Teach Soap

Hi Everyone,

My name is Lj and I am new to both soap making and message boards like this. I joined Teach Soap a few days ago and have been reading a lot of your posts. With all the new members that have joined I thought it was high time I introduced myself and become a little more active on the threads.

I have been a stay at home mom for about nine years and have thoroughly enjoyed it. My husband and I have six children; five daughters and a son. We blended our family together 10 years ago with just four children and have had two since. My oldest two are my step son and daughter who are almost six weeks to the day apart in age with our son being the oldest. Both will be Seniors in high school this year and have plans to graduate early at the end of the first semester. Our son enlisted in the Delayed Entry program with the United States Marine Corps this past April and is very much looking forward to leaving for boot camp as early as January. Our oldest daughter will be headed off to college leaving us with just four at home, our 15 year old, 12 year old, and my “Irish Twins” who are currently 7 and 8 years old.

I first became interested in making my own soaps as way to cut laundry costs by making my own laundry soap as well as saving all the little slivers of bar soap and pressing them together or making liquid soap by combining the last remaining drips of any hand soaps and shampoos. When my mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Breast cancer after suffering a stroke and shortly thereafter one of my daughters was diagnosed with severe allergies, asthma, and extremely sensitive skin I took a good hard look at what I was feeding to my family as well as what we were using in our home to clean and bathe with. There is not a lot on the market as far as natural or organic bath and body products that were affordable to a family of our size so I started looking into making my own. One of the biggest turn offs and what stopped me altogether from making homemade soap was the lye. The idea of having such a caustic chemical in the house with small children who are as curious as they are accident prone has prevented me from taking the next step and really diving into such a beautiful craft as soap making. That was until I stumbled upon one of Anne-Marie’s many tutorials on “youtube” and discovered melt and pour soaps. After watching some videos I ordered a bit of soap and tried them on my daughter who has the most sensitive skin and found that they didn’t irritate her skin. I dabbled here and there with some different things to make bath time more fun for the kids and gave some away as gifts. But now I seemed to have stumbled onto something as more and more people are asking to buy them from me. So, now Im here and hoping to learn as much as I can by connecting with others who also craft homemade bath and body products as a hobby or have turned it into a full blown business.

I look forward to learning and sharing with all of you as I begin this new journey in my life.

Lj

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Lj

Welcome Lj!
BrambleBerry's glycerin soap bases are so much better for your skin because they are made with much better and natural ingredients.
Good luck with your new hobby! Take a look at this thread I posted for newbies. Some of the posts are for cold process soaps, but some relate to MP soap base as well. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3800

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Irena,

Thanks for pointing me in that direction. There was a LOT of great information listed there.

Lj

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Lj

Welcome, Lj!
(Those are also my initials!)

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

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Lj

Welcome, Lj! There are lots of great ideas, tips, and snatches of inspiration on the forum.

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

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Lj

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

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Lj

Welcome Lj to teachsoap forum! It was quite a lengthy introduction. I'm also new to this forum I wish you have a nice stay in here.

Regards,
Finn Felton