Fats

When heating fats and oils, you want to use caution. Never leave the substances cooking without supervision since they are highly flammable.

If the fats were to boil over, they would easily scorch the pot and have a tendency to splatter, again creating a fire hazard.

Do not allow children or pets near the pot with heated fat or with the pot while you are heating the fat or oil. Keep in mind that oil and fat reach extremely high temperatures, retaining heat even after being removed from the heat source.

Burns from heated oils and fats are painful and can be quite serious.

If fats or oils ignite, you want to smother them. Whatever you do, never use water, as water sprays and actually spreads the oil fire. If the fire is in a pot, slide the lid onto the fire.

If the fire is outside the pot, use a fire extinguisher, baking soda, or other means of snuffing out the fire. Be careful that the flames do not surge around whatever it is you are using to smother the fire, causing you to become burned.

Careful Practice

You will also want to ensure that your equipment is in good working condition. Faulty equipment can result in failed batches of soap but equally important, you will eliminate residue, color, or discoloration from your equipment that could be passed into your soap.

Make sure that you understand how each piece of your equipment works. This is particularly important when it comes to your thermometer and scales.

Soap ingredients must be carefully weighed and processed at particular temperatures. Mistakes with weight or temperature will certainly result in a failed batch of soap.

Read the recipe carefully several times before you start the soap making process. This will ensure that you have the ingredients necessary for the recipe and if you plan to substitute, you will know ahead of time if the substitution is compatible.

Without taking the time for this simple step means, you are experimenting and may not be successful.

After reading and re-reading the recipe, ensure that you know what all of the directions and measurements mean. Volume and weight are not the same even though they both are measured in ounces. Assuming they are the same will only result in a failed batch of soap.

For example, understanding the directions for processing the ingredients, such as pureeing versus liquefying, is also important in that this will affect the measurements, texture, and ultimately the form of your soap. In some recipes, slight variation does not affect the soap significantly, but in other recipes, it can be disastrous.

Workspace

Safety is essential in soap making, but where you work can be as important as how you work. Caustic lye can be dangerous to you, but it can also wreak havoc on all kinds of surfaces and seriously hurt your children and/or pets.

Therefore, you want to pick a location for your soap making that is not easily accessible. Although the kitchen may seem like a logical place to make soap, there are a few factors to consider:

• Caustic lye will eat laminate, Formica, linoleum, and many other common surfaces found in kitchens. It may also react with carpet, so it is important to either cover these surfaces or choose another location.
• Soap making generally takes at least an hour or two, so pick a location that can be "out of service" for that amount of time
• You will want some ventilation, especially when dealing with your lye/water mixture. Rendering fat and tallow can also leave some unpleasant scents that may linger.
• Once your soap is ready to cure, you will want to keep it in an out-of-the way place. Having to move it is a chore, and may result in spills or stains.

For these reasons, we recommend that you choose a basement, garage, or outside workspace, preferably with a concrete floor.

A small hotplate can provide all your heating needs, and choosing a location other than the kitchen will ensure that your family still has access to that all-important room.

Here is a list of some of the recommended features of your workspace:

• A door that can be closed to keep kids and pets out
• A window for ventilation
• Some counter space or a work table
• Fire extinguisher
• Easy access to the place where you will leave your soaps to cure, as well as to your deep freeze or freezer

So, the moral of this story is, take the necessary safety precautions when working on any of your soap making projects.

Go to soap making for additional information and more soap making tips.

Good luck and have fun making your own hand made soap!