# Cost of making soap and other questions



## QoTL (Jun 5, 2008)

Hello everyone 



I'm itching to make soap... itching itching....


But wondering what a batch of soap will end up costing me? It seems like there are so many oils to buy it's a bit daunting for someone who has to watch every penny.

I love the idea of making different consistancies/textures of soap, but if I can't make it without 58 ingredients (ok.. exaggeration there  ) I just don't see it happening.

Really just want to make a basic bath bar... have goats milk on hand, thinking of getting maybe one fragrance for it.

Can someone point me to a very simple recipe, with not too many ingredients to start? Or will it end up being much more expensive, and therefore a fun project but a big zero on the practical scale?

Also wondering about making my own lye water with ashes.. how do you replace the lye in the can with the lye water from the ashes? (probably a stupid question.. sorry)



Thanks!


----------



## Mistyf (Apr 4, 2008)

I sell my soap, so I buy my ingredients in bulk. But if you want to try soap, you could start with a basic recipe with maybe olive oil, coconut oil, and crisco. These oils can be gotten from the grocery store. 

Use your goats milk to mix your lye with but freeze it or use it very cold, as the milk will cause the lye to really heat up.

The ashes thing, I don't know about. I purchase lye.


----------



## FunnyRiverFarm (May 25, 2010)

There are tons of simple goat milk soap recipes online if you do a google search. I have used the recipe here with good results: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/making-goat-soap

I would recommend purchasing lye because it is very difficult to get consistant results with lye from wood ashes.


----------



## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

There are quite a few recipes on my Soap Making page as well as pictures and lye calculators and suppliers (sdome supplier links are out-of-date).

To keep costs down for small batches of soap, try finding the ingredients locally so you don't have to pay shipping.

The recipes on my page will make about 16 bars of soap (about 4 oz each).

Don't use potash (ashes and water) in place of your commercially manufactured lye unless you're doing it for grins and giggles (and the experience of doing it.) Use only ashes from hard woods. Test the strength by floating a fresh, raw egg in the solution (the egg should float wit the the area of exposed shell about the size of a quarter)

The ending product is not the same. Potash is more similar to KOH (potassium hydroxide) than NaOH (sodium hydroxide).


----------



## lathermaker (May 7, 2010)

Like someone else suggested, just a simple formula of Shortening, Coconut & Olive is a good place to start. You haven't made soap before? Skip the Milk for now and use plain water until you learn what the steps are. Milk soap is quite different to work with and can cause all kinds of problems if you don't know what you are doing.
How big of a batch do you want to make?


----------



## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

I agree with lathermaker, start with water for your first few batches before heading to milk soaping

The major difference in the two is when you make up the lye solution. When using water, you make up the solution first, when using frozen milk, you make up your solution after all the oils are ready.

Since you do want to make milk soap, use ice cubes for your lye solution instead of water. Have your oils ready first, then make your lye solution using ice cubes & lye.


----------



## akhomesteader (Jan 5, 2006)

Here are two articles you might like. The first is on making wood ash lye: http://67.222.53.210/frontierfreedom/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=57&Itemid=99999999

This one tells how to make soap from your wood ash lye: http://67.222.53.210/frontierfreedom/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105&Itemid=99999999

Have fun!

Jenny


----------

