I used goat milk ice cubes, olive oil, babassu oil, sweet almond oil, cocoa butter, and castor oil. The stupid thing wouldn't go past a light trace, I think the temperature of the lye solution was too cold and the fragrance oil must have further decelerated it. I love how delicate the ocean lines came out though!

For the sandy layer I used crushed walnut, a bit of turmeric, coffee grounds, and some mica.

For the ocean, I did a single pot swirl with three different shades of blue/green, alternating with thin layers of the darker blue. I poured with the mold on a folded towel and then rocked the mold briefly after pouring was complete to encourage a wave shape.

For the clouds (or waves, depending on your perspective), I ended up very gently pouring white in rows along the mold. This is where I wanted a thicker trace for texture. I colored mostly with kaolin clay hoping it would help it thicken and did some really intense immersion blending, but no luck!

Hi everyone,

I think I've cornered myself a bit, as the options for oils and fats are endless. I'm still a beginner (I made one soap a couple of years ago that wasn't perfect but was still usable, and the problems were 100% my own error), so I'd like to start with something simple and not too many different oils.

Here are the options I've been considering:

1. 100% coconut oil salt bar at 20% superfat. Reviews are mixed. Some people say it's still harsh, others say it's fine. I live in a country with cold winters, so a very stripping bar isn't ideal for me.

2. 100% lard. I used lard before and the smell was very pungent. At 100% I worry it would really come through. (I can't find tallow anywhere locally.)

3. A blend: 40% lard, 20% coconut oil, 20% olive oil, 20% shea butter.

Since many of you have a lot more experience than I do, what would you recommend as the best beginner soap to make? Thank you! :)

This was my first batch of 100% olive oil soap and I'm not sure what happened here. I blended it for quite a while until I got to almost a medium trace, then poured it into the mold. It stayed "jiggly" in the mold until the second day, at which point it started to set up. Since it took so long to thicken, I left it in the mold for 4 days total. (I also painted some gold mica on the top because I was trying to texture it and it just looked bad so I was trying to hide that lol)

When I got it out to cut it, it was too hard to use my wire cutter and I had to use a knife. It looks like it had a partial gel phase, I think? But it is BRITTLE. I dropped a bar and it broke in half and the interior looks strange. I'm not sure what happened because I used the recommended amount of sodium lactate and didn't do a huge water discount or anything. Do y'all have any idea what happened here? The soap feels nice on the skin and lathers like what I'd expect from a castile soap that hasn't cured yet when I tested it.

(We are keeping this just for family, I'm not planning to sell any of it btw)

I have 3 fragrances I would like to order from AFI, but with their 15 lbs minimums it would take me a good 10-15 years to use the fragrances which is obviously not realistic. Would anyone be interested in splitting them with me? I would of course cover shipping.

The fragrances I want are:

-Compare to aroma PRINCESS COTTONGRASS by Lush ® (F29338)
-Compare to aroma WATERMELON LEMONADE by BBW ® (F23608)
-Compare to aroma VOLCANO CAPRI BLUE by Aztec ® (F26171)

I was watching a soapmaking company on YouTube that makes CP soap, and she said, “Because of how we formulated our recipe, the soap will be fully cured in a week.”

How do you formulate a recipe to achieve a one week cure time? Using less water is one thing I understand, but surely that alone isn’t enough to shorten the curing time that dramatically, is it? Are there specific oils, additives, or other formulation techniques that can help speed up the curing process?

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Somewhere between a snowy day and a walk through the woods

Hi everyone! This was my first time trying cold process soap making, and I’m hoping to turn it into a small business, so I’d really appreciate some advice from experienced soap makers.

Everything was going well until I added the essential oil. The moment I turned around to get my mica color, the soap batter suddenly became extremely thick! I couldn’t create any swirls or designs, and I couldn’t even mix the color properly. I ended up pouring everything into the mold as it was.

The soap is now in the curing stage. I tried a little piece, and it seemed to produce some foam, which was encouraging, but I’m still unsure how the final bars will turn out.

Has anyone experienced this before? Could the essential oil have caused the soap to accelerate trace, or could something else in my recipe or process be responsible?

Since I’m just starting out and want to develop this into a business, I really want to understand what went wrong so I can improve my technique and make beautiful, well-made bars.

I’d appreciate any advice, tips, or suggestions. Thank you! 😊

I've been chasing this kaleidoscope design for a few years and had several batches that didn't turn out the way I wanted. This latest attempt finally came together, and I'm honestly so proud of it. It reminded me why I started making soap during the pandemic. Just wanted to share with people who would appreciate the effort that goes into getting a design like this right!

Edit: wow! Thank you all for the kind words and support. I did not expect the likes and comments as I usually post in other spaces and it goes nowhere due to the algorithm. Hopefully I get to make another one and record the pour so that I can show how I did it. ❤️

Hey all, I am new to this area. For whatever reason, I am having a difficult time finding sodium hydroxide without companies wanting to charge ridiculous amounts of money for s&h. Any possible local ideas on where I can find it by chance? I live in Texas, so I am open to options.

TIA

I took a 3 year break from soap making. Not sure why, but I’m looking to get back into it. I went through my supplies and some of the oils smelled rancid, so I threw them out. However, I have coconut oil and Cocoa butter (in a plastic tubs that’ve been opened) and coffee butter (tightly wrapped) that I bought through a soap supplier maybe 2.5+ years ago. Those smell fine, no signs of rancidity.

Question: would you use those in your CP soap, if they smell ok? Any reason not to? I don’t want to waste supplies, but also don’t want to waste my time making soap that won’t turn out well. Thanks for your opinions!

Question for more experienced soapers. I’ve been told that DOS is only cosmetic. That rancidity of oil causes them to appear. I noticed one of my soaps (made in June 2025) started getting them (recipe: 35/30/30/5 -olive, coconut, palm, castor plus essential oils and colored with natural clays).
I am using it in the shower and. don’t know if it’s just psychological but I feel it’s less than nice. It lathers ok, but kinda smells rancid. Is it just in my head though, if the essential oils have faded and I’m just smelling raw soap.

I am going to step foot into the world of soap making once my garden is asleep for the winter, so while I wait I have been reading and learning. I want to make soap using the cold process method and for my family not for selling. I have a few questions that maybe I'm just missing the answers to.

After you are done making your soap, you are left with dishes, I have read I'm to soak them in hot water for several hours with non home made soap (dawn was the recommendation), is this the best way? And why could I not use a homemade soap for dishes, I'm trying to make soap to replace these items.

After it's cut and you are curing it, recommendation cool dark well ventilated area, but what does that actually mean, is it best on a wire rack? A shelf? On its side or up right? What about things like dust?

And for storage, after it's done curing how do I actually store my soap (I am not selling its just for my family and possibly gifts down the road, so it will look different then some one who is selling). We are in that cool dark mode again, but is it in a shoe box? Plastic tote? Each bar rapped in something?

As you can see I'm very much over thinking it, any help would be appreciated.

I've been working on this idea for a few months and just hit the breakthrough today! I'm still working on the red, but was too excited not to try out my star embed. I use all natural colorants, no clays, no micas (even synthetic), no oxides, ... basically if you pull it out the ground and it doesn't get put back I don't use it. The white is pure coconut soap, indigo for the blue, and the red (pink) is an experiment I'd like to perfect before divulging.

First time "making" soap. It's melt and pour. We will be moving to cold process soon. I bought several blocks of melt and pour before I learned much more. My wife made the ocean theme bar, I did the Halloween bar. Was a little hard working the soap at a temperature low enough to not melt the embeds. The purple was suppose to be although the top two thirds and swirled in with the orange and blue, but I still like it. Also honey Manuka soap in luffa we grew. Various essential oils used in all.

I’m getting conflicting result from internet searches. Does anyone have experience with cold process soap and spearmint or peppermint? I’m looking for a suitable percentage for a fisherman’s soap for gifts for friends. Wholesales supplies lists 0.25% for spearmint and 5% for peppermint. Why is this? I’m looking to add a much smaller amount of anise as well. Comments are welcomed. Thanks.

Hi! I’m still working with melt-and-pour soap, and I’ve started experimenting with layers for a watermelon soap.

The bottom two layers are made with a shea butter soap base. I always wait for one layer to dry before pouring the next. After the green layer dried, I poured the white layer, followed by the red layer.

However, when I unmolded the soap, the two shea butter layers (green and white layers) didn’t stick together. I also noticed that the glycerin layer separated from the shea butter layer after using the soap a few times.

How would you troubleshoot these issues and get the layers to bond properly?

Our Black Oudh soap is proof that handmade can be every bit as luxurious as it is unique. Deep black tones, golden sparkle, and an elegant signature stamp make every bar a statement piece.

This soap’s recipe was -

Olive oil 782g
Castor oil 28g
Shea butter 46g

Lye 110g
Water (breastmilk) 248g
4% superfat

These roundish things appeared and I am wondering if it is DOS or something called ‘stearic spots’?

I am thinking it may have to do with the low temperature when I was mixing the oil and lye water solution. I had to keep them somewhat cooler cuz my lye water solution for breastmilk only reached 25 degrees celcius (77 degrees in fahrenheit) and would not go any warmer. So I had to cool my oils down around similar temperature..

Hope I do not see this happen again in the future 😭

Edit: forgot to add I had added collodial oatmeal and bentonite clay.

Hey soapy friends! I make a single width mold worth of soap with each batch, but I make the recipe slightly larger than needed so I can get two flat bars in a silicone mold. These flat bars ALWAYS are much softer and have a ton more soda ash. What am I doing wrong? Doesn’t matter if I fill those first or last, they are always softer.

Admittedly, ALOT went wrong with this batch of soap starting with me adding way too much lye to my water and then also mixing up my coconut and olive oil amounts. 🤦🏼‍♀️ It was not a good soap making day. I did try to adjust and ended up using 29.25 oz tallow, 26 oz coconut oil, 43 oz olive oil & 5 oz castor oil. I then used 14.52 lye & 32.48 water. I added just under 2 oz of cinnamon essential oil and 2 of peppermint, I think. Honestly, I could be wrong about any of these numbers…it was that bad. Anyway, they’ve been curing now for about a month and this is what is happening. What is it?!

I am brand new to making soap, & only making small batches. I have gathered all the materials, but the math bit is intimidating me. I need someone to explain it to me like I’m 5.

How do I figure out how much of each ingredient I need?

Suggestions for a reliable Lye calculator?

I would like make the hot process soap more fluid. I found a recipe online that uses sugar and sodium hydroxide in the lye water and plain yogurt at end. Will the result look like a cold process bar of soap?