/diy/ - Do It Yourself

This is a great time to hit up Youtube or do some more searching.

I've made basic "melt and pour" glycerin soaps with bulk blocks from the craft store and colors/scents. They usually turn out well but are not amazing. iirc you can cook up your own glycerin base but I don't know the recipes or have experience with that.

Lye-based soap has some hazards and challenges but I've made some nice hard bars with nice scent and lather that way too

http://www.soap-making-resource.com/soap-making-methods.html

>>775382
Thanks! This looks like a good place to start.

>>775351
You can get really great Melt & Pour soap from Brambleberry. I've used theirs and found it to be much better than your regular store-bought crap. Melt & Pour is super easy to do...basically, you buy a block, cut off pieces, put it in the microwave, then pour the melted stuff into a mold after mixing in fragrance/essential oils. Why is it you want to go for glycerine soap? Personally, I'm a much bigger fan of cold process soap. I was actually inspired by another thread on here...a guy talking about his adventures in soap making. I enjoy doing it so much, I'm going to start doing it professionally.

>>775351
I take it you're referring to normal handmade soap, glycerin soap is the one in your picture where you add glycerin and alcohol to make it transparent.

You need some basic equipment like a crockpot, stick blender and something to pour it on. Watch some youtube videos and research some recipes or make your own recipe by either using a lye calculator or calculating it yourself with saponification values for the oils you're using. You would also need to select what method you're going to use, "melt and pour" other anons are suggesting you to use is also called cold process. I personally use hot process since I don't have any patience at all, it tends to make for a more rugged soap than cold process but if you're going to use it yourself then presentation is no issue at all.

I'd advise you to look up olive oil, coconut oil and lard recipes. I've been making my own soap for over a year and it's easy, non time-consuming and fun. Plus it will also make for a better quality soap than anything offered by commercial brands and if you source your raw materials well it will also be cheaper.

>>776308
>coconut oil
interesting

I just kind of wandered into this thread and now I want to make soap.

>How would I go about making good, nice-smelling, cheap glycerine soap?
>(Preferably without hopping fences at liposuction clinics.)
>glycerin soap
>human fat

Wow. You really don't know ANYTHING about making soap, do you?

>>776759
Its a joke from the movie fight club. Im sure its in the book as well but i cant say that I have read it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOllF3TgAsM

>>776911
i still don't get what this song is about or even why it has the name that it does

and looking up the lyrics google play gave me one that had differences than another.

fucking songwriters
>>776759
see
>>776911

>911

>>776758
That happened to me with a couple of threads. I actually ordered about 500 bucks worth of stuff to get started on soaping. I want to make this a real business. Already have several people chomping at the bit to try out my products.

Going to post what the OP from the last soap thread posted...it's his soaping experiments.

>>776963
>I want to make this a real business.

have you been over to /biz/ yet?
this looks like something i might be able to do while im healing from back surgery. (with help)
i could maybe sell them at craft fairs along with other /diy/ shit.

>>776963
wow, that pic is impressive
going to save it for later
is that your work?

>>777091
I can't claim that as my work...another OP posted that, in his experiments with soap. I will create something similar when I begin soaping, however. When I start, I may begin with sample size bars, though.

If we can keep this thread bumped, I'll post some pictures when I start soaping...should be this weekend or early next week.

>>777089
Have not been to /biz/ yet. I kind of assumed they'd tell me I was a moron and to go to hell.

Something to consider is that if you are doing what is called Cold Process soap, you need to give the final bars time to cure. Usually, 4-6 weeks, in a dry place. You can lower that if you have a dehumidifier or live in a really warm and dry area, like Arizona. Or the Sahara.

Sorry to hear about your back surgery. I wish you a speedy recovery.

>>777106
/Biz is actually pretty friendly if you don't deliberately troll or tell anyone you're a 'guru' in something. I've gone there with stupider ideas and gotten nothing but good advice.

>>776758
Coconut oil is one, if not the most important oil in my recipes. Nothing can beat dat lather, and it's fairly simpler to source than castor oil.

I've made 100% coconut laundry liquid soap. That shit cleaned even wine stains, it was so powerful the second batch ended dissolving the cheap plastic container I put it in and making a mess in my kitchen.

>>777219
I will start up a thread tomorrow and discuss some of the ideas I have with them. Thanks for the encouragement!

>>777243
I purchased quite a bit of coconut oil. The oils that seemed like I'd need the most of were coconut, palm, olive, rice bran oil, canola, and avocado oil. Also picked up some cocoa butter, shea oil, apricot kernel oil, jojoba oil, meadowfoam oil, and castor oil.

I'd love to see some of your recipes.

>>777447
>I'd love to see some of your recipes

I'm no fan of doing gimmicky recipes or soaps (different colors,exotic oils, shapes, etc). I've already done some experiments with different oils and what has worked for me is plain olive, coconut and lard with no additives other than fragrance. I sometimes make soap with only coconut and olive oil too but that tends to drive the price up a little.

I tend to look for convenience over anything else and a plain soap best fulfills this need, it isn't a hobby anymore for me but something I do twice a month for my personal and my family's use.

Well, I'm still waiting on a 400 dollar order from Brambleberry to come in (Wednesday), but I wanted to start setting up a workspace in the mean time. So here we have the part of the dining room I'll be using for materials storage. Already have some canola and olive oil, safety equipment, mixing equipment, a bit of storage, etc.

>>777586
Well, tell me about your experiments. I'm curious. I'm going to experiment as well, but I'd like to hear how it turned out for others. Do you superfat your soaps at all?

I am not trying to do anything gimmicky...just something that feels really good and people will be willing to buy repeatedly.

>>778812
>Do you superfat your soaps at all?

I normally calculate at 0% super-fat since most lye you get is 97% purity. This one lye I got recently had 70% purity and I didn't notice until I read the label, the soap was turning out fine, the only problem is that it was spoiling too fast.

Here's a little secret I came about:
If you do hot process you can 0% super fat with your base oils and after gel phase add 5% in weight of another more expensive oil like avocado or almond to superfat. That way you don't have a mix of different oils as your moisturizing agent. As I said though, if you plan on selling it hot process soap might look a little rugged if it's not machine-processed.

>>776758
I used to use coconut oil to jack my dick off. Smells amazing and hydrates your skin

>>779548
Well good for you.

>>779031
I'm getting Lye from Brambleberry. Supposed to be 99% pure. As far as the hot process soap goes, I've seen it and I think it looks a little too rough to sell.

>>779570
>looks a little too rough to sell.

It's true, that's why I've been looking into machines to process soap, hand crafted cold process soap is nice and all but real money is made in industrialized products.

I also think I would have an edge on competition since there's practically no affordable soap that isn't stripped of its glycerine.

>>778812
Canola oil is a pretty shitty oil for soap making since any trace left of it left in the superfat will become rancid within a short period of time giving you spoiled soap, specially if you're using cold process where you have to wait for it to cure. It's very cheap and might seem like a good idea to save a few bucks but I would just stick to olive oil.

can you shave with any of these soaps?
a bet a good lather and fresh smell would be amazing.

>>781827
Better to use a specific shave soap. Google Soap Commander. They have really great stuff and it's affordably priced. Plus, nice people.

>>776758
ditto