Natural soap making has become more common with our increased awareness of what harmful chemicals can do. Good natural soap requires the right combination of ingredients. Here are five tricks for better soap.
1. Get the basics right. High priced ingredients aren't really necessary to make good soap. Often high-priced ingredients try to make up for an inferior soap recipe.
Recipes using coconut, palm and olive oils, though simple, are often the best recipes. There is no need for sugar in soap. Other expensive oils such as rice bran oil, emu oil or shea butter are also not necessary.
2. Use the right amount of coconut oil. Coconut oil in natural soap making creates a soap that lathers well with lots of big bubbles. However, too much coconut oil cleans too well, drying out the skin.
3. Use enough fragrance. Many recipes don't call for enough scent oil, so when you're done, what little scent you used was wasted. In your natural soap making, use enough scent oil so you can enjoy it later.
4. Palm kernel oil also takes a prominent place in natural soap making. It takes the place of animal fats such as beef tallow or lard. Palm oil makes a fairly mild hard soap with only fair lathering qualities.
5. Moisturize with olive oil or something like it. The unsaturated oils such as olive oil act as moisturizers in natural soap making. These oils attract moisture to the skin and give the soap a luxury feel. Castile soap, made with only olive oil, makes for a thiner soap and doesn't lather as well as soap containing coconut oil.
Natural soaps need not be expensive, and don't need to include exotic ingredients. The trick is to get the right blend of ingredients in order to clean the skin without drying it. With the proper recipe, all natural soaps can be a joy to use.