Pharmacy Technician

Fun And Easy Project: Make Your Own Natural Soap

Making your own natural soap is creative, easy and fun. Whether you choose to start with a kit or make it totally from scratch, you’ll enjoy experimenting with fragrances, essential oils, herbs and colors with this creative and artistic activity.

Melt and pour is easy, and safe enough for kids. Some of the soap bases you can try are goat milk, honey, glycerin, olive & aloe, oatmeal or shea butter. There are some others as well, and each of the bases has different qualities. Try a few to choose the ones you like best.

To make a bar soap, just melt the soap base completely, stirring frequently. Add your desired fragrances, colors, or essential oils. Pour the soap into the molds and let it cool. If you get something that’s not quite what you expected, you can re-melt and try again!

For a more advanced creative process, you can make soap with fat, water, and lye. This method requires a little more equipment, time and knowledge. Safety first: Keep in mind that lye is a caustic agent and requires special handling. Always use eye protection and rubber gloves when handling it, and don’t let it touch your skin or clothing. Also, lye will damage aluminum and Formica, so keep it off table tops and counters. There are many great sources that describe this process in more detail. Just search the Internet for “make natural soap.”

Making soap is not only fun, it saves money. Compare the cost of fancy soaps to what you make yourself! Use your imagination to make your own soap look and smell exactly like you want. You can even start your own soap business!

Making natural soap at home is environmentally friendly compared to the production of commercial products. Prior to World War I, people used to make soap at home from leftover cooking fats, using purchased cans of lye. Before that, people made lye from wood ashes.

Best of all, you have total control over what goes into your soap. If you are allergic to one ingredient, simply substitute another. Vegetarians will appreciate soaps made from vegetable rather than animal fats. Skin is the largest organ of your body. Knowing what’s in your soap is great way to help take care of it. Sustainable living certainly has some healthy side effects!

Fun, flexible and creative, not to mention healthy and economical — that’s what making your own soap is all about. With so many easy soap-making recipes available, you’re sure to find a way to make your own unique soap. Anyone can do it.

Jen Hopkins maintains websites about beauty nail care, and make homemade soap. If you want to contact her, you can use the contact form at one of her sites.