Make Soap

“Despite my lye-paranoia and the minor mishap, making soap was so much fun! I loved the whole process of mixing the essential oils, watching the soap trace, pouring it into the mold, and then the anticipation of waiting to see how it would all turn out. And as I waited, I loved the delicious herbal scent that filled the whole house. The most satisfying part for me was cutting the soap into bars. My bars are irregular and rather plain-looking, but I am in love with them! To me they represent the fulfillment of a dream.”

“One year after watching my friend make soap and gathering all my supplies, I decided it was time. I waited until my precious-but-very-busy-and-inquisitive two-year-old was napping. Then I sent the other children outside. I carefully set out all my supplies, measured all the oils and essential oils, and then I was ready for the lye. And as I poured and poured and poured lye into the container on the scale, I realized that the scale was set on pounds, not ounces, as it should have been. [...] With gloves and {foggy} goggles on, I very carefully headed out to the woods at the back of our yard. I went a ways into the woods and very carefully poured all the lye back into the container. After quickly remeasuring all the other ingredients, the rest of the process was simple.”

“Lye is the scary part to me (technically called Sodium Hydroxide). In part of our steps, we had to carefully pour lye into special water first (the lye is in a dry form first) and carefully stirred in to dissolve but then we had to pour that into oils later. Steps involved temperatures and careful measuring all shown in our class that day. It was pretty neat to witness all of this and then try it with proper instruction. When Jeannie poured the lye in, an aroma took off that made me cough – I was like, WOW! I had never experienced this process before, so that was a surprise moment for me.”