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nikki.tiffany262

New Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2022
Messages
2
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13
Location
Wisconsin
Hello, I'm Tiffany! I'm a newbie to soap making. I haven't started yet, but I've been so called studying and schooling myself through YouTube, blogs, and now forums. I will say that, I wish I could of took an interest in soap making a long time ago. With lifestyle changes, I'm really trying to create a better environment for my family and I. Thanks for reading!
 
Hi, Tiffany! Welcome to SMF; I am sure you will enjoy getting started after doing so much advance prep! How's the weather up there is Wisconsin this summer? Coming into Fall soon now, I guess. Is it pretty humid right now? This year the weather seems a bit more humid than usual, or maybe I am just experiencing it differently than I used to do.

I'm not home right now, but will be back in Illinois in a couple of weeks. It's horribly humid here where we are overlooking a lagoon in North Carolina. There's supposed to be an alligator in this lagoon, but we have not yet seen it. Still, it's more humid than I like right now so I've not been searching for what lives in the water. :shakinghead:
 
Welcome, Nikki! I too live in Wisconsin, and @earlene it's at 98% humidity right now. You can take a bath just by walking outside and oye just about 4a. Thunder and lightning is all over where I'm at, right smack in Juneau, WI. Ugh.
I've just bought a bunch of new individual molds to get some of my soaping mojo back. So I'm wishing all these new members the same:
Happy soaping!! 🧼🚿🛁
 
Hello, I'm Tiffany! I'm a newbie to soap making. I haven't started yet, but I've been so called studying and schooling myself through YouTube, blogs, and now forums. I will say that, I wish I could of took an interest in soap making a long time ago. With lifestyle changes, I'm really trying to create a better environment for my family and I. Thanks for reading!
Welcome Tiffany from another new to soap person. A quote I like: It’s never too late to be who you might have been. by George Eliot
 
Welcome Tiffany,
About the only advice I can share is that it really doesn't take much to get started. Just don't use ANY utensils that you use to make soap... for kitchen stuff again. It may very well taste soapy!

I am an "accidental soapmaker", having begun making soap after our Farmers' Market soap maker passed away. I didn't even know the difference between melt'n'pour and cold process or hot process.

Be sure to have a quiet area to do your creating.
Shari
 
Well, as often happens here on SMF, I'll give the opposite advice of @therealshari 😁 For the first five or six years that I made soap, I did so in my kitchen, using the same crock-pot, stick-blender, mixing/measuring containers, food scale, and Tupperware containers (aka soap molds), that I used to make and store food. I have never once ended up with soap in my food, or vice versa.

As a newbie, you don't know whether soaping will be limited to a couple of times per year to make soap for your family, or whether you will end up making soap to sell outside your home. Rather than spending money to buy a bunch of new stuff that will take up more space, look around in your kitchen for things you already have: a stick blender, bowls, spatulas, stainless steel pans, and the like.

When you are done making a batch of soap, you will wash everything with (drum roll, wait for it).... SOAP! In fact, you will wash them with the same soap you use to wash the dishes with which you cook, and from which you eat. If you don't struggle with soapy residue on your food dishes now, you won't have that problem after you make soap in them, either... because if you already know how to wash your food dishes well, that same skill will transfer over to washing to your soapy dishes. And if not, then washing soapy dishes will help you practice that skill. ;)

Eventually you may find it more convenient to have separate soapy utensils in a dedicated soaping area. Another possibility is that you may need to implement good manufacturing practices because you want to sell. In that case, preventing contamination in your soap from food particles and allergens will be the far more important factor over potential soapy residue on your food utensils (which again, is a basic dishwashing skill you should already have).

Oh, and the same goes for the irrational fear of having active lye somehow lurking around in the crevices of your tools when you are done. If you've washed well, that's not going to happen. And after enough time and exposure to air, any undissolved lye grains or flakes become harmless soda ash.

Of course, if you have unlimited funds, and unlimited space to store more stuff, feel free to buy all the things. Just know that there is no "rule" that prevents you from having dual purpose items, if that's the better route for you.

Have fun, and we look forward to seeing your creations!
 
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Hello, I'm Tiffany! I'm a newbie to soap making. I haven't started yet, but I've been so called studying and schooling myself through YouTube, blogs, and now forums. I will say that, I wish I could of took an interest in soap making a long time ago. With lifestyle changes, I'm really trying to create a better environment for my family and I. Thanks for reading!
Wecome Tiffany. Just jump in there and START!!!
 
Tiffany, quick while there's still time, walk slowly backwards! Save yourself -- the rest of us here are lost and too far gone. Beware these seemingly warm words of "welcome" -- so was the Candy Man/Child Catcher when he said "Come and get your lollipops, lollipops, come along my little ones. They're all free today, cherry pie, cream puffs, ice cream, treacle tart." (You'll only get that if you're old like me and remember Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.).
 
Tiffany, quick while there's still time, walk slowly backwards! Save yourself -- the rest of us here are lost and too far gone. Beware these seemingly warm words of "welcome" -- so was the Candy Man/Child Catcher when he said "Come and get your lollipops, lollipops, come along my little ones. They're all free today, cherry pie, cream puffs, ice cream, treacle tart." (You'll only get that if you're old like me and remember Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.).
🤣
 
Hello, I'm Tiffany! I'm a newbie to soap making. I haven't started yet, but I've been so called studying and schooling myself through YouTube, blogs, and now forums. I will say that, I wish I could of took an interest in soap making a long time ago. With lifestyle changes, I'm really trying to create a better environment for my family and I. Thanks for reading!
Welcome sister. ⭐🌸⭐
 
Welcome.gif


schooling myself through YouTube, blogs, and now forums.
From that list I'm guessing you get conflicting advice. Yes?

To get off on the right foot, take a cuppa along and explore the Beginners Forum to learn the things we talk about here.

Find the Beginners Learn to Soap Online thread for "tried and true" recipes for making your first, small, test batches.;) :thumbs:
HAPPY SOAPING! :computerbath:
 

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