What advice would you give to your beginning soaping self?

[TheGecko]

Good time to 'bump' this again. Many thanks to @Zany_in_CO, because this is my first time reading this.

I honestly don't have a lot of advice to give my old self. Being a Virgo and an accountant I took a very methodical approach to soap making. I did a ton of research...got to a point when I could watch a video on mute and describe everything that was being done and why they were doing it. And when researching, I looked at both the good and bad and took everything with a grain of salt because there is a LOT of conflicting information. You can't just go with want you want to hear, you have to be open to the stuff that may give your pause or even stop what you are doing.

When it came time to make my first soap...I bought a soap making kit from a reputable soap supplier. Yeah, it cost a little more, but it was the most logic course of action. All the ingredients were included, it was a tried and true recipe, the instructions were clear and easy to understand, and it even came with a mold. If I liked making soap...then I had a good start. And if I didn't like making soap, I wasn't stuck with a lot of stuff and could donate the mold to St Vinnies. Yes, yes, yes...you can buy base ingredients from Wal-Mart and use a milk carton, but as my Grandma was fond of saying..."work smart, not harder" and "something worth doing is worth doing well". And because failure is ALWAYS an option (even when you have been making soap for 20 years) it's the reason why I bought two-4" Square Molds and a 6" Slab Mold...with those two mold, I can test new recipes, colorants, scents, additives and almost every technique there is...without wasting a lot of ingredients if things don't work out. A heck of a lot cheaper to toss 20 oz of ingredients than 50 oz.

When I decided that I liked making soap (because who in their right mind would NOT like making soap because it's like the best thing in the world even if it does take six weeks, but then you have 10 bars of soap and can have more made before it runs out), I gave myself a budget which in all honesty kept me from making some pretty stupid purchases because the Grand Canyon is nothing compared to the rabbit hole of soap making. And for the most, I stayed within my budget because if the choice is between purchasing sodium hydroxide or coconut oil and buying those cute little heart column molds to make embeds...it's pretty simple...can't make cute little hearts if you don't have lye or oil. And even when the budget allowed me to buy some round cavity soaps so I could try making salt soap...I only bought one (actually it was a two pack). Which turned out great because I really suck at making salt soap and who wants to be stuck with a dozen useless molds?

The closest I can come would be not letting folks talk me into selling soap so soon, but actually it turned out to be a really good thing because even though the experience was positive, it taught me that I was NOT ready to sell soap...I knew a lot, but I didn't know enough.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

@TheGecko Well said.

 

[MomInWA]

There is a ton of excellent advice here. One thing that really resonates with me (now) is what toxikon wrote, to start with small batch sizes. My first batch involved 39.5oz of oils and 63 total oz of soap batter (incl. liquid, lye, additives, etc). It was way, way too much, especially since the soap is just okay but now what I make is a lot better (ok, in my humble opinion). Besides, that first batch was expensive to make ($37.02 ingredient cost!) and after a lot of practice/experimentation with much smaller batches I've been able to hone in on suppliers/ingredients I want to work with, which has lowered ingredient costs considerably. It's been mentioned here before, and I completely agree, not to go too small, but a 500-ish gram batch size is good if you have a reliable scale.

Early on I started an Excel spreadsheet in an attempt to keep track of each batch all the amazing things I was learning (and I still add to it often). The tabs on the bottom are things like Bar Soap Costs, Ingredient Pricing, Oil Notes, Additives Tips, Colorant Usage, EO Blends, EO Notes, Equipment Costs, General Notes, Alternative Liquids Notes, etc. For instance, on the Additives tab I have a bunch of additives listed in alphabetical order (like bee pollen, beeswax, garam masala, honey, paprika, sugar, etc), the usage per pound of oil weight (PPO), and notes about them. When I find things that sound interesting to me I note them there, and it's all in one place. For the first several months I was pretty overwhelmed by all of the things I was learning and this just helped me feel more organized. Plus, I'm a forget-ter.

I'm an Excel nerd, and I do track my inventory using spreadsheets. It helps me understand what I am spending per unit/batch. I like to buy bulk (5 lbs brick of butter, gallon of oil, etc), so I need to know how much each recipe costs and what is the "value".

So many people on here feel like brethren! I also get distracted by *SHINY*!! If I said that seems to be a theme amongst us?