Make Your Own Soap And Be Safe

It’s not hard to make soap on your own, with pre-measured original ingredients, yet as far as safety goes, the process lands somewhere between cake baking and working with drain cleaner. Many of the steps are rather similar to the methods used when baking, with the same concerns about getting burned by hot materials. But unless you’re using kits where the ingredients have been prepared for you, virtually all soap making projects use lye. So you’ll need to take both simple and more involved steps to be sure you have protection.

In all but cold process recipes, you’ll be using heat at some, if not all stages of creating your handmade soaps. This means that you need to keep track of heated pots or pans, and be sure your hands are protected. And not only will you need to be careful about splashing hot oil when you make soap, but you also need to remember that different oils combust at different temperatures, or flash points. So if you’re adding an essential fragrance oil late in the process, for example, then first let the soap mixture cool below the flash point for that oil.

Then, of course, there is soap lye, which adds extra risk to the process. All ingredients need to be measured precisely, particularly the lye, so there is none left when the soap is finally finished. Protective equipment such as goggles, rubber gloves and long sleeved clothes must be worn when working with lye to keep you safe from splashes. The lye must be poured into the water, rather than the other way around, to avoid an explosive reaction. Lye is always involved in one way or another when you make soap, so you need to know how to handle it properly before you even begin.

For this reason, when you make soap, it might even be best if you isolate yourself so you’re not distracted by a pet or by any kids in the house. Have all ingredients nearby before you start, so you don’t have to leave the workspace unexpectedly, and perhaps lay down protective coverings on counters where you’ll be working. Keep all your soap making resources, like pots, utensils, and especially the lye, well labeled and separated from normal kitchen supplies. If you take careful precautions, you can make your soaps while keeping the process both enjoyable and safe.

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