Melt and Pour Soap

[maxwill129]

Does anyone know of a good place to buy melt and pour soaps that don't have icky ingredients in them? I checked out bramble berry and their soaps have EDTA and titanium dioxide and other places had SLS in them. I want to make my own soap but need to start out with something simple. And this is purely for my own use, not to sell!

Thanks.

EDIT: I guess not all of bramble berry has EDTA in it, so I think they're a safe place to buy from. But if anyone else has any other place to buy, let me know please!

[SophieAnn]

I bought melt-n-pour at Michael's (a craft store). It came in a huge block. It's pure glycerin soap (clear, colourless, scent-free), but I'm not sure what's in it. I haven't used it in awhile.

Maybe try your local craft store and have a look at the ingredients?

[JamieCatheryn]

Most M&P soap is glycerin or other detergent made with SLS. For real soap, I strongly suggest making your own cold process soap. It's a learning process and takes lye and oils plus and gloves and ventilation, but is so worth it.

[sarathan]

I agree with the pp, for a truly pure soap, it's best to make your own! It's really not that hard... you could start off with a basic recipe of water, lye, and two or three different oils and then branch off from there if you want. Plus, it's probably less expensive than MP soap.

[thixle]

Originally Posted by maxwill129

I want to make my own soap but need to start out with something simple. And this is purely for my own use, not to sell!

What are you wanting to do? Weird question, i know
Make gifts?
Family soap with specific scents or colors?
Specialty soaps? like shaving/face/washing stinky hands?

You can mill your own soap, which is basically grating up bars of good castile (olive oil) or other handmade-by-someone-else "real" soap and adding your own fillers.

Like oatmeal soap- a grated bar from the farmer's market+ some oatmeal+ a little water. Put it in the microwave and stir then mold it and let dry (it won't melt all the way and you can just roll it into balls).

You can do "kitchen soap" by adding lemon zest and coffee grounds. It really gets your hands clean and deodorizes them.

Those are my two favorites!

-- oh, you can make "liquid" soap by grating a bar and adding distilled water. I got a bunch of luscious soaps for xmas and plan on "making shampoo" for dd this way.

[maxwill129]

Originally Posted by thixle

What are you wanting to do? Weird question, i know
Make gifts?
Family soap with specific scents or colors?
Specialty soaps? like shaving/face/washing stinky hands?

You can mill your own soap, which is basically grating up bars of good castile (olive oil) or other handmade-by-someone-else "real" soap and adding your own fillers.

Like oatmeal soap- a grated bar from the farmer's market+ some oatmeal+ a little water. Put it in the microwave and stir then mold it and let dry (it won't melt all the way and you can just roll it into balls).

You can do "kitchen soap" by adding lemon zest and coffee grounds. It really gets your hands clean and deodorizes them.

Those are my two favorites!

-- oh, you can make "liquid" soap by grating a bar and adding distilled water. I got a bunch of luscious soaps for xmas and plan on "making shampoo" for dd this way.

Oh, I'm just using it for our family. I thought it would be cheaper to make my own soaps, lotion bars, body butters, etc than to buy them (and as I'm pricing stuff out I seem to be right about that!). I love the oatmeal soap and the kitchen soap. I'm going to try making those!

Thanks for your ideas. I would love to do CP soap, but I'm pregnant right now and don't have good ventilation in the winter, so I may wait until baby comes before diving into that!

[JamieCatheryn]

Originally Posted by maxwill129

Oh, I'm just using it for our family. I thought it would be cheaper to make my own soaps, lotion bars, body butters, etc than to buy them (and as I'm pricing stuff out I seem to be right about that!). I love the oatmeal soap and the kitchen soap. I'm going to try making those!

Thanks for your ideas. I would love to do CP soap, but I'm pregnant right now and don't have good ventilation in the winter, so I may wait until baby comes before diving into that!

Fair enough, but I just open the window winter or not and keep my face away from the cooling lye/water solution, and I never even get a whiff of the fumes. I'm pregnant too.

Be very sure if you buy a plain CP soap base to rebatch that it's not just "cold pressed looking" like the one Brambleberry sells. And be prepared, grating it up is time consuming and hard work.

[maxwill129]

Originally Posted by JamieCatheryn

Fair enough, but I just open the window winter or not and keep my face away from the cooling lye/water solution, and I never even get a whiff of the fumes. I'm pregnant too.

Be very sure if you buy a plain CP soap base to rebatch that it's not just "cold pressed looking" like the one Brambleberry sells. And be prepared, grating it up is time consuming and hard work.

Good to know! We have no money right now anyway, so I'll be researching a bit more until I can buy. I think I'll start researching how to make my own soap from scratch. I'm glad to know it can be done pregnant!