Lesson 2: Introduction

Lesson 2 Begins our Journey in cold process soap making.

   Now we're really ready to get started. All the recipes and demonstrations in lesson two are dedicated to learning the cold process technique. Cold process means that the soap is made, designed, and cured on the counter top. This is mostly done at room temperature, and there is no additional heat applied to the soap during this time. Cold process is compared to Hot Process, which is demonstrated in the next chapter, where hot process is cooked while cold process is not cooked. Cold process is usually described as a simpler technique than Hot process.

   During the cold process method the soap needs a minimum set curing time of six weeks which could extend longer depending on the combination of oils being used.

   One of the reasons that artisans prefer the cold process method is because of the beautiful vibrant colors that can be produced. And you can get more detail out of your designs than you can with the hot process cooked soap because the texture of the soap batter is different. This 12 part lesson is going to take you through some of the basic terminology and trouble shooting when using the cold process technique. Everything you find in this part of the course is designed especially for beginners and it deals the very first questions you have when you start soap making to the questions that start to come up when once you practice a few recipes.

   Exercises 1 – 12 are set up in a specific way. In lesson 2.1 we will start of with a basic standard recipe. This recipe directly addresses the most common question that I've answered over the years. How do I make my bar of soap white? Now, as a new soap maker this isn't typically your first question. This usually comes up after you have a few projects under your belt and realize that nearly all the soap you make comes out yellow before you add any type of colorant. However, this is the most frequent question, and I'm going to start right out of the gate with this recipe.

 You see, the base color of your soap depends heavily on the combination of oils you choose in each recipe . The most frequent question I've gotten in messages is - How do I make my soap white right from the start. So we're going to start the very first recipe with a bright base that cure to a white bar of soap.

  In lesson 2.2 We'll move on to another basic standard recipe. This is a more traditional oil blend that's easy to work with. The recipe is just a bit more advanced than the last with an easy to use popular fragrance and simple color technique.

  Now, wedged between the recipes in lesson two are excerpts with terms and definitions that describe some of the phenomena that happen during the saponification process. You'll need to know whats going on in your recipe as its becoming soap, so that you can control the effects. You'll learn things like trace, gel and insulating, glycerin rivers, and soda ash, ricing, and the DOS and the visual examples in lessons 2.2 – 2.4 will show you what these things look like. These are all things you need to learn and experience as a beginner soap maker.

Lessons 2.5 – 2.12 are all unique recipes. These 8 recipes are organized in a deliberate way. I'll show you what kinds of designs you can make with soap batter at different thicknesses and textures. We'll start off with recipes that typically have a thick trace. As we move down the lessons the soap batter becomes thinner for a longer period of time. The designs get wispy and more delicate, and as we progress the recipes will be crafted so that we can get a more complicated design. Remember, these are still all beginner level designs, but they move from the simplest to more complicated as we progress.

The goal in lesson 2 is that by the time we finish all the recipes in this lesson, you'll discover the answer to biggest question that I had when I was making soap in the first year of learning, and that was how to control my soap batter depending on the design I wanted to create. So lets dive in.