To make soap entirely from scratch (as opposed to melting and pouring with premade soap bases), you’ll need to use lye, a caustic salt known as sodium hydroxide. The chemical reaction between lye and oil ingredients is called saponification, which creates soap (and leaves no lye in the finished product). Although homemade soap recipes can differ, several ingredients are constant:
Oil or fatLye (Sodium hydroxide)WaterEssential oil or fragrance (optional)
Once you understand how to work with lye and experiment with the ingredients, tools, and equipment that it takes to make soap, you’ll have learned a valuable skill.
The melt and pour process is not soap from scratch. Instead, pre-made soap bases are simply melted and molded, and you don’t have to touch any lye. The cold process and hot process are both techniques for making soap from scratch. The more popular cold process takes longer than the hot process, and the hot process creates more rustic-style soap. Both methods include working with lye. Rebatching is remaking a bad batch of finished homemade soap. It’s a way to save all the ingredients, but it’s labor and time-intensive and often results in less aesthetically-pleasing soap.
Charcoal & Vetiver Soap Recipe from Tweak and Tinker
Handmade Goat’s Milk Citrus Soap by Hello, Wonderful
DIY Rose Loofah Soap by A Pumpkin and a Princess
Citrus Poppy Seed Swirl Soap by Humblebee & Me
Cinnamon Cocoa Melt & Pour Soap by Soap Queen
Crystal Soaps by A Beautiful Mess
DIY Jelly Soap by Gluestickblog
DIY Milk and Honey Soap by Happiness is Homemade
Cafe Soap by Tifforelie
Lemon Shea Butter Soap by Simply Stacie
DIY Sugar Scrub Cubes Key Lime by A Cultivated Nest
Foaming Clay Soap by One Good Thing
Almond Oatmeal Goat’s Milk Soap by Mom Makes Joy
Epsom Salt Soap by Dream a Little Bigger
Fresh Aloe Vera Soap by The Nerdy Farm Wife
Bubble Bath Bars by A Beautiful Mess
