My First Time Making Homemade Soap

Soaping making can be a wonderful hobby, enticing a crafter with it's multitudes of delicious scents, scrumptious add-ins, and natural benefits. As I started reading different instructions and books though, it started to seem like soap making is really the dark and seedy underside of crafting. I mean, you need lye to make soap! And everyone knows that lye is the most dangerous substance known to man. At least it certainly feels that way once you start reading warning labels.

Well, as intimidating as soap making seemed to me, it's not precisely the death-trap that you might imagine. With common sense, forethought and precaution, soap making can be a fulfilling and fun hobby that draws many devotees. I was thrilled after completing my first batch of soap. It's definitely a very cool cross between science, art, and even cooking.

Things you need to know before you even think about making your first batch of soap:

Lye Truly is Dangerous

Of course, so is a pot of grease for deep frying French fries or a campfire. Just as you use safety precautions when using these things, you must know the standard safety measures when working with lye. My husband was worried I'd hurt myself with the lye, and so I was careful to read all cautions, and bought equipment that would help me stay safe, such as chemical rated safety glasses and a dust mask.

You'll Need to Read Lots of Instructions

Don't expect to gather your supplies and blithely learn as you go along. Read a lot of recipes and instructions from a lot of different sources. Understanding the process fully before hand really helped to keep me safe and make my first batch of soap a success.

Expect to Work Slowly, Quietly, and Carefully

Soap making is certainly not the sort of hobby that can be done in a houseful of people with cats, dogs and children underfoot. I put my three cats in the bedroom with their food and litter boxes the day that I made my first batch of soap, and I'm very glad that I did. They're very curious, and I'm certain they would have had their noses in lye the first chance they got.

When working with a soap recipe, it's a good idea to plan each step, down to the placement of your implements, before you pour the first drop of water. Especially when making a first batch of soap, it was very helpful for me to physically walk through each task and pantomime it before I even started for real. This really helped me trouble shoot some things, like knowing that I'd need a hot pad in a certain spot, or planning a good place to set a spoon ahead of time, before I was elbow deep in caustic chemicals.

The first time trying anything can be scary, but knowing these things helped me to stay calm and enjoy myself very much when I made my first batch of homemade lye soap.