My Soapmaking Adventures!

Since the last four or five months, I have developed a new interest, that is significantly different from all of my other interests and hobbies. Soapmaking! If you aren’t familiar with the concept and idea behind it, it might sound very strange to you. But that is why I’m posting this: to tell you about it and how simple it is, my own personal experiences regarding it and the challenges I faced, and also, to convince you to start soapmaking as well. If you’re interested, please read ahead.

I had been interested in the idea of soapmaking for at least a year before I learnt how to make it, and started making it. I think my initial interest in this area arose after our family’s transition to natural hair care, which was about two years ago. After reading a number of blog posts on natural living and even attending a couple of workshops on the topic, I found myself determined to try out soapmaking. I had tried making a few DIY natural beauty products before as well, such as face scrubs, deodorants and lip balms, and they all had given pretty good results. However, soapmaking was apparently much more complicated than these things, so I couldn’t just begin doing it by myself right away. It involved handling a dangerous chemical (sodium hydroxide), and some calculations, so I was wary of starting it by myself. However, I soon got a chance to learn the basics of it from a person who is quite skilled in the art of it and runs her own small business of natural products – including soaps – (www.gavrilev.com) so I became confident that I could do it.

Although there are endless tutorials on soapmaking available on the internet, I still find it important to shed some light on the basic chemistry behind it. Basically, all soaps are made from fats/oils that react with an alkali called sodium hydroxide, NaOH (or potassium hydroxide, KOH, in the case of liquid soaps) in a process called saponification that produces soap and glycerin. In simple words, we combine oils with a caustic soda solution that react and produce soap when the reaction is complete. Although there is much more to soapmaking than this, the thing I have mentioned above is the basic principle. (If you would like to learn more about soapmaking, I would recommend this tutorial: https://www.gavrilev.com/single-post/natural-soap-making-101)

Apart from the basic principle that I just mentioned – which I believe, applies to commercial soaps as well – the handmade soaps are different from commercially manufactured soaps in almost every other possible way. Shape, appearance, smell, texture, packaging, you name it! Commercial soaps have a uniform shape and size while handmade soaps vary from bar to bar, depending on the mold you used and the shape you cut it in. Commercial soaps often have their brands logo embossed on them, while handmade soaps might have hand carved designs, some herbs and petals embedded between the layers, and visible traces of natural colourants or clay on them. Or they might just be plain. While commercial soaps usually have a very strong fragrance – probably from synthetic esters created in laboratories – handmade soap bars smell refreshingly of essential oils and herbs that come from nature.

Once I learnt the basics of it, I was pretty excited to start making it by myself. However, soapmaking required some special equipment and material, and I couldn’t start out without it. For example, I had to use a very accurate digital measuring balance, because soapmaking required very accurate measurements. Otherwise, the soaps could turn out to be too caustic, or unfit for use. It also required a stick blender for blending the lye solution with the oils, and it was recommended not to use the one that’s used in the kitchen. Finding sodium hydroxide was a challenge too. While it was supposed to be available at local hardware stores, it wasn’t there at the one near our house, and so we had to get it from a shop in another block. Nevertheless, when I finally collected all the equipment and material I needed, I started out with much fervor.

Soaps made to look like
brownies, with a light brown
base and a darker top 

The first batch of soaps I made were of 100% coconut oil, without any textures or flavours, and with just a few drops of lavender essential oil for fragrance. When it turned out to be good enough, I felt confident enough to experiment with some flavours and made a batch of orange soaps. As oranges were in season back then, I used fresh orange juice, orange peel powder (that I’d made by myself too) and orange essential oil to get an orange-ish smell in it. I also experimented with oils in this recipe, using a combination of different oils rather than just one oil. It turned out to be really good, and this successful beginning led me to experiment with a range of stuff. For example, I made a batch of cocoa soaps! I used the coconut oil recipe for it, and added a couple of spoons of cocoa powder to the mixture. Although I loved these chocolate soaps, my parents’ didn’t really approve of them, so I didn’t make them again. In another batch of soap, I used neem infusion instead of water (made from neem leaves I had picked from the neem tree outside our house), and added a clay (multani mitti aka Fuller’s earth) to the mixture. This was a great soap, as the addition of clay gave the bar a lovely, smooth and silky touch. Later on, I also experimented with creating marbled effects in the soaps by adding a number of natural colourants (such as turmeric, cocoa powder, cinnamon powder, clays, etc.) to the mixture divided in equal parts. I also made a batch of soaps made to look like brownies, in which I made a light-brown base (by adding multani mitti) and topped it with a darker layer (made by adding cocoa powder).

I think soapmaking is a fun activity, especially if you like to experiment with art and play around with colours and ingredients. But the most important reason for pursuing it is and should be the ecological contribution we can make through it. It is such a relief to know that the soapy water that goes down our drain won’t do any damage to marine life – it wouldn’t kill fishes and other sea creatures. Additionally, the soaps we make don’t come wrapped up in plastic packaging; thus lowering our carbon footprint. And lastly, these handmade soaps do not damage our skin in the short or long term, unlike commercial soaps.

Therefore, I strongly believe that every person should try this out and start making their own handmade soaps. After all, everyone does cook their own food and do their own chores, don’t they? Believe me, it wouldn’t be an additional burden, rather, just a fun activity to get out of the routine. And they benefits that come with it will significantly outweigh any difficulties you faced in making it. But if you still aren’t eager to try it out yourself, I would recommend you to look for some local soapmaker in your community and buy some from them. However, handmade soaps, when you buy them, are quite expensive, and the best option is to make them yourself!

I hope I managed to somewhat convince you to try out this activity. If you’d like to share your own experiences about it, or if you’ve already tried it out, then please feel free to leave a comment about it. I’d also love to answer any questions you might have about soapmaking, (although I’m still a novice!) so don’t hesitate in asking.

 

Credits: Photography by Zainab Salman