Soap Making Kit

From LoveToKnow Crafts

Soap making can seem daunting before you try it. You may wonder if you want to spend all the money on supplies and molds before you’ve really decided if soap making is something you want to do.

Luckily, there are a lot of soap making kits out there that give you all the basic supplies you need to make some quantity of soap without investing a whole lot of money. Let’s take a look.

Melt-and-pour soap kits

The most basic type of soap making is known as melt and pour, because that’s basically what you do. The soap base is melted (on the stove top or in the microwave), additives such as colorant and scents are mixed in, and the soap is poured into molds. (For more on the basic types of soap, check out Soap Making Recipe.

You will probably be able to find a basic kit for melt and pour soap making at your local craft store (soap making supplies are often on the same aisle as the candle supplies). Or look for the kit online, at a store such as Soap Crafters.

A basic kit will include soap base, one or two colors, one or two scents and a couple of molds. All you will need to supply is a large microwave-safe measuring cup to melt your wax in (or a pot or double boiler if you want to melt it on the stove) and something to stir with. You might also want a spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol. Spraying the molds and the soaps after you pour them helps prevent bubbles.

Melt and pour is as close to instant gratification as soap making gets, and the kits are really inexpensive. You don’t need any special skills (even patience) to make this kid of soap work. You may find you like that and don’t ever want to move on to cold-process soap making. But a craft that requires a little more skill can be a lot more fun.

Cold-process soap molds

Kits for cold-process soap making may be a little harder to find in your local area, but there are plenty of places online that you can get the supplies needed, either in a kit or individually purchased. To find out what you need to get started if you want to make your own kit for yourself or as a gift, read Soap Making Supplies.

Bramble Berry offers a wide selection of kits, many of which provide novelty holiday molds for melt and pour soaps. If you scroll down you will find a kit for cold process soap making, which includes a good basic selection of oils and a couple of molds. There’s also a free book included. All you would need to supply is the olive oil and lye, as well as mixing vessels and implements.

Soap Making has a kit with a custom-made pine mold and an instructional video. The kit includes gloves, sodium hydroxide, vegetable oils and fragrance oils pre-combined with dried herbs.

For a kit that truly comes with everything (if you live in Canada, anyway) check out Cranberry Lane. this kit includes oil, lye, a thermometer, a mold, gloves and botanical additives. You just need some pots to mix it in. Lye cannot be shipped out of Canada, though, so you can buy this kit without the lye and buy your own locally.

If you’re still on the fence about trying soap making, or you want to get a friend hooked, consider buying a kit before you spend a ton of money buying ingredients separately. And have fun!

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