Soap Making Ingredients Make Your Soap Extra Special!

Soap making ingredients are what distinguish your soap from regular, everyday soap you buy at the store. Take a quick look at the ingredients below to get a feel for what they can do for you.

Naturally, your own personal taste is the primary criteria in choosing your soap making ingredients. If you are new to soap making, you should start with the basics and then, after gaining some experience, start to add various other ingredients to make your soap unique and wonderful.

This is how you can develop your own assortment of favorite handmade soaps.

INGREDIENTS

Depending on the type of soap you are making, you will require many different ingredients. The supplies suggested here are some commonly used in the soap making process, as well as some others used to make specialty soaps.

Soap Making Supplies - Caustic Agents

Lye

The common name for lye is sodium hydroxide, which is a strong alkaline that reacts with fat to form soap. Typically, lye is mixed with water and then added to the fat. Remember that lye is extremely caustic so great care must be taken when storing, handling, and combining lye to make soap.

Potassium Hydroxide

This substance is also caustic and appears as a white solid used in making soft or liquid soaps. Potassium hydroxide can be used in lieu of sodium hydroxide as the alkali part of the saponification process.

Soap Making Supplies - Fats

Tallow

Tallow is a pure fat suitable for making soap or candles. This product is used in rendering (cooking) animal fat, as a means of removing impurities. By using tallow, you will achieve a soap that is firm and mild.

Suet

This fat is what surrounds the kidneys of cows. Suet is an excellent starter for tallow, resulting in tallow that is firm and relatively easy to work with.

Beef Fat

This fat is found everywhere in the cow’s body with the exception of the kidneys. Beef fat is darker than suet and has a softer texture. These variances mean that the soap produced using beef fat is soft and that the tallow produced is of a lesser quality than that produced by using suet.

Lard

Lard comes in solid or semi-solid form and is produced by rendering hog fat. Using lard will produce soap with a firm texture but also little lather. Working with lard soaps is easy in that they are very mild.

Vegetable Shortening

Vegetable shortening is a good substitution for lard or other animal fats. Additionally, if you want to avoid using animal products, this would be a great alternative. Some people will actually combine vegetable shortening with other oils, as a way of increasing the strength of both the soap and its lather.

Soap Making Supplies - Oils

Palm Kennel Oil

This oil is harvested from the kernels of the palm tree, thus the name. Soap made using this oil will be mild and have a rich lather.

Palm Oil

Similar to Palm Kennel Oil, this oil is actually harvested from the pulp of the palm fruit. More common than Palm Kennel Oil, it produces a finish that is soft, mild, and has a rich lather.

Almond Oil

Almond oil is used as an emollient because of its ability to soften skin. Extracted from almond nuts, this oil also has a nice, sweet fragrance.

Apricot Kennel Oil

For this oil, it is extracted from the seeds of apricots. The nice thing about this oil is that is has moisturizing properties since apricots are high in mineral salts and vitamins. The fruit of the apricot may also be used as an additive in soap.

Avocado Oil

Avocado oil is produced by mashing the pulp of the avocado fruit. This oil is a good choice for making moisturizing soaps.

Candle Nut Oil

This oil is harvested from the fruit of the Kukui tree and is ideal for adding moisturizing properties. Therefore, if you want a soap that will help combat dry skin, this would be a great choice.

Castor Bean Oil

Produced by processing the seed of castor bean plants, this oil is thick and increases the richness of your soap. Another benefit of castor oil soap is that it is mild.

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