0 - Why and how to make your own soap? 1 - How: the saponification process 2 - Using caustic soda: safety precautions 3 - Using caustic soda: the online calculators 4 - Superfatting your soap 5 - Oil and other ingredients you may use in a soap Vegetal oils and animal fats Fat is the basic ingredient in soap; you can use anything as long as you know the amount of lye that is required to saponify it. Fortunately, most online calculators are very complete. So you can use any oil/fat but it's important to choose them carefully. For example, I once tried a recipe with only rapeseed and sunflower oil... not a good idea. I decided to make soap in order to reduce my carbon footprint. So I use mostly oils that are from Europe (rather a common kitchen oil), easy to find, and not too expensive (but this is still Norway...). Organic, cold pressed, refined? Organic: no pesticides or other chemicals are used to produce it; organic oil is most often col...
An eco-friendly life story