Measuring the Lye and Water

Chemistry Lesson: How Soap is Made

Have you ever wondered how we craft those lovely natural soaps? What exactly happens to make them so wonderful for your skin? Here is a little breakdown of what takes place in making soap. Soap is created when a fatty acid and an alkali are combined.  Fatty acids are the fat ingredients used in the [...]

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Dwindling Bar of Soap

Is Your Soap Disappearing?

Have you noticed that your handcrafted soap seems to be disappearing to quickly? There may be an answer to this problem. Handcrafted natural soaps deserve special attention.  Unlike their mass market distant cousins handcrafted soaps are not made with fillers and other ingredients to make the bar of soap last long. When using your handcrafted [...]

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Staple Soapmaking Ingredient: Palm Kernel Oil

Palm kernel oil comes from the fruit of the palm tree.  Actually it comes from the nut (kernel) of the fruit.  Whereas palm oil comes from the fruit of the oil palm tree. Soapmakers also use palm oil which is expressed from the fruit of the palm tree.  Palm kernel oil has many properties like [...]

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Staple Soapmaking Ingredient: Olive Oil

Olive oil has been getting a lot of fame over the recent years.  It is one of the healthiest oils to cook with, drizzle over your salad and even dip your focaccia bread into.  But when it comes to natural beauty olive oil is par none. So where does olive oil come from? It comes [...]

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Half Coconut and Flower on Bamboo Mat — Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

Staple Soapmaking Ingredient: Coconut Oil

Over the course of the next three weeks we will discuss three soapmaking oils that I term as staple.  They are staple to me because you will find them in most, not all,  soapmaking recipes.  These staple soapmaking oils are coconut oil,  palm kernal oil and olive oil. For this week we will learn a [...]

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