Written by Carol Pincione • New York, October 26 2021
Many customers asked me how I actually make my soaps from scratch.
Today I will start showing you in detail the initial steps I need to take in order to make the soaps you are using. I will show you the cold process method. This is the soapmaking method I prefer and use, out of the three methods .. I will later then explain to you why...
First things first. Once I gather all the tools, the first important thing to have is safety gear, even when we deal with a small batch like the one I am working on in the photo. When I weigh and then mix sodium hydroxide crystals with water, I am always super focused to make sure no accidents happen as sodium hydroxide is very caustic. It's very important to be fully covered during this phase and use safety glasses, mask, gloves while being in a ventilated area. When adding lye powder to water, the solution becomes extremely hot and it's necessary to wait some time until it gets cooler before I start the saponification process.
While I wait for the lye solution to cool down, I work on weighing all the oils, butters & additives based on the recipe and working on melting the hard ones.
I work with virgin oils and butters, here in this picture I am melting at low heat coconut oil and raw shea butter.
Once the hard oils and butters are melted, they are added to the soft oils. During this phase I keep checking the temperature for both lye solution and oils to make sure they are staying within a safe temperature range).
To be continued in the next post.....
