All Around Pennsauken

By Kathleen Harvey, AAP Columnist

Now that summer is upon us, we’re outside playing in the sun, sand, and gardens. This outdoor play leads to sweat and grime accumulating on us and our clothing. Consider making your own soap to get clean; it’s easy, frugal, creative, and fulfilling. There’s something satisfying about taking a bar of your own homemade soap into the bath or shower with you.

Whether you are looking for a more natural alternative to commercial soap, which can be irritating to sensitive skin, or are a creative person looking for a new adventure, making soap is fun and not too complicated. Homemade soap has character. It smells good, feels good, and can make a nice present for friends and family.

Making soap is a basic chemical reaction between fats or oils and lye. Carefully choose a combination of quality oils, add your favorite fragrance or essential oils, swirl in a lively colorant, and your soap suddenly takes on that charming character that commercially manufactured soap can’t even begin to compete with.

There are four basic methods for making soap. The easiest is called melt and pour, which is a process where pre-made blocks of soap are melted, and fragrance is added to customize the base for personal taste. Cold processing is the most common method of making soap from scratch with oils and lye. Hot processing is a variation of the cold process method, where the soap is cooked in a crockpot or oven. Re-batching is grinding up bars or leftover pieces of soap, adding milk or water, and re-blending them.

Each method has pros, cons, and variations. Regardless of the method chosen, be sure to use utensils, pots, and pans dedicated to soap making, since ingredients are not edible. Residue leftover from soap making should never be combined with food. Second hand pots, pans, and utensils can be purchased inexpensively at thrift stores, and kept segregated from those used to prepare food. Safety goggles and dish gloves are good precautions as well.

Reviewing the basics of the two most popular methods, melt and pour and cold process, will help to decide which approach is appropriate for you.

Melt and pour soap making with a melt and pour base is like making a cake with a cake mix. What you lose in control of your ingredients and customization of your recipe, you make up for in safety, ease, and convenience. This is a good approach for beginners, before moving on to more complex methods. With melt and pour soap making, pre-made blocks of uncolored, unscented soap base are purchased from a craft store or soap supplier. The soap base is melted in a double boiler. When the soap is fully melted, add fragrance and color. Pour into a mold, and voilá, you’re done. The soap is ready to use as soon as it hardens.

Cold process soap making is a little more complicated and requires learning a few techniques of the craft first. Heat the oils in your soap pot until they’re approximately 100 degrees, measuring the temperature with a deep fry thermometer. Slowly add a lye and water mixture and blend until it thickens. Add fragrance, color, and additives and pour it into the mold. The raw soap will take about 24 hours to harden and about four additional weeks to cure before it’s ready to use. While the newly made soap is curing, wrap the pieces in scraps of material tied with bits of ribbon and tuck them into dresser drawers to provide a wonderful fragrance each time the drawer is opened.

Whichever method is chosen, you can make great soap. Work patiently and follow the instructions closely, which are readily available on the internet. Once you’re familiar with the basic steps, you’ll be able to let your creative inspirations flow and make all sorts of wonderful soap creations.

Have a safe, clean summer!