Newbie in need of some advice

Hi. I am new to soap making, as in I haven't made any yet. I cannot find any courses near me and am basically wanting to know if you think taking a course would be advisory or is this something I could learn from a book? I live in Hamilton Ontario, if anybody knows anywhere I might be able to do classes that would be wonderful. Thank you in advance

I did a one on one class with a well established soapmaker to begin with. It was nice to do, but I felt like it was something I could have done on my own with a basic recipe and clear instructions from the internet (and saved myself $200 in the process, haha!)

The biggest issues are there are many different ways to create soap, and everyone has their own methods which can vary greatly from each other, which might be confusing or come across as an information overload to someone new to soapmaking.

Unicorn said:

Hi. I am new to soap making, as in I haven't made any yet. I cannot find any courses near me and am basically wanting to know if you think taking a course would be advisory or is this something I could learn from a book? I live in Hamilton Ontario, if anybody knows anywhere I might be able to do classes that would be wonderful. Thank you in advance

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I'm a newbie too I started by watching A LOT of soaping videos on YouTube. Soaping101 channel on YouTube is a great place to start. And reading old threads on this forum is very helpful.

I always forget about YouTube.
I will check that out, thank you

If you are looking for some good recipes and information try this website. www.millersoap.com

Welcome!

I second Soaping101 videos as an excellent resource. Start with her oldest videos since she builds on the basics from there. Soap Queen also has some good beginner safety videos. There are a ton of videos out there. Some folks do not exhibit safe practices... though they make artistic designs.

My tips from a newbie (me) from the best resource I've found: the folks here
1. Wear safety goggles (eyeglasses do not count)
2. Wear gloves
3. Do not inhale lye fumes. Mix somewhere well ventilated. Remove kids/pets. Do not leave lye water unattended.
4. Soaping containers shouldn't be reused for food
5. Fragrance oil can eat through plastic cups (don't ask me how I know that)
6. Lye Water only belongs in stainless steel or plastic (I use #5 painters' buckets I got from a hardware store). Do not use Pyrex. It gets HOT.
7. If you get lye on you, rinse with a lot of water (not vinegar).
8. Always run recipes through a lye calculator (soapcalc is great). Even books or recipes that you see here might have typos
9. Weigh everything - preferably in grams for accuracy
10. Don't assume a batch is ruined. Check here first. Much smarter folks than myself can advise on how to save things.
11. Never use anything with aluminum. That includes spoons and hangers...
12. Be prepared to gain an addiction!

I watched videos on YouTube. I did not find this forum until later. If I knew then what I know now, I would have started playing on soapcalc. net and looking at the numbers before making soap.

For number 7, why not use vinegar?

I used to write out my own recipes by hand and double check with a soap calculator. I believe it's important to know how to do the math and to understand the principles behind the science. Now... I'm just lazy and do it all through Soapcalc, but if I was stranded on a deserted island with a SAP chart, I could still make soap because I know how to formulate a recipe.

Vinegar + Lye creates heat and is more violent a reaction. You don't want a regular burn in addition to chemical burn. Water will dilute lye and rinse it from your skin.

Ah, interesting. I just searched the web for more information on it. I can't say I've ever doused lye with vinegar to see a violent reaction first hand. Not all acids and bases react violently. I'm thinking of milk (a base) and vinegar (an acid). The reaction is curdled milk, not an explosion. It makes sense once it's explained, but it's not intuitive.

Hold on, I'm thinking more about this. One example I read about a violent acid/base reaction was vinegar and baking soda, while it may be violent, I don't believe its gets hot. I guess that means I need to learn what constitutes as a "chemical burn" as it sounds like it's something different than heat. With acid reflux, a remedy is taking baking soda to neutralize the stomach acid. Violent? Yes. There are plenty of burps from the carbon dioxide. However, I don't recall anyone ever getting burned. I have more research to do on this topic obviously!

Vinegar has a pH around 2. Water is 7. Lye is 13.

You know that adding lye to water produces a lot of heat (room temp water gets up to 200ish F): 13pH to 7pH reaction

Adding lye to vinegar produces EVEN more heat (past boiling temp): 13pH to 2pH reaction

MSDS and chemical spill/medical experts say to rinse lye burns with water for 15 minutes. Some older books and websites will say otherwise, because they are just worried about stopping the chemical reaction. The danger is in getting a thermal burn on top of the chemical burn you just got. You don't want to cook yourself! Water is the best way to dilute lye and rinse it from your skin.

Note: I'm probably butchering this explanation. Sorry about that...

No, those are great points on lye safety.

Another great benefit of using water, other than the major issue of heat, is that a tap can run for a longer time than a bottle of vinegar can.

We use very dilute lye solution in eating so getting the lye diluted whilst cooling the affected area is all idea. Neutralising while heating it up is the worst option of the two. It would be better than doing nothing, but far worse than using water.

To other posters, vinegar-on-lye reaction isn't something that you really have to know first hand or be able to relate to in other ways - it's the sort of thing that you generally wouldn't want to be around so the sort of reaction that you don't usually stumble upon.

I have made the mistake of getting lye solution on my skin more than once(I am a klutz). Then I intentionally sprayed vinegar on it ONCE. Never, ever again! Use the cold tap water. It just rinses that lye away with no additional heat or pain.

Wow, thanks everyone. I know I am going to be addicted. I love making things and will be looking in to lotions and balms too. I will be planning to sell eventually which is why I am wanting to make sure I get things right, not making things that will burn or irritate anyone's skin. I will be picking up some supplies this week, what would you suggest as essentials?

Here's an article that goes into good details on equipment you'll need.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/basicequipment.html

Soaping101 also did a video with stuff you can get from the dollar store.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYhH20vWxvc[/ame]

Also a newbie learning more everyday. This forum is an excellent timely resource that if you do even simple searches will answer your questions as you go along. Check out the stickies - especially the Abbreviation one so you don't get lost. There are some great channels on You-tube, but beware, I'll just say it - there are also a bunch of idiots as well. Until you learn a little bit, it's hard to figure out who is who. Amazon is a great resource for books and there are quite a few free ones (reputable) which you can download to a Kindle/tablet. Lastly, I can only speak to this class because I am taking it; Check out Bath Alchemy. Classes are not cheap, low end $75.00; 14 Week Soap Making Academy $1,200.00. I just finished Week 8. The material is professionally organized and I have found it to be worth the $$. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the course. (I am only a student, and have no other affiliation with Erica or her company). I went ahead and invested in this course because there is so much information and so many considerations that I wanted a consistent, structured/formal education. Finally, I see you are from Canada. Check out the Canadian Professional Guild. I joined as a "hobbyist" in the US Guild - The Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild, and the membership discounts alone have basically paid my membership cost. Good luck with your new found addiction!

Check to see if there are any soapy meetups near you on http://www.meetup.com/
I have some near me, that I still need to find the time to get to

+ 1 on the soaping 101 videos on youtube.
I also love the tutorials on http://www.soapqueen.com/

To answer your initial question, Alicia Grosso's Everything Soap Book is a great comprehensive introduction if you want all the basic information in one reference work. Aside from youtube videos, you can also learn just about anything you need to know right here!

Any msds sheet I have read for lye on the skin tells you to flush the area with copious amounts of cool water. No mention of vinegar