Standard Soap Making Equipment
Have you caught the soap-making bug and are ready to try your hand at creating some of your own handmade soaps? Recipes abound for handmade soaps, as do suggestions for colorants, scents and additives. But before you get cooking, you’re going to need some soap making supplies! To get started, you can buy inexpensive and affordable items and consider buying costlier items once you get hooked on soap making. Here is what you will need to make your own soap:
1. An accurate scale
Making soap is about science, chemistry and art and making soap well has everything to do with accurate measurements. You’ll want a scale that ideally measures to 1/10 of an ounce and you will use it to weigh everything from lye to fragrance to water.
2. Safety goggles and rubber gloves
Lye solution is caustic to skin and very toxic so it’s important to protect yourself when handling it.
3. Heat-resistant pitcher with lid and stainless steel spoon
We like to have a dedicated pitcher or pail and spoon to mix our lye solution in. This way, you can prevent cross-contamination.
4. 3-quart bowls in glass or plastic
It’s good to have a few of these on hand for measuring and holding your liquid oils before adding them to your soap mixture.
5. A quick-read thermometer
You’ll use this to monitor the temperature of your lye solution and melted oils.
6. Stainless steel measuring spoons
These are great for measuring colorants, essential oils, fragrance oils or additives.
7. Beakers or ramekins
You’ll want a few small bowls, beakers or ramekins to hold various ingredients before adding to your mixture.
8. An immersion blender (or stick blender)
These are great for blending the oils with the lye mixture, which will start the saponification process.
9. A soap mold
Don’t worry about getting anything fancy just yet (unless you want to!). You can use a variety of different things to act as your beginner soap molds, like milk cartons or yogurt cups.
10. Rubber spatulas and paper towels
Rubber spatulas are great to have on hand to scrape out the remaining mixture into the mold and paper towels are necessary for the inevitable spills.
In order for prescription medications to be most effective, eczema sufferers must follow a proper bathing and moisturizing regimen. Unfortunately, commercial soap can further irritate eczema prone skin.
To make handmade soap to help treat this condition, it’s important to use gentle ingredients that moisturize and soothe the skin. Chemically charged ingredients such as fragrance oils or solvents can further dry and irritate the skin and cause flare-ups. The skin of eczema sufferers loses water and moisture at a high rate, so thick and creamy natural soap bases are a must.
The skin can absorb moisturizing ingredients like Shea butter and olive oil easily without clogging the pores. They also act as great soap bases. Other moisturizing ingredients include goat’s milk, honey, and coconut oil.
Many eczema sufferers find handmade soap to be much gentler on their skin, since it contains fewer chemicals and ingredients and its fragrances are usually natural essential oils.
One of the most beneficial ingredients you can use in soap to help treat eczema is oatmeal. The glutinous reaction oatmeal has in water is caused by polysaccharides, which can also help form a protective layer over sensitive and dry skin. Oatmeal also contains natural fats and proteins that help mend the natural skin barrier and maintain its level of moisture. This helps keep bad ingredients out and good ingredients in.
Other beneficial ingredients you could include in your soaps would be aloe vera, almond oil and chamomile. These all have beneficial components that help soothe and heal the skin.
While there is no permanent cure for eczema, finding a regimen that helps keep the symptoms at bay and a soap that doesn’t inflame sensitive skin is a good way to control this condition.