A soap maker friend got me hooked and I love, love, love using her handmade soap! Learning how to make soap is something I’ve been interested in for a long time but the idea of making soap from scratch with lye seemed scary, easy to mess up, and wouldn’t allow me to use the variety of types and scents I like when I buy it from my friend’s shop because one batch of soap makes enough bars to last six months.
At her encouragement I dabbled in making super easy soap with
melt and pour soap base like this kind a few bars at a time in the microwave oven. I got a feel for how add ins and scents work and was itching to do more.
(Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)
It wasn’t until my friend closed her brick and mortar store that I started looking into making real deal hot process soap in our spare slow cooker. (My Instant Pot has taken the big slow cooker’s place and can now be dedicated to soap making using
this liquid soap making book. It’s the best!)
Getting my mad scientist on!
I made unscented liquid Castile soap because it is more versatile and requires less equipment than bar soap. My first batch turned out OK for a first timer. I like that I can add a little variety by scenting (or not) each dispenser full of soap with this
Organic Aromas essential oil sampler I got last year for review that otherwise will sit largely unused. I love the oils and blends, it's just that I err on the super duper side of caution when it comes to diffusing essential oils around Lacey.
The only downside to eventually replacing all of my bar soap when it ran out with liquid soap is realizing I don’t have enough liquid soap pump dispensers for every sink in the house. I need to fix that.
How to Recycle a Glass Bottle into a Soap Dispenser