Welcome to the forum and good luck with your soapmaking adventures

Chrissie & 8 Gorgeous Guineas

ooooh my soap looks wonderful . I made a lavender one....not sure why really cause i'm not that mad on the smell!! Daft, eh?

I have sliced it up into small chunks, put it on my 'no longer for cakes' baking tray and it is sitting in the spare room. I hope it's ok cause it looks great. Suppose that means very little though if I end up with flaky skin. Ha ha.

I know i've got to leave it for a bit but i'm desperate to make some more now. I thought I might try a bar for my little girl. Her skin is so dry so i will need one that suits her skin type.

Because I bought a kit I have no ingredients left now. I was wondering if any of you ladies have tips as to where to buy the raw ingredients. I've looked at hundreds of sites, some wholesale and I am just stumped for which to choose, to be honest. What I would like to do is get the oils, fats, lye, EO etc from one website, iff possible, to cut costs.  

I'm so excited. Like a child in a toy shop really!


Bye for now

  Jane x

Well done Jane 

Lye=Caustic Soda= Drain Cleaner from ironmongers/hardware shop/B&Q (check the label, it will probably say 98%, according to other forums that's OK).

You can get the rest from the Fresholi shop

Wilkinson's is where I get lye from. It's quite cheap there. I also saw it in Boots, but forgot to look at the price.

It is possible to get some oils from actual shops rather than over the internet (depending on where you live). I'm up North, and find Booths to be best for cheap olive oil, and Morrisons to be good for range of oils. I get coconut oil from my local(ish) organic food shop, and could probably also get it from the nearby Indian food shop.

I get all of my butters from here. Paying for postage really annoys me (in general - this site is as good as any. And including postage in the prices wouldn't improve matters - you're still paying for it!), but the prices here seem fine, and the cocoa butter just smells so yummy! It always arrives impressively quickly, too.

Olive oil is supposed to be very gentle, so it could be a good choice for sensitive skin. You're supposed to use the lowest grade you can find, I think - extra virgin is said to be less suitable than bog standard stuff. I've only done one olive oil soap, and that didn't turn out well (top tip - don't add honey, even though you just know it's going to make their sensitive skin feel lovely. Honey's renowned for causing problems, and it certainly caused me some!), but I shall be doing another one very shortly, as I'm almost out of palm oil.

Ooh - almost forgot. Look on the internet for a local bee-keeper type place and call them to see if they'll sell you any beeswax. My last lot from my local place was lovely and cheap, and smells absolutely gorgeous!

Hi Jane, I remember those first days... weeks... umm, months of soaping when I couldn't think about anything else than soap. I dreamed about it and I even took a few days off from my job to make soap  Soap took my heart but luckily I'm no longer in that kind of soap psychosis I was those days. I hope your situation is not that serious

Anyway, reading your post brought those days back to my mind. It was like first love

Awww thankyou to all for those useful comments. Abi, (that is my litt girls name too) I do know a couple of Bee- keepers actually, and my husband even once said he might like to try keeping them. I will have to give him a nudge and then we can really become a team in the making of soaps!

Don't mean to sound dumb.......ooopps i feel it though....but what would I use the wax for, please put me out of my misery! I am very keen to learn.

I appreciate all the advice, I genuinely do.

Take care

Jane x

The wax is good in balms, ointments, massage bars, lip balms and protective creams.  I'm not much help on the soaping front though 

Soap with honey and beeswax is lovely!

Tricky though apparently (like I know  :mwaha:)

HI Jane welcome to the mad house and to soaping, lye i get from the SK but i buy in bulk,

there are lots of sites out there to chose from to get your oils, eo's fo's,
if you want to do a soap for your daughter try an unscented calendula soap.

by the way you have to post pics of your first soap,