Hola from Colorado USA!
There are many Newbies and Semi-newbies here so you are in good company. You might want to take some time to read info posted on the
Beginner's Forum -- especially the Stickies. There's lots of good information there to help you. Take a cuppa along and scroll down to
Lovin' Soap Studio to get a handle on most of the stuff we talk about here.
To save time, money, and frustration, this is a good read for a soaper at your stage of experience:
Q:
What advice would you give to your beginning soaping self?
Most of the equipment you need you probably already have in your kitchen, with the exception of a
stick blender which you might find at a thrift store or Walmart, Target, etc. You can use a whisk to bring soap to trace, but a stick blender is faster.
LYE NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide): Walmart carries
Red Crown Lye made by Boyer Corp, a long-time supplier to the soapmaking community.
For very little expense, you can buy
lard at the grocery store which makes a fine bar of soap all by itself. You can use it along with coconut & olive oil to make the
Basic Trinity of Oils starter formula to get off on a good foundation.
Plan on making small 1 pound (500g) batches at first to get the hang of it. Molds can be made from milk cartons, plastic containers or cardboard boxes lined with plastic bags or freezer paper.
Run all recipes through a calculator like
SoapCalc first. There's good directions for
Getting Started at the top of the page. Then hover your mouse over each number to find out what to do at each step.
You can get feedback by starting a new thread on the
Recipe Feedback Forum (non-soap items too). Best to do that BEFORE you try a new recipe.
If you like chemistry,
@DeeAnna's
Soapy Stuff is a good read for Newbies & experienced soapers alike. It's a treasure trove of all things soapy.
The best way to search SMF: Look for the SpyGlass in the upper right corner of this page or GOOGLE (type your keywords here)
site:soapmakingforum.com
HAPPY SOAPING!
