Some of you may remember the “choose your own adventure” books that were popular 90s. Well, think of this post in the same way! If you want to start soaping, you’ll need to figure out whether you want to tackle melt and pour or cold process soapmaking. Both methods of soapmaking have their own set of techniques, challenges and new things to explore, and there is certainly no reason you can’t master both. We just recommend starting with one so you can focus your learning. Get ready to dive in, immerse yourself in information and choose your own soapmaking adventure!

Soap Queen TV

Soap Queen TV is a wonderful resource with more than 100 videos on making cold process, melt and pour, bath bombs and more. The Basics of Cold Process Soapmaking is a must see for anyone curious about the wonderful world of CP. The series includes everything from lye safety information to using colorants and fragrances.

Soap Queen TV: Cold Process for Beginners

If melt and pour is more your style, we’ve got a series on that too! From using fragrance oils and additives to preventing common melt and pour problems, this series will give you a solid foundation of basic skills so you can become a melt and pour pro.

Soap Queen TV: Melt and Pour Basics

Soap Queen Blog

And the resources don’t stop there. Below is a collection of the best resources on the Soap Queen blog to help get you started.

Free Beginner’s Guide to Cold Process

Free Beginner’s Guide to Melt and Pour

Cold Process specifics

If you’ve chosen the cold process route, the following posts will become your best friend. They cover everything from the properties of various oils to how to formulate your own recipes.

Common Oils and Butters

Formulating Cold Process Recipes

Super Fat: An Explanation

Using the Lye Calculator

Cold Process tutorials on the Soap Queen blog

Beginner’s Soaping Tool Kit

Cold Process Troubleshooting

Don’t be discouraged if you have a few batches of CP that do some strange things. The following posts are great for diagnosing any soapy problems.

Soap Behaving Badly

Why did my soap turn brown?: An explanation of vanilla discoloration

Explaining and Preventing Soda Ash

Melt and Pour specifics

Melt and pour is easy to learn yet difficult to master, but the following blog posts will help you become a melt and pour master in no time.

Talk it out Tuesday: Melt & Pour

Natural Colorants for Melt & Pour

My Melt and Pour is weeping! An explanation of glycerin dew

Using Silicone Molds with Melt and Pour

Using Oxide Colorants in Melt and Pour

Working with water soluble paper

Tips for Cold Process and Melt & Pour

There are a few posts that can be useful for whatever craft you’re making, not just soap. These posts cover everything from making soapy calculations to understand the difference between ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ products.

Using the Fragrance Calculator (top left)

Talk it out Tuesday: Colorants (top right)

Weight vs. Volume (bottom)

Soapy Math

Natural vs. Organic

Even with all of these resources, sometimes you may want a little personalized help. In that case, head over to the Teach Soap Forum, where a community of experienced crafters and soapers discuss topics ranging from cold process troubleshooting to gearing up for your first craft show. There’s also the Bramble Berry Facebook page, where our social media team helps soapers answers questions seven days a week. Finally, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, you can chat live with a Bramble Berry representative who can walk you through any problems or questions in real time.

We’re excited for you to join our ever-growing community of soapers and crafters. It may seem daunting at the start, but we guarantee you’ll have support at every turn. Happy soaping!

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