How many here make homemade soaps?

[whichwhey?]

I just got into making soaps about 6 months ago. I love making them and we love using them. I saw the other post about soaps and was wondering if anyone else makes soaps? Here a picture of my beer soap.

[FarmerJd]

I do. I have found that it takes the smell of cows off your hands better than anything else! I make basic lye soap out of beef tallow and lard. I also make a castille soap out of olive oil, coconut oil and tallow. If we happen to be rich that week we buy scent oils too.

[whichwhey?]

I only made cold process with no fragrances. But I would like to try hot process one day.

[FarmerJd]

Really pretty simple if you have a stick blender. Just get the oils at the right temp and the lye water at the right temp and mix with the stick blender until it traces. If you ever try it, i'll give you my recipe which is just really a basic one I sort of pulled from all the resources. This winter when we butcher the hogs I am going to try to make the old fashioned recipe where you mix it all in a big iron pot outside and stir all day. We'll see how it turns out. Again my only goal is function not aesthetics so I am not the expert to ask anything

[cmharris6002]

I make goat milk Soap and lotion along with an array of other things. I have been making soap for many years. I use a cold process-oven process method.

Christy

[Tea]

I also make soap.

[whichwhey?]

I love homemade soaps .

[MrsKK]

I also make soap.  I make one huge batch, then divide it into two or three smaller batches that I scent and augment differently.  For cleaning up grimey hands and getting rid of smells, I make a Tangerine Scrubber soap using tangerine EO and cornmeal - works great.  I personally really enjoy an oatmeal soap for the bath and my face.

Once the weather turns too cold to be working much outside, I plan on using my cow's cream to make some soap.

Commerical soaps make me itch like crazy.  Once I started making my own, I've never gone back.

[susanne]

i make goat milk soap, cold processed. i have not made it into a business as i'm too busy with cheese  ( not enough milk left) and bread making.

[Tropit]

I've made soap in the past...kind of a hit and miss affair.  I had to quit because my friends and family had more soap than they could use in a lifetime.  I still have a few yellowed bars in the laundryroom.

[Tea]

Tropit is it a hit and miss affair because of inexperience or because of the recipe?   I'm not sure I am understanding.

[Tropit]

Oh...I think it was lack of experience.  I was making milk and lard type of soaps. Sometime things would come out great, but other times the soap just didn't get quite hard enough.  Then, it was just a goopy mess.  Still, other times it would look great, but didn't really lather up as nice as I had hoped.

[MrsKK]

do you have a specific recipe that you use?  Inconsistent results usually come from inconsistent measurements - it is always best to use weight, rather than volume when making soap.

The soap calculator here:  http://soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcwp.asp is a great resource for when you have differing amounts of ingredients.  For example, plug in the amount of pork lard, beef tallow, and olive oil you are using, and it will tell you how much water and lye to use.  It will also give you the qualities you can expect from the ingredients you are using, so you can figure out what you need to add to make it lather better, for instance.

Don't give up - soapmaking is a great hobby!  Very comparable to cheesemaking, IMHO.

[Tropit]

Thanks for the tips and calculator.  I guess when I run out of milk, I'll try another batch of soap.  Christmas is coming.

[FarmerJd]

I always add coconut oil for the lathering effect. It works great