Making handmade soaps at home. Homemade soap: step-by-step instruction

Previously, the manufacture of handmade soap at home was ubiquitous. Using ash and animal fats, families themselves produced detergents for their own needs.

In the early 20th century, thanks to the discoveries of German scientists, it was possible to produce inexpensive soap at the production level, which gradually replaced the home.

But recently, interest in everything natural and self-made is growing. Therefore, soap production is becoming popular at home. Handmade soaps have significant advantages:

• It is more profitable for your wallet. Make a large batch of soap from scratch cheaper than buying over and over again in the store. In doing so, you can use the remaining pieces to make a new one.
• It is useful for your skin and does not contain harmful chemicals.
• Home soap is safe for the environment: it does not contain synthetic substances that do not decompose in water.
• Soap making is an interesting and creative process. And the results of your labors will never be buried, gathering dust.

Security measures

When making handmade soaps at home, you will work with a corrosive substance - sodium hydroxide, or liquor. In any form - grains, flakes, granules - it can damage various materials, irradiate the paint, and most seriously, burn the skin and eyes.

Use extreme caution, wear gloves with high cuffs and use eye protection and a respiratory mask when you add alkali to water. Avoid inhaling its vapors. They are flammable, so ventilate the room when working.

If alkali has got on the skin, it must be neutralized with a solution of vinegar, if it fell on other objects - immediately remove it and wipe the place with a detergent.

Before starting work, make sure that children or pets do not disturb you. Do not use foil, tin, wooden or aluminum containers when making soap. Take only glass containers, strong plastic, enameled or stainless steel utensils. Keep your soap-making materials so that children do not have access to them.

How to make handmade soap at home?

Now that you are familiar with precautionary measures, we can get down to business.

First, make sure that all the necessary ingredients are at your fingertips, it will be very inconvenient to look for them in the process. You will need:

• Lye, namely caustic soda (in another way - caustic soda).
• Water (or other liquid, according to the recipe).
• Fat, oil.
• Rubber gloves and eye protection.
• Two bowls for mixing. It is better if one has a spout (for convenient pouring out liquid).
• Kitchen scales.
• Different spoons for mixing and measuring. At least one of the heat-resistant plastic or stainless steel for stirring lye, one wooden, corolla or rubber spatula. A measuring spoon will be needed when using essential oils.
• Two accurate kitchen thermometers
• Electric blender (preferably) - will save you a lot of effort in making soap handmade at home.
• Measuring cup for liquids.
• Forms for soap. It is best made of glass, plastic, silicone or stainless steel. Wooden or cardboard can also be used, but only if it is waxed from inside or oiled with paper.
• Rags or disposable towels to wipe the spilled liquid.

This sample list, it will vary depending on what kind of soap you make and whether it adds essential oils, fragrances, natural decorative elements, etc.

Seven times measure

When doing home hand soap at home, accurately measure each ingredient.

Regardless of whether you are making it from scratch or using waste to make new pieces, you must strictly follow the recipe.

One inaccurate measurement can lead to the fact that the soap will be foul-smelling, unattractive or unsuitable for use.

To ensure a good result you need: a scale, 2 thermometers and a so-called calculator alkali or soap calculator. Typically, this is an online service for calculating the required number of ingredients.

Different oils require different amounts of alkali, so make sure that you know their saponification number.

How to turn individual ingredients into a finished product?

There are three main ways of how to make handmade soap at home:

• From the soap base - it is sold ready. It melts, its ingredients are added to it and new pieces are formed.
• Grinding - the basis is taken grated ordinary baby soap. Then, water or milk is added to it, it is melted, mixed with the necessary components and poured into molds. It's simple and safe.
• From scratch - i.e. creating soap completely independently, from oils, alkalis and other additives. This method is not so simple and obvious as the first two, so let's talk about it in more detail.

The most difficult handmade soap. Doing soap at home from scratch

This method has two subspecies - cold and hot. Sequence of work in the first case:

1. First, the lye is mixed with water in the proportions indicated in the recipe. Note that hard water can disrupt these relationships because of its impurities, so use distilled water. Important: pour lye into the water, and not vice versa, so as not to "erupt"! This will cause a chemical reaction, from which the mixture will heat up to almost boiling.
2. Carefully place the components and place one of the thermometers in the mixture.
3. We pass to the oil part. Heat in a saucepan of liquid and solid oils, wax. Place the second thermometer in a saucepan.
4. Now you should have two containers of liquids that you need to mix. But it should be done at the temperature specified in the recipe (it depends on the components). Therefore, preheat or cool them to the desired level.
5. When the temperatures of the liquids coincide, pour the liquor solution into the fats.
6. Now mix the liquids vigorously. An electric blender will greatly facilitate this task, but you can start using it only when the mixture has cooled slightly, otherwise it can overheat.
7. Stir the mixture to become thick and a spoon and leave a trace on it.
8. Now pour out the liquid into molds, wrap it with a towel and leave it for 1-2 days.
9. Then remove the soap from the mold, cut into pieces and let it "mature" for a month and a half. During this time, the soap will harden, excess moisture evaporates, and it will be ready for use.

Hot way

The initial steps for such a preparation of soap are the same as in the cold, namely - to the stage of the "trace". Then the saucepan with the mixture simply continue to cook on a water bath or in the oven (if it can be clearly maintained the necessary temperature). The liquid should be stirred periodically, until it becomes gel-like. Then it will begin to harden and become like wax. So the soap is almost ready, it's time to add essential oils and other ingredients and pour into the forms. With this method of manufacture, you do not need to wait a month until the product is ready. Soap can be used after 24 hours, but if you let him lie down for two days, it will only get better.

Which way to choose?

Each method has its pros and cons, as well as a lot of variations.

If you are a beginner, then you will like the second method - the simplest and cheapest. But since the soap is not transparent, it will not be very decorative. So if you want to make beautiful pieces, but are afraid to work with alkali, then choose 1 way. But do not forget that the further you move away from soap from liquor and fats, the more expensive is the cost of the final product and the less natural its composition becomes.

And if you carefully read the security measures and set yourself up for serious and accurate work, you can try to do homemade handmade soap from scratch. Of course, this is the most difficult, but also the most interesting way, however you control each ingredient that will fall into the composition of soap.

Space for creativity

Perhaps, one of the main reasons why soap handmade at home is so popular is the ability to use different ingredients and experiment with shape, color, smell and caring properties. If you decide to do this business, then make the most of freedom of choice.

When you do soap from scratch, you can take both animal fats and vegetable (based on sunflower oil or rapeseed oil). And instead of water you can add a decoction, tea, milk.

Also in the soap is added:

• Essential oils: rose, mint, rosemary, bergamot, vanilla, lavender, etc .;
• Vegetable oils, such as palm, coconut, olive;
• Natural dyes: clay, spices, herbs;
• Decorative elements, for example, petals of flowers;
• Scraping particles: grape seed powder, poppies, loofah pieces, etc.

It is best to find the basic recipe for handmade soap at home that you like, and then experiment with supplements to it.

Important Tips

However, do not be lazy to find out more about the additional components - some of them may be ineffective in soap, others may spoil it. Essential oils should be mixed with a base oil, for example, olive oil - it neutralizes their irritating properties.

During the work on soap your house will be filled with a lot of scents. And you will inhale pairs of essential oils in high concentration, which can cause allergic reactions. Therefore, carefully choose them and make sure that, just in case, there is a corresponding medicine in the medicine cabinet that suits you.

When you do homemade handmade soap at home, you will have small pieces or failed copies. Instead of throwing, use them. Scrub and remodel or pour the shavings into the water when taking a bath, or add small pieces of the remaining soap to the new one to create colorful blotches.