S Introduction

Introduction
S
o you know how to make soap. All the ins and outs of modern
soapmaking methods make perfect sense to you: you know
how to OHP, CP, DWCP, DBHP. You make liquid soap, cream
soap, milk soap and rebatched soap.
Copyright (C) 2013 Demetra Publishing
Or maybe you know very little about soap (yet), but having
borrowed or purchased your copy of the Natural Soapmaking
Handbook, the good results obtained with your first experiments
have given you enough confidence to tackle new challenges.
Either way, here is a good range of recipes for you to try out. All
have been extensively tested, verified and proven to give successful
results when followed exactly as described —which means, using
exactly the same ingredients, amounts, tools and processing steps
recommended for each recipe.
Following the recipes as suggested, examining the results and
noting if, how, when and to what extent they can be tweaked or
adapted to your personal specifications, are the primary steps
towards mastering the nitty-gritty details of making as natural as
possible soap.
As your journey progresses, we hope it will come as natural for
you, as it was for us, to pour out your imagination into ever new
handmade soap creations.
Using this Cookbook
F
or each of the 77 soap recipes in this book, we have indicated
the most appropriate soapmaking method(s) using the
abbreviations in Table I.1, at the end of this Section. If you
are not familiar with handmade soapmaking and its curious
terminology, we recommend that you obtain a copy of our Natural
Soapmaking Handbook as the obvious complement to this Cookbook.
Note that we are not covering here every single one of the handmade
soapmaking methods described in the Handbook, but only those we
consider best for obtaining as natural as possible, wholesome, skinfriendly, eco-friendly soaps.
Making soap… naturally
9
The Natural Soapmaking Cookbook: 77 star recipes for superior handmade soaps
All amounts are given in metric weight and volume units. We
have chosen the metric measurement system both because it is the
one we are most familiar with, and because its smaller divisions
allow higher accuracy when measuring critical ingredients. Could
we encourage you to take steps to ensure that your scales and
measuring tools are up to par, as accuracy is essential to obtaining
optimal and repeatable results in handmade soapmaking.
If these are going to be your first experiments with handmade
soap, we recommend that you start from the simpler, CP-version
recipes in Chapter 1, which we have marked with the Apprentice
stamp and do not include any of the less compatible ingredients,
such as milk, honey or potentially seizing additives.
Copyright (C) 2013 Demetra Publishing
Once you get familiar with the process and are satisfied with
the results, you can then raise the bar and take on more complex
recipes, as well as those requiring advanced soapmaking methods.
As you put more batches under your belt, we encourage you
to use our recipes as a base to develop your own —for instance,
by initially replacing the suggested additives with others of your
choice, and then by replacing one or more oils, or changing their
ratio.
Every time you change one or more of the suggested oils, or
increase your batch size, you can refer to the specified percentages,
which are indicated in the leftmost column of each recipe ingredient
list, to simplify your calculations. We have done our best to provide
some white space, between recipes, so that you can take notes and
jot down your ideas to customise recipes to your personal tastes.
WARNING
Always recalculate the alkali amount whenever you decide
to increase batch size or change the specified oil range,
amounts or ratios.
Step-by-step instructions for all modern paste soapmaking
methods, background information on soap’s building blocks,
considerations on tools, equipment & workplace setup, and
necessary safety recommendations can be found in this Cookbook’s
companion, The Natural Soapmaking Handbook: how to make soap…
any way you like, by Marina Tadiello and Patrizia Garzena (Demetra
Publishing 2013).
10
The Super-Naturally Series
Introduction
Copyright (C) 2013 Demetra Publishing
WARNING
This book is not designed to give you exhaustive
information on how to make soap, as this is covered by our
other manual: the Natural Soapmaking Handbook.
If you have never made soap before, you will need this
Handbook, or some other soapmaking how-to source, to
become familiar with the basics of making soap, including
necessary safety precautions for handling the alkalis
and other potentially dangerous ingredients used in the
soapmaking process.
Do not even attempt to carry out any of this book’s recipes
unless you are fully aware of soapmaking’s fundamental
safety and manufacturing process requirements.
Table I.1: Abbreviations used to describe soapmaking methods.
CP
Cold Process
DBHP
Double Boiler Hot Process
DWCP
Discounted Water Cold Process
HP
any of the HP soap methods, including DBHP and OHP
LSCP
Liquid Soap, Cold Process paste method
LSHP
Liquid Soap, Hot Process paste method
NHCP
No Heat applied Cold Process
OHP
Oven Hot Process
RB
Rebatch
SW/CS
Swirled or Composite Soap
Colour photographs of our soap recipes are available from
www.demetra.com.au/natural-soapmaking/cookbook, where we
invite you to post yours, either for feedback or just for the pleasure
to share your (visual) results with other soapers’.
Do come and have a browse around this book’s homepage,
above, also for detailed look-up tables, supplying ingredient and
method details for all the soap recipes in this Cookbook.
Making soap… naturally
11