Unlike commercial bars, the glycerin made naturally in the soap making process are retained. Glycerin is a humectant, meaning it attracts moisture to your skin. Glycerin is a natural by-product of the soapmaking process and while commercial manufacturers remove the glycerin for use in their more profitable lotions and creams, handcrafted soap retains glycerin in each and every bar.  This alone made me want to make my own soap!  

I researched, researched, researched. There are different processes, different recipes, different ingredients. My bookmark on soapmaking is VERY large!

There is hot process and cold process.  Hot process soap is cooked — crockpot, in pot on stove, in pot on woodstove.  Cooking the soap cures the soap as it is cooked — you can use the soap as soon as it is hard.  Cold process is simply that.  After the oils and lye have been combined and brought to a trace, it is poured into molds until hard, removed from the molds, and then left to cure in the open for 4 – 6 weeks.

There are many recipes available all around the internet.  I use SoapCalc to create my recipes.  You can enter the oils you have on hand, how much soap you want to make, and it gives you the recipe in grams or ounces. To me it looks like a chemistry list!  It also gives you the qualities of the soap you are making — how well it is as a cleanser, the hardness, how sudsy, how moisturizing.  This takes a huge headache out of the way!

So many months after getting the first little itch of wanting to make my own bar of soap, I DID!! I made SOAP from scratch!  What a feeling!

I decided on the hot process method. Maybe a little A.D.D….I just couldn’t wait 4-6 weeks to try my first bar of soap. Then I chose the crockpot method. It’s almost like putting your dinner in the crockpot. Put everything in, turn on low, cover and let cook. If it looks like it’s going to boil over, simply stir down.

SOAP!!!!!  And I no longer need lotion……..another savings!!!