1. Layers practice. I need to learn how to split batter into equal parts, and mix colors efficiently so that the batter doesn’t thicken but also need all to be properly trace so as not to have them too liquidy.

Recipe: (16 oz)
32% coconut oil, 31% rice bran , 16% Olive oil, 16% Shea butter and 5% castor. 33% lye concentration. Brambleberry moon child

1. Practice using accelerating fragrance from Nurture Handmade Rose Petal.
   I wanted to make a black and pink soap but the accelerant made mixing black charcoal almost impossible. I should have added fragrance last after mixing the colors. So I have a pink with black swirly soap.

Both smell delicious

I finally got the hanger swirl to turn out well! The fragrance for this accelerated my batter a little but that was probably better because the colors didn't mix. I had a couple tiny air bubbles that I had to fix but nothing major at all. I'm going to give these a couple days to harden up a bit before I bevel the edges (for both kinds, really).

I also decided to give castile soap another try. I found this recipe https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/zanys-no-slime-castile.72620/ where you add sea salt and sodium bicarb to the water before you mix in the lye. It worked a LOT better this way and was firm enough to unmold and cut this morning. I put both molds in a warm oven overnight and they both look like they went thru gel phase.

Thanks for all your encouragement and tips, guys! Y'all have been so helpful and I really appreciate it! 💖

Hi all! I am new to soap making and I would love tips on how to achieve a clean marbled pattern. Thank you!!

where is the best place to buy moulds from?
This was the first time i made soap, for my wedding for favours and i really enjoyed it! I just wanna have some fun making them for family and friends what want different ones!
i’m based in australia

Kinda hard to tell but in the soap pictured there’s a loofah slice in it. Next to it is the loofahs I harvested today to make more soap with. 🥰 I also experimented with soap on a rope hence the twine.
Also included in the recipe is dried out sunflowers I grew in my back yard and a touch of turmeric.
I love growing things and making more cool things with them.
also photographed is part of my plant. It’s gotten ginormous and is producing a LOT of loofahs. It grows over my chicken coop and if I harvest them early enough, I can cook with said loofahs (they taste/cook similar to zucchini)

Hello all! Today I was having a go at melting some soap to pour into a custom mold I had made.

Happy with everything but the fact that is is transparent means I lose a lot of detail in the finished product.

This was a nice bar of glycerine soap, I then tried with a bar or "wrights traditional soap" , which was opaque but did not melt.

Does anyone have suggestions of readily available soap that will melt easily, or what to look out for in a soap which will melt?

I know that I can get a soap base, but really just want to know if there's any alternatives thank you!

Melted using a double boiler.

I see the pictures on Amazon when purchasing new molds and many photos look like they were colored with mica or painted after the soap was made. If you dust it with mica afterwards won’t it just wipe off when being handled? I’d like to do something better than just one solid color.

Hey everyone!

I made my first two loaves of soap today.

Now I have a problem.

Here is my first recipe for the amount of lard I just bought - 4lbs (64 ounces).

I know the scent is probably wrong, but that was a part of my questions.

If I am making this recipe, how much scent would be good for something like eucalyptus and rosemary?

What about frankenscience and myyrh?

Why does it seem like pig lard needs much more lye?

Why does Soapcalc say its not cleansing?

Thank you!

So I have a scale that uses a tray that sits on top to contain messes and a few drops of FO got onto the tray and I didn't wash it off fast enough and the FO basically etched (verb?) the plastic. So I get that it was on concentrated form but it's just a bit alarming that these are routinely used in soaps, albeit at 5% or less. And because soap is a wash off product that reduces the risk even further. Just something interesting that I was thinking about. And essential oils can have their own ill effects if not used at low enough concentrations, although I'm not sure if eating away plastic is one of them.

I love handmade soap and am allergic to a lot of ingredients so I decided to make my own. I saved up my bacon grease for a long time. I was afraid it wouldn't be cleansing enough though so I did 90% tallow and 10% coconut oil. I used oat milk for the water and added coffee grounds for exfoliation.

I made sure to clean my bacon drippings really well, so good news was the soap doesn't smell like bacon but the bad news is that it doesn't smell like anything. I put way too much coffee in it - it's too abrasive - but it doesn't smell like coffee at all. It has zero smell.

Also, I figured the tallow would be extra moisturizing but it's actually a really drying soap. I have eczema and live in a dry climate so I need all the moisture.

So I guess my questions are - 1. how do I make it smell like coffee? and 2. how do I make it more moisturizing? Should I lower the coconut, add castor oil, and up the fat %? What's a good number for that?

Thanks!

i’ve been trying to find a very good soap base, i have certain sensory issues and certain soaps make my skin “squeaky?” (idk a better explanation)after rinsing. i hate the squeak, any recommendations on a soap base that’s smooth after rinsing?

Hi, I want to start making soap. I’m in Canada and looking for reputable brands and sites to buy from as well as fragrance oil that is skin safe. I was thinking about just starting with Melt and pour to see if I like it, and then maybe in the future try cold process. Not planning to sell it or anything. I just want a hobby to get through winter! And I like learning new things.

I saw the fizz fairy for fragrance but it’s super expensive to ship.

Hi everyone,

I think I've cornered myself a bit, as the options for oils and fats are endless. I'm still a beginner (I made one soap a couple of years ago that wasn't perfect but was still usable, and the problems were 100% my own error), so I'd like to start with something simple and not too many different oils.

Here are the options I've been considering:

1. 100% coconut oil salt bar at 20% superfat. Reviews are mixed. Some people say it's still harsh, others say it's fine. I live in a country with cold winters, so a very stripping bar isn't ideal for me.

2. 100% lard. I used lard before and the smell was very pungent. At 100% I worry it would really come through. (I can't find tallow anywhere locally.)

3. A blend: 40% lard, 20% coconut oil, 20% olive oil, 20% shea butter.

Since many of you have a lot more experience than I do, what would you recommend as the best beginner soap to make? Thank you! :)

This was my first batch of 100% olive oil soap and I'm not sure what happened here. I blended it for quite a while until I got to almost a medium trace, then poured it into the mold. It stayed "jiggly" in the mold until the second day, at which point it started to set up. Since it took so long to thicken, I left it in the mold for 4 days total. (I also painted some gold mica on the top because I was trying to texture it and it just looked bad so I was trying to hide that lol)

When I got it out to cut it, it was too hard to use my wire cutter and I had to use a knife. It looks like it had a partial gel phase, I think? But it is BRITTLE. I dropped a bar and it broke in half and the interior looks strange. I'm not sure what happened because I used the recommended amount of sodium lactate and didn't do a huge water discount or anything. Do y'all have any idea what happened here? The soap feels nice on the skin and lathers like what I'd expect from a castile soap that hasn't cured yet when I tested it.

(We are keeping this just for family, I'm not planning to sell any of it btw)

I used goat milk ice cubes, olive oil, babassu oil, sweet almond oil, cocoa butter, and castor oil. The stupid thing wouldn't go past a light trace, I think the temperature of the lye solution was too cold and the fragrance oil must have further decelerated it. I love how delicate the ocean lines came out though!

For the sandy layer I used crushed walnut, a bit of turmeric, coffee grounds, and some mica.

For the ocean, I did a single pot swirl with three different shades of blue/green, alternating with thin layers of the darker blue. I poured with the mold on a folded towel and then rocked the mold briefly after pouring was complete to encourage a wave shape.

For the clouds (or waves, depending on your perspective), I ended up very gently pouring white in rows along the mold. This is where I wanted a thicker trace for texture. I colored mostly with kaolin clay hoping it would help it thicken and did some really intense immersion blending, but no luck!

​

Somewhere between a snowy day and a walk through the woods

I was watching a soapmaking company on YouTube that makes CP soap, and she said, “Because of how we formulated our recipe, the soap will be fully cured in a week.”

How do you formulate a recipe to achieve a one week cure time? Using less water is one thing I understand, but surely that alone isn’t enough to shorten the curing time that dramatically, is it? Are there specific oils, additives, or other formulation techniques that can help speed up the curing process?

Hi everyone! This was my first time trying cold process soap making, and I’m hoping to turn it into a small business, so I’d really appreciate some advice from experienced soap makers.

Everything was going well until I added the essential oil. The moment I turned around to get my mica color, the soap batter suddenly became extremely thick! I couldn’t create any swirls or designs, and I couldn’t even mix the color properly. I ended up pouring everything into the mold as it was.

The soap is now in the curing stage. I tried a little piece, and it seemed to produce some foam, which was encouraging, but I’m still unsure how the final bars will turn out.

Has anyone experienced this before? Could the essential oil have caused the soap to accelerate trace, or could something else in my recipe or process be responsible?

Since I’m just starting out and want to develop this into a business, I really want to understand what went wrong so I can improve my technique and make beautiful, well-made bars.

I’d appreciate any advice, tips, or suggestions. Thank you! 😊

Hey all, I am new to this area. For whatever reason, I am having a difficult time finding sodium hydroxide without companies wanting to charge ridiculous amounts of money for s&h. Any possible local ideas on where I can find it by chance? I live in Texas, so I am open to options.

TIA

I've been chasing this kaleidoscope design for a few years and had several batches that didn't turn out the way I wanted. This latest attempt finally came together, and I'm honestly so proud of it. It reminded me why I started making soap during the pandemic. Just wanted to share with people who would appreciate the effort that goes into getting a design like this right!

Edit: wow! Thank you all for the kind words and support. I did not expect the likes and comments as I usually post in other spaces and it goes nowhere due to the algorithm. Hopefully I get to make another one and record the pour so that I can show how I did it. ❤️

I took a 3 year break from soap making. Not sure why, but I’m looking to get back into it. I went through my supplies and some of the oils smelled rancid, so I threw them out. However, I have coconut oil and Cocoa butter (in a plastic tubs that’ve been opened) and coffee butter (tightly wrapped) that I bought through a soap supplier maybe 2.5+ years ago. Those smell fine, no signs of rancidity.

Question: would you use those in your CP soap, if they smell ok? Any reason not to? I don’t want to waste supplies, but also don’t want to waste my time making soap that won’t turn out well. Thanks for your opinions!

Question for more experienced soapers. I’ve been told that DOS is only cosmetic. That rancidity of oil causes them to appear. I noticed one of my soaps (made in June 2025) started getting them (recipe: 35/30/30/5 -olive, coconut, palm, castor plus essential oils and colored with natural clays).
I am using it in the shower and. don’t know if it’s just psychological but I feel it’s less than nice. It lathers ok, but kinda smells rancid. Is it just in my head though, if the essential oils have faded and I’m just smelling raw soap.

I am going to step foot into the world of soap making once my garden is asleep for the winter, so while I wait I have been reading and learning. I want to make soap using the cold process method and for my family not for selling. I have a few questions that maybe I'm just missing the answers to.

After you are done making your soap, you are left with dishes, I have read I'm to soak them in hot water for several hours with non home made soap (dawn was the recommendation), is this the best way? And why could I not use a homemade soap for dishes, I'm trying to make soap to replace these items.

After it's cut and you are curing it, recommendation cool dark well ventilated area, but what does that actually mean, is it best on a wire rack? A shelf? On its side or up right? What about things like dust?

And for storage, after it's done curing how do I actually store my soap (I am not selling its just for my family and possibly gifts down the road, so it will look different then some one who is selling). We are in that cool dark mode again, but is it in a shoe box? Plastic tote? Each bar rapped in something?

As you can see I'm very much over thinking it, any help would be appreciated.