How long does it take to make soap?

[boobah]

From the point you have all the supplies to the point you have a complete bar (or bars) of soap, how long does it take? Is this something that you can do rather quickly?

 

[Rainytigermouth]

I've just bought all the supplies to give it a go and it should take about 6 weeks in total. However I've seen a number of recipes for herb soap that simply require melting down a bar of soap and adding oils/herbs. This presumably wouldn't take so long.

 

[boobah]

I see. So there is a quick way and a long way to do it. I guess that is kind of like deciding if you are going to bake a cake from scratch or with a mix. How much did all of the supplies end up costing you?

 

[Rainytigermouth]

I should probably also add that there appear to be lots of different soap making methods and the one I've chosen (room temperature method) takes 6 weeks - this seems to be the easiest to do at home I think? I may be wrong as I haven't actually done it yet as I'm still trying to find silicone soap moulds I like on eBay.
I bought caustic soda (cheap), olive oil and sunflower oil (supermarket), essential oils (not so cheap but then they never are) and organic virgin coconut oil (also not cheap but I managed to find a reasonable price on eBay again). Then I harvested herbs from my garden / window sill which I plan to use in the soap, e.g. Lavender, rosemary, aloe vera. In total I probably spent £40-45 so far but with that I intend to make lots of Christmas presents and save money this year!

 

[HerbJane]

The easiest soap recipe calls for a 3lb tub of Crisco shortening, 6oz Lye and 12 oz of water. Melt the shortening, add lye to cold water and once both reach about 90-95 degrees add the lye mixture to the oil mixture and stir, a stick blender works better. This is a quick and cheap recipe and makes a nice bar of soap.

 

[HonorBound]

If you use the lye method, make sure you have adequate ventilation. It does give off some really strong fumes. My mother used to make it and it's not really hard it's just that we've forgotten how to do it. People used to make their own all of the time it's just that we have gotten used to going to the store to get soap insted of making it.

 

[biblefood]

Is this not unhealthy

The easiest soap recipe calls for a 3lb tub of Crisco shortening, 6oz Lye and 12 oz of water. Melt the shortening, add lye to cold water and once both reach about 90-95 degrees add the lye mixture to the oil mixture and stir, a stick blender works better. This is a quick and cheap recipe and makes a nice bar of soap.

I am a natural health consultant and distributor, and i am very into doing my own soaps, but isnt Crisco shortening which is animal fat unhealthy for your skin, I believe it is, Just wondering where the ingredients came from,,,,

 

[angbaby4974]

Hi all, I'm new here, but have been making soap for a while. Crisco, which is vegetable shortening, is not bad for your skin, nor is animal fat. The chemical reaction that takes place between the oils & the lye renders an entirely new compound, soap, which is a salt.

I personally use olive oil and coconut oil as my "base" oils, adding more exotic oils for their various properties. I don't use lard or tallow because I personally don't like the end results in my soap, although I will use lard to make laundry soap.

A few good pointers for beginning soap makers are
1. Keep it simple. Don't be tempted to add a lot of "stuff" to your soap, like color, fragrance, EO's etc. Get a basic recipe down first, then start playing with it.
2. Use a GOOD, RELIABLE lye calculator.
3. Do share your soap with friends & family. Let them test it out for you.
4. Get to know the different oils used in soap making, and learn what properties each one is adding to your soap. Coconut oil and Castor oil both give LOTS of bubbles, but can be drying, so they need to be paired with other more nourishing oils.
5. Have fun with it, but be careful. Yes, it is an EXACT science, if you don't follow the measurements to a T, you can end up with a harsh bar of soap.
6. Get a reliable DIGITAL scale and measure EVERYTHING by weight. I use grams because I can get a more accurate measurement than with ounces.

Most of all...enjoy making something that is good for your skin

I look forward to getting to know you all on here

 

[ThymeforRodney]

My mother used to make lye soap which took 2 weeks to cure as far as I can remember. I used to help her with packaging the soap after it was cured but that's all she would let me do with soapmaking.

 

[angbaby4974]

Soap is "usable" after a couple of weeks, depending on how you process it. I wouldn't sell or give away any soap that hadn't cured at least 4 weeks. The longer it cures, the more mellow it becomes, and the harder it becomes, making it last longer. Year old soap is WAAAAYYYY better than month old soap. In fact, I'm using some year old soap in my kitchen right now, just dug it out of the old soap box. Right alongside it is a batch I made a couple of weeks ago...huge difference in the soaps. the older one isn't "melting" away hardly at all, while the other has definite signs of use.

 

[Nature]

if your looking for stuff g to iherb.com you can find loads of stuff there for this type of thing

 

[Whitecrow]

Start to finish, I can make a batch of cold-process soap in two hours. I leave the cleanup til the next day, by which time the oily mess in the pot has converted to soap, so of course cleanup is easy. The soap comes out of the molds in a couple days, and then cures for 4-6 weeks. It can be used sooner, but the higher moisture content means the bars will not last as long.