Soap Making
Soap Making is a time-honored tradition and is making a come back these days with everyone wanting to have fewer chemicals in the food and on their bodies. And with more and more people developing allergies to our modern products making personal items from scratch with pure materials is a great way to make money. My daughter and granddaughter have been making soaps and bath scrubs for Christmas presents for the last couple of years now. They have a nice feel and don’t have a lot of perfumes in them. Don’t get me wrong I still cannot go into any booth or shop that is made up of just bath products with all the conflicting smells but the handmade glycerin soaps with light oil fragrances are a nice item in our shower. It too is kind of an expensive and very time-consuming hobby but if you like doing this sort of thing then now is the time to make a little money at it. We met and now follow a retired couple that attends various festivals in the South Georgia and North Florida area selling their handmade products. They do own a farm and grow most of their herbs. If you get a chance check out their website called Dixie Dreams Farms http://www.dixiedreamsfarms.com/
Of course, you can learn about soap making by reading books and watching videos. If you know someone who makes them you might want to watch them work and offer to help for a little while. Get your books and supplies on Amazon and watch some tutorials on YouTube.
Info From Wiki
“The word sapo, Latin for soap, first appears in Pliny the Elder’s Historia Naturalis, which discusses the manufacture of soap from tallow and ashes. In a domestic setting, “soap” usually refers to what is technically called a toilet soap, used for household and personal cleaning. Household uses for soaps include washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping, where soaps act as surfactants, emulsifying[2] oils to enable them to be carried away by water.
The production of toilet soaps usually entails saponification of fats (triglycerides). Triglycerides are vegetable or animal oils and fats. An alkaline solution often called lye or sodium hydroxide), induces saponification whereby the triglyceride fats first hydrolyze into salts of fatty acids. Glycerol (glycerin) is liberated. The glycerin can remain in the soap product as a softening agent, although sometimes separated. Zosimos of Panopolis, circa 300 AD, describes soap and soapmaking. Galen describes soap-making using lye and prescribes washing to carry away impurities from the body and clothes. The use of soap for personal cleanliness became increasingly common in the 2nd century A.D. According to Galen, the best soaps were Germanic, and soaps from Gaul were second best. This is a reference to true soap in antiquity.
A variety of methods are available for hobbyists to make soap. Most soapmakers use processes where the glycerol remains in the product, and the saponification continues for many days after the soap is poured into molds. The glycerol is left during the hot process method, but at the high temperature employed, the reaction is practically completed in the kettle, before the soap is poured into molds. This simple and quick process is employed in small factories all over the world.
Handmade soap from the cold process also differs from industrially made soap in that an excess of fat is used, beyond that needed to consume the alkali (in a cold-pour process, this excess fat is called “superfatting”), and the glycerol left in acts as a moisturizing agent. However, glycerine also makes the soap softer. The addition of glycerol and processing of this soap produces glycerin soap. Superfatted soap is more skin-friendly than one without extra fat, although it can leave a “greasy” feel. Sometimes, an emollient additive, such as jojoba oil or shea butter. Sand or pumice may be added to produce a scouring soap. The scouring agents serve to remove dead cells from the skin surface being cleaned. This process is called exfoliation.“
Some Instructional Beginners Videos From YouTube
How to make soap at home using all-natural ingredients
Super Easy Soap for beginners
How to Make Natural Soap with Essential Oils – Homemade Soap
We would love to support our local soap makers in North Florida. Please use our CONTACT US form to let us know your online store, website, and/or social media pages.
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