Left Brain Meets Right Brain in the Art of Hand Crafted Soap

Left Brain Meets Right Brain in the Art of Hand Crafted Soap

            About a year and a half ago I got an idea that I needed to make my own bar soap. I was convinced it would save us money, because, we spent at least ten dollars a month on soap. My husband, being used to ideas said, absolutely not. I am not sure how but somehow I talked him into at least trying it. Before he could change his mind I got a recipe for olive oil soap off the internet, borrowed some safety goggles from my father-in-law and headed to the hardware store for a jar of lye. (For aspiring soap makers, it is in the drain cleaning section, make sure it is 100% sodium hydroxide). I already had gloves and a digital scale. That night before I went to bed I had a batch of castile soap in my loaf pan saponifying.

I waited about a week to get it out, but when it came out it was a perfect white loaf of creamy soap, I was hooked. Then the real waiting began, six weeks for it to cure, I really did not think I could make it. Finally we cut it in to bars and used it. My husband used it the night before  he had some horrendously stinky yard work to do, so that he would stink the next night . He could tell me that it did not work and then he could go back to his store bought soap and I would be over my soap kick. He did not stink the next night or the next (he usually does take a shower daily, but he was experimenting with our new soap, and I do not think he had to work the next day.) He used to get white stains on his suits from sweating, since we started using our own soap, the white stains have gone away. He started doing his own research about the different scents and colors he could use in the soap. He was hooked.

            While my husband began doing research about scents and coloring, I started doing my own research about oil combinations and the attributes they lent to the soap. Olive oil soap is very cleansing and super moisturizing, but very low sudsing, produces a soft bar that is used more quickly and is somewhat expensive to make. I discovered palm kernel oil which produces a very hard, high lathering bar, but is somewhat drying. After much experimentation we came to what we thought was the perfect combination of palm kernel and olive oil. Together, with the Lord’s help and with many family members volunteering as testers, we developed about ten recipes of different scent, coloring and herbal additives.

            We began making soap every night of the week. Friends and family members began asking to buy it so we needed a retail outlet to refer them to. The gift shop across from our work place was willing to carry it, then another shop in a neighboring town. People started asking for body wash, so we developed a liquid soap line. Then craft fair season hit and we started selling every weekend.

            The conclusion of the matter is, we would definitely have saved more money if I had stuck with a commercial soap, but we also would not have had the wonderful experiences we have had over the past year. Soap making is the perfect hobby for me, a music teacher by day, but that has always dabbled in the sciences and for my husband who is creative through and through. We find it to be food for the brain both left and right.

The Sudsy Soapery, all natural, hand crafted soaps, bath fizzies, natural liquid soaps, homemade for you! www.sudsysoapery.com