Soap Making Ingredients

You will probably find that many of the soap making ingredients you will use to make your handmade soaps will already be in your pantry. Soap is made by mixing fats, oils and a reactive agent.

Selecting the right mix of ingredients (in the right proportions) can be the difference between success and failure.

Soap Making Ingredients In soap making there are three main types of base ingredients, reactive agents (the chemicals), carrier oils and fats, and water or milk.

You do not need any additional ingredients if you are making a basic white soap, but what is you want to add a fragrance or a color?

Or perhaps you want to alter the mixture of oils in your soap.

The proportion of reactive agent to other soap making ingredients will need to be adjusted for any change or addition to your basic soap mixture if you want your soap making experiment to work as intended.

So unless you are going to stick with the same recipe every time you make soap, not only is a good idea to gain a basic understanding of the common soap making ingredients, but it also helps to have some idea of how they react with each other!

Chemicals used as Reactive Agents in Soap Making

The chemicals used in the soap making process include caustic soda or sodium hydroxide, borax or sodium borate and KOH or Potassium hydroxide if you are making liquid soap.

Carrier Oils and Fats Used in Soap Making

You can use just about any type of fat or carrier oil for making your soap, but as each oil has different properties, the quantities of water and chemicals will vary depending on the composition of your fat and oil base. So if you are going to mix and match your oils and fats to create different types of soap, make sure you check out your recipe with a lye calculator to make sure that you have got the proportions right.

The most common fats and oils (and the easiest to obtain) include Olive Oil, Lard, Tallow and Vegetable Oil.

Water Used in Soap Making

Although you can use mains water for making soap, for the best result it is generally better to use a softer water like distilled water or rainwater.

Distilled water can be purchased relatively cheaply from the cleaning aisle in your supermarket.

Fragrances Used in Soap Making

Most soap makers use essential oils to add a fragrance to their soaps, some use essential oils or fragrant oils that are commercially available and yet others extract their own oils from aromatic plants in their own gardens.

Lavender is one of the most popular fragrances for handmade soaps but the range of fragrant oils that are readily available is quite extensive.

Color Additives Used in Soap Making

You have quite a few options for coloring your soap, from commercially prepared compounds to adding natural ingredients with their own color which are added after trace.

How will you color your soap?

Base Ingredients for Melt and Pour Soaps

If you are not keen on making your soap from scratch, you can buy base ingredients for melt and pour soap instead.

Extra Ingredients Used in Soap Making

The possibilities for other soap making ingredients are virtually endless depending on what you intend to use the soap for. You can add ingredients to create texture or to add interest, like oatmeal for example.

Or you could add natural clays to beauty soaps to change the moisturising properties and to add color. Sand or other abrasives can be added to create a soap suitable for mechanics or garderners to use to remove stubborn stains on the skin.