A few readers have asked me, Rose, how do you make soap? Is it easy? What are the main ingredients in soap.  Is it like cooking?  Here’s a great post to read on the different ways to make soap.

There are generally 4 ways to make soap.

• Melt & Pour: a pre-made glycerin base and the easiest to make. The name itself implies the process. You “melt” the base and “pour” into a mold. Additives such as oils/butters, colorants, fragrances, etc may be added to your soap base.  Once the soap has cooled in its mold you can unmold and use right away.  This method creates visually striking soaps for the handcrafter.
• Cold Process:  Mixing vegetable/animal oils and butters with a saponifying agent such as sodium hydroxide, poured into a mold.  The soap “cooks” itself.  The drying time generally takes 6 weeks. This method of soapmaking allows the soapmaker to be in the “Director’s Chair”.  A soapmaker has control of what ingredients go in a batch of cold-process soap. The soapmaker can omit ingredients such as fragrances or any other allergens for those with sensitive skin.
• Hot Process: This method has the same foundation as cold process soap except that soap is “cooked” before pouring into a mold.
• Rebatching (Handmilling): Is a pre-made cold process soap that allows the soapmaker to handcraft beautiful soaps without having to touch caustic soda (sodium hydroxide). Choice of fragrance and additives can be added to the soaps.

In the next post I will share the first installment of a video series from Anne-Marie Faiola of SoapQueen.Tv on the process of making Cold Process Soap.