Making your own soap can be a very rewarding experience. You are doing something that has been lost in time, and only a few still know how to make their own soap. In the olden times, everybody knew how to make their own soap. But, now we just walk into the local store, and buy our a soap without giving a second thought to it.

Things you need to know before making your own homemade soap

• It is reasoanbly easy to make your own soap at home
• Lye and some kind of fat and oil is used to make your basic soap
• These products are pretty easy to find and can often be cheaper than purchasing soap
• Lye is caustic and a very strong base, so you must be careful when using it
• Just about any oil or fat can be used to make the soap, and depending on what you use can give you different results
• The chemical process between lye and fat is called Saponification.
• The by-product from the Saponification process is Glycerine, which is a great moisturiser.

Benefits to making your own homemade soap

Other than the fact that making your own soap can be a rewarding experience, there is a big benefit to using homemade soap. It's called Glycerine. Glycerine actually helps the skin to attract water to the skin. Most commercial soap companies actually extract the Glycerine before making the soap - thus causing the soap to leave your skin feeling dry and itchy. With you own soaps you just wont have that problem. Well, as long as you make sure that the soap's Ph level isn't over 10 - else your soap might burn and irritate the skin.

Where to learn about making soap

There are many resources on the Internet on how to make your own soap, and I will list a few resources at the end. The main problem is that finding the information needed can take you hours - and often you won't know what's correct and what not - Until you try to make your own soap. Yes, it's simple but you can save yourself hours by finding somebody that's been making soap for years and is willing to share their secrets and shortcuts.

If you're the type of person that loves to get things done by trial and error, then the above method is fine. I don't like to do that. I find it frustrating to be throwing batch after batch away because I added to much or to little of a product to the mix.

So what are the alternatives out there. One of the best ways is to get the hands on approach. Find someone that offers a course. Just make sure that they've been doing it for a while. The big negative about this approach, is that it can easily cost you upwards of $200 for the course. But, if the teacher is good, you will walk out of there know how to make soap.

Another cheaper alternative is to buy a book.

Burgundy Shank, Author of Simple Soapmaking, for instance has written an awesome ebook where she talks about all the things you need to know when it comes to making your own soap. She's been doing it for years, and via trial and error has put all the facts in her ebook on what you need to be succesful in making your own soap. She tells you step by step, from where to find the products, which are the best to use, how to save botched jobs and much more. For more information visit her website at www.simplesoapmaking.com

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