Soap Making

For cold process and hot process soap makers, our guides cover the fundamentals of saponification — the chemical reaction between lye (sodium hydroxide) and oils that creates true soap — and walk you through everything from calculating your oil recipe using a soap calculator, choosing a superfat percentage, selecting oils and butters for their lathering and conditioning properties, through to safely handling lye, understanding trace, pouring and moulding, and the curing process. We explore how different oils behave in a soap recipe: how coconut oil creates a hard, cleansing bar with big lather; how olive oil contributes a conditioning, mild bar; how castor oil boosts lather and adds creaminess; and how to balance a recipe for a bar that's both cleansing and skin-kind. Our guides also cover natural colourants, fragrance and essential oil usage rates in cold process soap, how to prevent and fix common soap making problems like soda ash, ricing, seizing, and glycerin rivers, and how to safely label and sell handmade soap in South Africa. Whether you're making your very first batch or refining a signature recipe, this is where your soap making knowledge grows.