it gets to the mashed potato stage).
Congrats on getting the new book out! Can’t wait to read it!
I love using the crockpot for large batches of melt and pour soap. It keeps it such a nice fluid temperature without burning. Thanks for sharing Maria!
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
If your soap doesn’t come out the exact color you expected, roll with it and scent or name it something that coordinates with it.
Prepare as much as possible ahead of time! Measure out ingredients, have clean up stuff ready in case you need it.
I learned this the hard way: always scoop out your powdered colorants, never pour them out of the jars. I made a huge mess with mica yesterday!
My best tip is to be generous and give lots of soap away. This may sound counter-intuitive if you’re trying to make a profit from soap-making, but it actually is a great way to get feedback on your new recipes, designs, etc. I have a small army of folks who I regularly give samples to and say, “Can you please tell me what you REALLY think?” and they’re happy to do it. I also give lots of soaps away as gifts just because I enjoy giving a high-quality gift to people and have them really enjoy it. I am still profiting from my business, and almost all of these users have become faithful return customers. They know they are helping me increase my sales overall so I don’t mind giving them free stuff in exchange. In the spirit of the best of “best business practices” this is truly a win-win-win situation. Blessings to each of you.
I am always concerned to forget to add an oil when making CP soap and making my soap lye heavy. So I print a copy of the recipe. It make take a little longer, but I take out only one ingredient at a time when measuring. While my lye is cooling, I take out the first hard oil, measure it, check it off the recipe, and then I put it away immediately . I then take out the next one, weight it, mark it, and put it away. Then move on to soft oils while my hard oils are melting. Keeps my head clear and reduces clutter, which also helps avoid spilling accidents.
My tip is, treat every customer like they are Customer #1!
I have a sweet lady who is my “Customer #1” (you know, the first person to buy soap from you, other than your mother 😉 ). Over the years she has given me soaping scent ideas that she would like to see, and great feedback on other bars that she has tried. One of my biggest hits was based on one of her wishlist scents!
If you have a regular customer, or even a friend who inspires you, try thinking of someone in particular when you’re coming up with a new recipe…it makes it more personal, and you always try your best when it’s for someone you care about and want to really bless!
Thanks Anne-Marie and BB for all the great tips and tricks, you’re awesome!
Super simple tip, but one I use every time I soap (or cook from a recipe). Hang your recipe up by using a baby pants clothes hanger (or an adult skirt hanger). It keeps your recipe paper clean and free of oil stains, especially if you cover it with a plastic folder sleeve.
Another tip: I hate rebatching. So, if my “failed” soap is not marketable for aesthetic reasons (not miscalculations in my recipe) and I do not want to use it for embeds, I box up my blooper soaps and donate them to our local pregnancy care center or homeless shelter. They are always grateful to have them and i don’t waste good soap.
That’s GREAT Bridget! I think I’ll do the same, thanks for the idea! 🙂
That is great – I donate a lot of soap to the woman’s shelter that is just up the road from me.
I reuse empty spice containers for holding my dry powders (activated charcoal, titanium dioxide, etc) not only is it easier to open/close than a plastic bag, the lid edge makes measuring out a breeze too!
Hi! I am new to soap making, and I love that there’s a chance to win your new book! I am so excited! My best tip is, “Just do it!” :0) Thank you-Jean
Thanks a bunch Jean! 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Hello, my tip has already been mentioned, but I’ll reiterate in case it got lost in the fantastic list of tips. I always place my recipe in a protected place within reference distance but not where it can get spilled or splashed on.
My recipe reads in the order I will need to add ingredients, i.e, the oils that need melting, then the lye solution, then the remaining ingredients in the order I’ve decided to put them into my mixture.
Then I lay out my ingredients in the order that I will need them at the back of my work bench. As I go along, as things get used, they get put under the bench on a shelf cleared for the purpose. This way, nothing gets left out. It stays organised and it’s easy to clean up. And it is efficient.
Thanks to all who have shared their tips.. I have pick up a few that will make life simpler.
Z
P.S. I will hope that those of you who, in the interest of saving time, use disposable plastics and products that are not biodegradable, considers the waste that is going into the garbage. Please find solutions that are environmentally conscious. I’ll get off my (tongue in cheek) soapbox now 😉
I am a newer soaper, and my best tip is planning!
Plan everything – plan your recipes and check all your figures/formulas, make sure you space is ready to work, and organize your materials out in order of need. I especially like having things that need to go in the recipe on the right, and once it is in the recipe moved to the left.
Making sure your space is well prepped and planned for saves time, but it also helps prevent unnecessary steps, and reduces the opportunity for mishaps.
Stay organized! I lay out and measure out EVERYTHING I’m going to need before I start and then double check it all against my recipe to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything. Even clean-up supplies are placed in their respective places so the whole process goes a lot smoother and faster. Also, I clean up what I can while I’m waiting for the lye solution to cool so as to save time on the dreaded clean-up! 🙂
I print out a copy of my recipe from the lye calculator, then check them off as I add them. That way, if you get interrupted (I can’t tell you how many times the doorbell rings mid-measure!), you know exactly what you’ve already done! You also then have handy space to make any notes in case you need to remember that recipe for later.
I love silicone molds! Some molds release easily, some don’t. Eight bar soap molds, tall skinny molds, individual flower molds and cylinder molds especially seem to hang on for dear life to your soap. My tip is to lightly coat the molds with Crisco. This works for me every time. No more soap left in the corners or on the sides of the mold… Sherry
Great contest – thanks for doing it!
My favorite tip – when it comes time to cure your freshly made bars of soap, for great ventilation, easy cleaning, and no rusting of metal racks I use vinyl coated wire racks, the type you might find in a closet shelving system. You can find this at your local big box home improvement type stores, and it’s fairly reasonably priced (about $20 for a 16″ deep x 6′ wide). Here’s an additional tip – you can use a hack saw to easily cut a 6′ piece into smaller shelves.
Designate a small mild to be your test batch mold. The Bramble Berry 1 lb mold is perfect for this. That way you don’t waste a lot of ingredients when the experiment doesn’t work out! I also use disposable table cloths to make clean up easier. Just gather everything up in the plastic and throw it away.
Spritz the top of cold process soap with 99% isopropyl alcohol to avoid soda ash. I’ve found that anything less than 99% doesn’t work as well.
my tip is never forget about lining your molds with freezer paper it makes it so much easier to remove your soap from the mold
I use a Bramble Berry Heat Resistant Plastic Pouch in a double boiler to melt the oils, butters and beeswax for lip balm recipes, but first I cut off the top of the pouch. You just have to be careful not to let the water boil too hard so that the bag does not tip over. It’s fairly easy to pour the melted ingredients into the lip balm containers and cleanup is easy. Then I save the bags to reuse.
When first learning how to make hot process soap I read a lot of info and most people would try the “zap test” method to confirm if their soap was done. Zap test as in putting raw soap on your tongue and if the lye doesn’t “zap” you it’s good to go.. So best case you have to deal with studio in your mouth, worst case you’re basically eating lye. I really did not feel comfortable with this (all I could picture if the kiss scar from Fight Club), especially since my 3 year old watched my every move like a hawk but then I found another method.. pH test strips. Take a small bowl filled with distilled water, put a small chunk of the soap in and mix it a little until you have soapy water, dip in a test strip and done. It should have a pH of less than 10.. Mine is always an 8 after an hour of cooking but it’s nice to be able to test without worrying I’m putting lye in my mouth.
pH test strips are so handy to have around! Thanks Jennifer. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
pH Test Strips: https://www.brambleberry.com/pH-Strips-1-pack-of-50-P4434.aspx
For CP soap: when you use clays ALWAYS mix it in water first until it’s runny (not paste like). Make sure clays took all the water it needed (so it doesn’t have to take it from the batter n thicken it up) then STIR IT into your batter, do not blend it in or it may accelerate trace!
For HP: Never add anything COLD into your HOT soap, it stresses it, it may harden on you, keep it all nice and warm!
Happy soaping 🙂
To prevent ash do NOT unmold soap while it’s still warm (even slightly), let it sit until room temperature! And of course use 91% alcohol to spray right after you mold.
When making soap, protection is a priority! Protect your workspace, but most importantly protect yourself. Long sleeves, closed-toe shoes, gloves, and goggles are not “extras”, they should be the standard.
Don’t run your stick blender nonstop. If you do it will burn up. Stick blend for a little bit. Stir. Than stick blend again.
I lay down a large garbage bag on my kitchen table to measure my ingredients. This makes clean-up easy and protects my table. For my mixing with the lye, I plug my stick blender in an outlet next to my stovetop and mix there because I use the stove fan to take out any fumes.
my chemistry professor told me that mixing lye and oils at a higher temp helps cure CP soap faster (helps lye reaction go quicker) it really works too! have gotten soap to cure to pH of 7 in roughly 3 weeks! but beware! the hotter the temp you mix at the quicker trace occurs. I wouldn’t try it with intricate designs/color patterns
I didn’t make soap before because I couldn’t find lye anywhere. Yesterday I asked my local drugstore if they have it. They don’t but they ordered it for me! So if anyone else is having trouble finding it, try your drugstore. I can’t wait to get started and I would love to win the book!
If you don’t have a local supplier and can’t wait for an order, check your local hardware store in the drain cleaners. There are a couple that are just 100% lye. If there’s anything else in the ingredient list, don’t get it. Make sure you shake the bottle, the contents should sound completely free flowing, if there’s chunks or if it sounds solid, don’t get it, it’s probably had moisture get in and it isn’t viable.
These are usually tiny (think of the small ball in a ball point pen), semi transparent beads that have crazy static. Wipe whatever container you’re going to put them in with a dryer sheet, otherwise they crawl up the sides. Also, well ventilated doesn’t mean a fan blowing right on you. The breeze from a fan is enough to send the lye beads flying. Have the fan blowing just off to the side of you work station, and always stay upwind of your lye water so the fumes aren’t blown into your face.
Good luck!
My tip is to get your Grandkids involved with making your products. My granddaughter Gracie cuts out all my soap mold liners and then she earns a little money as a bonus. Also lets them learn at a young age how to make soap and work using there hands instead of sitting in front of a TV or computer.
My tip for CP Soap making, making cleanup easier. I use wee wee pads (pet house breaking pads) on my work surfaces to catch any mishaps drips and spills. When finished, use them to wipe excess batter off utensils and bowls. Makes clean up a snap!
I love the Apple Jack Peel scent, however because of the dis coloring the green mica that I use always turns a deep red rather than green! I’ve tried twice to tint it green and it’s turned out red-ish. Love the new color but not exactly what I was wanting.
Hi Meagan!
I’m sorry about that! What green mica are you using?
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Wow! What an awesome giveaway! Thank you so much!!!
My tip is for pouring any sort of bath and body product from your making bawl to the container you will be using for the product: a zip-lock baggie!
If you just made cream or scrub or liquid soap in your large working bowl and you want to pour it into your pretty bottle without loosing anything, just pour it all into a large zip lock baggie, shut it well (preferably even with a masking-tape over the tip to prevent any leakage) then use your credit-card to scrap all the material inside the baggie into one corner. Then with a little safety pin make a small hole in the bag and start pouring through it into your container. At any time during the process you can scrape your product inside the baggie into the direction you want, until everything is in your bottle.
This is the most mess-free way I have found!
Keep up this amazing site, and thank you again! =D
Melt and pour soap is soap. Whatever mistake you make, it will still be usable soap.
When using fresh goatmilk, freeze it in icecube trays or a gallon Ziploc. Brake off chunks to weigh. Put into a deep bowl, within a bowl of ice. Sprinkle lye a little at a time on the iced milk. I use a regular tablespoon to scrape and mix, until all lye fully incorporated. This does not take a long time and keeps the soap white and not burnt smelling. Have your oils ready to go as you don’t have to wait for the temp to come down, like w/regular lye&water.
If you’re using fresh goats milk, freeze it in either an ice cube tray or a gallon plastic bag. Break chunks off to weigh it for recipe, put in a deep bowl within a bowl of ice. Sprinkle lye a little at a time on it. I use a regular tablespoon and gently ( so as not to splash the lye) scrape and mix, adding a little lye at a time until fully mixed. It may sound like this takes a long time, but doesn’t. This keeps your soap white. Have your oils pretty close to ready because you don’t have to wait for lye temp to come down.
First, no matter how many times you’ve made a recipe, read through the instructions before you start anything.
Second, be patient and take your time. The time you save by rushing the process won’t make up for your losses from mistakes or, worse, injuries.
I’m an international reader so please donate the book to the local library if I win.
Patience! I’ve also learned it’s best to think through what you want to do and how, plan everything ahead of time and don’t hurry to take the soap out of the mold 🙂
Oops, this gets a bit long winded, feel free to skip over me. 🙂
I have a few tips that I’ve discovered during my journey as a soapmaker, and some that come from an array of varied other interests… I’ve seen one tip repeated constantly that I feel I need to address. I’m not a chemist, but I have done a couple of university level courses in chemistry. One thing that is reiterated is that most times and in the absence of a proper decontaminant, you use water in the case of a chemical spill on yourself. Vinegar neutralises lye in a fairly standard and typical acid-base reaction. Any reaction occurring between the two is not a particularly violent reaction, but it is possible to make a burn worse using vinegar to neutralise lye on the skin. Use vinegar for wiping down your benches or neutralising spills on surfaces, NEVER EVER USE IT ON YOURSELF. If you spill it on yourself, rinse the area thoroughly with cool water for 15 minutes. I cannot stress this enough. Water works in two ways: Running water continually flushes the chemical away from your skin, reducing the chance it’s going to sit in one place on your skin and two, water dilutes the concentration of the lye. If your skin feels itchy after you’ve rinsed it, bathe it in milk, I find that helps a bit. Apply lotion after to reduce the tightness of the skin. See a doctor if you’re worried or things start to blister, or go necrotic. Which prolonged exposure to 16%+ lye solution is very capable of doing. I don’t recommend this, but I only use safety gloves from about April to November in Australia – the other months they literally overflow with sweat as summer here is a humid, hot, miserable mess. The one time I got lye solution on my skin was when my gross and nasty sweat filled glove caused me to slip and splash the lye down my arm as I was pouring it into the oil container. I rinsed with water and was fine. That was when I decided I’d rather have full tactile sensation in my hands rather than have them slop around in horrible gloves. Plus, I’m seriously allergic to latex.
If you’re seriously concerned about spilling lye on your skin, and don’t care about cost, look into something like they have in chemical plants and places where corrosive and irritant chemicals are used on a regular basis. Diphoterine is the one we used at uni, and I have since forked out about $200AUD for an aerosol can of it to keep at home and to take it with me on job sites where I’m working with acids (it’s rare that I do go out with Dad to be a day labourer for him, but lesson learned the hard way to be prepared). It is a decontaminating solution that seriously reduces the severity of burns among other things. It’s far better than water and works on many chemicals by attracting, absorbing and neutralising (safely) the chemical. It sort of creates a barrier on the skin stopping the absorption of the aggressor chemical.
Also in the area of chemistry – if you’re old school and use mercury thermometers, be aware of what to do if one breaks and have powdered sulphur on hand for cleanup. Hardwares and pharmacies often have this, if you purchase your lye from a specialist chemical store, ask there. And if you do break one of those thermometers, before cleanup, Google how to clean it up first and be highly aware of what you are doing. I have half a dozen of these thermometers – one day I’ll upgrade, but can’t justify that as an expense just yet.
That said, moving on. I suggest reading the MSDS for sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide and do your own research. I am a member of NICNAS, which is the Australian Government’s National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme – and I must be a member as cosmetic manufacturer. One bonus is getting access to all sorts of nifty information about many different substances, if it’s got a CAS number, it’s likely to be in their database. Check with your local government/regulatory authority, they may have something similar.
– High environmental temperature and high humidity will pretty much always result in gel phase sometimes with a side of overheating – I have a bar fridge I’m lucky enough to toss my loaves in once I make them, and I’ll leave them there for at least two days, one day in the freezer, one day in the fridge, as I’ve been surprised by a loaf coming out of the freezer, thawing enough for me to cut it, then three hours later find my individual bars of soap are going through gel on their airing tray!
– Use white micas instead of titanium dioxide if you want to avoid glycerine rivers. I find glycerine rivers show up all the time in summer and that’s when I switch to white mica.
– Also note that other coloured oxides can be prone to glycerine rivers – hydrated chromium oxide (green) surprised me once by doing this in a Cucumber Oak loaf – it added to the look of the soap, rather than detracted from it, but it was a lesson for me – avoid oxides in summer, or chuck the soap in the freezer – but be aware it doesn’t always work, even with a steep water discount!
– Keep notes on everything. I have a massive binder that I use. I’ll print out my recipe from a soap calculator, title it with a batch number and date, and everything about that day I will note down – ambient temperature, humidity, time of day, additives used, fragrance, the masterbatch number of my oils I’m using, batch number of my lye. When I mix up a masterbatch of oils I note down the batch numbers and the suppliers of the individual oils if I have them. A seperate section is given to each ingredient, what I can expect by using such and such oil, what kind of behavior this FO has, etc. Saves me so much time looking up thing on supplier websites.
-Comply with your local regulatory authority (LRA)! I’ve said I’m a member of NICNAS, the Australian LRA, I must comply with their rulings or be subject to a massive, massive fine. I have a certificate which I copy and hand out with my public liability and product liability insurance certificates of currency to my sellers, or if I am personally having a market. Buyers of my product can be confident that I comply with Australian standards, and I can rest easy that my butt is covered. And if I have a question or want to clarify something, I find ringing NICNAS is easy, and they’re happy to answer my questions. Plus the certificate is pretty posh and looks swish on the wall of my office. 🙂
– Having insurance goes without saying, be aware of the different types and find an insurance agent who can explain it in plain English and who isn’t just there to take your money, they make themselves available to answer questions and check up on you.
– Dollar stores are great places to find cheap silicone tools. I walked in and spent about $30, came out with half a dozen spatulas, two whisks, a set of measuring cups, two sets of measuring spoons, cutting boards, silicone cupcake liners and a few other things. Avoid their metal tools unless you are 100% certain they are stainless steel. For me, Kmart and the Reject Shop (Australia) are the best places to find my tools.
– Don’t ever skimp on the eye goggles. A close call with soap batter splashing up under my safety glasses and hitting the side of my nose made me go out and buy a proper set of expensive goggles (which I couldn’t use in summer, as they fogged up grr! I hate summer). I promptly ruined those by splashing lime EO on them – citrus EO eats through plastic like you wouldn’t believe – lesson learned there, a cheap pair of decent safety goggles you don’t mind chucking away if they get damaged is acceptable.
– Batch EVERYTHING. This is good manufacturing practice, and something my current university course has taught me a lot about. I masterbatch my oils in 11L buckets, and have about 3 of them stored in my workshop at any one time. I stir it up, scoop out what I need, and heat it as I need it. An hour mixing up 30L of oils is many hours saved mixing up individual batches. I work out what soaps I’m making in one month, and design, print and cut my labels in one (long) afternoon. On the same line, I’ll mix up my powdered colourants that I’ll need for that month, fill out my recipes with notes about planned designs, etc. I’ll wrap everything at once, and I’ll batch that too. Soap in shrink bags, then seal, then heat, then label. Nothing is ever done one at a time. That said, my soap batches consist of 2-4, sometimes 6 (if the fragrance is well behaved) 10in loaves. I rarely make single loaves unless I’m trying new recipes or fragrances or doing special editions.
– MARKET YOURSELF. Know your product, know your creed, know why you do this. Know your stance on palm oil (deforestation), know your stance on cocoa butter (human slavery), titanium dioxide (nanoparticles and skin absorption), etc, etc, etc. Basically, have at least an idea of where your ingredients come from and why you choose to use those over others. They’re good talking points. Be prepared to talk about yourself, your products, your passion. Carry samples, carry business cards. Find a short course in marketing, do it. It’s invaluable.
– Have a good camera, be active on social media and local events. Be present as much as it is possible. Farmer’s market? Local fairs, school fetes, the lot.
– If you’re looking for cheaper ecommerce website hosting, shop about at end of financial year, Black Friday, Boxing Day, New Years Day… those kinds of events. I saved 50% off my ecommerce hosting for my website by buying on Black Friday – I took advantage of a sale and bought a year’s worth at once. Bonus is, it’s renewal will come up at the same time and there’s likely to be another sale on then.
– I’m lucky to have a source of free methanol… which I use for wiping down my benches and getting rid of residual greasiness. Isopropyl is almost $9 for 150ml here. (Don’t get me started on high proof vodka) I save the isopropyl for M&P and spraying my soap, and use the methanol for cleaning. It evaporates really, really fast and cuts through oily mica splatters nicely.
-For soy candle makers, Windex is THE BEST cleaning option. Forget the warm cloth with washing up liquid. Windex. I use store brand, whatever’s cheapest. It returns containers to their original clarity, it cuts through leftovers on your tools, it gets rid of spills, and if someone managed to splash a WHOLE 150gm tin of liquid wax down your TV screen (finger aimed at the Mister of the House!) it cleaned that up super easy with no residue or streaking.
And that’s some of my tips, gathered from my 3 years of candle and soapmaking, from my batches starting out by making 6 M&P soaps at a time, and 6 tealights at a time – to today, where I’m churning out upwards of 10 CP loaves a weekend and still enjoying every moment of my journey.
Thanks for all the great tips Tash! 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Cleaning up afterward made simple and useful. Regardless of your recipe, cold process or hot process, we all know about cleaning up afterward. Do you clean up now? If so you have oily soap batter that can burn you due to active lye. If you clean up afterward, you have to scour saponified soap off your utensils. If you leave a lot behind, you have a lot of waste, right? No! When you put your soap to bed, leave all utensils and let it saponify. Then, full he mixing pot with hot tap water and put all utensils in it and let if soak off. Then pour it down the drain, right? NO!! That is a lot of soap and you can pour all the water into the washer and do one load of laundry. I even hand wash dishes with it sometimes. Clean up is a breeze and your soap residue is even used.
there are no stupid questions when it comes to learning about soap! considering the chemical elements, the mind boggling amount of math and science, and the vastness of the information that u need to learn- asking questions is completely understandable! don’t let anyone make u feel silly if u ask something that 99% of soap makers already know. they all had to learn it somewhere to!
Spritz the top of your soap with Witch Hazel that also contains 14% alcohol to help clear soda ash from your soap. The combination of both the Witch Hazel and alcohol works a charm 🙂
Oh interesting! We have done that a couple time by accident and found it did some odd things in our soap. We usually use 99% isopropyl alcohol. We’ll have to give witch hazel another try!
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Explaining and Preventing Soda Ash: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/explaining-and-preventing-soda-ash/
My favorite herb is calendula. I infuse my oils for cold process soap, I use it in lotions and salves and lipbalms
Always blend powdered ingredients with oil or water before adding at trace. It makes mixing easier and lessens the chance of clumps.
Thank you for the opportunity. When formulating my HP recipes I always use Castor Oil at 6% and sugar, 1 teaspoon per pound of oils, this really helps to increase the bubbles. I have added this for the last 5 years and I have been soaping for 11 years now. It really make a difference to soap for people who love the bubbles like me 🙂
Use old newspaper, magazines, or circulars to line your crafting space. It makes for a much faster clean-up, saves paper towels, and helps to quickly switch between crafting tasks.
I use the Bramble Berry Soap App for recording recipes and batches. It calculates the proper amount of lye and water needed for your cold processed soap, and allows you to make notes for additives, colorants, fragrances and anything else. Bonus feature is the Batch Notification reminders. It lets you know when your batch is ready, and you can refer back to previos batches any time. This is valuable tool for me; I use it often! Happy Soaping!
Yay, so glad you like the app Shannon! Thanks for entering. 🙂
Bramble Berry App How-To: https://www.soapqueen.com/bramble-berry-news/bramble-berry-app-how-to/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
My favorite top would be using the 90% alcohol on soap to prevent soda ash. I used to have a problem with that, but not any more.
Also! The swirling techniques to make soap look pretty.
There are a lot of amazing tips on this website. I love it!
There’s so many great tips on here! I love stamping my soaps, and find that waiting 1-2 weeks after cutting them really helps when it comes to stamping soap. The soap gets really hard so when you stamp it, it leaves a nice, clean stamp without getting clogged by the soap. Other tips I have read say to do it within 1 week of cutting , but I find that my soap is still too soft and that my stamps aren’t as clean and defined.
When I am making large batches of melt and pour, I cut my base in little squares and place them in zip lock bags. It saves me lots of time in the actual process, since I only have to weigh out what I need. I also make all my labels before making the soap, because that is the part I really don’t like!
I use small mason jars to blend handmade lipstain and lipstick colors. I label each one with the color blends and oils used, so I can go back and reuse the jars with no messy, painstaking cleanup!
Mix your lye water with your solid oils until the oils are melted, then add the liquid oils. That way you don’t have to melt your oils or wait for your oils to be within 10 degrees of each other!
I find it useful to make note of the weather on the day in which I made soap. Those made on colder days developed soda ash and needed to be sprayed with alcohol. Soaps made on my hot summer days did not develop soda ash.
no question is too stupid to ask when ur learning how to make soap. Sometimes when ur learning from the experts it’s a little daunting but if u don’t ask, there could be serious complications down the road.
I’m new to soaping but will add: read, watch, ask questions and be patient!
My favorite tip is for plastic molds. If you wipe the inside of your mold with mineral oil, the soap will just pop out! If you forget, you can stick it in the freezer for a little while.
For smaller volume soapers and hobbyists: I use those foldable & stackable cooling racks for cookies to cure my soap. They can be found 3/$10 and can fit about 5# worth of soap on each one. Plus, they are easy to carry if you are like me and have to cut and trim soap in one room cure it in another.
I always double check my lye and water in the calculator after weighing my oils and butters. This way I am sure they are a perfect match.
That’s a great tip – it never hurts to double check! Thanks for your submission Annemieke. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I’ve got a million tips, but my all time favorite is probably to mix your fragrance oils into your oils BEFORE you add your lye. Dilutes it as much as possible, so if its a fast over, it isn’t super concentrated. And most importantly, keeps you from forgetting to add your fragrance all together. In lieu of that, leave your fragrance, measured out, IN your mold, so that if you do forget, when you go to pour, you’ll see it and remember.
My biggest tip is create a space where all your soaping goodies can go after you’ve completed anything, CP soap, bubble bars, truffles…. If all you leave behind is the lingering scent then you’ll be doing yourself and the people you share your living space with, hubby, kids, partner, roomies….. a huge favor! Believe me, this addictive hobby can take over, can’t say you haven’t been warned 😉
I am short and find it much easier to have my containers in the sink instead of on the counter top. That way I can see what I’m doing.
I am super new. My biggest tip for newbies is to start with the Brambleberry kits. I ordered one of the kits, read the instructions here on this blog, watched some of the youtube videos on the SoapQueen channel. When i made the soap it came out perfect, I felt like a pro!
My best tip is for clean up. Wipe all your containers and utensils out with paper towels, let them sit for a day or two, then throw in the dishwasher. No scrubbing and squeaky clean.
When making CP soap, I wait until the next day to clean my vessels and utensils. Saponified batter is so much easier to clean up than oily goop!
When I make ~3 lb batches of soap, I use plastic/Solo cups when splitting the oil/lye batter to make different colored batter before making my soap design in the mold. Then I just toss the cups when I’ m done-no harden soap batter to clean up (except for the one large bucket that I started with)!
when making lip balm, I heat my oils and butters on a candle warmer. that way they never get too warm or start to harden before I’m finished.
I make my soaps in the sink. I stir and blend in the sink and even pour into molds in the sink. Then, I take the molds to heat up and gel (wrapped up on a table right over the heating grate). Everything that needs to get washed is contained in the sink and ready to be cleaned.
It keeps me from procrastinating on washing the buckets/utensils and prevents fragrance/oil/raw soap spills all over various rooms in the house.
I discovered this tip 2 years ago when making the funnel pour soap in the Soap Crafting Club: after you measure your FO/EO, put that container into your mold … that way, you can’t forget to add it right before pouring!
Most important tip I can give is to always keep a spray bottle of vinagar on hand when you work with lye. Even a tiny splash burns. Safety is extremely important when you soap !
Hi Betsy!
Thanks so much for your tip! If lye comes in contact with the skin, we recommend running water over it for 15 minutes. We don’t recommend using vinegar on the skin. It is great to neutralize any spills on the counter though. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I have a couple tips I have learned. Don’t get distracted singing along with songs – I have forgotten to fragrance soap multiple times because of that. Don’t forget to add vanilla color stabilizer – my sugar cookie scrub ended up looking like burnt sugar cookie scrub 🙁
I went over to the “lye” side of soaping from melt & pour last September. Now I don’t know if it’s just me but when I soap I always try new recipes that I make up myself. I research every oil, micas I’m using (how much and disperse in what), additives etc. I write all this down with my recipe along with the numbers from the lye calculator……..hardness, INS, bubbly etc. I even go to each website where I bought my products for info. If using eos I research them and figure out how much of each…….I mean everything has to be written down so that I feel more organized and make sure things (hopefully) go as planned. I think it’s my add/ocd working in overdrive but I love it 🙂
I prefer making CP soap, so my best soap making tip would be to keep meticulous batch records. That way you’ll be able to track any problems with your batch or replicate a great one!
Being new at CP..my soap tip is..I make sure all my soap ingredients are lined up according to my soap recipe..including all items needed..goggles, gloves, whisk, scale,etc. ”Preparation” is most important with any project..in return a beautiful well made great smelling cp soap to enjoy =)
For melt and pour soaps, prep is everything! Make sure your soap is cut to small pieces, your fragrance oil or EO is measured out in a glass container, and your mold and RA are handy, before you begin to melt anything! Saves tons of frustration later
I love Chinese food. I use a fork. They always bring chop sticks anyway. I save my sticks and use them for swirls. Nice package and a good size for swirls.
What a great way to reuse your items! Thanks Debbie. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I’m too new to give advice other than read, read, read.
For the last 4 years, I have only used ice cubes as my water portion, to melt my lye in CP soap. You can make soap within a half an hour, rather than wait for the lye to cool for hours! It saves so much time!! It is also much healthy, to melt this way. There are no fumes to inhale and injure your lungs for you and anyone in your home. Plus the safety factor, if you are use to taking the lye solution outdoors and possibly risk spilling. You can just slowly stir the lye & cubes and in no time, you are ready to create!
This is a great idea. I’m always looking for ways to cut down on the prep time because my recipe is rather time consuming.
What a great idea! I do this with frozen goat milk…but never thought to do this with the water for non-milk soaps! Great tip! Thanks.
Be cautious , Always wear long sleeves, gloves, and googles. Keep vinegar near just incase you get any lye on you. Vinegar stops the burn!
My favorite tip is for making lip balms. I love using Shea Butter in my lip balms. I have heard many sellers complaining that their Shea Butter lip balms are always “grainy” feeling. When I heard this, I changed the way I make my lip balms.
Adding Shea Butter into your hard oils, and then heating all the oils together my make your balms grainy.
I heat ALL my oils (soft and hard) together EXCEPT my Shea Butter. After all the oils have safely melted, I add the Shea Butter. The heat from the other oils quickly melts the Shea Butter, so there isn’t a need to heat up the Shea Butter.
I have never had “grainy” lip balms, and I have made them since 2007.
I hope you enjoy this tip!
I just started soaping so I don’t necessarily have a “favorite” tip. But keeping my lye/water and oils within 10 degrees of each other has helped me. Also to always wear safety gear.
Check for trace early and often!
That’s a great one! Thanks Kristen. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
All About the Trace: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/trace/
The most stressful part of soaping for me was trying to get the lye water and oil/butter mixture at the same temperature. I recently read an article by Humblebee and Me about soaping at room temperature that has really helped me with my soap making process. Now I mix my lye water and oil/butter mixture separately at night and mix them together the next day when they’ve both come to room temperature.
When mixing lye with your liquid, place both containers inside a big deep plastic bin so if there are any spills, it doesn’t spill all over the counter and floor and it wont splash. Instead it will only spill inside the contained area/bin.
This will ensure that in case there is an accident, you have more control of the spill as its contained. I dont like to use the sink its not really accessible to me for this.
Just in case by last tip/recipe post wasn’t considered a tip… >.<
For CP ALWAYS check your Oils & Lye Water temps before mixing. Guessing leads to problems. I learned when I forgot to heat my OO for a Castille soap once and I ended up having to throw it in the crock pot to fix it. I can’t wait to save up for a temp gun!
Temperature is super important! Thanks for your submission Lilli. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Don’t peek at you cp when you put it to bed. My first two tries my soap came out soft. Left my last try alone. waited two days. It turned out wonderful.
My best tip is to have the kitchen and counters clean and spotless except for soaping supplies. Then I make sure all my ingredients and needed supplies are present and ready. I re-check the recipe using the lye calculator and I keep it open just in case I over pour an ingredient… It has saved a recipe or two!
I like to premix my Titanium Dioxide in large plastic squeeze bottle so it is ready when I need it to color soaps. I either premix it in water or oil depending on which type of TD I am using. Well it is hard to mix up thoroughly in the bottle each time before using, so I went to my local Lowe’s Store (you could also go to your hardware store) and I purchased a package of 10 Stainless Steel Hex Nuts, you know the nuts that screw onto a bolt (10 in package for $1.98). I put 4 of the nuts into my container and it works great getting it all mixed up. All I have to is just shake the container really well each time before using. I have not had any Titanium Dioxide spots in my soaps since I started doing this.
Thank you, i was wondering why all of a sudden my soaps are developing spots.. never happened before. i did buy the TD that BB had for sale. The previous one mixed very well.. the stuff i got looks pasty like if it was moist before i got to it and it just does NOT disperse in ANY oil correctly. Every batch ive used TD on has white spots or drag marks. =(
Great tip Margo! Thanks for your submission. 🙂
Vanessa, because titanium dioxide particles are a bit bigger, we recommend micronizing it! To micronize colorant, simply use a coffee grinder to blend the colorant to break up any clumps of color and prevent streaks of white from showing in the final soap. We like to use a coffee grinder that has a removable, stainless steel mixing area for easy cleaning.
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
oooo ok! I will do this next time! thanks!!
My favorite soap tip involves making milk soaps and keeping them good and white. An ice bath supporting a stainless steel bowl into which frozen milk cubes are placed. Add in a little bit of lye at a time and assure that all of it dissolves before adding more, simply to assure that you don’t end up with clumps. Then strain it through a fine sieve and into the oils a a second assurance that you don’t end up with lye chunks in your batter.
To help Cold Process soap come out flawless from silicone molds, pop it in the freezer for 20-30 minutes before taking it out of the mold. They always come out looking beautiful!
I add kaolin clay to every batch of soap I make. Use about 1-2 tablespoons per pound of oils and stick blend into the oils before you add the lye water. It makes an amazing opaque white base that makes colors POP. 🙂
I love nice vibrant colors! Thanks Molly. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
BE SAFE, and HAVE FUN! Soaping is an art, and can be so therapeutic. Dont be afraid to try new ingredients, new techniques, additives, methods, etc. Embrace mistakes as well as successes, and be proud of each and every creation along the way! 🙂
Don’t be afraid to mix your own scents! Many people just single fragrance blends, which is great, but some unique scents are to be had! My favorite is Pineapple Cilantro and BlackBerry Sage. There are a few others but that one was hands down, a favorite for all. It also goes well with a dash of Autumn Fig for a crisper finish.
I’m a little bit on the short side (5’1″) and have found it much more comfortable to have my containers in my sink rather than on the counter top. I can see better what I’m doing and feel more in control of the process.
My tip for CP Soap making, making cleanup easier. I use wee wee pads (pet house breaking pads) on my work surfaces to catch any mishaps drips and spills. When finished, use them to wipe excess batter off utensils and bowls. Makes clean up a snap!
luv this tip! clean up is always such a mess.
During the winter, I like to put the solid oils (coconut, palm) on the heater vent, then when i do my soaping later in the day they are liquified and ready to go!
Oh that’s a good one! Thanks for your submission Tanya. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Always double check recipes with a lye calculator – just to be sure there are no typos (especially with internet recipes!)
Ever wanted to use Unrefined Shea Butter as the truly main star of your cold process soap? My recipe for this facial bar of soap comes from my love of chemistry. This has over 41% Unrefined Shea Butter. But how does it not crack? How do you get bubbles and cleanse? Well, these tips are sure to up your soaping game, if you didnt already. heheheh after you have about 42% of Unrefined Shea Butter, you must add something to counteract the hardness but that will also produce bubbles without weighing down your soap. Guess which oil to use? SWEET ALMOND OIL. This underrated oil has stable creamy almost fluffy bubbles and balances out the Shea with a whooping 21% or so. But you ask, how about the cleansing, big bubbles? Extra Virgin Coconut Oil is the squeakiest cleanest of all coconut oils. Use this with Castor oil at equal parts of around 17%. Theres no over drying when doing this an superfatting with 2.5% or so of Apricot Kernel oil. This balance of acids and fats creates a lovely bar of soap if you SF around 3-5%. This lather is so good and stable you can shave with it. Since Shea has a lot of unsaponifiable oil, SF at almost 3% is a good idea. To ensure this bar is complete, add avocado or carrot puree and a little silk if your not vegan. The resulting bar is nourishing yet very bubbly and will NOT over dry any skin. Add a little clay to balance the magnesium and create an even better clarifying bar for acne, oily skin or even sensitive skin. i only use rosemary and grapefruit in this recipe as my essential oils. Also purple carrots are better then orange as they contain a lot more phenol compounds! you like this tip? Youd love what i got for cocoa butter then! muahahahah! =PP
I would love to become better versed with the science side of soapmakinh; it would make formulating recipes so much easier!
The less you use the stick blender the better. It is enough to just get good emulsion of oils and lye water. Then when you add your colorants and fragrance, it’s best to just whisk it in. It will give you more time to swirl and help prevent acceleration.
And if your soap does accelerate, it’s good to just go with the flow and change your design. Any swirl can easily become spoon plop. 🙂
I save the measuring cups that come with the large laundry detergent. They work great for mixing colorants or fragrances. I simply wash and re-use. Eco friendly.
I started using half ice/ half water when dissolving my lye. As long as you pour the lye in slowly and stir constantly, the lye will dissolve completely and the mixture doesn’t get nearly as hot. Also, there are no fumes at all. It gets me closer to that 110 degree temp and speeds up my soaping time.
That definitely helps speed up the cooling process! Thanks Mel. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Love this tip <3
Best tip, it seems like such a small simple thing…but have everything out and ready before you start. Have an extra mold for runover incase you figured wrong even an extra stick blender or wisk incase something breaks.
I would say organization is key for me. I have everything organized in jars or bins and labeled and everything is on shelves in the order I use them so when master batching oils or before starting any soapmaking or any products I gather my notes and make sure to do a quick clean up and sanitize everything. Then I make sure I have a closed bottle of water to keep hydrated and I have a designated spot for my snacks away from my production area. Also natural light helps keep me energized and happy along with music or maybe a funny show or movie playing in the background. It’s a lot more fun that way 😊 I also include my family and friends in choosing color and fragrance as I know input is always helpful 😊
My tip is that if you want to force your soap to gel and speed up the curing process, put it in a 170 degree oven for an hour. Then turn the oven off and leave the soap in overnight.
Be patient and always have a clean well organized work site.
My best tip is that even when you think you have a failure /mess because you have forgotten the fragrance, or swirled too much and don’t have pretty little hearts on top of your soap anymore, it’s OK! RELAX! Usually it’s salvageable into a usable item. Sometimes better than what you originally were going for. Every soaping experience for me is learning something new, and I have had some pretty amazing results, and yes, a few clunkers. But, hey, my husband uses those clunkers and tells me he likes blueberry smelling green soap. really!
So true Marianne! Thanks for entering. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
For melt and pour soaps, adding a butter helps improve the moisturizing effect but if you add to much the soap can become soft, also don’t use wire cutters because they can break. A knife can work really well.
It is essential to run every recipe through the lye calculator. If you want to substitute a different oil in a recipe, use the calculator for that. Sometimes it doesn’t make much difference, but sometimes it makes a big difference in the amount of lye you need.
Read the soaping basics before you start. All the patterns and different ratios of oils look lovely but practice with a basic recipe when you start.
The frozen spoon tip for testing lip balms is great!
Love that one! It’s great for checking color too. Thanks Delaina! 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
The Spoon Trick: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/spoon-trick/
Don’t get stuck in a soaping rut. Try new ingredients. Explore other creative additives and design techniques. Stretch your creative legs. And never think you know it all!
Research, research, research.. Youtube has a wealth of information(not all correct.. so thats where the research comes in!)
Research is so important! Thanks for the tip Katy. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
When heating my oils I start at 45 degree’s and work down until the oils are clear.
My tip and everyday lesson is to only soap when you are the freshest! For me it’s the morning! I have made so many mistakes throughout the years and it has always been when I was tired or distracted.
Best tip I can offer with soaping…. Have FUN. I see so many that take it seriously. Be safe, but have fun. Don’t fear the lye, play with colour, play with design… Or keep it simple. Soaping is my release.
I agree!
Don’t be afraid to try any methods or designs. Give it a try, the results can be amazing,
It’s so fun to experiment! Thanks for your submission Fran. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Because I’m to impatient to wait for my lye water to cool I ether make it up the night before so it’s ready in the morning or I mix it half water and half ice cubes so it cools rapidly
Start out with small batches until you find a recipe you love. The Bramble Berry 10 inch silicone mold is a good size. Not too big, but not so small you can’t try all the popular techniques. This way you don’t end up with tons of so-so bars of soap that you don’t know what to do with.
A small shoe box is the perfect size for the Bramble Berry 10″ silicone mold. I like to stick my mold in the shoe box and put the lid on. It serves a dual purpose of making sure there is no bowing of the mold, and is a great insulator. Throw an extra towel on top and you get a good gel.
Oh I love that idea! Thanks Caitlin. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Since I’m using organic oils and butter I don’t want them to overheat so I always use a double boiler to melt my butters and heat my oil.
My tip is to always thank those that have blazed the trail before me; to give credit where it is due, and to learn from their efforts. I am grateful that they share their experiences.
That is amazing Melodie! Thanks so much for your submission. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
If you use freezer paper to line your molds, cut as many blanks at a time as you think you’ll need for several weeks. This is a tedious part of soap making, so I stack up about a dozen cut to size. Then all I have to do is fold and insert.
I also keep a pair of kitchen towels for when I make hot process so I can cover my crock while I work, avoiding soap splashing everywhere! I am a very messy soaper :/ These towels are also good for putting my stick blender on when I am doing other things like adding ingredients to my soap that way the raw soap doesn’t harm the surface you are working on.
I use different colored spatulas for when I create my concoctions 😉 I use a red for lye, a blue for oils, and green when I mix the two together. This helps me to know what is reactive and how reactive it is when I make my soap.
Oh that is such a good idea! Thanks for sharing Brandy. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
When using Shea butter don’t over heat it as it will go grainy. This is especially important for lip balms and body butters. I like to add it last to my heated oils and let it melt slowly.
Very true, shea butter is best heated gently! Thank you Samantha. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Soaping in the Summer Heat: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/soaping-in-the-summer-heat/
Pre measure all your ingredients before making your batch of cold process soap. This way everything is at your fingertips and no time is wasted once things get started!
It makes things go nice and smoothly! Thanks Sarah. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I know this is really basic, but always (and I mean ALWAYS!) read the directions you are using a few times through. I know with myself, I usually skip words or important directions when I read through things quickly. Always double-check yourself or even better, have someone else read it with you!
So true! A second set of eyes never hurts. Thanks for entering Kristen. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Hello 😊
My tip is in regards to cleaning up after CP and M&P soap making.
For most soapers, this is the dreaded part of soap making.
I’ve tried quite a few things over the years and found the way that works best for me:
1. Keep 4-5 kitchen towels specifically for wiping soap batter off utensils, bowls and other tools used to make your soap.
2. After wiping of the soap residue with these towels, they should be basically covered in soap batter. Place in a plastic container with a lid and leave in a cool dark place to dry.
3. Place wiped utensils and containers used to soap in a sink of HOT water (only) and let soak for a couple hours.
4. Wash in the sink and dry and store separate from cooking utensils and containers.
5. After 24-48 hours, the wiping towels should be dry and hard due to the soap. Use one or 2 in a load of laundry as opposed to laundry soap. Clothes will be clean as a whistle and smell wonderful if FO or EO was used in the soap.
Hope this helps and happy soaping!
Great tips KeMira, thank you! Thanks for entering too. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Soapy Session Clean Up Guide: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/clean-soapy-session/
While making bath fizzies, run your dry ingredients through a strainer. The baking soda I had bought was very clumpy, so my first batch didn’t come out too well. Lesson learned.
Absolutely, prevents any clumpiness or warts! Thanks Abby. 🙂
-Kelsey
Bath Bomb Tips and Tricks: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/bath-bomb-questions-answers/
discounting the water when using fruit or vegetable purées! until I have discovered that tip, I could not figure out why my soap was “soggy” and took forever to cure, not to mention the discoloration I had in a final product weeks after.
Oh that’s a good one Faith – extra water from purees can make the soap a little wet! Thanks so much for your submission. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Adding Purees to Cold Process: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/how-to-add-purees-to-cold-process-soap/
Keep the lye solution and oils within 10 degrees of eachother! I had recently gotten lazy during a batch that I was trying to rush through and didn’t follow this (after 4 years of soaping!). Bad news. Lost the batch. Always remember the basics!
That is such a great tip! Thanks for sharing and entering Jeanne. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry