Are you looking for something to clear out your garden from pests? Insecticidal soap is the answer to your prayers! It’s a non-toxic product you can either buy or make at home at a fraction of the cost. Homemade soap insecticide is a safe and easy solution for your bug problem. You can use it in your garden to get rid of pests – and avoid harming your plants and vegetables. This solution is the go-to choice for organic gardeners. Apply it regularly to your garden to protect your plants and greens without having to use heavy chemicals or other unwanted products. It’s the best non-invasive, sus ..read more

You always want to take care of anything you have that you have invested time or money, or both, in. Handmade soap is no exception. Finding the right bar to suit your exact needs can take time and a lot of trial and error. Here are a few things you can do to help make your bar soap last longer… How to Care for Handmade Soap Keep your soap dry with a self-draining soap holder that has ridges or raised nubs for the soap to fully drain on. Apply the soap bar to a washcloth or loofa and use that to lather yourself. Once used, make sure it gets air. Just coming and going from the bathroom will na ..read more

What is saponification? Saponification is a chemical reaction that turns fat, or oils, into soap. It is the process of making soap from scratch using lye carefully measured and mixed with oil or fats. When you saponify something it means to turn it into soap through this chemical reaction. Soap manufacturing starts with the process of saponification in which a triglyceride is converted to soap and glycerin. What’s interesting about this process is that all fats are not created equal, as each fat or oil has its own unique properties that contribute to how well it works for making soap and how s ..read more

How does soap get you clean? Well, the answer to this question is more complicated than you might think. The truth is that all soaps, whether they are mild or strong and no matter if they are made from animal fat or chemicals like sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), have only one real function: cleaning dirt and grease from your skin. So how does soap remove dirt and oil to get your skin clean? Soap is a surfactant, meaning it has two parts that are attracted to each other. One part of the soap molecule is attracted to water and another part of the soap molecule is attracted to oils. This means that ..read more

Over the past year and a half people have had a compelling reason to get a better understanding of how to get clean and eliminate germs. And what most people leaned was surprising. Most soap does not kill germs and most sanitizers do not clean. The idea of “soap vs hand sanitizer” can best be summarized as “dirt remover vs germ killer.” That’s all there is to it. Soap lifts and attracts dirt so water can wash it away. Hand sanitizer uses a chemical or biochemical substance to kill germs. This is usually alcohol based. Cleaning and Sanitizing Combos There are also combination products such as ..read more

2020 has been a long and difficult year for everyone. The Coronavirus changed everyone’s daily life, seemingly overnight. One big part of that change was being more aware of washing hands. By March of 2020 there were signs being plastered in every public restroom in the US teaching us all how to wash our hands again. Between this and public service announcements filling every free second of radio and television airtime – every corner of the United States was on high alert for keeping our hands clean. And this made a lot of people start thinking about how clean their hands were really getting ..read more

Like most people just getting into soap making, I started with melt and pour soap bases. After my first few batches I found myself asking the same question most people ask – how can I increase the lather? Because melt and pour soap has already completed its saponification process the options to increase soap lather are limited. There are a few options that include adding small amounts of liquid glycerin, coconut oil, sugar, and castor oil. A guaranteed method is to purchase high-lather glycerin soap base. It has detergents added to make big bubbles and enhance lather. Use High-Lather Melt and ..read more

One of the first questions most people considering the purchase of handmade soap as is how long a typical bar will last. After all it costs more than the factory-made bars you can buy at any grocery or big-box store. One 4-ounce bar of handmade soap typically lasts an adult user 25 to 30 showers once in use. Prior to use, handmade soap has an active shelf-life of one to two years depending on the amount and type of extra (unsaponified) oils contained in the bar. How to Make Handmade Soap Last Longer After finding out how long a bar of soap lasts, the next question is always “how can it last l ..read more

Choosing the right soap mold can make all the difference in your finished product. When I first started making soap, I did what most people do. I bought a ten inch wooden box mold with a silicone liner. The kit came with a straight and wavy stainless steel cutter and I was ready to take on the world! From there it was a never-ending decision process of “what cute mold can I buy next?” This was becoming an expensive habit. One day it occurred to me that I was surrounded by cheap and free soap molds every day. Sometimes it was Dollar Store picks. More often, things I noticed in my recycle bin ju ..read more

When I was first learning to make handmade soap, I was intimidated by working with lye so I started with melt and pour soap base. I am so glad I did. Melt and pour, or glycerin soap as it’s also known, is a dream come true for beginning and experienced soapers alike. Here are just a few of the advantages of melt and pour soap: There is no need to work with lye You can make gorgeous soap in minutes There is no wait – The soap is usable right away No expensive tools are needed It can be melted and re-melted until you get what you want Variety of soap types and “flavors” There are even more adv ..read more