Homemade Soaps

Today, I have learned a new skill that is making soaps. After I have been searching where to get the raw ingredients for soap making for months, I finally found them. As a beginner, I decided to start with the Melt-and-Pour method as it requires license to obtain NaOH in Malaysia. Thus, I bought the soap base, melted it and added with different natural herbs/fruits from my mother's garden. The herbs/fruits that were used in making these soaps are aloe vera, lemon grass, ginger, pandan leaves and dragonfruit. The reasons for selecting these natural herbs/fruits are to create fragrances, colours, textures and functions. (See picture - Green Pandan fragrant soap & Dragonfruit + Aloe Vera soap)

Some valuable lessons from this first experience.

1) Don't put too much fruit chunks in one soap as they won't form nice shape. I have put a lot of Aloe Vera and dragonfruit in the soap and they floated on the surface of the melted soap. When they were done, some parts of the soaps with too much Aloe Vera/dragonfruit was not formed properly. Thus, I think it is wiser to squeeze the juice from the fruits next time.

2) To avoid the finished soaps stuck in the molds, there are two things you can do. One, wipe alcohol on the molds prior to pouring the melted soap in them. The other way is place the finished soaps in the freezer for 5 minutes and they will come out easily.

Today is 21st of July, I would like to add some updates about my soaps. The bright purple-reddish colour that I obtained from the dragonfruit to make soaps had faded into brown colour. Thus, we are looking for ways to improve it.