Making Soap - a.k.a. Soapmaking.~ Step one: getting ready...

I made a two-pound batch of goat milk soap yesterday. 

I tried a method that I haven't used before:

Crockpot soapmaking!

Of course, me being me, I HAD to get a

crockpot that matches my kitchen!

;-)

For those who would like to know HOW to make goat milk soap,

via a crockpot, I took photos of each step and

will share the recipe and the method

right now:

First of all, you need a Recipe:

(click on the photo to enlarge and use mine)

There are many places on the Internet where you can find recipes for soapmaking.  Whichever recipe you chose, make sure to check it with the "Soap Calculator" to make sure that it is properly balanced and will produce a bar of soap that is safe to use.

Once you have your recipe and have checked it with your

favorite soap calculator, you want to assemble

the necessary supplies:

Of course you'll need the fats and oils called for in your recipe:

Each oil has it's own properties that it will contribute to the finished soap.   To learn about the  different properties of some of the most commonly used oils ,  CLICK  here.

Since making soap requires lye,

proper safety equipment is essential!

As is a scale for measuring your ingredients:

Have any additives you chose to use

at hand before you begin to make

your soap.

I will be grating two, whole, vanilla beans into my batch.

The PH strips are for testing the finished product to make sure that

all of the lye has been consumed in the sopanification process.

To keep one post from being WAY too long, I'm

breaking up my soapmaking tutorial into three

blog posts.  Tomorrow, we'll  show the steps in actually making  the soap.