Burrito West Blog

Peter and I just finished our 2nd batch of soap this month. Whoo! First batch was cold process - because we like the texture of that better, but it takes weeks to cure and we need some to give away for Christmas presents more immediately, so we just did a batch of hot process (ready as soon as it cools). We love homemade soap, it's awesome. We have an orange/clove scent mixture that we both like, it's Christmasy (like a pomander) but not sickly sweet.

Making soap is actually quite easy. You just have to get the right oils, some sodium hydroxide, and be willing to blindly follow instructions the first few times until you build some experience. Willingness to fail is a key ingredient of most new crafts actually. Er, in this case you also need a scale and digital thermometer. And a dedicated slow cooker if you want to do hot process (i.e. not the one you use for food).

We've had great success using these tutorials.