Top 25 Soap Making Resources Online
An ancient and utilitarian craft, soap making has experienced something of a creative resurgence lately following on the coattails of the self-reliant DIY movement. Not only is soap a necessity for daily hygiene rituals, but it also makes for wonderful decorations and personalized gift items as well. With so many molds, fragrances, and additives available, it is possible to construct millions of different possibilities just from a few ingredients. The following websites combined provide all the information – or the ability to ask for it – necessary for making soap at home, as both a hobby and a business venture.
- 1. Candle & Soap Making at About.com
Easily one of the most detailed resources on both candle and soap making available, this portal on About.com offers everything the beginner, intermediate, and advanced crafter. Recipes utilizing the hot and cold processes alike, information on required and recommended supplies, additives suggestions, safety tips, and every other aspect of the craft is discussed right here. There are recipes for both solid and liquid soaps as well as vegetarian and vegan options, and links to multiple lye counters which must accompany them. Anyone interested in learning more or asking questions about the subject must take advantage of their active forums.
2. Teach Soap
Another highly comprehensive guide, Teach Soap covers solid and liquid soaps as well as lotion. The site offers a number of different recipes utilizing several different hot and cold methods as well as histories, information on fragrances and additives, and discussions about opening a soap making business and all the necessary supplies. Recipes themselves are categorized by difficulty, under the labels of “Easy,” “Advanced,” and “Soap for Kids.” Many of them are user-submitted as well, and the site updates frequently. Teach Soap also features an FAQ to scan and contact information to ask about any issues that remain unaddressed. Some pages require a free registration, and information is never passed on.
3. Soap Queen
Anne-Marie Faiola blogs about her recent forays into making her own soap, sharing her processes with very helpful accompanying photographs. She occasionally writes about other subjects as well, but generally sticks mostly with discussing soap making and other DIY hygiene projects. If the photo guides do not provide enough information, Faiola also provides links to her YouTube channel, which contains 22 impressively thorough videos on making candles and soap right at home.
Part of the same soap making network as Soap Queen and Teach Soap, Bramble Berry provides those hoping to create their own cosmetics and hygiene with all the essential supplies and inspirations. They carry a number of different products, including ready-made and melt-and-pour bases, colorants, oils, botanicals, minerals, books, molds, and everything else needed in a kitchen soap making operation. Some of the available fragrances include traditional favorites such as lavender and vanilla to exotic blends such as caramel with chipotle. Aspiring soap makers concerned with creating environmentally-friendly gifts and products would do well to explore their “natural & organic” section.
Delving into the history as well as the practice of soap making, Cranberry Lane offers up free and painstakingly detailed instructions and recipes alongside its shop. In addition to how-to guides to various soaps, they also include numerous techniques for DIY cosmetics as well – with difficulty levels ranging from the beginner all the way to the experienced. Formulas are available for a variety of skin types and needs, including the especially sensitive, babies, and even pets. British Columbia residents may drop into their physical stores for various classes.
6. SoapCrafters
This eclectic online resource operates as both a guide as well as a shop. Like many soap making suppliers, they also carry the necessities to create makeup, shampoo, and other beauty and hygiene essentials at home. Beyond the store, the site also offers a lye calculator, numerous recipes, a forum, and a mailing list. Individuals living in or visiting Las Vegas and surrounding areas can attend their courses in creating soaps, lotions, and other cosmetics for gifts and home use alike. Every so often, they will auction off their closeout items on eBay.
As with many hobbies, soap making can be a bit costly. Fortunately, there is always a demand for plain, decorative, specialty, and novelty soaps, so those who find great enjoyment in the creation of their own hygiene products may be able to reap a profit from their passion. Soap Making Business provides those interested in turning crafts into cash with a list of books, articles, external news stories, and recommendations on where to buy supplies. It may not stand as the definitive source on the soap making business, but makes for a useful consultation on the subject nonetheless.
Beginners and professionals alike converge on Soap Making Forum, which is – as its title suggests – a flourishing community on DIY bath and body projects. Information abounds on nearly every facet of the craft, and there is a healthy amount of talk regarding homemade cosmetics, candles, and other treats. Feel free to ask questions and stimulate discussions. Chances are, someone may offer advice and tips that prove invaluable. Although the forums comprise the bulk of the site’s appeal and content, Soap Making Forum also provides visitors with numerous useful articles and links to other worthwhile resources.
9. Miller’s Homemade Soap Page
Kathy Miller has been handcrafting her own soaps for decades and was once featured in USA Today as an indispensible virtual guide to all things sudsy and cleansing. She provides readers with an FAQ, a troubleshooting page, traditional, contemporary, and vegetarian recipes, design help, and numerous other informative features. One of the more humorous aspects of the site invites readers to share stories about their soap making failures, which serves double duty as a reassurance for beginners frustrated by botched batches. Anyone interested at all in creating soap at home needs to peruse her passionately detailed website before attempting to whip some up.
10. Soap Making Fun
Soap Making Fun is a simple yet informative site, unencumbered by additional resources on candles, cosmetics, and other home and body products. It focuses exclusively on hot process, cold process, and the melt-and-pour methods of soap making. Ingredients and supplies listings, business advice, and a bit of news round out the content. But at no point does the site deviate from discussing the fundamentals of making and marketing soap. It sticks straight to the point at all times and always has something valuable to say.
Wholesale Supplies Plus not only offers all the equipment necessary for a home-based soap making operation, but those pertaining to lotion, skincare, and candles as well. Along with their products, they offer extensive learning libraries, a FAQ, and even a live chat to answer any questions customers may have. Outside of the store, Wholesale Supplies Plus also provides numerous informative videos, a forum, recipes, and resources all relating back to the proper care and use of their wares.
12. Snowdrift Farm
One of the most heavily recommended suppliers for handmade soap, perfume, and aromatherapy, Snowdrift Farm also offers crafters a bevy of recipes and formulas along with a handy calculator tool. They even carry the lye and potash necessary for saponification. Customers new to creating bath and body products may particularly enjoy exploring their various kits. The soap making kit utilizes the melt-and-pour method of creation, and they also carry packages specializing in lip balm and gloss, bath salts, eye cream, lotion, and hair conditioner as well.
13. Sweet Cakes
Another highly respected supplier, Sweet Cakes carries everything needed to cook up soap, lip balm, shower gel, and shampoo right at home – sometimes in bulk. Their fragrance and flavor oils stand as some of their most popular items, with reliable herb, fruit, and floral scents as well as unexpected, occasionally exotic, blends such as circus peanut, açai and mangosteen, and even black pepper. Many of the oils are specially mixed to mimic popular designer or commercial perfumes, and they host special sections for the natural, all-natural, and pure varieties. Gift certificates are also available as well. Coming in increments of $25, they make for excellent presents for the friends and family of crafty DIY types who may not know what supplies to buy them.
14. Candle & Soap Making Techniques
Operated by Peak Candle Supplies, this website peddles all the necessities for a home-based candle and/or soap making venture. They offer some extremely creative recipes utilizing their products, though it is possible to make substitutions as well. Each set of instructions comes accompanied by photographs visually detailing the process. Most make for excellent personalized gifts, especially the dramatic tilted layer candles. Some of them even involve such curiosities as stuffed animals soaked in wax and subsequently scented. Peak Candle Supplies also posts up valuable tips on opening up a business selling handmade crafts and even the occasional video of office hijinks.
15. Soap Equipment
Soap and bath bombs are the main projects featured at the bluntly titled Soap Equipment, and everything from blenders to packaging may be found in their shop. They host a staggering amount of videos demonstrating how to use their products, though in some cases it may be possible to substitute brands. Unlike many suppliers, Soap Equipment does not appear to provide any recipes, though they do offer currency and measurement converters for their clients outside the United States.
16. Craftbits
Craftbits may be a general site devoted to DIY creative projects, but their section devoted to the utilitarian art of making soap provides some amazing and imaginative recipes. Some are traditional, some are great fun, and still others boast pain alleviation properties. These include burn and itch relief, measles soothing, and PMS calming. Others intend to soften skin or provide special antiseptic or cleaning elements. Craftbits also offers helpful advice on how to make soap using the melt-and-pour method, preserving the goods, and picking clays, moisture agents, herbs, and essentials oils appropriate for several different needs and wants.
17. Pioneer Thinking
Combining traditional diligence and self-reliance with modern technologies and sensitibilities, Pioneer Thinking starts off with a basic recipe using beeswax, herbs, and vegetable-derived oils. The advice contained therein is suitable for beginners, most especially the safe handling of the lye needed to properly induce saponification. From there, readers explore other related articles, learn about several different types of crafts, or talk shop with other creative types.
18. The Soap Factory
This online soap shop operated by Marietta and Arthur Ellis sells bars, liquids, and shampoos using modern methods and historical ingredients. They only create with glycerin, fragrant oils, water, and the occasional colorant. But the most attractive aspect of their site comes with the painstakingly detailed and thoroughly interesting resource on the history of soap making. Written by Marietta and illustrated by Arthur, the article covers the substance’s origins, development, and chemistry. It provides a fascinating glimpse into how soap making evolved throughout millennia, and Marietta handily provides a bibliography and links at the end for those left pining for more information.
19. AllCrafts.net
Like many sites, AllCrafts.net lumps candle and soap making together, although they use entirely different processes beyond the relatively recent melt and pour method. This site offers recipes for enough soaps, scrubs, lip balms, bath oils, salves, fizzes, perfumes, gels, house cleaners, bath salts, shaving creams, and bath bombs to suit a wide variety of preferences. In addition, there are instructions on the cold process, felting, diapering, properly testing pH, and calculating lye.
A veritable library of information, this website discusses the craft of soap making and sells all the products necessary to launch a home operation. Aside from the usual molds, oils, herbs, clays, colorants, and exfoliating agents, the site provides a number of resources specifically for novices and a few recipes and tutorials as well – among them a highly valuable saponification table. The blog contains numerous articles on how to get the most out of their and other suppliers’ products and developing and marketing soaps at home. Plenty of the content at Soap Making Resource caters to all the needs and questions that beginners may have.
21. Soap Naturally
Due to environmental, ethical, health, or skincare concerns, some soap makers elect to develop their creations using natural ingredients. Australia-based Soap Naturally is one of the more definitive resources on the subject, providing links to and information on suppliers who carry organic, natural, and all-natural bases, oils, exfoliates, and colorants. They also offer several how-to guides, recipes, and instructions on the various soap making processes as well as a saponification calculator. Beyond soap, the site also looks at other bath and body products such as skin cream, lotion, hair conditioner, and shampoo. Perth and Auckland residents curious about taking classes in soap making may want to explore the featured classes.
22. Smelly Chick’s Online Crafting Resource
This fun, creative blog inspires innovation in novice and advanced soap makers alike. Some of the items featured by soap enthusiast Marr Williams are so lovingly crafted and detailed they literally look like the foods they ostensibly represent. Smelly Chick’s Online Crafting Resource proves that crafts may make the crossover into the realm of the arts. Williams collects the very best videos and tutorials from around the web and posts reviews on all the various lye calculators as a means of pointing novices in the right direction. No visit to this website is complete without a visit to the gallery, which showcases the best of the best soaps available through various Etsy shops.
23. Soaper Stars
Run by a collective of soap makers active on Etsy, this blog remains a useful source of information on the business in spite of its rather lax updating schedule. Take a peek into the creative processes and inspirations behind an extremely broad spectrum of soaps and soap makers alike. Step on into their Soap Dish forum and talk shop, or browse their wares for gift ideas and ideas for items to try and make at home. Just be sure to respect any copyrights when looking for possible profitable products!
24. Feto Soap
Soap maker and blogger Lisa Chouinard sells a wide variety of handmade soaps, cosmetics, and candles. She carries traditional and novelty items alike, with something suitable for most tastes. Her blog, however, provides a wealth of information regarding arts and crafts in Austin, Houston, and beyond the Lone Star State. Learn about her soap making classes and current projects – perhaps gain inspiration for future creative ventures as well.
25. The Soap Bar
Follow Joanna Schmidt as she shares information about her favorite soaps and their various complexion benefits. She gravitates mostly towards Etsy shops, featuring her favorite scents, colors, and textures. Like many other soap bloggers, she offers an intimate look into how her creativity operates and the numerous resulting products. Those interested in understanding the ins and outs of opening a small soap making business would do well to read about her experiences.
With these handy resources, aspiring soap makers can both buy and properly use the equipment and ingredients necessary to create stunning projects for the home, as gifts, or for profit. No matter the level, there is something here to pique the interests of every soap enthusiast - regardless of whether or not they are interested in the craft for personal or monetary reasons.
