Teach Soap

Hi ,

Need to learn soap talk What is this FO & EO I keep reading about ???

I made my second batch today , better

I'm sticking to glycerin right now because it's easy. Are all melt & pour as easy ? Need to get supplies before I start lye soap . Is there another name for lye ? tried to order some , but nothing said lye .

I have molds from Craft store , they are clear plastic , not sure how long they will last. I think at the class , she put oil in them before pouring in glycerin . Is that right ?

I hope no one minds I have many questions

Thanks
Liz

With melt and pour you don't really need to oil your molds. If you ever have trouble unmolding a soap you can pop the mold in a freezer for a few minutes, that usually helps.

Lye is also called Sodium Hydroxide (lye). That is what you'd need for solid soaps. You might want to check out the video series on Soap Queen's you tube channel on How To cold process soap, and also get your hands on a good book or two. I really like "The Everything Soapmaking Book." It has some great information on cold and hot process, and even melt and pour and a little bit on liquid and cream soaps.

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Laura<3

Oh, and FO is Fragrance Oils, EO is (natural) Essential Oils.

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Laura<3

Ty so much for your help.

Which is better FO or EO.

I am trying to become good enough to make them as Xmas favors for my customers this year. I'll need to make at least 100. Yikes !!!!!!

That's left up to the individual, depends the type/style of product you are wanting to produce. If you are thinking of using Essential Oils, Bramble Berry has some great info on using them safely.

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Laura<3

CP = Cold Process
HP = Hot Process
M&P or MP = Melt & Pour
RTCP = Room Temperature Cold Process (Hot lye solution added to room temp oils)
CPOP = Cold Process Oven Process (forcing gel stage in a warm oven)
A or Acc. = Acceleration
D = Discoloration
DOS = Dreaded Orange Spots (Shows up on a soap when an oils has turned rancid)
TD = Titanium Dioxide
EO = Essential Oil
FO = Fragrance Oil

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

Hi Liz. Welcome to the forum. Feel free to ask questions here on the forum, no question is considered stupid. Or you can search different threads or topics to see if it's been discussed before here on the forum - just use the search function at the top right hand corner of this site.

Other acronyms commonly used here on the forum:
B&B - bath and body, often refers to soap, lotion, balms, scrubs, fizzies, lip products etc
BB - Brambleberry, the company owned by the forum owner Anne-Marie Faiola, also known as Soap Queen. She also has a blog that is a great resource for tutorials, just click on the upper left hand side list to get a list of her tutorials for each heading. She also has a YouTube channel if you are more visually inclined, although it's not as comprehensive as her blog. Another resource from Brambleberry is the TeachSoap site for tips, recipes & tutorials.

It sounds like you are doing MP soap right now. There are different opinions about applying oil to the inside of your molds before pouring in your soap base as some believe it makes it easier to unmold your soaps. I've read about this in at least 2 MP books I have when I first started. I feel that oiling the mold first makes my soap sticky after and didn't make a difference making my soap easier to unmold. It actually depends on the type of mold you use and the temp you pour your soap, although sticking your soap in the freezer for a few minutes after actually helps in unmolding especially with high detailed molds. The typical molds that you can buy in most craft stores have a tendency to melt, crack or break after a while and be difficult to unmold. Also some people feel that the base that you can buy in most craft stores while cheap is also very drying to the skin.

The use of FOs or EOs is mostly personal preference, depends on whether you're trying to stick to all natural (EOs) or not (FOs or a combination of FOs and/or EOs). Make sure that the EO you use is body safe and only to the amounts recommended or less to decrease possible adverse effects.

Just something to consider, but whether you are giving your soaps as gifts or selling them, you are liable for any adverse effects that someone may have using them. Not to scare you, but FYI.

There are tons of resources online for soaping supplies, molds, and tutorials eventhough there a few sites that everyone here prefers. Hope this helps!

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Armi

GM = Goat's Milk

Lye can also be called Caustic Soda.

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

Ty all so much . Boy there is a lot to soapmaking wow !!! At this point I'm just melting glycerin with sent & color . So far it's easy , but I'm sure I'm just at the tip of the iceberg , soapberg maybe LOL I'll see how far I go with it. From the one class I took the lye base looks complicated, you need a scale , a hand mixer , a bunch of things.

Except for the bubbles I'm getting , my soaps look ok.

You can spray the tops of your poured soap (in molds) with rubbing alcohol to get rid of surface bubbles. If you are getting a lot of bubbles in your soap while still stirring in your measuring cup or whatever you use, I've found that sometimes spraying then can help get rid of those too. What are you using to stir with? A whisk can cause bubbles if that is what you are using.

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Laura<3

I bought an old pot & use a plastic spoon to stir , and a plastic laddle to pour into molds. I melted it on high on stove . Is that too hot ?

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

Ty

I bought these cubes , they come in all colors , your to add them once the gylcerin is melted , they then melt in the gylcerin . And I put in fragrance .

A lot came out nice , a few bubbled. But I will melt on low heat next time.

You just need to melt the soap until most of it is liquid, then remove it from the heat and stir it until the rest melts. This way you don't have to worry about overheating or burning any of your soap.

I do mine in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until it is mostly melted.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Liz, I recommend the soap queen videos, as mentiond above. And any good soap making book-- Bramble berry sells them, too. Or you can get them from the library. Soap making isn't hard, but it's best to start off understanding something about lye, the oils and how they contribute to the quality of the final soap, scenting, herbs and other things you can add to the soap, and so on. Then you're not working in the dark when you make your first cold process (CP) soaps!

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
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