Thursday, April 3, 2008

Review of the Soap Making Fun Video Package

The Pros

This video shows how to make soap using the cold process, which is by far the most popular way for making homemade soap. It consists of easy-to-follow instructions for making soap using this method as demonstrated by soap making expert, Alex Whitehouse The directions given during the various demonstrations are clear and easy to understand. The pace of the video is good, allowing the viewer to absorb each step before it moves on to the next step. It also includes suggestions for finding soap making supplies, such as oils and molds.

The video can be paused at any time and, if necessary, backed up to review a previous step or steps to aid comprehension. Since the video is downloaded and stays on the viewer’s computer it is always there for future reference. The video looks professionally produced, and both picture and sound quality are excellent.

The Cons

The packed size of the video is a bit over 125 MB and, as such, takes a bit of time to download. It is also available in five parts to accommodate dial-up connections but the task of downloading all five segments might take some time Also, it would have be nice if the video came with a printed guide of some kind for future reference.

The Details

The Soap Making Fun video begins with an description of the recipe being used in this demonstration. It then goes into a comprehensive explanation of the equipment required to make soap. This section includes important information one of soap’s main ingredients, lye - which is extremely caustic - and shows how to safely add it to water to create the lye solution

The video then shows how to create the fat solution, which in this case consists of a mixture of coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil and avocado oil.

Step three in the video shows how to bring the lye solution and the fat solution to the same temperature and how to drizzle the lye solution into the oil solution and then mix the two.

One of the best features of this video is that in addition to showing how to make the soap, the expert soap maker, Alex Whitehouse, also gives many good tips, including:

• How to clean up in just a fraction of the normal time
• Where to get high quality supplies
• How to shorten the soap making process without sacrificing quality
• And how to make various kinds of soaps.

Alex also teaches how to know when the mixture reaches “trace,” how to pour the soap into molds, and even what to do with the soap making equipment when you’ve finished..

The Bottom Line

If you are interested in making homemade soap but have no experience, this video is an excellent way to get started. It takes you through the entire process in easy-to-follow steps and can have you making rich, creamy, colorful soap right from the get-go.

The pacing of the video is excellent and it provides a lot of good “show” as well as “tell.” The expert, Alex Whitehouse, provides many helpful tips and clearly knows his subject.

My personal conclusion is that if you watch this video, you’ll become a true soap maker. Plus, there’s a money-back guarantee behind the video that lets you keep it for up to eight weeks risk-free.

So you really have nothing to lose.

If you’re interested in soap making and would like to get started the easy way, just Click Here! for more information and be sure to look for the nice, free bonuses.

Why Lye?

Lye is a very nasty and caustic chemical. I spent some time searching for some alternative to lye but the sad truth is that you simply cannot make soap without lye.

Some of the experts I have read suggest that you make the lye out-of-doors because of the fumes that are produced when you add the lye to water. I agree that if you can do this, that's probably the best idea.

If you cannot make the lye solution outside, make sure you prepare it in a well ventilated place. For example, if you have a fan over your stove which vents to the outside, this would be an excellent place to make your lye solution.

No matter where you make the lye solution, you will need a heavy rubber or Tyvek apron, rubber gloves and goggles. You will also need to pour the lye into the water and not vice-versa, as this can cause what's known as a volcano effect and, trust me; this is not a good thing.

It is important that you follow your soap recipe exactly, when making your lye solution. To do this you will need an accurate scale that can weigh down to 1/10th of an ounce.

Other equipment that you will need in your soap making are:

A stainless steel pot or eat enamel painted pot, a plastic or stainless steel spoon, and a thermometer which reads as low as 90° and higher than 200°.

If you will be using the hot method to make your soap you will also need a stick blender (like you would use to make a milk shake in a glass) and a professional-quality stand mixer. Finally, you will need your molds.

On the other hand, if you will be using the cold method for making your soap, you can forget the stick blender and the stand mixer.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Hot, Cold or Melt and Pour?

How to make homemade soap? That's what this blog is all about.

And why, you ask, would you want to make homemade soaps?

When you make your own, you can indulge yourself with rich, creamy, wonderfully-scented soaps or you can use them as gifts to to show friends and relatives how cleaver and creative y0u are. And you'll save money, too. Plus, there's just a great feeling of accomplishment when you make something from scratch yourself.

Getting Started

First, understand making homemade soap is not that tough. In fact, if you pick the easy method (melt and pour), you can make some soaps in about an hour.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, you need to know the main ingredients or what the heck is soap made of anyway?

The answer: Fats and lye.

Lye is a common, easy-to-buy chemical but very caustic and needs to be handled with care. The fats are usually a combination of something like olive oil, lard and tallow.

When these two are combined correctly, their little molecules dance around with joy, form a huge mosh pit, and then hurray! They turn into soap (a process technically called saponification).

What You Need to Make Homemade Soap

There are three methods for making homemade soap.
  • Hot method
  • Cold method
  • The aforementioned melt and pour
I'll deal with melt and pour later so here's what you need for both the hot or cold method:
  • A recipe (more about this later)
  • Sturdy rubber or heavy-duty latex gloves
  • A "point and shoot" thermometer
  • A digital electronic scale that measures down to 1/10th of an ounce.
  • Goggles
  • Stainless steel or enameled painted pot
  • Plastic or stainless steel spoon
  • A stick mixer (like that used in a glass to make milk shakes)
  • Soap molds
  • And if you choose the hot method, a professional stand mixer
The recipe

No matter which of the three methods you choose, you'll need a recipe. A recipe will give you no only the required ingredients, but the exact amount of each. Here, for example, is a recipe for Coconut & Olive soap, courtesy of Cristin Ocasio, Owner, Wyndham Soapworks.
  • 8 oz weight olive oil
  • 8 oz weight coconut oil
  • 8 oz weight rendered tallow
  • 3.49 oz weight sodium hydroxide (pure lye) Red Devil brand 100% lye (*NOTE)
  • 9 fluid oz water
You can find other soap recipes at web sites that are on my link list to the right.

Hot or cold? What's the difference?

Without getting into a lot of technical jargon at this point, let's just say that the hot method requires the main ingredients to be mixed at a temperature of 110 - 115 degrees F., and the cold method calls for doing the mixing at a temp of around 90 degrees F.
The Hot Method

In this method, you first put cold water in a plastic container and slowly add a measured amount of the lye (following whichever recipe you've chosen).

Next, you liquefy the fats (some combination such as coconut oil, olive oil and lard) by heating them on your stove. Once the fats have liquefied, you remove the pot from the stove, put it in the sink and slowly drizzle in the lye solution.

In the hot method, the oil solution and the lye soltion are mixed in a double boiler or crockpot at a temperature that's between 110 to 115 degrees F. You can stir and walk away, do something, come back later, stir and walk away again. But it can take a half day to reach "trace."

After the lyes and oils reach trace, colorants and fragrances can be added, again using the stick blender.

Because the lye and fats are mixed at 110 to 115 degress F., the "gel" phase occurs here and eliminates the need to insulate the soap for 24 hours. This means it can be used almost immediately after molding.

The cold method

In brief, the way you make soap using the cold method is to measure out the required amount of lye, add the water, and stir the two together until all the lye crystals have dissolved. The required fats (some combination such as tallow, oil and cocoa butter) are weighed and added to the stainless steel pot, and then heated until liquefication occurs.

The lye mixture is then cooled so that, ultimately, both it and the fat mixture are at a temperature of 90 degrees F. When they both reach this temperature, you slowly drizzle the lye mixture into the fat mixture and stir gently.

The final step is to add colorants and fragrances and pour the soap into molds.
In this cold method, the soap reaches "trace" in 10 to 20 minutes or sooner. However, it must be incubated by being wrapped in blankets or towels for 24 hours. The soap will continue give off heat for many hours after being molded. During this time, it goes through the "gel" phase. The soap may be removed from the mold after 24 hours.

Melt and Pour

If either the hot or cold method seems a bit much, but you'd still like to make homemade soap, there's a simpler process called Melt and Pour.

To do this, you will need to buy some soap base - available at many craft shops and online - along with whatever colorants, fragrances and other additives that tickle your fancy. You will also find these at most craft shops and online.

To make the soaps, you simply melt the soap base, pour in the colorants, fragrances, etc., then stir, pour the mixture into your molds and presto!

You have soap.