Soap Making Supplies

How to choose a soap base

Melt and pour is the friendliest way into soap making. There is no lye to handle and no six week cure, so a bar you pour this morning can be wrapped and gifted tonight. You melt the base, add your colour and fragrance, pour it into a mould and let it set.

Clear glycerine is the one to pick for see-through bars, suspended embeds and layers you can look into. White glycerine gives clean opaque bars where colours read as solid pastels and creams. Farmhouse bases come in a range of colours and fragrances already blended in, so you can melt, pour and set with nothing added, or build on them. Goats milk makes a creamy caramel-coloured bar and is a steady seller at markets. African black soap and rooibos gives a rustic tan bar with real character.

How much do you need

Bases come in 1kg and 5kg. As a rough guide a 1kg block makes about ten standard 100g bars, so a 1kg block is a comfortable first project and a 5kg block is where you go once you are selling.

What else goes in the basket

You will want a mould, something to colour with from mica powders or colour and dye, and a scent from fragrance oils or essential oils. Dried botanicals and clays add texture and interest.

Working tips

Cut the base into small even cubes and melt it gently, in a double boiler or in short microwave bursts, stirring between each. Never let it boil, as overheated base turns rubbery and clear base loses its clarity. Add colour and fragrance once it has cooled slightly, then spritz the poured surface with surgical spirits to clear bubbles. Glycerine draws moisture from the air, so wrap finished bars once they are set and keep them out of a steamy bathroom.

New to it? Start with our melt and pour soap method, then try layered soap and herbal soaps.