What's next in newbie land?

Good morning everyone!
This is kind of an introduction post but also a looking for advice post as well, so I decided to put it in this section where more people will see it
I'm pretty new to the forum, have never posted before but I'm an avid reader so I would like to read what you guys have to say...
I've always loved the look and feel of handmade soaps but never really thought about making them myself till one night when I was bored and browsing YouTube. I started watching nail polish marbling videos, found a soaping video and by the end of the night I had watched dozens of them lol
A couple of months have passed and I have watched many many more, have read a few books and read soaping forums several times a day.

I purchased a beginner's kit from ED, which I liked, even though in the back of my mind it bothered me that I wasn't measuring all the ingredients myself... I kept thinking if the recipe accounted for possible oil containers that aren't scraped out perfectly, or lye pellets that get stuck in the bottle and never make it into the water :-| but anyway, my first batch went well, I learned so much from soaping even just once (practice is so much better than just theory, imo), I do have some questions about how my loaf came out, but that's for another thread!

So my question is as follows... What next? I'm kind of torn about what to do next... My first idea was that I needed to study my oils and formulate 2 or 3 simple base recipes I would like to try, based only on "theory" and other people's experiences. This route appealed to me at first because not only would I be learning much more about individual fats, but I could also factor in the economical aspect of soap making, and not go crazy with fancy oils and butters that would most likely feel great on our skin but would not make much sense financially, as far as making soap for our personal use goes...

But then I thought, maybe I should start making smaller batches from recipes that are already out there, that people have already tried, so I know what to expect, so troubleshooting will be easier. Maybe that's another way of finding a base recipe I like and tweak it? Maybe I should start by focusing on developing by soap *making* skills as opposed to soap *creating* skills, if that makes sense to you.

As of right now I do have all equipment needed, including a silicone mold that came with the beginner's kit, but I have absolutely no supplies at all, so that kind of gives me the freedom to decide what to do, since I don't have any leftover fats not getting any fresher lol

Hope this post wasn't *too* boring haha what do you all think?
And I thank you in advance for taking the time to read it and offering your thoughts!

I would focus on the soap making first for a few reasons. First you will get to know what stages look like. By stages I mean when you get the lye and oil mixed well, then what light trace looks like, medium trace, heavy trace, and lastly seized batch. (we never really want to know what that looks like but some fragrances, some oils, and some colors don't do well together).

Once you make a several known recipes try using soap calc and try formulating your own. One of the most important things is to keep a good notebook, and write down everything. From when you add additives to the types and weights of fragrances and essential oils. That notebook will become invaluable in time.

When you get the soap making down first you will be able to better judge the way things are going when you want to do things like swirls or embeds. It will give you an insight that will help you when you go on to create your masterpieces.

Hi CrisMaz!

Your post just made my heart so happy! Congratulations on your first batch, and on doing your research. As to what comes next, you can pretty much pick from the options you gave. Find a good recipe in one of your books and go from there, research the oils and butters, milks. You will find along the way you develop your own recipes that you adore, swirls and colors will fascinate you. Someone will post something that you just HAVE to try. You'll ruin batches and rage or cry, and have some that turn out perfect.

My only 'advice" is to keep learning, books, on-line, videos, etc, and keep coming back to the forum - the people here are awesome and helpful and curious and knowledgeable and creative and kind and humorous and..........

Hi and welcome I still consider myself a newbie because Ive only been making soap for about 6 months, and there is so much I want to learn about!

I think its important to learn the basics, so to speak - like what each fat brings to the soap and why the old standbys are so popular (olive oil, coconut and palm for the holy trinity, lard soaps, why add castor oil, etc...)

I started playing with soap calculators right away and formulating things. My first soaps weren't anything fancy (well except for the 30% coco butter one ), but they answered questions which I wanted to see the answers for myself, like can I make a decent soap with just olive oil and coconut? (yes) Whats it like soaping with crisco? (ok), can I make an HP soap with a pencil line? (yes but it wont be straight), what is a salt soap like? (fabulous!) and can you make a color gradient (ombre) in it? (yes). This went on through my indigo phase, true castiles and just recently, seaweed and micas.

So I think you should first come up with questions you want to answer for yourself, or goals you would like to achieve. And if a tried and true recipe will help, then use it. If an ingredient change or addition will answer a burning question, then follow that. If you can combine a couple of learning experiences, like a new recipe and a new technique on swirling the top, that's always a plus. Just don't go crazy making it too complex and trying 82 different new things or you'll never know what causes what, or what went wrong.

Hi CrisMaz and welcome to the soaping world!

Only you can decide which way to go. As long as you've taken the time to educate yourself on safety, procedure, have chosen a soap calculator and understand the terms like cleansing, hardness, iodine, etc., and basic knowledge of oils, then you're ready to start.

If your skin has a certain "need", you may want to start formulating a soap specifically for that. I started making soap because of the extremely dry air in California. Started with very superfatted soaps, but have learned that lower superfat with low cleansing is healthier for me, and I like knowing that there's less excess oil in the drainpipes.

Maybe you'll want to start with oils you can get locally (I imagine that would be coconut, lard, and olive) and that makes a great soap. Castor is a staple for me; won't make soap without it. You can get palm oil in the form of Spectrum palm shortening at the grocery store. (right now I don't use palm, because it doesn't contribute much glycerin to the soap, and for environmental reasons. But lard is a fantastic sub for it).

I'm happy to share any of my personal recipes with you, if you need them. There's a recipe section in the forum where people have posted some of their's. Btw, I've been at this six months. Over 20 batches, and all of them were different recipes. There's a lot of room to experiment!!

Enjoy yourself! And welcome again!

I love your approach of starting simple. By doing this and advancing slowly, you're on the right track, and not jumping ahead of yourself. There are three oils in soapmaking, called the "holy trinity." They're the oils most used in most soap recipes,and they're not prohibitively expensive. They are....olive oil, coconut oil, and palm oil. They're always a good place to begin, and you can go to soap calc and put in varying amounts of each, check the results and decide what looks good to you. You might start with equal amounts of each, or 50% olive and 25% each of the other two. Once you're comfortable making basic soap, learning what trace looks like, what gel looks like, you can add other variables like fragrance and color. If you change one thing at a time, and run into trouble, you'll know what the culprit is. Don't focus as much on the destination, as you do the journey. Learn as you go, enjoy the trip and make great soap!

I'm going to pop in a recommend lard instead of palm. Nothing wrong with palm, lard just makes a better soap in my opinion plus it slows trace. Start with small batches, 2lbs is enough.

You absolutely need to learn how to use http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp or some other lye calculator. Always run a new recipe through a lye calculator, even ones you find in books or on the net. Typos happen and you don't want to make a mistake with the lye amount.

Don't forget to always use your safety gear, especially goggles. Raw soap batter in your eyes can be dangerous. You will probably read about using vinegar if you spill lye on your skin, don't listen to that. Use lots of plain cold water to rinse lye away.

If you haven't watched them yet, soaping101 on youtube has the best soap videos. They are very well done with no distractions or music.

My basic soap recipe is nothing special but its a good soap to start with. I have dry skin so when I do make this, I set the superfat at 8%.

Olive oil 50%
Lard 25% (or palm)
coconut 20%
Castor 5%

Cris -- to some degree or other, we're ALL newbies here. Even Dee Anna has a few things she hasn't tried yet.

There are lots of good ideas already listed here, so I'm going to offer the DUH option. Gini said it, I'll expand upon it.

Get yourself a piece of paper, and start making a list. Oh. Showing my age now. Um, open a Word doc, or some sort of Notepad app on your I-thingy phone gadget.

Start noting ideas, techniques, recipes and ingredients you want to try. Keep reading, watching videos, and learning. Peruse web sites. Note down FOs and EOs that sound interesting, and whatever ideas they inspire. Like a swirl technique? Make note of it. Learn things. I agree with obsidian. Try some lard. Don't know why? Learn about it. What about Mango butter? Or a fruit soap? Or maybe BOTH with some swirls and mica . . . hmmmm.

Ask questions, and write down what interests you. As you keep going, you'll see what interests you the most. Fascinated by colors and swirls? MP & CP combos? Fancy soaps like cupcakes? Is it the scents and the idea of blending? Is the science and chemistry? Run with it.

Some things you try will fail. Learn from it. Learn from our failures. You WILL end up with odd supplies and bits of stuff hanging around. Oh well. It just means you TRIED something new.

Oh, yeah. Don't forget: PLAY SAFE ! and HAVE FUN !

~HoneyLady~

Dorymae said:

I would focus on the soap making first for a few reasons. First you will get to know what stages look like. By stages I mean when you get the lye and oil mixed well, then what light trace looks like, medium trace, heavy trace, and lastly seized batch. (we never really want to know what that looks like but some fragrances, some oils, and some colors don't do well together).

Click to expand...

That's why I was having second thoughts about starting right off messing with soap calc and whatnot... I really enjoyed the actual process of making soap, even though I was nervous about the lye, and was afraid to splash raw batter all over my counter lol it was a really plain soap, no colorants, lavender scented but I was extremely excited when I saw light trace, kind of did a little dance and thought YAY! :smile:
I've watched many videos and I've seen many pictures floating around in the forum, but wouldn't it be cool if we had a visual reference type thread? Newbies and not so newbies could find pictures of light, medium, full trace, ricing, seizing, DOS, partial and full gel, and all the other known common soap stages/issues that so many of us ask questions about! I'm sure between all of us we'd have a great collection

Dorymae said:

One of the most important things is to keep a good notebook, and write down everything.

Click to expand...

I haven't started a soaping journal yet, I did write down a few things at the time, like the oil and lye temperature, and how long it took me to get light trace and when I added the lavender. I will make more notes soon, I made the soap exactly two weeks ago but I remember it very clearly cause I guess I'm obsessed lol

Thank you very much for your reply, Dorymae. I'm kind of having a fangirl moment here because I got so many replies

HI! I'm new too!

So my advice might not be worth much, but I started out with a basic recipe I found after looking for a good ratio of oils, and then tweaked it so it's simpler (3 oils) and vegan. I figure from there I can tweak things (to make it firmer, increase lather, etc.) and with all of the help on here I don't think I'll have too much trouble with that!

So my suggestion would be to find a good ratio of oils to try, and then tweak it to suit your liking. People have been doing this a lot longer than I have so I figure I should learn from them and put their knowledge to use!