soap making as a hobby

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I have just made my first batch of soap. It was very simple. It is made of lye, lard, and water. I also added some EO and colour. I hope it works out. My question is are there any good sites I can go to to learn more. I would like to know where I getingredients, to have a nicer smelling and softer soap. I live in canada and would be interested in talking with people with the same interest.

-- debbie mulder (mulder.family@sympatico.ca), April 20, 2002

Answers

I used to make it to sell! Alas I was ahead of my time. I was beginning to get in the mood again for some soap making. I'd be happy to talk with you about soap making. I have many good books and used to belong to a soap list, that was 6 years ago. Things have changed a lot now. There are lists and forums all over the net. Just do a search.

Susan

-- Susan in MN (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), April 20, 2002.


If you go to "Yahoo groups" and type in soap it will give you a bunch of groups you can check out. You can find out all the information you want from this groups as where to shop for items needed.

-- Sheila in NC (nannie@intrstar.net), April 20, 2002.

I am a hobby soapmaker also. I usually make a batch or two for my personal use. I use the fats from the slaughter of the beeves we put in the freezer. I don't scent or enrich the basic soap, I rebatch it after saponification is complete - usually 6 weeks. I just rebatched the last little basic soap I had around here and I have more fat in the freezer so I had better get busy with some also.

-- Patricia Ramsey (pattykettler@yahoo.com), April 20, 2002.

I find the websight http://soapmaking.chatboard.org very helpful. It has a meesage board as well as links to soap ingredient suppliers. Enjoy, it's a great hobby.

-- cindy frazee (cindy@tctc.com), April 20, 2002.

There are scads of soapmaking sites on the web. Just do a search. Of course my favorite is goat milk soap. No additives or scents whatsoever. Anyone who is allergic to the detergent bars offered as "soap" today should check into making their own. Not difficult and your skin will love you for it.

We make many concoctions of goat milk soap. But I'm not here to sell, just to tell you that natural soap, with it's natural glycerins will love your skin.

Dennis

-- Dennis Enyart (westwoodcaprine@yahoo.com), April 21, 2002.



Debbie,I have used Glorybee foods for supplies they are fast and eficient.The prices are good I thought.Pam

-- Pam (pams65@hotmail.com), April 21, 2002.

I sell soap, go to Sugar Plum Sundries and they have an excellent forum just for soapmaking. Most on the forum are in business but will discuss any problems. Whenever I have a problem that is where I go to first. With your ingredients, I don't know how your going to get a lather but it will be soap. You need some different oil like coconut to get the lather. I do not like using tallow or lard simply because it can clog the pours although I love it for my laundry soap much better than my all veg soap. I use olive/coconut/palm/cococ butter as a basic receipe. But there are a lot of good receipes out there. Now if your going to self-sufficient and you just slaughter a lamb I would render the fat and use the oil, same with pig or beef.

-- debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), April 21, 2002.

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