Saturday, May 31, 2008 

How to Make Homemade Soap

Learning how to make (homemade) injury compensation claim is not difficult and disk data recovery services something yourself from scratch can creative, fun and rewarding. In fact, you can actually make soap in as little as an hour. You can make herbal soaps, glycerine soaps or many other kinds of soaps. You can make rich, creamy soap for yourself or create wonderfully-scented soaps to use in gift-giving.

There are three ways to make soap

The Cold Method

The first- and most popular - way to make soap is called the MESOTHELIOMA advice method. This is because the soap is made at room temperature, and because the lye and the fats are combined at a temperature of just 90 degrees F.

This Beta Blockers requires latex gloves, a heavy apron, goggles, and a "point and shoot" thermometer, as well as a stainless steel pan, a digital electronic scale, Pyrex glass container, a wooden spoon, and a rubber spatula.

In brief, the way you make soap using the cold method is to measure out the required amount of lye, add the water, and stir the two together until all the lye crystals have dissolved. The required fats (most often tallow, oil and cocoa butter) are weighed and added to the stainless steel pot, and then heated until liquefaction occurs. The lye mixture is then cooled so that, ultimately, both it and the fat mixture are at a temperature of 90 degrees F. When they both reach this temperature, you slowly drizzle the lye mixture into the fat mixture and stir gently.

The final step is to add colorants and fragrances and pour the soap into molds.
In this cold method, the soap reaches "trace" in 10 to 20 minutes or sooner. However, it must be incubated by being wrapped in blankets or towels for 24 hours. The soap will continue give off heat for many hours after being molded. During this time, it goes through the "gel" phase. The soap may be removed from the mold after 24 hours but a process called saponification takes several weeks to complete.

The Hot Method

This method, like the cold method, requires a heavy apron, rubber gloves and goggles. In addition, you must have an accurate thermometer and a digital electronic scale that weighs down to 1/10th of an ounce.

Other equipment you will need are a stainless steel or enameled painted pot, a plastic or stainless steel spoon, a professional stand mixer, a stick blender (like that used for making milk shakes in a glass) and soap molds.

In addition to the lye and water, you will need the fats - typically olive oil, lard and tallow.

The hot method is much like the cold method for making soap in that you first put cold water in a plastic container and slowly add the lye.

Next, you liquefy the fats injury at work oil, olive oil and lard) by heating them on your stove. Once the fats have liquefied, you remove the pot from the stove, put it in the sink and slowly drizzle in the lye solution.

Here's the difference. In the hot method, the oils and lye are mixed in a double boiler or crock pot at a temperature that's between 110 to 115 degrees F. You can stir and walk away, do something, come back later, stir and walk away again. But it can take a half day to reach "trace."

After the lyes and oils reach trace, colorants and fragrances can be added, again using the stick blender.

Because the lye and fats are mixed at 110 to 115 degrees F., the "gel" phase occurs here and eliminates the need to insulate the soap for 24 hours. This means it can be used almost immediately after molding.

Melt and Pour

The third way to make soap is the easiest and is referred to as melt and pour. In this method you simply melt pieces of soap base - available at craft stores and online - add your colorants or fragrances, stir in the required additives and then pour the thoroughly-melted soap into a soap mold.

Because this method is so simple, it's the favorite way to make soap for many people, especially novices.

Note: Any method that requires the use of lye and the need to melt fats on a stove means that you take great care as lye is extremely caustic and can burn skin and eyes, and the fats are very inflammable. Also, to make soap using any of these three methods requires exact recipes and very specific instructions. Be sure your follow both.

Would you like to make soap? Does it sound like a fun hobby? Then you'll want to go to the blog, how-to-make-homemade-soap.blogspothttp://how-to-make-homemade-soap.blogspot It has information about soap making and a review of a video that shows step-by-step instructions for making soap using the cold method, which is by far the most popular way to make soap. Or you can go to my Squidoo Lens, squidoo/review-of-soap-making-funhttp://squidoo/review-of-soap-making-fun, which includes a "sneak peek: of the video.

Douglas Hanna has written more than 200 ezine articles on a variety of subjects. He is a blogger and publishes a number of websites, including the popular hd-radio-homehttp://hd-radio-home