For my birthday this year I asked for some soap making equipment.
I found out there are really 2 ways to make soaps. Either you make it completely from scratch, or you buy the soap base and add things to it to make your fancy soaps.
So I thought, why not try both!
The full soap making process apparently takes about 6 weeks. So I started just with a soap base.
Unfortunately it comes in a plastic container. But I do have plans on how to reuse the container.
To be able to mold the soap, I had a few options. A silicon cake pan and a used milk carton. I decided to try the milk carton for this one.
I wanted to make a vanilla and oatmeal soap. I quite like vanilla as a scent. And I love oatmeal soap. So Why not have both! I used my happy chopper to make the oats a bit more fine. I think I used half a cup of oats, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla... I sort of just winged it.
I cut up the soap and put it in my pyrex dish to melt in the microwave. Soap is like chocolate when you melt it. You want to go in short bursts in the microwave, and stir regularly. I put it in for 2 mins, then added the oats and vanilla, and kept melting the soap in 2 minute segments about 5 times. Basically until it was no longer lumpy.
After it was melted, I poured straight into the milk carton. Unfortunately, as it set over a few hours, gravity pulled all of the oats to the bottom. But that is fine. Next time I just need to use different molds.
My present also included a soap cutting kit. So after it was all set, I cut it up into bars.
I'm looking forward to making soap completely from scratch in the next few weeks. But this was a good way to start learning and to practice some of the process!