Make soap to sell? Trust yourself

When you first decide to make soap, you’ll probably be wondering a lot, including: What fragrance should I use? What combination of oils and fats is best? What shape and size should I make the bars?

In answer to all these questions, when you are just starting out, you should temper the practical requirements with a “let’s do something” attitude, because simply put, the first batch you make will answer 99% of your questions and secondly, you can’t wait. please everyone every time. In fact, I previously spent several hours carefully mixing essential oils to scent a batch of soap, only to have my partner announce that the end result smells like cat pee!

Fortunately, prior to this very honest assessment, my first batch was very well received, which boded well and gave me the confidence to continue.

So when you’re considering how to scent your soap, it’s best to start with the scents you love, just in case you haven’t given this much thought, visit a local store that sells soap, homemade soap if possible, and then take note. of the fragrances used, if they are not listed, just take note of the flavors as they appear to you, something to jog your memory when you get home, a starting point is all you need.

When deciding which oils and fats to use when making your batch of soap, you should consider your own skin type. If your skin is naturally oily, design a soap that dries down a bit. If you suffer from dry skin, include moisturizing oils and go over the required amount of oils to give a little excess, this will ensure that the finished soap helps moisturize and condition your skin.

Finally, when deciding on the shape and size of your finished bars of soap, you need to consider some practicalities. A five pound batch of soap will make about twenty to thirty 4oz bars of soap, you need to provide adequate molds to accommodate this amount of soap. If you want to create nice individual bars in oval or round shapes, you’ll need to buy plastic molds for the whole batch and this can be expensive. Not only that, but if you’ve purchased a very specific mold shape, it may not be appropriate for all of your soaps; For example, heart-shaped soap may not be suitable for making a soap designed for the man in his life.

It’s best to start with a soap “loaf” mold, one that creates rectangular blocks of soap, which can be cut into individual bars, it will vary depending on the oils used, but a 4 oz bar will be about four inches long, so two inches wide and about three-quarters of an inch thick, a handy size for adult use and reasonably easy to create, but if you want to create children’s soap, it may be a bit too large so that should be taken into account as well.

I started using loaf pans, this works reasonably well, but the lye reacts a bit with the non-stick surface, leaving spots and also the bars of soap are oddly shaped. I then tried using a twelve inch long ABS (plastic) vent, this also worked pretty well, but the heat caused the sides to warp a bit and the soap was very difficult to remove from the mold. Also, the chute dimensions were closer to four and a half inches by two, so the bars were five ounces instead of four, this reduces the number of bars per batch and can affect your profit if you are not careful.

In general, my advice to you is to make some soap first, it is very easy and the satisfaction of making your own soap is immense. Second, trust your instincts, make whatever soap you want, not everyone will like it as much as you do, but many will!