There are a few very common soap making ingredients and then there are the additives you can use to make your soap unique and yours.
Common soap Making Ingredients:
Lye – used in most soaps but you can make soap without using lye
Base Oils and Fats – There are a multitude of oils you can use for making soap. When starting out use what ever oils and fats are recommended in the recipe you are using. Once you have been making your own soap for a while you will become comfortable with the different oils and how to use them.
Almond Butter, Almond Oil,Vegetable Shortening,Apricot Kernel Oil,Avocado Butter,Avocado Oil,Canola Oil, Castor Oil,Glycerin Soap Base, Grape-seed Oil, Jojoba, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and the list goes on and on can all be used for base oils and fats
Botanicals and Essential Oils – Used to make the soap smell good
Coloring – This is optional but you have many choices when it comes to coloring your soap.
Synthetic Coloring – Synthetic coloring is the most common food coloring and can be use to achieve just about any color you could want when making soap.
Natural Coloring – Slightly harder to find but is still readily available. This is good to use if you would like to make your soap all natural. The colors achieved by using natural coloring are not as vibrant as when you use synthetic coloring but they are most certainly better for you.
Making your own coloring – Making your own coloring using colors found in nature is more for fun then anything else since natural coloring is readily available.
Extra Soap Making Ingredients
There are many extra things you can add to your soap to make it more unique.
Moisturizers – Adding moisturizers to your soap is a good idea especially if you are trying to make luxury soap.
Exfoliate – Many soap makers like to include little things to add exfoliating properties to there soap. A few things you can add are almond powder, jojoba beads, or even coffee grounds and ground oatmeal.
No matter what you choose to use for your soap making ingredients always stay safe and have fun when you are making your own soap.
