Soap Making

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Glossary for the Modern Soap Maker A collection of soap making terms, definitions and acronyms.

Soap & Soap Making & Soap A series of pamphlets and manuals from the FAO, originally designed for developing countries but easily adapted.

The Soapmaker's Kitchen Sabrina shows you just how easy it is to get started in soapmaking - and then gives you a hint of just how carried away you can get.

Sabrina's Soapmaker's Resources & Laundry Resources

Sabrina's Free Spreadsheet Calculators This spreadsheet is used to calculate how much it costs you to make a batch of soap, and generates some basic minimum retail and wholesale prices for your soap. It bases the analysis on pricing from various suppliers, which you can adjust as necessary. (Just change the vendor name, size of the package, and price and you're done.) It includes the costs of your time spent making and packaging the soap and the price of the packaging used.

Sabrina's Soapmaker's Diary is instructive and absolutely hilarious.

Sabrina's Oil Properties and Uses is more than a sterile table of figures. While all the technical stuff is there, Sabrina's somehow managed to make it more "user friendly."

Soapmaking Terminology This is a list of various terms and acronyms that are commonly used in soap- and toiletries-making information and recipes. If you have anything you're not sure about, that you'd like to see defined, drop her an email.

Recipes and Ideas These pages provide a number of recipes for various soapmaking and toiletry products. They're either Sabrina's originals, or posted with the permission of the authors. If you have a recipe you would like to contribute, by all means please send it to Sabrina via email.

Sabrina's Soapmaking FAQ Frequently Asked Questions about Soapmaking.

Cold Process an illustrated set of instructions for making cold process soap. The photos are kind of low quality, but hopefully you get the gist of the procedure.

Hot Process Hot process soapmaking is a method of making soap by which you introduce heat to speed the reaction. As a result of speeding saponification by using a hot process, the 6-8 week curing process of cold process is shortened dramatically, down to anywhere between 1 day and 3 weeks depending on your method.

Rebatch Rebatching soap has a somewhat undeserved reputation for being difficult, messy, and resulting in ugly soaps. Not at all!

Homemade Laundry Detergent Included are 3 liquid recipes, a powdered recipe, tips, and instructions about where to find ingredients. See also: Home Made Laundry Detergent Recipe and Hints - Homemade Laundry Products

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent Dishwasher soap is easy to make, and cost effective. I mix up a batch in an empty canister, and pour it in the dishwasher as needed...

Homemade Laundry Detergent FAQ's - I receive many inquiries about the detergent recipes, so I have listed the most frequently asked questions here.

Lye Calculator Online lye calculator. The Lye Calculator will calculate the amount of lye (either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide) required to convert the specified amount of fats and oils to soap. The Lye Calculator is provided free of charge, but it is copyrighted material and cannot be copied.

Bar Soap Recipes From MMS - the people who brought you the Lye Calculator

Lye to Fat Ratio Table A good saponification table. This table is for those of you who want to get a bit more scientific in soap making, or just want to check and see if the person who created the recipe knew what they were doing. Each fat has it's own saponification value, or "SAP Value." And because of this, each fat requires a different amount of lye to convert the fat to soap. 16 different oils/fats are listed – most obtainable in a survival environment, all easily obtainable in a homestead environment. Another winner from Walton Feed. [PDF link recovered 5/1/11] See also, for referenced article: Making Soap With James Hershberger

Homemade Soap Information Compiled by Kathy Miller, a 20 year veteran soaper.

Traditional Soap Making An excellent guide to making soap with wood ashes. Just about the best, most comprehensive, on line manual on the net. [PDF link recovered 5/1/11]

Deodorant Soap Deodorant soap, made with coffee, absorbs odors. A Suite101.com article

Fixed Oils - part 1 & Fixed Oils - part 2 This is a description of the properties of fixed oils used in soapmaking. Part 1 lists the first half of the alphabetical list of oils and part 2 the second half of the alphabetical list of the properties of fixed oils. A Suite101.com article

How to Swirl Colors in Soap This article describes how to swirl two or more colors of soap in a single bar. A Suite101.com article

Making Soap with Goat's Milk This article describes the different ways to make soap with goat's milk. A Suite101.com article

Cranberry Lane's Lye Calculator Simply enter the weights of the oils or waxes in your soap formula and the calculator will determine the amount of Sodium Hydroxide and Water required.

Colonial Soap Making. Its History and Techniques. This booklet will provide persons interested in the ways of early American life some information about soap and soap making. Soap making is a homestead skill often forgotten in discussions of colonial days. Soap was of great value in keeping the household a far better place to live and work.

Laundry Soap Recipes and Ideas Probably 20-30 different recipes and links to much more at the bottom of the page.

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