All natural, all the time

Soap making: All natural, all the time

The latest in our series of soap making inspiration:

Have you ever wondered why commercial soaps can leave your skin feeling DRY, IRRITATED and ITCHY?

Are you concerned about the ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT of commercial soap making processes and products?

Making your own soap at home can ensure control over the quality of the ingredients and is a more environmentally friendly option for you and your family.

Learn more and get started on our free blog at https://soapmakingadvice.com/

Liquid Soap Making Method

Practice makes perfect when it comes to your liquid soap. Photo courtesy of flickr user arenamontanus.

Practice makes perfect when it comes to your liquid soap. Photo courtesy of flickr user arenamontanus.

This post covers off on just one of the many soap making methods available to you as a soap maker. Please click here to read our full, comprehensive post on the various options, with benefits and drawbacks, breakdowns of the process and much more covered for all the most popular soap making methods.

Many soap making hobbyists start out by making bars of solid soap, because it is a fairly simple and straightforward process. Making liquid soap can be a bit trickier and takes some practice, but it is just as much fun and your final product is just as useful.

Knowing the basic soap making method for solid bar soap first is certainly a bonus. This is especially so as one of the more popular methods of making liquid soap involves making it from bars of solid soap, and the other is very similar to the hot process soap making method. Continue reading “Liquid Soap Making Method”

The Soap Making Made Easy Ebooks are now available for Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks and all major Ereader devices

Soap Making Made Easy by Michelle Gaboya

After many months in the planning, we are excited to announce (finally) that all 3 of our Ebooks:
Soap Making Made Easy;
Soap Recipes; and
Soap Making Made Easy: A Quick Guide;

are now available for Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks and all other major Ereader devices!

You can now take full advantage of all the great features of Ereader devices, such as:

– Optimised for reading on portable devices;
– Easily add to your Kindle, iPhone, iPad, Nook, or other Ereader;
– Adjust the font style;
– Adjust the font size;
– Hyperlinked Table of Contents and chapter headings, to navigate quickly;
– Bookmark favorite sections or recipes to easily access later;
– In-built search for the entire book; and
– Many more features.

We have tried to make the Ebooks available through multiple Ebook platforms, so you can decide which is the best option for you.

There are a few options for purchasing the Ebooks, broken down below:

Purchase directly through our website

This is our preferred sales channel and so we offer the best deal exclusively through our website – you can download ALL the different Ebook formats through our sales page for the price of 1.

That means you will get the newly designed PDF books, the .mobi format for Amazon Kindle AND the .epub format for iBooks, etc – all for the price of a single book!

By purchasing through our website you get the following bonuses:

1. An exclusive discount package for all 3 Ebooks, not offered anywhere else; and
2. All 3 versions of the Ebooks for the price of 1, an offer only available through our website.

Click here to purchase through our website.

Purchase in the Amazon Kindle store

If you would prefer to purchase through the Amazon Kindle store, all 3 of the Ebooks are available through our Amazon profile here – or search by author ‘Michelle Gaboya’ on your Kindle.

Purchase through the iBooks Store

The Ebooks are also available for purchase through the iBooks Store – just search for the title of the book, or search by author ‘Michelle Gaboya’ on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. You can still buy the Ebooks through our website here and easily add them to your library via iTunes.

If you need help with this, contact us and we can help get set up.

Purchase on Smashwords

All 3 Ebooks are available in many other formats for a wide variety of Ereaders through our Smashwords publishing platform here.

Purchase through your favorite Ebook store

We have worked to ensure all 3 Ebooks are available for all major Ereader devices. Through our publisher, our Ebooks should be available for purchase through Sony, Barnes & Noble, Nook and all other major Ebook stores – just search by author ‘Michelle Gaboya’ to find them.

If for any reason you can’t find our Ebooks, please contact us and we will help solve the problem, or purchase through our website here to download the appropriate Ebook format.

How To Make Soap At Home: Learning The Soap Making Methods

There are various methods which can be used to make soap at home. Photo courtesy of flickr user trenttsd

There are various methods which can be used to make soap at home. Photo courtesy of flickr user trenttsd.

In our last post, we explained some of the basic foundations for soap making, including ingredients, equipment and method. We have previously gone into detail on soap making ingredients and soap making equipment, so now it is time to expand on the soap making process.

There are various methods which can be used to make soap at home. The basic process for making bars of solid soap is similar for each technique, but there are variations depending on the method used by the soap-maker. Continue reading “How To Make Soap At Home: Learning The Soap Making Methods”

Soap Making For the Holidays, And A Free Recipe!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user theogeo

Christmas is just around the corner! Have you found the perfect Christmas gifts yet? Why not make your own gift with elegant soaps your family and friends will love and cherish.

With simple soap making recipe you can easily create elegant soaps.

Here is a simple soap making recipe for those of you who haven’t tried making soap yet.

A lovely gift idea for friends and family would be to make your own homemade soap. A personalized gift that you made yourself would proclaim so much more thoughtfulness than just buying one.

Making olive oil soap is fairly simple and easy. Try out this homemade olive oil soap recipe.

Soap making ingredients:

One 18 ounce can of lye (Make sure the lye is labeled for soap making. Some lye are too harsh, while some others are not strong enough to make soap with)
Distilled water – 5 cups (plain tap water has chemicals and impurities that can cause soap making problems)
Heat proof container for mixing the lye
Large stainless steel pot for mixing soap
Spatula (rubber or silicon)
Plastic container with lid (which will serve as the soap making mold)
Blender or beater

How to make the soap:

1.Before starting, make sure to read carefully the Manufacturer Safety Data Sheet on the lye. Lye must be handled with extreme caution.

Please always note that when you are using Lye that Safety is top priority.

2.Pour the distilled water into the heat proof container. Then add lye carefully.
Always remember:

Add lye to the water and not the other way around.

Stir gently and with care. The mixture will get hot and will produce fumes for a few minutes.

Set the mixture aside to a safe place and wait for it to cool off.

3.Pour olive oil into the other large stainless steel pot and heat to approximately 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Then remove the pot from the heat.

4.Once the container of the lye-water mixture is warm enough to touch, slowly pour the lye-water mixture into the warm olive oil, stirring the oil the whole time with your spatula.

Then, you can now use your stick blender or beater for short intervals, hand stirring in between.

You will notice the mixture starts getting thicker and more opaque which means trace is occurring.

Keep stirring until you see a pudding-like consistency.

5.Pour mixture into the plastic container with lid and cover with a blanket.

When it’s ready, pop it out from the container and stack it on brown paper lined shelves in a well ventilated area.

It takes approximately 4 weeks for soap to be aged and cured.

This recipe makes more than 10 pounds of soap.

Pack it any way you want it for a more personalized touch. Let your creativity run wild and don’t be afraid to use color and creative materials.

These handmade soaps will now be perfect Holiday gifts for your friends and family!

For more information on packaging and presentation of your soaps, be sure to check out our comprehensive Ebook package Soap Making Made Easy: Second Edition that reveals the best soap making techniques as well as recipes and tips on how to make your own soap at home.

It would also make the perfect gift for any friends and family who might be interested in soap making!

Take the next step

Download our FREE ebook, ‘How To Make Soap At Home’, by clicking here.

We also have a special offer on our Soap Making Ebooks range, with exclusive web bonuses and a risk free 60 day money back guarantee! Also available on Amazon Kindle, iBooks, Barnes & Noble and Kobo.

Scenting Your Soap – Fragrance Oils And Essential Oils

Fragrance oils are a great way to add a personal touch to your homemade soap. Flickr Markhillary

Fragrance oils are a great way to add a personal touch to your homemade soap. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Markhillary.

Scenting your homemade soaps is a great way to personalise your soaps, but with such a wide variety of options is a matter of personal preference.

There are two varieties of oils that can be used to scent soap: fragrance oils, and essential oils. Either can be used, according to the preferences of the soap maker. This article will give an idea of the benefits of each type of oils, but for our comprehensive post on essential oils, fragrance oils, example oils, their properties and quantities to add to your soap recipes, please click here.

Fragrance oils are made from a mixture of aroma chemicals. They are commonly used when there is no essential oil available for a particular fragrance, or when the essential oil is far too costly or environmentally irresponsible to use.

Unlike essential type oils, fragrance oils can be part natural and part synthetic, or all synthetic. Continue reading “Scenting Your Soap – Fragrance Oils And Essential Oils”

Scent Your Homemade Soap With Soap Making Oils

There are many scents, such as beeswax, you can use to personalise your soap (photo courtesy of flickr user Cuttlefish)

There are many scents, such as beeswax, you can use to personalise your soap (photo courtesy of flickr user Cuttlefish).

After you understand the basic soap making ingredients and have mastered a basic soap recipe, you can further personalise your homemade soaps by adding soap making oils. This article will give an idea of the benefits of adding oils to your soap, but for our comprehensive post on essential oils, fragrance oils, example oils, their properties and quantities to add to your soap recipes, please click here.

There are a variety of oils that can be used in the soap making process – each oil has different properties, making the saponification process a bit different for each, and resulting in different qualities in the soap produced.

Each oil must also be used in a slightly different quantity. Below is a brief list of the many oils that can be used to make soap, the qualities of each, the quantity in which each should be used, and when each should be added to the soap mixture. Continue reading “Scent Your Homemade Soap With Soap Making Oils”

Soap Making Fragrance Oils

Fragrance oils are a great way to add a personal touch to your homemade soap. Flickr Markhillary

Fragrance oils are a great way to add a personal touch to your homemade soap. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Markhillary.

Scenting your homemade soaps is a great way to personalise your soaps, and with such a wide variety of options is a matter of personal preference.

There are two varieties of oils that can be used to scent soap: fragrance oils, and essential oils. Either can be used, according to the preferences of the soap maker.

Fragrance oils are made from a mixture of aroma chemicals. They are commonly used when there is no essential oil available for a particular fragrance, or when the essential oil is far too costly or environmentally irresponsible to use.

Unlike essential type oils, fragrance oils can be part natural and part synthetic, or all synthetic. Continue reading “Soap Making Fragrance Oils”