How to Make Homemade Soap for Beginners

Many people make their own soap for a variety of different reasons. Some enjoy soap making as a hobby and give the soaps as gifts, while others make there own soap for personal use. Once you have learned the basics behind soap making, you will probably make soap for both gifts and personal use. Making your own soap is simple to do and many also find it to be fun.

What is Soap?
When you read the ingredients on a soap label that you have purchased, you would definitely get the impression that a lot goes in to making a bar of soap. That simply isn't true. All that is required to make a bar of soap are two things, a fat and lye. Of course, the more you ad to your soap the more luxurious your soap will be, but again the basic bar is just fat and lye.

Ingredients
If you have never made your own soap before, the best soap making method for you would be the melt and pour method. It requires no handling of the dangerous chemical lye, as the actual soap compound is already made. Although this may not seem as crafty or fun, it is really the best way to get started. To use the melt and pour method, you will need to purchase an uncolored, unscented soap base. There are many places you can purchase a soap base from, craft stores usually sell soap bases and the Internet is another great resource for purchasing soap bases as well. You will also need a fragrance for your soap, essential oils are usually best. Additionally, you may want food coloring to color your soap and make it a bit more fancy looking.