I bought few bars from local dairy and it’s quite good quality. We made soap on the farm growing up. Seems like it is lost art. Amish around here make a lot of it. Do you folks make your own handmade soap?
Does anyone here make their own homemade soap?
- Thread starter 53' Stude
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I live in the city, so I would have to go out of my way to source the ingredients, plus I don't have the time. Growing up, my grandparents used to make soap. Come to think of it, even my parents used to make it. If I had an Amish community near by, I would definitively buy it from them, but I don't. Home made soap is of much better quality and healthier than what you can buy at the store, for sure.
I did try for a while about 20 years ago when my Wife was buying the stuff for a fortune at craft fairs. But even made with excess fat it is pretty harsh stuff. Leaves scum rings in the shower or tubs. O.K. for dirty hands I guess. Maybe I picked a bad formula.
It is usually a cold process made with powdered drain cleaner (LYE). I made mine with coconut oil, vegetable oil and olive oil and some Epsom salt.
You can use Crisco in the can as the major base fat or animal lard also. I found soap making formulas online.
Maybe the Amish make it with a hot process from lard? You end up with something like Ivory Soap.
Most all store-bought soap is junk. I don't want soap with white paint in it - and most have it (titanium dioxide)
I get PEARS Gentle care transparent hypoallergenic stuff from India (used to be England) It's fantastic.
About the only thing I buy from Amazon since the drugstore stopped carrying the stuff.
It is usually a cold process made with powdered drain cleaner (LYE). I made mine with coconut oil, vegetable oil and olive oil and some Epsom salt.
You can use Crisco in the can as the major base fat or animal lard also. I found soap making formulas online.
Maybe the Amish make it with a hot process from lard? You end up with something like Ivory Soap.
Most all store-bought soap is junk. I don't want soap with white paint in it - and most have it (titanium dioxide)
I get PEARS Gentle care transparent hypoallergenic stuff from India (used to be England) It's fantastic.
About the only thing I buy from Amazon since the drugstore stopped carrying the stuff.
We make homemade soup all the time. Tastes great! Ohhh….Soap!
I did make soap in HS chemistry class. Funny short story here. Mixed up the lye and fat to make the soap during this chemistry lab. We obviously had on all the necessary PPE since we were working with lye (sodium hydroxide). Being a gear head at that age, my hands still had lots of dirty grease embedded under nails and in the finger pores due to working on the ‘76 Monte Carlo the day before. After the soap had been formed and we were in cleanup mode, i decided to wash my hands with this newly fabricated soap. Wow! I’ve never seen soap clean dirty gritty grease from my hands like this stuff! Chemistry teacher saw what i was doing and started yelling at me to stop in case there was un-reacted lye in the mix (which there was, since it was melting the grease on my hands fantastically). The skin on my hands is fine 30 years later, by the way.
I did make soap in HS chemistry class. Funny short story here. Mixed up the lye and fat to make the soap during this chemistry lab. We obviously had on all the necessary PPE since we were working with lye (sodium hydroxide). Being a gear head at that age, my hands still had lots of dirty grease embedded under nails and in the finger pores due to working on the ‘76 Monte Carlo the day before. After the soap had been formed and we were in cleanup mode, i decided to wash my hands with this newly fabricated soap. Wow! I’ve never seen soap clean dirty gritty grease from my hands like this stuff! Chemistry teacher saw what i was doing and started yelling at me to stop in case there was un-reacted lye in the mix (which there was, since it was melting the grease on my hands fantastically). The skin on my hands is fine 30 years later, by the way.
My wife has, before kids! lol, now regular soap is good enough for them to leave in the full bath tub, to dissolve half of it down the drain....
You have to pour the reacted mixture into a mold (small carboard box lined with poly film) and age it like cheese for about a month.
A lot of "homemade" soap uses melt-and-pour soap base, not the way grandma or the Amish do it with lye and fat.
Literally as easy as melting the base, adding fragrance and color, then pouring into a mold. I belt 90% of the soap you see sold at craft fairs and kitschy small-town antique shops use melt-and-pour as a base.
https://www.candlescience.com/soap-making-supplies/
Literally as easy as melting the base, adding fragrance and color, then pouring into a mold. I belt 90% of the soap you see sold at craft fairs and kitschy small-town antique shops use melt-and-pour as a base.
https://www.candlescience.com/soap-making-supplies/
I've been using Dr.Squatch soap, shampoo, and deodorant for a few years now. It's small batch and a small company. The scents are all natural and they have three or four ranges of scrubbing from no grit to high grit. I would think making homemade soap would be a big undertaking for only a few bars per year.
That's definitely the commercial soap bar process. I'm certain all the "homemade" soaps at Whole Foods, Etsy, etc. are done this way as well.
I use silicone mold sometimes but a box lined up with cling film works much better.
Their marketing department got you.
They're owned by a private equity firm (Summit Partners) with $35 billion in assets.
They're actually out looking right now for a buyer for Dr. Squatch, citing 12-month earnings of $90 million, and are looking in the area of $2 billion+ for the sale.
They're obviously not Unilever but a $2 billion company isn't small and you don't get $90 million in EBIT by being "small batch".
$6 for a 5oz bar
Yeah they're a little pricey. I wait for coupons and combo deals. I break out with alot of soap, and clothes detergents. Dr. Squatch is one of the few that ive found that doesn't make me itch or break out. I tried the "all natural " 7 ingredient lemon detergent and I looked like a tomato. I don't know what I reacted to in it.$6 for a 5oz bar
I make split pea soap. Oops, must have misread the question.
A high-school friend's dad was obsessed with self-sufficiency, and had his wife make soap with lye and animal fat.
Very Harrowsmith.
My friend said it was awful to use.
Very Harrowsmith.
My friend said it was awful to use.
AutoMechanic
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My sister makes soap. Natural ingredients and can make any scent or shape you want.
Never heard of such a thing. You do have to heat the fats both vegetable and animal - coconut oil is solid at room temp.
A different quantity of warm water and lye are used depending on the fat used. There are soap making chart or spreadsheet out there for varying ingredients like a Castile España soap or alternatively a lard soap
And adding the Lye to water is an exothermic process - quite extreme actually.
There’s a place in Hermitage PA north of where I live that makes handmade soaps. Reasonable too. Currently enjoying “GRINGE SOAP”. Takes grease, sort and grime away fast and lasts long time.
I saw handmade soap at a supermarket once. Seemed kind of pricey. Once I was at a farmer's market I was just handed a sample of handmade soap and I used it for a few months.
As far as homemade soap goes, I do remember there used to be a recipe for making it on the side of can of Red Devil Lye. However, it appears that Red Devil Lye is no longer being sold. As best I can tell, it was discontinued in favor of a prepared drain opening product and not just pure soldium hydroxide. Something about it being used to make meth, although lye is still available from other sources. However, Red Devil Lye was available in pretty much every supermarket, discount, or hardware store.
As far as homemade soap goes, I do remember there used to be a recipe for making it on the side of can of Red Devil Lye. However, it appears that Red Devil Lye is no longer being sold. As best I can tell, it was discontinued in favor of a prepared drain opening product and not just pure soldium hydroxide. Something about it being used to make meth, although lye is still available from other sources. However, Red Devil Lye was available in pretty much every supermarket, discount, or hardware store.
