BEDDING — Inside the Home

Natural Color

Soap making at home with lye and adding your own natural colorings and fragrances

If you want to learn cold process soap making from scratch then you should start with a goal and a commitment for why you want to make soap because it can be difficult in the early stages of developing the right technique and following exact measurements and recipes.

However, the end result should be more than worth it and extremely rewarding once you learn your own technique and how to reach trace every time with your lye base and chosen pure oils.

You will need to start with some lye, which is sodium hydroxide. Drano contains lye, but it is not pure 100% sodium hydroxide lye so it will not work for making soap. You need lye, which you can usually find a locally at a hardware store or some similar store. If you can't find it in your town you may need to go purchase it online.

You also need pure distilled or softened water. You can't just use hard tap water from your home sink as this water will contain minerals that will most likely disturb the chemical process of soap making.

And if you want to complete your list of ingredients for a very basic first soap to make, like Castille soap, then you also need to go grab some olive oil.

Traditionally, soap was made with animal fats and oils, but the most common modern ingredient in soap making is probably olive oil. So you will need to go to your store and get olive oil that is 100% pure all of oil. Read the label to make sure that on the back the only ingredient is 100% pure olive oil.

You may also want to grab a couple natural colorings or fragrances or essential oils once you are able to reach trace and have a soap base ready to add other ingredients before molding your soap into bars and other shapes.

However, I don't recommend buying too many fragrances and ingredients at the beginning, because you will first want to focus all your attention on how to properly mix your lye base with your chosen oils and reaching trace.

And if you want to go completely natural, which you probably want to do since you are trying to make soap from scratch, then you'll want to choose natural colorings such as indigo and essential oils which are made from natural herbs. With essential oils you can get great aromas and smells like orange peel, lavender, lemon grass, and peppermint.

Fragrances and other artificial colorings are obviously not natural so you will want to keep that in mind if you're wanting to make completely natural homemade soap.

You want to make sure before you begin to mix your pure water with the lye that you have some safety goggles, rubber safety gloves, and a surface that you are willing to spill they little bit of caustic chemical on. This is lye and it's dangerous so some people prefer to handle the lye mixing in the outdoors.

You also want to make sure not to breathe in any of the fumes while you are mixing the water and lye. You need to pour the dry lye into your water according to the measurements of your recipe. Some people like to use a recipe that requires a whole container of lye so that you don't have to worry as much about measurements or storing the lye.

However, you may want to start with a smaller measurements and this is your first time and it will be easier to mess it up. And you always want to pour the lye into the water and never the water into the lye.

You need to remember that this is a chemical process and has to be done a certain way. This is also one of the reasons lye people prefer to make their first couple batches of homemade soap using a melt and pour soap making kit and base rather than trying to make soap from scratch.

But you can certainly start from scratch as long as you are willing to mess up a couple times and you have the patience and attention to give to developing the right technique and looking for the right result in your soap.

And once you learn how to master soapmaking from scratch you will be experiencing extremely rewarding feeling that you have created your own natural soap at home and you are actively involved in nourishing your own skin and your family's skin in a more healthy and proactive way.

You can also make special soap molds out of PVC or other plastics and containers to make unique shapes because homemade soap makes a great gifts for friends and family as well.

And some people are even able to turn their soapmaking passions into profitable part-time or full-time businesses. But for now just work on the basic process of forming the right soap base and reaching trace.

 

About the Author

Read more on homemade soap making.

http://soapmakinglife.com

 

How to paint a natural color changing table white?

I have a natural color wooden changing table that we bought for my son when he was born 3 years ago. We are having a baby girl and want everything in white. We had to buy a new crib and have a white dresser. We want to use my son's changing table, but would like it white. How do you change the color? Do I need to sand it, then prime and paint it? I don't know how to do these DIY projects. Any info would be helpful.

The professional way to go is sand, prime with a stainblocking primer, then paint. However, if this is your first time, unless you are a perfectionist, it will probably not turn out great even then. It's hard to sand into corners without taking furniture apart. It can be done, though.

You might want to consider a product called "liquid sandpaper". It is a product that removes part of the finish and leaves it rough enough for the primer and paint to adhere. The reason you have to sand (or use this product) is because the finish is so smooth that paint can't get a "grip" and will eventually begin to chip and flake off.

If you don't mind a "distressed" look to your furniture, you could just paint it and maybe sand some edges to make it look worn and old. This type finish is still very popular.

I have painted over some items without sanding. The key is to get a good quality primer, OR there are products that you can add to paint or primer that makes them "stick" a lot better. Just ask the sales person at your local hardware/DIY center, and they can direct you to their product, if you decide to go that way.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 18th, 2010 at 5:56 am and is filed under bedding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.