Adventures in Soap Making

After my friend gave me a bar of homemade soap that was amazingly moisturizing (no need for post-shower lotion—a miracle for my dry skin!), I was determined to recreate or improve upon it, and have fallen deep into the world of cold-process soap making.

Now that my first two batches are cured enough to try, I have to admit I’m hooked on experimenting and exploring all the different oils and mixtures. Carl’s less hooked on my turning the kitchen into a science lab (lye is sort of dangerous!), and the fact that we already now have more soap than we’ll use in a year.

I’ve been devouring the blog posts of various soapers, falling in love with their gorgeous photos of soap.

Just a short list, there are so many more out there…

So far, I haven’t reproduced the moisturizing properties of Bex & Adam’s bar, but I’m happy with the two I’ve made. The first is a good, hard, bar, and the second is a good exfoliating salt bar with awesome lather, but is pretty drying despite a lot of superfatting due to the high coconut content.

My latest batch uses the same oils as the first, but adds in clay and honey. I can’t wait to try it out once it cures. I’m sure you’ll start seeing posts of recipes once I feel confident anything I make is actually worth sharing. And my poor, unfortunate family and friends may soon be inundated with results of my experiments lest Carl and I end up with a lifetime supply of soap by this time next year.