First Batch Of CP Soap

Difficultly: Medium

As promised I'm posting up a blog on my first batch of CP (cold processed) soap. I actually made said soap about a fortnight ago, I just haven't been able to get my hands on the laptop for a while. This blog will include pictures and my reviews/thoughts on CP soap.

I decided against MP (melt and pour) soap as it is well known as "lazy man's soap" where the soap base is already made for you, you just need to melt it down, add colour and fragrance and pour it into pretty little moulds. The problem with that is that I want to learn what exactly goes into soap, So I opted for a starter kit from Aussie Soap Supplies. This is what I brought from them;

All of this plus shipping came to about $90, which is pretty pricey considering you can buy the ingredients separately for cheaper. But in saying that you don't get the 12 page info-sheet on how to make soap, which was interesting to read in itself. I brought the soap mould separately from the kit, buying a stainless steel thermometer and some silicone moulds from the soap may have been a cheaper option.  

This is everything I had to buy in order to make soap, minus olive oil and an old blanket I used to insulation. All of this most likely cost me around $60 all up, so far the grand total equaling to around $150, luckily I was going halves with mum! Now at this point, I was feeling very "is this really worth it?" but nether the less I went ahead and made it. 

Just before adding the caustic soda.

This was probably the "hardest" part.

All oils (including solid oils!) separate and ready to mix.

Heating oils.

Halfway through blending everything together.

I believe this would be called "medium trace"

In the mould, ready to set.

I enjoyed making CP soap, however it was a lot easier than I expected and a lot pricier! I've still got enough ingredients to make another batch (as you can see, one batch equals 12 large squares of soap, which I cut six in half) and have already looked into purchasing more for another batch, which is a lot cheaper than buying the kit plus all the other things.
I ended up scraping out the bowl and used the little amount of soap after letting it set for a few days, it was pretty moisturizing and smelt really nice.

If you're new to making soap or just want to dip your toes in, I would suggest purchasing an MP kit or make some fun glycerine soaps!

On average the soaps cost $2.50 to make (just ingredients), which I'm pretty happy about considering the quality of ingredients.  Considering Lush (who inspired me to making my own soaps) just use MP soap bases, add a few oils and sell their soaps for $6/$7 a bar, which melts very quickly in the shower. This is probably due to the curing period, CP soaps need to cure for six weeks before use where MP soaps can be used within 48 hours of curing. The harder the soap, the longer it takes to melt down.

In future I will be making my own soaps.

Mel x