There are plenty of handmade soaps in the
market. From wonderful colours to ingredients and even designs, you are sure to
get something that you fall in love with instantly. Handmade soaps also come in
a variety of shapes like spherical, square and rectangular. They can also come
in embossed motifs such as flowers and leaves and so on. The sheer variety of
handmade soaps simply means that you too can try your hand at making them! Just
to get you started, here are a few tips and pointers that you can use and
create wonderful home-made soaps.
What
are some of the popular ingredients?
When it comes to handmade soaps, there
really is no specific list of ingredients to choose from. A lot depends on your
favorite combinations of herbs, spices, flowers and other products. It also
depends on whether you want to add things like color, essential oils and other
aromatics. Some of the more popular ingredients that go into making different
kinds of soaps are:
·
“Edibles”
such as goats milk, honey, saffron and even chocolate
·
Spices
such as cinnamon, clove, cardamom
·
Floral
ingredients such as lavender, jasmine, rose and
·
Leaves
such as neem or margosa and eucalyptus
·
“Exotics”
such is charcoal, green tea and beer
Popular recipes to make handmade soaps
There is plenty of information on how to
bring together the above-mentioned ingredients and much much more to make some
delectable looking handmade soaps. Some of these ingredients from the ones
above can be chosen with care depending on the soap making method that you are
using. You also need to use something known as a lye calculator to ensure that
you are not going to go too heavy on lye which is an essential ingredient in
handmade soaps. Weighing the ingredients is also extremely important because
this will ensure that each ingredient plays its part in making the soaps
special and does not overpower the others.
Combinations
One of the simplest recipes for handmade soaps
calls for equal amounts of oils of olive, avocado, almond and coconut. You can
also add shea butter. Essential oils of lavender and thyme can also be added
for fragrance. You can also experiment with different natural coloring agents
to give your soaps effects such as marbling or even an overall solid color
which will make them even more visually appealing. Some of the options you can
use are turmeric for yellow and for enhancing the antiseptic quality of your
soap. You can also use charcoal and liquid chlorophyll for black and green
respectively.
