If you would like to include your older children in your soap making endeavors, please make sure they listen to the safety video and understand that all the safety measures are there to keep them safe. High school science labs require safety measures in place when working with any chemicals. You can explain our safety measures are exactly the same.

We do not state an age requirement, because your know your child's behavior. If your child takes you seriously, listens to your instructions and can follow them, then they will be fine. If they horse around, do not take your instructions seriously or can't understand the seriousness of the safety guidelines, then please do not include them. 

Ultimately, the responsibility lies with you as the parent. We are not responsible for accidents or injuries to you or your child.

If you would like to include your younger children, they can watch at a safe distance. If you want them to participate, I recommend buying a melt & pour base to make your soap instead. Melt & pour bases include the lye, but the saponification process is already complete. You simply melt it and pour into the molds. You can also add fragrance oils or essential oils as well as a colorant, but make sure you understand and follow guidelines on each ingredient you add. I do not offer melt & pour courses since the actual soap making process is already complete. However, these soap bases are really fun for kids because you can still swirl colors and pour into a fun mold.

(Do not let small children handle essential oils or fragrance oils. These are toxic and harmful when spilled directly onto the skin or accidentally wiped into the eyes. Use the same safety cautions as lye until the scent is mixed/diluted into the melted soap base.)

It really depends on your experience level and the types of butters/fats you are using in the recipe. Some butters or fats require a sustained heat point for a few minutes. Others don't need any heat at all. 

If you have never made soap before, plan on having a 2-hour dedicated timeframe away from distractions. Distractions include small children, pets, phone calls, etc. Some mothers of small children like to tackle their soap making after the kids go to bed.

The phone? Yep, set it to silent when you are concentrating on soap making. A phone call answered at the wrong moment can either lower your concentration level that is needed when working with lye, or stop you from making that cool topper design because you missed the window of opportunity. (Ask me how I know, lol.)

I mentioned a few distractions above in the "how long does it take" question, because distractions can slow you down or make you miss your window of opportunity for certain steps.

In addition, distractions can make you lose your concentration when using lye. You don't want to flirt with an accident because you were trying to contain a small child or pet.

The best time to make soap is when you can be completely free of distractions for at least a couple hours.

Small Children - Take advantage of your spouse being home, during nap time or after bed time, away play dates or older kids being able to babysit.

Pets - Lock your pet away from your area. Lye can be just as caustic for them and having them underfoot is dangerous for both of you.

Phone - Set your phone to silent and ignore everything else while you learn to make soap. This is the safest method of making soap. Period.

Once you are competent with soap making, you can decide how much and what kind of distractions are allowed in your area without it affecting your level of concentration or safety. Until then, let your family know you are completely unavailable for a certain amount of time.

The best place to make soap is where you have all four of these:

1. A counter or table to spread out
2. An empty sink (free from dirty dishes)
3. A room free from small children and pets (and free from any children or pets running through)
4. Good ventilation (open window or door with some cross breeze)

For most people starting out, the kitchen table or counter is the best place. Clean the kitchen and do the dishes, so everything is out of the way. You don't want unsaponified soap and/or lye contaminating anything used for making or serving food.

If you have a workshop or garage, use it. If you don't have a sink out there, that's ok, you have options and we'll discuss it in the course.

If your area doesn't have good ventilation, that's ok, too. You can mix your lye solution outside. We'll discuss this in the course as well.

It is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to the supplies and equipment you use. Yes, you can wash your kitchen bowls and immersion blender, but what if you miss something?

It's cheaper to buy gently used bowls and utensils from goodwill than end up at the emergency room.

We'll give you the full list of items you will need and the best places to buy them, cheap. 

Yep, the saponification process is done within 48-72 hours, but the real magic happens in the subsequent 4-6 weeks.

As your soap cures, it loses water weight and starts to dry. The more dry, the longer and harder your bar is and the longer your bar lasts.

You can use your soap after the 72-hour window has passed, but your soap will disintegrate in the shower in just a few days or a week. However, you can "try out" one of your soap bars and check out the lather and suds. Then put it away for a month.

Depending on the recipe, your soap will be ready to use within 4-6 weeks. Most of the water will have evaporated and the soap will have shrunk by about 10 percent.

Yes, it will be hard to be patient, I remember it well. 

Want a really great bar of soap? Set it in your storage room for 10 years, then use it. BEST SOAP EVER.

Not all of my courses are geared towards beginners. Under the "Add to Cart" button, you will see the following information:

Each course will tell you if it is a "Beginner" or "Intermediate" course. It will also tell you the approximate cost for the supplies and ingredients for the recipe.

The beginner courses have everything you need to successfully make that soap without any prior experience.

The intermediate courses are for people who have made soap before, have the equipment, understand the soap calculator, have worked with lye, etc.

All the courses have this image under the "Add to Cart" button:

Each course will tell you if it is a "Beginner" or "Intermediate" course. It will also tell you the approximate cost for the supplies and ingredients for the recipe. This varies greatly on where you buy and how much you buy.

For your first course, the cost will be higher because you will be investing in the equipment & supplies, the safety equipment, and the base ingredients. After that, you will have less investment because you will already have a lot of the items you need to make the same recipe over again or try another course.

In each course, I give you a shopping list with links of the best places to buy your supplies and ingredients. This way you aren't buying unnecessary items, items you "think you might need" or fun stuff that you might want to add to a subsequent batch. You will have a list of only the items you will need for this batch. No more, no less. If you find that soap making isn't for you, then you won't have a bunch of expensive equipment or 10 pounds of cocoa butter you need to offload before it goes bad.

Check out the last FAQ about the cost of equipment and supplies.

If you want to calculate how much your first batch of soap will cost, it'll be easy. Just keep your receipts and add it up. It's not going to be cheap. But, as you continue to make batches of soap, your costs will decline.

Your first batch may cost you $10/bar when it's all said and done. (Yes, this is an expensive hobby.)

But, once you get a few batches under your belt, you could get down to $5/bar depending on your ingredient costs. We'll talk more about the pros & cons of buying in bulk and when to consider buying more to save money.

In this economy, even professional soap makers who buy their ingredients by the vat or drum, are lucky if they can make soap for $1.50/bar. Then add labor, packaging, shipping and marketing to it and you can see why handmade soap is expensive to buy.

For some reason I love expensive hobbies. Then I get hooked!

I was actually doing research for my other expensive hobby of learning to be more self-reliant. Soap making was on my list of about 50 other things. This one stuck and I'm in it for the long haul.

I love not only the ability to feel more self-sufficient, but I love that soap is an actual necessity.

Every bar is different; in look, shape, style. I never tire from trying new recipes, scent combinations, etc. 

For my business, however, I lean towards using animal fats (tallow and lard) because when push comes to shove, we probably won't be able to find the exotic cocoa butter or marula oil some recipes call for. Even shea butter and olive oil is imported into the US. Tallow and lard will be the easiest thing to get a hold of if things go south, and knowing how to make it will be an asset in our arsenal.

In addition, if you are a family that is trying to reduce the toxic ingredients in your every day life, changing up the soap and skincare items you use is a great start to making your skin more happy. Our ancestors used tallow and lard in their skincare routine, and they had flawless skin. (Just look at your great-grandmother's picture and see if you can find a blemish.)

Our ancestors used to make soap by hand and it took a lot more effort than it takes us today. But I think I feel just as accomplished when I make another batch. 

In the olden days, people used pot ash to create potassium hydroxide. They would burn their hardwood in their fireplace, then scoop out the ash and put it in a barrel. They would pour water over the ash and let it sit for a while. The water would filter through the ash and create potassium hydroxide. A few people on YT have videos explaining the concept. 

Once they retrieved the potassium hydroxide solution, they would add their melted animal fats to it and create a very soft soap. In order to harden the bar, they needed to add salt (hence the sodium in sodium hydroxide). 

Back then it was a crap shoot as to the concentration of potassium hydroxide and the amount of fats they should add. Many journals of people's ancestors recount mentioning how they hated bathing with lye soap because it was too strong and would strip or irritate the skin. They had no way to measure the correct amount of lye to fats. In lye heavy soap, there wasn't enough fats to complete the process and lye was left in the final bar.

Today, lye is made in a lab where we have the ability to be consistent in its process. As soap makers, we have access to soap/lye calculators that tell us exactly how much lye to use based on the types of butters/oils/fats in our recipe. If we follow our recipe, our soap comes out correct. After 48-72 hours the saponification process is complete and there is no more lye present in the soap at all.

Although the lye we use today isn't considered "natural", because there is none of it left in the soap, many soap makers label their handmade soap as "natural" if all the other ingredients are considered natural.

I'm not a chemistry major, so this is a watered-down version of what happens.

Saponification is the chemical reaction that occurs when oils, butters, or fats are combined with a lye solution (sodium hydroxide). During this process, the lye breaks apart the fatty acids and completely transforms them into soap and glycerin.

By the time saponification is complete, there is no active lye remaining in a properly formulated bar—only finished soap.

What about pH?
Lye starts out with a very high pH, but as it reacts with the oils, it is used up in the process. Finished soap typically has a pH around 9–11, which is normal for true soap made through saponification.

How does soap clean?
Soap cleans by lifting away dirt, oils, and impurities so they can be rinsed off the skin. While its higher pH can make it less hospitable for some microorganisms, soap’s primary role is cleansing—not acting as a disinfectant.

As a side note: The glycerin mentioned above is a humectant and helps keep our skin soft and hydrated. However, commercial soap is stripped of it's glycerin to be used in other products. Just another reason to stop using commercial soap.