What equipment do you need? A double boiler, or a microwave and a microwaveable container. A stirring utensil. Something to use as a mold. That's pretty much it! Oh, patience is always helpful. Most problems are the result of pouring the soap when it is too hot or attempting to unmold it when it is not fully cooled.

Temperatures: The soap melts at about 140 degrees. If you want to use a thermometer, you can, however we never do. The key to MP soap is to not let it get too hot. It will start to burn, let off a bad odor, and loose transparency. What we like to do is melt the soap about half way in the double boiler, then cover it with a lid and turn the heat off. The hot water and time will melt it the rest of the way. The reason we do this is two fold. First, we don't want the soap to burn or loose transparency. Second, many advanced techniques require that you work with a somewhat cooler soap base.

Changing the nature of the soap base: Of course, we like to think that our soap base is great just as it is, but our customers love to fuss around with it. Generally, our soap base will accept up to 1/4 to 3/8 cup of extra liquids per pound of soap. These extra liquids include scents and oils.

To make the soap a little harder, add 1/4 ounce beeswax per pound of soap. Wax will make the soap less clear.

To make it clearer, 1) Add 1/4 cup of high-grade alcohol per pound of soap. Alcohol can make the soap more drying and impart an odor. Or, 2) Add 1/4th cup water. This will also make the soap softer. Or, 3) Add 1/4th cup glycerin. This will make the bar softer, clearer, more gentle to the skin and more prone to "sweating" (see our article on "Glycerin" for details) Or, 4) Add 1/4th cup sugar water in a 50/50 solution. This will make the soap clearer and softer and can make it more sticky.

Emollient Additives: You can add all sorts of things: Olive Oil, jojoba oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, vitamin E, etc. How much to add depends on what you are adding. Generally, we recommend you experiment with about 1/4th Tablespoon to 2 Tablespoons per pound of soap. Be aware, however, that by adding oils to the ready-made soap base you can run the risk of lessening the lathering ability of the soap. This is why we recommend you start with just a small amount to be sure you achieve the desired emollient effect you want without making the soap too oily. Additives such as shea butter and cocoa butter will make the base less clear.

Herbal Additives: Add whatever strikes your fancy with the following cautions: First, the soap can get scratchy if there is too much stuff in it. Also, to make sure your herbal additives don't all sink to the bottom of the mold, you will want to work with very cool soap. We like to let the soap cool in the double boiler all the way to the point at which a skin forms on the top -- about a sixteenth of an inch thick. Then we pierce the skin with a knife and underneath is a thick, gel-like soap. We pour that soap into a bowl, add herbs and then pour it into the molds. Finally, there are some herbs which don't do well in the soap. Frankly, they rot and turn brown. We have had the worst luck with rose petals, even well dried ones. So, we suggest you always make a trial batch before giving as a gift or selling. If the additive is going to brown in the soap, it will do so within a few days.

Scents: We recommend about 1 tablespoon or 1/2 ounce of scent per pound of soap. This can really vary, however. One key thing to remember is that each scent has a "flashpoint", this is the temperature at which the scent "whooshes" into the air and burns off. Some fragrance flashpoints are quite high others can be as low as, say 120 degrees. Since our soap base melts at about 140 degrees, this means it must be as cool as possible to retain fragrances. It is best to get into the habit of adding your scent when your soap is its coolest, just before pouring into the molds.

The difference between fragrance oils and essential oils is something that would need more room to explain in detail. The quick and dirty answer is that essential oils are derived directly from plants, and they are purported to have aromatherepuetic benefits. Fragrance oils are made in the lab and can contain essential oils as a component part, but they are not entirely natural. Scents can lend color to your soap. For example a yellow scent like lemongrass will make your soap more yellow.

Colors: Please refer to our product information article on Colorants for more information on colors.

Molds: You can use anything for a mold which has some flexibility. For example, an aluminum bread pan would be fine, while a glass pan would be more problematic. You need something that the soap can "pop" out of. We have used many candy molds in the past, but you have to be careful that you don't pour the soap into the mold when it is hot. It will cause the mold to melt a bit and deform. A good solid soap mold such as the type that we sell should be able to handle your soapmaking efforts time and again. For best results, be sure the soap is fully cooled and ready to release from the mold before attempting to unmold it. This will help extend the life of your molds.

How to make layers stick together: If you want to do a "rainbow" soap, as an example, you should pour the first color into the mold and allow it to harden just enough to support the weight of the second layer. Add the second layer of soap at a temperature that is cool enough it won't melt into the first, and so forth. To encourage adhesion, spritz the first layer with rubbing alcohol before pouring the second layer. What you should not do: Don't let the first layer harden completely. Don't put the first layer in the freezer before adding the second. Large differences in temperature between the first and second layer will result in the two layers not "sticking together" and they will pop apart when you remove the soap from the mold.

How to embed stuff in the soap so it doesn't float to the top: You can put toys and other items in the soap, but they will tend to not stay in the middle, rather they will float to the top of the mold. You can resolve this problem by either pouring a bit of soap into the mold and letting it harden enough that you stick the toy onto it before filling the mold the rest of the way. But you will end up with a visual "line" where the two separate pours meet. You can also pierce the bottom of the mold with a strong dressmaker's pin and then pierce the toy onto that pin. Then pour soap around it all at once. When the soap is hard, simply remove the pin and rub out the hole with your finger. For herbs and other additives which you want interspersed throughout the soap, you should let the soap cool in the soap pot for a long while. Let it form a skin on the top of up to 1/8th inch thick. When you pierce the skin, you will see that the soap underneath is thick as pudding. Pour the pudding-thick soap into a separate bowl, blend in the herbs, and then pour it into the mold.

How to embed soap into soap so that the two don't melt together: We love to do this. We will cut a pretty shape out of a thin layer of soap using a cookie cutter. Then we will put the cut shapes into the freezer for a good long time. When they are cold, we will melt down some clear soap. We will let this clear soap become as cool as possible. Then we will pour the clear soap into the molds and quickly push the frozen images into the middle. The difference in temperature between the two soaps will make them not melt together.