How to Make Soap: A Beginner Soap Making Guide
Learn to make your own soap for personal use or as gifts for others.

Soap is something everyone uses (or hopefully uses) in their everyday life. You can make your own soap by following this How to Make Soap tutorial. When you make soap at home, you can personalize the color, scent, shape, and general benefits of your soap. This tutorial will explain the basic instructions for making a standard bar of soap, but as you become more confident, you can start adding more ingredients to make it moisturizing soap, bug-repellant soap, or exfoliating soap. There are so many sudsy possibilities once you have the basics of soap making mastered. Homemade soap makes a great gift for friends and family on holidays; especially if you make holiday-themed soap, like adorable gingerbread man-shaped soap.
Getting Started: An Introduction to Soap Making
For now though, we are going to start with the basics of melt-and-pour soap recipes. With this step-by-step tutorial, you will be making soap in no time. When you make your own bath products, you gain full control over what goes in to your soaps, lotions, and scrubs. With a product you use on your skin as much as soap, it’s nice to know exactly what you’re getting into. Check out this basic soap making recipe and be the master of your bath products.
The History of Soap Making
Did You Know?
Soap is created by the chemical reaction of a fatty acid with an alkali metal hydroxide. It is used primarily for washing, bathing, and cleaning. Soaps for cleansing are obtained by treating vegetable or animal oils and fats with a strongly alkaline solution. The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BC in ancient Babylon. It is believed that they made soaps with fats boiled with ashes. The Ebers papyrus (Egypt, 1550 BC) reveals that the ancient Egyptians bathed regularly and mixed animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to produce a soap-like substance. There is also evidence of various forms of soap used in Ancient Rome, Ancient China, the Middle East in the 12th Century, and in Medieval Europe.
Soap making was initially an exclusive technique only done by soap makers. Over time, recipes for soap making became more widely known, but soap was still expensive. The price of soap was significantly reduced in 1791 when a Frenchman (LeBlanc) discovered a chemical process that allowed soap to be sold for significantly less money. In the mid-nineteenth century, soap for bathing became a separate commodity from laundry soap, with milder soaps being packaged, sold and made available for personal use. Liquid soap was not invented until the nineteenth century; in 1865, William Shepphard patented a liquid version of soap. Now there a multitude of soaps for all different kinds of cleaning. We can even follow a soap recipe and make our own customized DIY soaps in our own homes.

Basic Soap Making Ingredients and Tools
- Clear soap base
- Soap coloring
- Vitamin E (It's great for your skin!) [You can just get the capsuls of vitamin E that they sell at the drug store, you won't need too many.]
- Essential oils (You can pick your essential oils for its scent or its skin benefits or both!)
Learn how to add essential oils to soap - Soap tray/mold (You can make cool shapes or just have one big mold and then cut your soap bars when it's hardened.)
- Heat-proof bowl (like glass)
- Spatula and Knife
- Medium/Large sized Pot
- Oven Mitts

Basic Soap Making Recipe
- Cut your soap base into cubes (the small pieces melt faster than a giant chunk of soap base).
- Place your soap base cubes into your heat-proof container.
- Fill your pot partway with water, you’ll be making a double boiler, so remember to leave room for the water to rise when you put the heat-proof container in the pot.
- Place the heat-proof container into your pot, and put the pot on the stovetop over medium heat.
- Stir the soap base as it starts to melt.
- When your soap base is fully melted, add your fragrance, coloring, and vitamin E. Start by adding small amounts to see how it looks and smells, you can always add more.
- Turn off the heat and use oven mitts to remove the bowl from the pot and pour your soap into your mold. Let your soap harden. To be safe, it’s best to just leave it overnight.
- Remove from the mold and enjoy!

Why you should try melt & pour soap making:
"I'm completely obsessed with melt & pour soap! It's so easy to make and there a million ways to customize it. You can add ingredients like activated charcoal and tea tree essential oil to fight acne, exfoliators like sugar or poppy seeds to slough off dead skin or oils like sweet almond or olive to make it more moisturizing. Have fun experimenting!"
--- Stephanie Gerber, Hello Glow
Cold Process Soap and Hot Process Soap: What is the Difference?
The above soap recipe uses a melt and pour method, using a soap base. There are a few other ways to make soap. One is rebatching which uses already finished soap. Another is making soap from scratch. This method, includes making soap from raw materials. A few basic steps include mixing lye, preparing fats and oils, combining lye and fats/oils, and adding natural colors and fragrances (usually from essential oils). If you want to make soap from scratch there are two basic methods: cold process and hot process.
Many steps are similar in terms of making soap. In both processes, you will have to prepare the Lye solution, prepare the oils/fats, and pour Lye into the oils to create an emulsion.
***Safety First: Use caution when handling lye. Make sure you have the right equiptment. Always wear safety goggles, gloves and long sleeves and follow a tutorial on the proper way to handle lye.***
Here are some differences in the soap making process:
Cold Process:
- Fragrance, color and other additives are added when the soap gets thick like a pudding and then poured directly into the mold.
- Soap bars will be smoother, lighter, and nicer looking.
- You have to wait several weeks before using your soap.
Hot Process:
- Soap bars have a rough, rustic appearance.
- The soap bars can be used faster than cold process soap bars.
- Hot process soap requires a longer cooking time.
Check out these Simple Milk and Honey DIY Soap Recipes to get a better idea of the differences between cold process and hot process soap making.
BONUS: Find out how to make soap in a few more ways with these fabulous DIY tutorials!

Love soap? Try making liquid soap next! 10 Minute Liquid Soap and Mason Jar Dispenser
Why Should You Make Your Own Soap?
There are many reasons to make your own soap, but here are few of the most common reasons:
- Customization: You can control the ingredients (know what's in your soap and customize the chemicals and scents to fit your needs)
- Budget: When you make soap in batches, it can be cost-effective.
- Gifts: Homemade soap is a thoughtful and easy to personalize DIY gift idea.
- Fun: Making your own soap is a relatively easy (and addictive---you can make so many different kinds of soap) practice. It makes for a fun hobby!

Additional soap making advice: How to Make Beginner Castile Soap Recipe!
"I found the idea of making soap to be very intimidating, but once I actually tried and saw how simple it was to make your own soap, I became addicted. Now, I love experimenting with new types of soaps. I love making bar soaps, but have also had fun dabbling in the world of making liquid soaps. While I think that most people would benefit from making a beginner bar soap recipe first, making liquid soap isn't especially difficult. I concentrated on making this recipe as simple as possible so that even beginners can be successful making their first batch. This recipe uses glycerin to help speed up the process and make it more foolproof."
--- Tracy Ariza, Oh, The Things We'll Make
How and Where to Store Homemade Soap
The best way to store soaps is in a cool and dry place. It's important to remember that if placed in direct sunlight, soapy colors and fragrances may fade. It is best to find the coolest and darkest area of your home to store your homemade bath products.
Some other things to remember:
How to Store Cold Process Soap:
- Cold Process Soap needs cure for 4-6 weeks.
- Store in a well-ventilated space.
- Keep in a cool, dry place.
- Ideally, should be exposed to air flow.
- Many soap makers use a baker's rack to store their handmade soap on while it is curing.
- Due to the Glycerin in Melt & Pour Soap, the soap needs to be wrapped right away to avoid moisture.
- Once the homemade soap is completely hard and cool, remove it from the mold.
- Then, store the DIY soap in a dry, cool place until you’re ready to use.
- Make sure to avoid excessive heat, or your soap will melt.
Here are some of our favorite DIY bathroom storage tutorials:

The Best Soap Making Recipes
Now that you have read through this beginner soap making guide and learn how to make soap at home, get started making your own soap with some of our favorite DIY soap recipes.
- Rosewater Pink Clay DIY Soap
- Lemon Poppy Seed DIY Soap Bars
- Orange Zest Lemon Soap Tutorial
- DIY Semi-Precious Stone Soaps
- Rustic Cinnamon Hazelnut Coffee Soap
- Coffee and Coconut Homemade Soap Sticks
- Fragrant Fall Homemade Soap Recipe
- Chocolate DIY Soap Bars
- Garden Mint DIY Cold Process Soap
- Ombre Winter Wonderland Homemade Soap Recipe
- Natural Citrus Antibacterial Soap
- Moisturizing Homemade Soap Recipe

In addition to soap bars, you can make shampoo bars!
Here is some advice on how to make Mermaid Silk DIY Shampoo Bars:
"Since this soap is quite complex with so many layers, you'll want to start working with a relatively thin trace so you're not stuck slinging scoops of pudding-like batter. As you blend in the colours it'll thicken up enough to support the layers, but it's better to start with a trace that's too thin and need to wait a while than be stuck with peanut butter soap batter!" --- Marie Rayma, Humblebee & Me
Additional advice in this article provided by:
Stephanie Gerber from Hello Glow
Tracy Ariza from Oh, The Things We'll Make
Marie Rayma, Humblebee & Me

Wait...there's more! Jump into the wild world of DIY bath and beauty products with these great DIY projects!
What's your favorite soap scent?
Read NextStars and Galaxies Bath Bombs
Free projects, giveaways, exclusive partner offers, and more straight to your inbox!
Tags / Related Topics
Your Recently Viewed Ideas
Images from other DIYers


Laura P
Aug 03, 2016
My scent favorites are very dependent on the season. In the spring/summer I like fresh, ocean-inspired scents. In cooler weather, I love peppermint/crisp mint scents.

Report Inappropriate Comment
Are you sure you would like to report this comment? It will be flagged for our moderators to take action.
Thank you for taking the time to improve the content on our site.
Project of the Day
Paint And Contact Paper Bookshelf Makeover
I saw a photo of a white bookshelf with a rustic wood back, and thought that would be the perfect way to update our laminate… Continue reading: "Paint And Contact Paper Bookshelf Makeover"

Something worth saving?
- SAVE all your favorite ideas
- ADD personal notes
- QUICKLY reference your ideas
Our Newest Ideas & Articles
- Taco Tater Tot Casserole Recipe
- Midsummer Headband
- Free Printable Farm Coloring Pages
- Summer Gnomes Coloring Pages
- Easy Copycat Wendys Frosty Recipe
- Cute And Colorful Red Bird Craft With Feathers
- Recycled Tin Can Fairy Wagon
- Large Bead Drogonfly
- Free Printable Camping Coloring Page
- Crochet Textured Granny Square Block