Nikolye
Well-Known Member
I've been soaping as a hobby off and on for a couple years, only enough to provide for my family. so a 1lb batch every few months... I'm doing more now, trying to perfect recipes as I may start selling to friends and family per request and I want it to be good... So I'm starting to source better tools and ingredients. I do this because i want to be as natural as possible, local when possible and nothing added that is environmentally unsound(to my knowledge)
#1- Scents
I'm 100% anti fragrance, it gives me headaches and i avoid perfumes in all things i buy..so the idea of scenting soap never occurred to me, but outsiders (not myself and my immediate family) like scents.. From what i've gathered you need a whole heck of alot of essential oils to make a scented soap. This is my only natural option for scenting i gather.. and is it necessary do you reckon to buy the higher priced oils when we dont fully know whether the goodness is left after sponification? is this one of those cases where a cheaper eo is ok?
#2 moulds
i am looking to buy a mold, a good big wooden one.. if i can't find a good one i may pay my brother in law to build one. but i want it to be good, so i was going to bite the bullet and buy one. i know i can hammer some nails into some wood and get a solid basic square one...but i want something that makes soaping easier (I've been using shoe boxes and cutting with my good butcher knife) i want my bars to look uniform and quality. i will have trouble sourcing most moulds here in N.Z. but any good ones that you know of that fit the bill i'd love to hear or see them. once i buy a nice good one, if i want to change something about it i'll have my brother create an original one for me in the future.
#3 tools
i currently use my kitchen utensils and bowls and pyrex jugs for soaping. That must come to and end with more soap coming from my kitchen... what tools do you find best? do you mix your lye in glass or plastic, do you use wooden or stainless steel spoons? i've read mixed things in my books and online. as of now i use a stick blender (i bought for soaping, was using my table top mixer) a pyrex jug for mixing my lye, my table top mixer bowl for mixing the oils and lye as its high sided and my rubber baking spatula and my gram baking scale... what tools could you not live without in your soaping?
#5 clean up
what is your clean up routine.. im trying to master the art of cleaning up. so far i keep one sink full of water with a 1/2 c of vinegar for rinsing and one sink full of hot soapy water, rinse and wash it all, scrub anything with oily residue down with baking soda(it seems to soak up oil spills best and it usually gets rid of leftover residues) then empty and refill both sinks again and re-do. we dont use our dishwasher but im thinking i may see if it still works just to make clean up after soaping easier.
im not ready to get into visually pleasing soap yet, im still absolutely clueless how everyone gets it so beautiful. so im starting out with just making the process easier on myself and getting consistently good uniform soap.
#1- Scents
I'm 100% anti fragrance, it gives me headaches and i avoid perfumes in all things i buy..so the idea of scenting soap never occurred to me, but outsiders (not myself and my immediate family) like scents.. From what i've gathered you need a whole heck of alot of essential oils to make a scented soap. This is my only natural option for scenting i gather.. and is it necessary do you reckon to buy the higher priced oils when we dont fully know whether the goodness is left after sponification? is this one of those cases where a cheaper eo is ok?
#2 moulds
i am looking to buy a mold, a good big wooden one.. if i can't find a good one i may pay my brother in law to build one. but i want it to be good, so i was going to bite the bullet and buy one. i know i can hammer some nails into some wood and get a solid basic square one...but i want something that makes soaping easier (I've been using shoe boxes and cutting with my good butcher knife) i want my bars to look uniform and quality. i will have trouble sourcing most moulds here in N.Z. but any good ones that you know of that fit the bill i'd love to hear or see them. once i buy a nice good one, if i want to change something about it i'll have my brother create an original one for me in the future.
#3 tools
i currently use my kitchen utensils and bowls and pyrex jugs for soaping. That must come to and end with more soap coming from my kitchen... what tools do you find best? do you mix your lye in glass or plastic, do you use wooden or stainless steel spoons? i've read mixed things in my books and online. as of now i use a stick blender (i bought for soaping, was using my table top mixer) a pyrex jug for mixing my lye, my table top mixer bowl for mixing the oils and lye as its high sided and my rubber baking spatula and my gram baking scale... what tools could you not live without in your soaping?
#5 clean up
what is your clean up routine.. im trying to master the art of cleaning up. so far i keep one sink full of water with a 1/2 c of vinegar for rinsing and one sink full of hot soapy water, rinse and wash it all, scrub anything with oily residue down with baking soda(it seems to soak up oil spills best and it usually gets rid of leftover residues) then empty and refill both sinks again and re-do. we dont use our dishwasher but im thinking i may see if it still works just to make clean up after soaping easier.
im not ready to get into visually pleasing soap yet, im still absolutely clueless how everyone gets it so beautiful. so im starting out with just making the process easier on myself and getting consistently good uniform soap.