Choosing a Soapmaker

Choosing a soapmaker is an important task, as your skin is depending on it. There a couple basic questions that should allow you to determine the competence of your soapmaker immediatly. Some handmade soapmakers are really melt and soapmakers. They take pre-packaged melt and pour soap, place it in the microwave for a minute, add color and fragrance, pour into molds and call this handmade soapmaking. This is really a task for keeping the kids busy on a rainy day. There is very little skill involved, almost anyone can do it. The worst aspect however is what the manufacturers have to put into the basic batch in order to get it to behave this way in a microwave. The number of chemicals are too numerous to list. Bad choice on all counts.

Handmade soap must go through the process of saponification in order to be true handmade soap. There are newer hot process methods but these are not the methods that the finest old world soapmakers use. If you were to visit the finest castile soapmakers in Euroipe you will find they are using a method called cold press soap making. This timeless method that uses lye as the saponoification agent makes the finest soap available today. You don't have to believe me, just google French, Greek or Italian soaps and read how they make their soaps. Most are extremely proud of this old world tradition that they have kept alive all of these years.

If a melt and pour soapmaker tries to scare you by saying "our soap contains no lye" , run for the hills. This is a typical disengenuous tactic that is comnmonly used by inferior soap crafters. Remember, NO LYE NO SOAP! Now with this info you need to know the other ingredients in the soap mnd their propertuies. Some very good soaps have more moisturizing properties and other shave stronger cleansing properties. This has to do with amount and combination of oils in each soap. Lathering oils are coconut, castor, babassu olis and lard. The more moisturizing oils are almond, apricot kernel, canola, corn, olive, rice bran, and shea butter. Some oils have a great combination of both attributes. Experiment with different handmade soap bars and find out which combination works best for your skin.