How do you make a soap base?

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No soap, no bathing, no hand wash, no cleanliness, germs, food poisoning, diseases … And we don’t want that!

While making a soap purchase, we consider buying the branded ones. Soaps with good fragrance or the organic ones. Currently, markets are all flooded with the varieties in soaps. Lemon soap, Neem soap, fairness soap, disinfectant soap, there is hardly a choice that you don’t find in the market. At least I don’t think so!

Spare me for saying this but what guarantee do you have that whatever you read in the manual is an authentic description? There are so many ways in which you can be fooled by the clever marketing techniques.

So why not consider making soaps on your own with easily available products and make it work. Why do we put our trust into something, which we are not even fully aware of? Also it’s fun creating things with your own hands and trying it. It will give you immense happiness, trust me.

Here are the ways how you can prepare a soap with your own hands and efforts. Sounds fun?

Let’s do it then.

What are the things required to prepare soap?

There are some basic things we need to prepare soap. Those are :-

Alkali
Distilled Water
Glycerine (as it is an essential thing for our skin to remain healthy)
Essential oils (of your choice)
Surface active substances (That helps in forming lather while you use a soap)

Hold on, I am not going to ask you to prepare the soap bases all by yourself. You get ready made so basis in the market.

Soap bases come in different varieties as per your need. It can be see-through (like the glycerin ones available in the market), it can be white base ( it is mainly made of titanium dioxide) or it can be made with natural things. I personally like the soap base from the soapery. They are cost effective and they do not compromise on the quality. The packing however is on the simpler end, which again is fine, if you don’t need anything fancy.

You are free to choose whatever suits your body type and preference.

So now that we know how to find the soap base, should we begin with the process?

To make the homemade base, try using baby’s soaps. It’s very light in acidic quantity and has less adulteration. As it is made for babies, it is likely to be safe. Babies’ skin is very sensitive in comparison to an adult. So to be on the safe side, take that as your base. You can easily find a soap that is without fragrance and non dyed. That is the first step.
Then put that base to melt. The whole soap might take longer to melt. It’s easier to cut it into small pieces or simply grate it. Then put it into the oven for not more than 40 secs. If you want to do it with the help of steam then, put it into a container then place it floating above boiling water in a larger vessel. This is called double boiling process.
It may take 15 minutes to half an hour to melt. The melting time also depends upon the quantity of soap you’re making. Once the soap has melted finely, you can add whichever type of beauty ingredient you want to use.

For example, if you are looking for a turmeric soap you can add a pinch of turmeric powder in the melted soap and make a concoction out of it. Similarly, you can add glycerine, Orange peel powder, Sandalwood powder, Rice powder, Lemon juice or Lemon peel powder too.

The consistency should be smooth like that of a liquid curd. After that, remove the soap concoction from the heat. Then add the essential oils of your choice and mold your result into the shape.

Now that you know how to prepare a beauty soap from the soap bases you can also try making soap base from scratch. You want to try that?

Soap bases, as told earlier, are being sold everywhere. They come in readymade packages to save your energy and time. But what is the point if we don’t give it a chance of making things on our own right from the scratch.

That would be fascinating as well as satisfying to watch. In that way, it’s fun being creative and innovative. And this is what the smart population of the world is doing to prepare completely herbal soaps at home.

You are going to boil the soap in an airy and fully ventilated room. Wear a protective clothing. Know that alkali is caustic. The moment you touch it with your skin, it is going to burn, get red or even bleed. For that matter, you need to neutralize the alkali.

To neutralize the alkylene would require any of these substances:

Pickle or cabbage brine
Citric acid
Acetic essence
Sour fruit juices.

First of all get your hands on a non metallic vessel. Yes you heard it right, neither you are going to stir the concoction using a metallic spoon. The spoon can be wooden. For your convenience, you can even glide in a wooden stick.

While working with the alkali, dispose the chemical into water. Never pour water into chemical base, that will result in spurting.

Adding a lot of alkali can lead to crumbled base. It can also lead to a very strong reaction. Strong alkaline soap is neither good for skin. All these reasons convince as to keep the quantity of the alkali very optimal. However, be careful, because too less alkali will not help the base become thick and stiff, or a fixed shape. Basically, the ratio needs to be calculated precisely.

Now the depending upon what type of effect you’re expecting from the soap, you can prepare the oil base. Again the ratios need to be measured and balanced.

The oils used have to be super fat oils that are the going to moisturize your skin. Melt the hard oils. Add the alkaline solution into the oil keeping the temperature of the oils and alkaline base equal. Stir the mixture.

You can complete the heating process using either the double boiling method or oven. Use a pH metre to ensure the the level of alkali (base) is optimum. The soap should neither be too acidic nor basic. Also the pH metre is going to help you know that the soap is prepared. Soaps have specific pH.

If you don’t have a pH metre, you can simply put a drop of the mixture on the edge of your tongue and taste it. Be careful. You don’t want to burn yourself. If it tingles your tongue or if it tastes soapy, you know your soap is ready.

Pros:

Making soaps is really fun if done with proper guidelines and precautions. It also needs to be in correct measures and quantity.
Once you get your hand at making, nothing can stop you
People crave for such things, so if you get a hand at this and it acquires your area of interest, then you can start making it and sell it.

Cons.