Hello! My name is Terra!

[.t.e.r.r.a.]

Hi everyone! Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Terra, I am a 24 year old stay at home mom to my two year old son, and we have a baby girl due in July!

I have this sudden dying urge to learn how to make fancy soaps. So I stumbled upon this forum. I have never made any soaps previously, and I've been watching youtube tutorials ALL day, and doing as much research as possible. Right now I am in the process of getting all the supplies I need. I thought about doing melt and pours, but I just love how the cold process soaps are completley unique, and everything is from scratch. I have a lot to learn, so I thought this would be a good place to come and ask questions.

First off, and most importantley...

Is doing cold process soaps even safe for pregnant women? I've looked up some information already, and from what I understand I should be okay if I use my stove vent, wear a face mask, and gloves... is this correct?

Second... I'm looking for a scale. I'm finding some good deals on ebay, does anyone have any suggestions on what kind of scale? Is cheaper not better when looking for a scale?

What is the best place to purchase soap making supplies?

 

[Hazel]

Hi Terra,

Welcome to the forum!

I can't answer your question about if soap making is safe for pregnant women. I don't know. IMO, as long as you wear safety gear and don't breathe in the lye fumes, you should be okay. On the other hand, I also think that it's better to play it safe and not start working with lye until after your baby is born. July isn't that far away and you could start with MP bases. MP gives you instant gratification plus some of the MP bars I've seen are almost like art work. You can do some very fancy looking bars. Have you looked through the Melt & Pour section to see some of the bars?

As for scales, if you can afford a really good one than I'd say get it. I started off with a little battery operated one which I quickly found wasn't very accurate and I was only limited to small batches. Now I have one I can plug in to an outlet and I think it goes up to 11 pounds. It's not the best but it's okay for what I do. If you search the forum, there's been several discussions about scales and people have listed links to where they bought their scales.

Columbus Foods has really good prices and reasonable shipping on oils and butters.


http://www.soaperschoice.com/

 

[yoenoess]

im using 2000 gr and 0,01 gr precision

i've read lot of people buying from
http://www.summerbeemeadow.com/
http://www.brambleberry.com/
and many more websites

i live in Indonesia, so i never try

 

[opalgirl]

I can't answer your question about if soap making is safe for pregnant women. I don't know. IMO, as long as you wear safety gear and don't breathe in the lye fumes, you should be okay. On the other hand, I also think that it's better to play it safe and not start working with lye until after your baby is born. July isn't that far away and you could start with MP bases. MP gives you instant gratification plus some of the MP bars I've seen are almost like art work. You can do some very fancy looking bars. Have you looked through the Melt & Pour section to see some of the bars?

Columbus Foods has really good prices and reasonable shipping on oils and butters.

http://www.soaperschoice.com/

Yeah, what she said. Play around with M&P just to get somewhat of an idea about fragrance etc... You will enjoy it! It's a good place to start without fear of inhaling fumes.

 

[.t.e.r.r.a.]

And now I'm obsessed with looking at soap pictures in the gallery, lol.

 

[.t.e.r.r.a.]

I can't find many pictures of M&P soaps... can someone help me? Sorry to be a pain!

 

[carebear]

CP soap is just oils and lye, neither of which are toxic. If you are concerned, it's the fragrance materials I'd be avoiding, not those.

 

[starrfeef]

CP soap is just oils and lye, neither of which are toxic. If you are concerned, it's the fragrance materials I'd be avoiding, not those.

Good Point!! Any warnings I happen to come across while making soap (after of course the ubiquitous lye saftey concerns) are always the frangrance or EO warnings!! Also a good book on Aromatherapy should be very clear on which essential oils to avoid while pregnant...as for frangrance oils...case by case?

 

[calico21]

EO's can be dangerous more so than the FO's. You just may not be able to handle smelling some FO's (no throw up smiley to put here) . Maybe to be on safe side and since these will be your first ones leave them unscented and after DD gets here begin playing with all the other stuff. God bless and good luck.

 

[ToniD]

Hi, Welcome to the forum and to soaping. You can probably find a good scale for not a lot of money, but yeah, a good scale is important. I'm with Hazel, I am so glad I got one I can plug in. but a good battery one is fine as well. I am happy with Escali brand.

I am sure it would be a challenge to soap with young kids in the house. As a grandma, I don't have to deal with that part, but I have to say that my 3 and 2 yr old grandsons are my biggest fans. They love to check out the curing racks to see what is done and to smell the soaps. It is a lot of fun. I know that was not on-topic, but thought I'd say that in the midst of all the concerns with soaping while pregnant, nursing, or with little ones, there is also fun.

 

[Genny]

Welcome to the forum. I've made both mp and cp while pregnant. With cp the smells seemed to get to me more than anything.
But at the same time, the smells of a lot of fo's were kind of yucky, also.

If you plan on working with essential oils while pregnant, here's some info about it
http://www.soapqueen.com/personal-rambl ... mp-safe-2/

As for scales, if you have a Harbor Freight near you, they have inexpensive scales. You can usually find coupons in the paper for them, also.

I know there's pictures of mp soap in the galleries here, but I can't find any specific ones. If you're looking for inspiration, you can check out Etsy and search for glycerin soap. You can find a lot there.

If you're looking for suppliers close to you, you can check out http://www.suppliersbystate.com

There are also some suppliers that have cp kits that you can buy, which can make it easier for first timers.

 

[Fullamoon]

With a little one and one on the way, I would stick with M & P for now. There's no way I could learn with a toddler around. It's too dangerous. Unless you have a nanny who could keep your little one out of the kitchen...It would be easy to get a flake of lye on the floor and I just wouldn't take that chance. But that's just me. I couldn't handle it. I need the entire kitchen to myself with no interruption or else I mess something up. Either I forge the fragrance or my crockpot overflows, etc.

 

[Hazel]

carebear -

I'm more concerned about fumes from the lye. Personally, lye fumes bother me. Even though I turn my head away and try to stand back, I still occasionally catch a whiff of the fumes. My throat tightens and I start to cough.

I don't know how sensitive Terra would be to acrid fumes but what she breathes in can go into her blood stream and be passed to the baby. I'm 99% positive that lye wouldn't be a problem but I'm not going to recommend it because of that 1% of concern.

Also, a good point about being careful about EOs. I didn't even think to mention it.

Terra -

You're not being a pain. If there aren't enough pics in the MP section and photo gallery, you can google melt and pour and I'm sure you'll find thousands of pics.

Some sites that you might find inspirational.

http://soapylove.com/

http://www.soapqueen.com/category/bath- ... pour-soap/

http://www.smftutorials.com/how-to-make ... sited.html

Check out sygrid's creations!
http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewto ... highlight=
http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewto ... highlight=
http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewto ... highlight=
http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewto ... light=iris
http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewto ... light=iris

Plus you'll find examples of finished MP if you look through this site. http://www.goplanetearth.com/index.html

And there's always browsing on Etsy. :wink:

 

[llineb]

I can't find many pictures of M&P soaps... can someone help me? Sorry to be a pain!

Hey Terra...Welcome! I found out I was having twins so I quit my job to stay home with them since it would cost more than my salary for childcare. Anyway, I started soaping and I am 3 years in and addicted. I do mostly Melt and Pour but am learning CP at present. I just sell my soap mostly at craft shows and put the money in a savings account for the twins education. It's a great way to have fun and earn a little extra money.

A must have book is "Melt & Mold Soap Crafting" by Westerman. She is a Melt and Pour Diva. She has great ideas and makes it easy and fun.

I have some Melt and Pour pics on my Website if you want any ideas. The website is kinda primative b/c I really only have it for the locals to browse my scents. I sell mostly local and not off the internet.

www.jollybeesoap.com

Good luck to you! This is a great forum and resource!

 

[xyxoxy]

Welcome to the addiction and to the forum.

I won't rehash all of the good advice you've already seen here but I want to agree that Harbor Freight is a great place to buy some soap tools. You can get rubber gloves, eye protection, cutting tools, scales, and all sorts of things you wouldn't believe. They even have stainless steel pots.

Over time you will decide what you like and don't like so you should not feel like you have to spend top dollar on everything up front.

Flea markets, Goodwill and similar resources are also very good. Trust me, there will be plenty of things to spend your money on later.

For other supplies, I like WSP, MMS, Columbus Foods etc... but there are plenty to choose from.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[.t.e.r.r.a.]

Oh wow, THANKYOU so much everyone for your great advice! I really appreciate it! Who would've thought a soap making forum would be very active? lol, I never realized how much actually goes into soap making, but I've always found it to be an interesting art! I think I might make my way to a soap making store that I looked up online and is supposedly near by. I have never heard of that other store that your speaking of...

Those pics by sygrid are amazing! Very very nice soaps!

 

[judymoody]

Just speaking personally, I would not do CP while pregnant. Aside from the lye fumes and the aromachemicals (which potentially could be a problem either inhaled or through skin contact), I shudder to think about what would happen if you lost your balance and dropped a lye container. Maybe this is "worst case scenario" thinking but as your baby bump gets bigger, you might be less steady on your feet, especially if you can't see them! I'd stick to M&P for now.

Just my 2 cents! Congratulations on your upcoming little one!

 

[.t.e.r.r.a.]

I am going to stick with M&P for now, working with lye fumes is not something I want to risk right now, even though CP is what I REALLY want to try doing . But, I think M&P soaps can be a good way for me to get my feet wet and play around with scents and all that fun stuff.

I thought there was a soap supply store nearby, but it turned out to be a yarn warehouse instead, lol... not sure how that happened! So I headed to Michaels and just bought a little M&P kit for $20. I really did not want to go to Michael's, because they have NOTHING for soap making, and their prices are outrageous. Oh well, I will at least have fun tonight making my first EVER bars of soap, lol.

 

[Hazel]

I started with a soap kit from JoAnn's. It was fun and easy. The great thing about it is you only have to let it harden and then you can use it. There's also a lot of videos on youtube.

Have fun and don't forget to post pics!

 

[soapbuddy]

Michael's is mediocre quality. Save your money and get a good quality base from one of the online vendors that are mentioned in this forum.