I made two batches of handmade soap the last 2 days. This is the first one, the second batch is still in the form. The form is the strange looking wood box in this photo. It creates a nice long soap. Then I cut it, with an old stainless steel knife into 3/4" individual soaps. I like this method because I do get pretty identical bars.
I take each bar, and use my handmade soap stamp on each one. I purchased this stamp long ago, when I sold some of my soap. Sometimes, I used a little sparkle eye shadow in the stamp to create a little special feature.
I place the individual soap bars upright in a cardboard box to cure, in a warm and dry place. They need some air around them. Curing takes about 8 weeks to get a good hard soap. The soap continues to harden as they age, but that isn't a problem. Hubby and I love this soap.
When a good long cure (3 - 4 months) is complete, I put the soaps with the same scent together in a Ziplock freezer bag. This keeps the scent fresh, for years.
The two batches of soap will provide about 70 large bars. We use most of it ourselves. Sometimes, I wrap up a few for a gift.
It really is pretty economical to make my soap. These 70 soaps would retail for about $6 each. That comes to $420. It costs about $80 to make two batches, so that comes to $1.14 per bar. Each bar lasts for about 30 days for 2 of us.
I became interested in making my own soap after purchasing several bars from a gal...she has become a friend and mentor to me. You see, she does this as a home business.
I found that the best information is on the web. Books aren't much good for cold process soap. Many home soap makers don't use this method.
