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Posts Tagged ‘soap making recepices’

There is no reason to buy soap at the store when you could be making your own soap of better quality at home. When you make your own soap, you are the one choosing what goes into the soap, and preventing beneficial ingredients from being removed.

One of the most obvious benefits of making your own soap is that you can make sure the all the good stuff stays in - manufacturers of beauty products remove humectants like glycerine, which naturally occur in soap and which are essential to moisturizing skin, so that they can manufacture and sell those ingredients separately. By ensuring that you have dry skin, they ensure that they will make a profit. Making your own soap means you are spending less by leaving in more - it’s what a wise consumer does!

Soapmaking is economical - the ingredients are inexpensive and easy to find. Once you learn the basics, you will only want to use your own soap, because there is no end to the variations you can put on soap projects. You will save so much money since you are not buying department store soaps!

The projects can also mean saving money on gifts - lovely handmade soaps really show you care, and can be given to friends, family and co-workers. You can even share your newfound knowledge by throwing a party where you teach people how to make their own handmade soaps - just keep the kids away from these parties, because the ingredients in the soap involve acids that could hurt a child.

The basics of soapmaking are very simple, requiring just a few ingredients. Lye, oil and animal fats bind together to make soap in a process called saponification. It’s very important to wear protective gloves during the process, though - lye can burn your skin!

At a craft store you may even purchase a soap making kit that will have everything youall need to start: recipes, oils, lye, and a mold to shape your soap. Once you get more comfortable with the process you can expand your thinking outside of the kit, maybe by using different oils and playing with shapes.

It’s tempting to “go organic” and buy expensive soaps in an effort to avoid harsh additives. But by making your own soap, you can protect your family members from allergens and other irritants that come from perfumes and dyes in department store soaps!

Making soap allows you to make something your whole family can use, while being creative and using your imagination. In fact, your ability to control the ingredients in the soap will ensure that everyone loves it much more than their old store-bought product. With all these variations, you can make new soaps for the rest of your life!