I take it the “S” word is a pet peeve around here, one taken seriously.
It's not a 'pet peeve'. A 'pet peeve' is folks not putting their shopping carts in the corral. What it is...is first and foremost a safety issue. A lot of the public, as evidenced from comments I have seen on YouTube videos, think that soap makers wear gloves for purposes of sanitation.
NO. We wear gloves because lye will burn our skin. I got a tiny amount of soap batter under my wedding set while cleaning up. When the pain in my finger woke me up in the middle of the night, I thought maybe another ring had pressed into my finger while sleeping. When I got up the following morning my hand was swollen...I barely got my rings off; any later I would have been at Urgent Care getting them cut off. Looking at my hand I noticed a tiny brown spot, I then looked at my wedding set and saw soap. One + one = two. It was a week before I could wear my rings again. As a result, I continue to wear gloves while cleaning up.
You were smart enough to realize that your first soaps, made by volume instead of weight, were NOT safe to sell: "
Ya that’s why the first batches of soap we made I don’t want to sell cuz I’m positive the lye solution in them were extremely high." But not everyone is as smart as you and there are a lot of people out there who think it's no big deal that they have a negative Super Fat because they were careless in their weight. Making sure that no lye remains after the saponification process is one of the reasons why many soap makers use a Super Fat. Not that it's a requirement if you have a good scale and are very precise in your weights.
You'd be surprised at the number of folks who make soap via Hot Process that think they can sell it right away: "
Unlike cold process soap, that lasts for 4-6 weeks, hot process soap can be used immediately after it hardens." and
"The additional heat speeds up the saponification process. Three cheers for instant gratification; hot process soap can be cut within one day, and used right away." And you might be surprised that I used to be one of these people...not that I have ever made HP soap, just that I had the same lack of understanding of soap making. It's one of the many reasons why I decided I wasn't ready to sell soap.
The only real difference (IMHO and to keep it simple) between Hot Process soap making and Cold Process soap making...is the length of time of the saponification process. Because you are adding heat in HP, saponification takes just a few hours. In CP, you are allowing lye to do its thing...which can take 18 to 24 hours. But in either process, your soap NEEDS to cure four to six weeks. And the curing process isn't just about water evaporation and thus producing a long-lasting bar of soap, there is still a chemical reaction (
@DeeAnna can explain much better) that is taking place. All you have to do is compare a bar a soap that you made a few days ago with a bar that you made a few months ago.
Going beyond the lye, you have your Essential Oils and Fragrance Oils. Many people think that EOs are harmless because they are 'natural' and have been used for centuries. Used properly they can be beneficial and enjoyable, but used improperly they can damage the liver, cause seizures, rashes and even burn the skin. Not only do you need to know safe usage rates for the EOs, you need to know which ones can be blended together and you need to make sure that you are purchasing your EOs and FOs from reputable sources and ALWAYS follow safe usage rates.
And let's not forget colorants and additives. When it comes to Micas, Oxides and Ultramarines, Neon Pigments, TD, AC, and Clays, the majority of them can be used safely in soap making. Again, make sure you are purchasing them from a reputable sources, make sure they are well dispersed and don't over use them. AC isn't going to turn your skin black, but it will transfer to your wash cloth. And let's not forgot natural colorants made from plant leaves, roots, bark, etc...like Indigo, Spinach, Madder Root, Turmeric, Alkanet Root, Beet Root, Sandalwood, and Tomato to quickly name some of them. Again, do your research. If I remember, there was a soaper had added Cinnamon to the top of their soap...looked fantastic, but Cinnamon is a skin irritant...especially to lady bits.
Course salt looks really pretty sprinkled across the tops of soap, but it will scratch the heck out of your skin. Epson salt is great in 'bath salts', but you don't want to use it in salt soap. It's okay to use beer, wine and bourbon in your soap, but you want burn away the alcohol first. Steel cut oats that you ground in the blender is no substitute for colloidal oatmeal. Lots of folks like to add 'food-type' ingredients like pumpkin puree, fresh avocado, or what not and that's okay, just make sure your amounts are correct and that they WELL incorporated into your oils/butters...blend the heck out of it...before you add your lye solution. Else-wise those little bits and pieces are going to rot in your soap.
And all the safety considerations mentioned above aside...folks who sell bad soap make the rest of us look bad too.
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