Make your own Hand Milled Soap
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- Wen
- Margot
- Wen
- Margot
- biogardener
- Margot
- biogardener
- Margot
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» Wen - Great article Eileen!
I loved your article Eileen. I love making soaps and make them all the time for personal use and for gifts. You offered up some great suggestions. Here are several things that I do when making soaps that make for great decorative and useful soaps.I add a variety of fresh or even dried herbs and flowers in whole leaf or flower form. Calendula, Rosemary, Rose petals, Thyme, Basil, Mint, Lemon Mint, Lilac, Lemon Verbena, Purple Sage, Lilies of the Valley, and my favorite, Lavendar all make for excellent soap. I also add pine needles, orange peel, and other citrus peels for soaps. If you are using the soaps for decoration you can be even more creative and add larger chunks of flowers, herbs, and other natural items.
When I mold my soaps, I actually use molded cookie sheets. While they are not as popular as they used to be, you can still find them in seasonal or children's patterns. They are also sometimes sold as pressed cookie sheets. I have over 30 different patterns for making cookies with and they make marvelous soaps. Frosting/sugar molds and even cast iron molds for muffins and corn bread also work well.
-- posted by Wen
» Wen - Other than lavendar, most of my flowers...
Other than lavendar, most of my flowers are actually more fresh than dried, so I do not lose much color. I usually let the petals dry a day or two and use them then and that seems to be a nice balance between too dried and brown looking and so moist that they discolor or even damage the soap.I have also used some commercially dried flowers with oil on them for soaps due to their vibrant colors (I took them right out of a potpurri mixture) and that also seems to work well.
Paper flowers work well when dried and seem to keep their color. Not to mention I always seem to have scads of them hanging around.
-- posted by Wen
» biogardener - I had never heard of anyone using soap to make soap.
I had never heard of anyone using soap to make soap. My mother made lots of soap, but it was always from scratch. The purpose was to use up the fat which was scooped from the top of the soup pot and saved until there was enough for a batch of soap.We lived through hard times and learned never to throw anything away. Home-made soap was the perfect way to use up all that fat.
The price of my mothers soap was pennies, because the only ingredient she had to buy was lye.
Different fats produced different soaps. One batch floated like Ivory Soap. One was transparent like glycerin soap. We never knew how it would turn out until the batch cooled.
-- posted by biogardener
» biogardener - Talk about caustic!
I well remember the burned linoleum tile in the kitchen where my mother spilled some lye. She was in the early stages of Alzheimer's which, of course, we didn't know.I managed to convince her that we had enough soap for many years to come and I found other things for her to keep her busy.
We never did find another way of using up all that excess animal fat, and my mother got really upset when I threw it out. That is what happens when you have lived through too many times of severe hardship.
-- posted by biogardener
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