I’ve let go of liquid soaps in the last few years and opted to used classic solid soaps for my hygiene but between trendy scents or seasonal supply I haven’t been able to find a soap I can stay with.
This led me to consider making my own soap but is it worth it?
Artisanal soaps are expensive and hard to find in my country and mostly pass the notion they are targetting luxury customers and not making something for everyone to use and enjoy and trying to make an effort to create change.
I am aware initial costs have to be considered and that there is a learning to it.
It might be fun, but it is only cheaper in the long run if you consider your time to be worth nothing.
My time is priceless. So priceless that I run out of it even if I try to save it. Time is the least concern I have.
Soap making involves very little time investment. There is a long drying time (weeks to months) but you can spend that time on other things 🙂
“oh no I’ve run out of soap and forgot to make more. See you in 5 months, shower” - my autistic ass
I did this once with pickles. Ran out for a month, then made more pickles than anyone should ever eat.
And now you are in a pickle?
You shower with pickles?
Gotta, at this point
I dill not see that coming.
…I’ll show myself out.
Meanwhile, I’m thinking I’m going to make a different batch every two weeks to have enough soap to gift.
If it IS fun for you though, I’d suggest it is far more valuable to you than the soap itself and/or any savings.
I make my own soap from 3 ingredients: lard that I process from bacon grease, lye, and water. It is extremely cheap and easy to make, and cleans really effectively. And no, the soap does not smell like bacon at all, it just smells like soap.
Isn’t that what is considered hard soap? A bit like Marseille soap.
You use it for general cleaning or personal hygiene?
Cool stuff.
Sidebar:
I remember reading about soaps at one time, and there was this trend on websites to demonize sodium lauryl sulfate, the key chemical ingredient in soap, in order to sell their own soap.
There was complaint that always bothered me: exposure to sodium lauryl sulfate was used as a measure of skin irritability. This, they showed was an example of how HARSH SLS was.
I hated that, and kept thinking, maybe SLS is the measure because it’s, cheap, easy to produce, and has a mild effect that ramps up slowly for more precise measurement.
And that I saw Fight Club and saw what lye actually does to skin and started wondered what the hell these people thought soap actually DOES to get you clean if they were so worried about “harsh chemicals.”
The lye reacts with the fat to chemically change into soap. The ratio of fat to lye in the recipe should ensure that all of the lye chemically reacts, leaving none left in the final product.
And this is what soap actually does:
One end of the soap molecule loves water, the other end hates water. Tons of the soap molecules end up sticking to dirts and oils, completely surrounding them and pulling them away into the water.
Oh, yes, I’m getting chemistry flashbacks, now.
One of the ends of the soap is hydrophilic and the other is hydrophobic, so the hydrophobic end buries itself into the grease.
?
Yep
You can do it pretty cheap if you source your fat from high end liposuction clinics.
I should soap myself to lose weight :(
I get the reference and I feel obligated to remember you about the first rule.
Unless you enjoy the process, or the end result enough then no.
The reason artisanal soap is expensive is because it’s a fairly labour intensive process on a small scale. I did the numbers with a friend who thought about making it a few years back.
The overall costs long term are much cheaper to make your own soap.
We started making food for our dogs due to one of them having an allergic reaction to the food we were feeding them before. It’s far far cheaper to make it ourselves, and isn’t really that hard. It just took learning about the basic steps and doing it.
You got me curious: kibble or wet?
Because I know how to prepare fresh/wet food for my dogs. But kibble is a whole different subject.
Not really relevant but still relevant https://youtu.be/tK-cKWSPBBs
I’be stumbled on that video before and the concept was just horrifying.
I’m very happy to spend 7 years of my life in the kitchen for the results!
Just buy a ready to use kit with everything already weighed out. Cold saponification is the easy way. Took me about 30 minutes to prepare six bars and they will last for quite some time. The soap turned out much softer but i keep the unused soap in a dry place for curing. Maybe the next soap will be harder. Next step for me will be to buy the ingredients in bulk to cut down on plastic waste. I will also add fragrance next time.
The kits I’m finding are for decorative soaps and I’m not in the wanting to make things to stuff my drawers.
I’ll have to read on cold reaction soap.
Are soaps like dove or ivory not available?
Ivory is the original generic soap and really cheap. Stuff lasts forever. And isn’t scented. I bought a sleeve of several bars for like $7.99 - should last 2 years or more.
Dove technically isn’t the same thing, but it’s also cheap and some people find it less drying.
Totally. Once a year I make a huge batch with all the things I like and none of what I hate. I give out a bunch for Christmas and have enough to last me the rest of the year.
Occasionally I’ll dig out my supplies mid-year for something special or to make soap with friends, then I just have extra.
It was easy to learn and the costs were worth it.
My ex used to make our laundry soap. It was lot of work but cool. Got a recipe to share?
I alternate between different ones every year. I just tried to find my favorite olive oil soap recipe but I’m only getting AI slop results. Silly me for not bookmarking. The best one I found was basic cold process recipe that only uses olive oil, lye and water. If you’re searching, the one I like recommends using a milk carton for the mould and letting the soap sit for a week before slicing, then letting it cure for 60 days. The ratio of ingredients should all be the same across good recipes. I don’t trust the slop.
Otherwise I used meltable glycerine soap base I used to get from a place called The Soap Dispensery in Vancouver. Doesn’t seem like they sell it since I moved, so I can’t tell you what was in it. To the melted glycerine I would add jojoba oil, shea butter, vitamin E, tea tree oil, charcoal and cedar essential oil. I like woodsy, herbal scents.
Sometimes, if I plan ahead, I’ll dehydrate lemon and lime rinds into crumbly bits to add for texture and exfoliation. Other times I use coffee grounds.
Another time my niece mixed in vanilla, mandarin and rosemary for the scents, it was a hit with everyone. Smelled like a healthy orange cream pop.
During the pandemic, my wife took up soap making.
Took her about two months to finally create the recipe she wanted to use. The good ones, we give out as gifts.
All the rejects are still good. It’s now three years and we’re still going through all the bars she made.
I made soap once and it was fun. We were 4 people and everyone made a slightly different version. The base was the same but the add-ins (fragrant oils, poppyseed, coffee, honey, etc.) were chosen individually. It was quite fun and everyone walked away with 4 different types of soap (after a few weeks/months).
There is a soap making comm, but it’s dead last I checked.
Whenever I think about making soap I think about making my own lye in a pottery kiln. Would fire pots while burning up clam shells or whatever to make the NaOH, at least that’s how I remember it’s made.
I want to go back to basics but I’m not considering going that basic. But it’s a nice idea.
You’d make CaO that way, which mixed with water forms Ca(OH)2 (milk of lime). I’m not sure, but as I remember it NaOH is used to make liquid soaps, lime is used to make solid soaps.
I dunno if they’re still around, but there’s a number of soap companies in Palestine that genuinely had some of the best bar soap I’ve ever used. No perfumes, the soap itself is dense enough to last 10x longer than anything you buy at the store, and I had no irritation. They might be rubble by now tho.
I’ve had that! Guy from the Greek grocery was at my company’s open house, giving out a bar with every olive oil purchase. Had no idea how long a bar lasted because I would lose track before replacing it.
One night I was watching a YT video on making soap and there were my boys! (I know it was them because of the stamp.)
That got me started on making my own. First batch was perfect, subsequent batches refuse to dry properly.
That’s just glycerin soap.
Ive been making my own liquid body for about 6 months and it doesn’t include castil soap or putting bar soap in water. All the ingredients are available online and the end result comes out to a fraction of the price of store bought. It’s also a great option for allergen control as all 7 of the ingredients are low reactives.
I’m currently pushing into shampoo and conditioner, both are a little more work than the body wash as they need to be heated and ph balanced. If my research is correct, all three can be made as concentrates for long term storage and all you have to do is add it to the water and xanthum gum before use.
If you’re interested in getting into it, hit me up and I’ll give you the deets. I have incredibly specific preferences in texture, smell, and experience so it’s not perfect by my standards, but it’s fucking amazing compared to buying it at the store and I’ve wanted root beer scented body wash since I was a child. Plus, you don’t need anything special for the body wash, I mix it in a 4 cup measuring cup and put it in aldi Condament bottles.
I never got past making liquid hands soap, is the process any different?
My partner has a coconut allergy, so I had to learn how to make soap, I just find the process a bit existing right now. Hoping to make some bar soap in the near future once spoons are available
I posted the recipe and directions as a reply to OP’s reply if you wanna check it out. Cocamidopropyl betaine is processes from coconuts but is supposedly to be hypoallergenic. I’d test it on her carefully before investing in it. Personally I find it so much less taxing than bar soap.
Yeah, I don’t believe anything coca- is hypoallergenic given the number of stuff I’ve seen them react to. But it being supposedly hypoallergenic might explain the rumblings I’ve heard about coconut stuff no longer being listed as a major allegen (hooray)
Thanks for the reply, even if I can use the info.
This actually ming be more helpful. It’s what I’ve been using to figure out ingredients that we like and decipher recipes. They’re a fantastic way to make sure you aren’t getting something awful.
