Hi, new to soapmaking and have a few questions :)

[turtleraces]

Hi, I'm Emily, from the UK and new to soapmaking. By new to I mean never done it before, haha, so sorry if I ask some really obvious questions.
I have always loved crafts handmade stuff and cosmetics, and recently got into skin care and the like. I love soap and have seen lovely looking handmade soap online and thought I would really love to make my own. Fast-forward a little bit after I've forgotton that and my mum's friend mentions making cake stands out of old plates and how she could expand from that and we get talking about putting bath stuff on them, I get reminded about making soaps and am serious about it this time. While I realise I wouldn't be able to the sell the soaps so that is no longer an option I think I would still like to try my hand at soap making. Now here comes the bombardment of questions haha. ( I like to be prepared )

1. I am 17, still live at home, and intend to move to university, finish my course and go off to be psychologist. This means for the next 7 or so years (at least) I will be living with other people, some who may not know me very well. My first question is is it even feasible to make my own soap under these conditions (Melt and pour or Cold Process, and for myself and friends or as a small on the side business) I'm thinking mainly about smell and fumes, and also whether this will be too time consuming/ costly in addition to full time education.

2. I'm not quite sure how I should go about starting this. I think I would probably want to start making melt and pour soaps to experiment with mixing and colours and textures and smells and the like, and basically see if I enjoy soapmaking. Does it make more sense to buy a kit (with some base,colours etc) or buy small quantities of the ingredients myself to allow for more freedom?

3. Once I have started, how should I expect to progress. Does this make sense: if I like making MP move on to CP essentially for myself and maybe as gifts to friends and the like, and then, if I really enjoy it, try to make a bit of money off of it on the side. So fork out for saftey assessment and start selling online and at markets and such, expanding to a small, on the side business alongside my studies/job

4. For anyone in the UK, can you explain the safety assessment concept to me, I'm not sure I understand what I've read properly. As far as I can tell, I can't sell anything at all, not even to friends and family, unless the soaps are safety assessed, regardless of whether they are MP or CP. Also does the fee for saftey assessment just count for a single recipe soap (eg the base plus fragrance and colour) or does it cover a basic recipe for a base, and then all the fragrances and colours etc you may possibly use in any of your soaps.

I'm sorry for all the super long questions.
I'm really looking forward to being a part of this forum as my soap making journey begins.
BTW I couldn't find a place for the question, but coouldn't see one, if they need moving I will happily do this, I just thought, well introduction is as good a place as any!

 

[Hazel]

Hi Emily,

Welcome to the forum!

If you enjoy crafts and making things for yourself, then you probably would enjoy soapmaking. I think starting out with melt and pour might be an easier way to get started to see if you really would like to make soap. I'm not in the UK so I can't help you with suppliers but here's a link to some suppliers in the UK but I don't know when this list was last updated. http://www.annelwatson.com/soapmaking/s ... tedKingdom

I did notice that gracefruit.com isn't on the list so you might want to also check this site. I did see they carry melt and pour bases. http://www.gracefruit.com/

Melt and pour is an easier method to use when you're sharing a house. You don't have to worry about lye (caustic soda) around other people. It would also be easier to store than supplies for cold process. As to sharing a place with other people, it depends on the people but you might get lucky and find other people would be interested in finding out you're a soapmaker especially if you let them have samples. :wink:

Also, I personally don't have a problem with lye fumes. I just make sure I stand back a little as I add the lye and stir it. The fumes dissipate fairly quickly. You also generally don't use a lot of lye/caustic soda if you're making small batches. For example, say you're making a batch which only needs 500 g of oils. You'd only need 70 g of lye which would produce minimal fumes. It doesn't take long to make a small batch once you're experienced with the cold process method. Maybe an hour? It may not even take that long depending on what you're doing. It may take slightly longer if you're adding several colors, swirling, etc.

I don't know what the prices are in the UK but here it's generally cheaper to buy items separately. You'd only have to buy one base, a fragrance and a few colors to start with melt and pour. If you don't have a mold, you'd also have to buy one but you can use items from around the house like well washed out yogurt containers or something like them. If you decide you want to start making CP, you really only need a few oils to create a nice soap - olive, coconut and maybe castor if you wanted. You can make castile soap with olive, bastile with olive and coconut and salt bars with coconut. You don't have to spend a lot of money to get started. You can use yogurt, buttermilk, goat milk and cream as your liquids or part of the liquids. These will help to make each soap a bit different. You can use beer or wine as a liquid. I love beer soap but this is because I really like bubbly lather.

I can't help you with safety assessments but hopefully a UK member will see your post and be able to answer your questions. We do recommend you experiment for a period of time before you start selling. You want to make sure you know how your CP soaps may change over time - will the oils go rancid, will colors or fragrances fade or morph over time, etc? Here's a link to info which explains it better than I could on how to tell if you're ready to sell.

http://soapmakingforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=17621

I'm sure other members will have more to add with advice and getting started.

 

[turtleraces]

Thanks for spending the time to answer my questions, the supplier list was really helpful too.
Thank you for explaining everything, you've made me feel a lot better about just going and buying some stuff and starting it, I think I'll try and buy some stuff today
I've read the post about when to sell and it makes perfect sense, I'm not too worried about not being able to sell for a few years, I guess I was mostly worried that I would love it and want to start selling eventually (or even just doing cold process soap) but finding out later that it could never happen.
Also thanks for the stuff about milk and cream, I didn't realise that you could just add normal milk and stuff, so thats really interesting.

I'm really looking forward to getting some materials to play around with, I have some ideas for things I want to try so I think I'll be looking at endless tutorials in the mean time!
Thanks for again for being so helpful

 

[Hazel]

You're welcome! I didn't think of it until later but you might find MP supplies if you have a big craft store where you live. You wouldn't have to order supplies and you could get started immediately. Also, you may have already seen SoapQueen's site but she has a lot of tutorials for MP and CP plus she does wonderful videos. Here are the links if you haven't seen them.

http://www.soapqueen.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/soapqueentv

Selling is an option if you decide it's something you want to do in the future. However, that's something you'd probably want to do when you have your own home. I can definitely see housemates getting upset if you've taken over the kitchen to make large quantities of soap. You'd also need space to cure all the soap and that can possibly take up a lot of room. :wink:

 

[turtleraces]

Thanks, I hadn't seen her website but it's great, I'm definitely going to have a better look at those tutorials.
I will also have a look in a craft store if one is close enough
Thanks