Younger generations are always looking for new and inventive ways to be more eco friendly and cost saving. One of the best ways to do this is to make your own natural soaps at home. By doing this, you will need some supplies but you also get to choose what fragrance, if desired, and what quantity you would like to produce.
Making your own natural soap can bring your peace of mind in two effective ways. You are no longer be a part of the chemical pollution that is harming the environment as the soaps are produced industrially and you can ensure that the ingredients you are using to make a soap are all natural and wonat do any harm to your skin.
Soap making is a lengthy process but the quantities you make in one sitting could be beneficial to your skin and your pocketbook. All soaps are started from some type of oil. Normally a palm oil, olive oil or even coconut oil is mixed together with water and lye. The lye and water would be heated separately from the chosen oil and then when the final temperature is met by both they are combined together. You would want to stir or whisk this mixture until you are able to see stir lines on the top.
This is almost similar to making a pancake batter and the batter forms a raised line on top when a spoon is drugged across it. That is the consistency you are looking for. Once this consistency is fulfilled you would want to add the natural ingredients you have collected to make the soap your own. For instance, you can add beeswax to make it smooth or even cocoa butter to soften the skin. To make a successful natural soap though, you want to make sure to only use natural ingredients.
Once you have instilled the additives that you collected then you have to pour the soap mixture into pre-oiled molds. Normally the molds are brick shaped or tubular and you have to make sure that they have made greasy with a vegetable oil otherwise at the time of removing the soaps from the molds they may no slide out easily without breaking. The soap mixture has to be left in the molds for about 24 hours.
During this time the soap will go through many changes, for example, it may darken in color or even begin to bubble and turn warm. This is what happens when the lye/water/oil mixture is set to rest after being emulsified together. This setting period is what neutralizes the soap and allows it to set into the chosen mold. Once again, it is extremely important to remember to oil the molds because if you donat you will not be able to remove the soap from the molds easily to continue onto the next steps.
You will need to have a cool, dry place established ahead of time to let your soap sit after you have released it from its mold. The soap can be cut into any shape you desire and then needs to be placed on wire racks lined with preferably wax paper, and then set in the dry, cool, dark place to cure.
The whole curing process varies from 3 to 8 weeks. But when this curing process is done and the soap has dried out all the moistures it left, you will finally reach to a finished product. Most people are confused what they are using for their body washing and become relaxed knowing that the soaps they are using to clean their bodies and faces with are healthy and environment friendly to the community. This lesson can be passed to our next generations to come and is really a precious one.
Jen Hopkins has worked in the skin care industry for years. She maintains websites about making soap, and make your own soap. If you want to contact her, you can use the contact form at one of her sites.