SOAP MAKING EQUIPMENT
Supplies, Tools and Safety.
Every new soap maker will need to acquire the proper soap making equipment. Many of the necessary items you may already have in the kitchen. If you are using your cooking utensils for soap making, you'll have to dedicate those utensils to soap making only. If the utensils have been used for soap making, never cook with them again.
Many of these items can be purchased inexpensively at big box stores, dollar stores or even thrift stores. Let's get started with the soap making equipment you will need.
Choosing a Soap Box for your soap making equipment.
You will need a soap box as part of your Soap Making Equipment. Decide on which soap container you will use. Here are three simple choices among many: Wooden boxes, Cardboard boxes or Wax coated milk containers. Each of these choices will work fine for making small batches of cold process soap.
1. A wooden soap box is an excellent choice for a soap container. It will make nice perfect soap bars. These wooden soap boxes are great for experimentation with new soap recipes. They will make from 8 to 20 soap bars per batch. Easy to calculate your Oil, Lye and Water amounts.
2. A small cardboard box will work as a soap container. It needs to be sturdy enough that the walls will not bend under pressure. Find a box that will make 8 to 20 soap bars for your small recipe experiments. These cardboard boxes will need to be lined with plastic.
3. Here is a wax coated milk container that can be used as a soap box. These will make small square shaped soap bars.
The nice thing about using these containers is that the inside is wax coated which makes it easier to remove the soap when it's ready. You do not have to line this container with plastic or freezer paper.
Lining your soap box.
Some of your soap boxes will need liners and others will not. Liners are a small but needed part of your soap making equipment. They allow for an easy removal of the soap from the box. Without the liner the soap would stick to the box. There is freezer paper and plastic to line your wooden and cardboard boxes.
Here we have lined our wooden soap box with the freezer paper (shiny side up). Notice that we have taped the freezer paper both on the length and width sides.
Take the time to line the box perfectly. It's worth it! Your soap bars will come out smooth on the bottoms and corners.
Line your cardboard box with plastic. Clear plastic or black plastic will work the same. The liner is easy to spread to the walls of the box. Cutting and taping the liner takes more time.
The only down side to using plastic liners is that they leave wrinkle lines on your soap bars. The wrinkle lines can be removed by cutting the bars to a smaller size. This will take more time and effort.
No liner is needed for the wax coated milk container. If you have to cut the container open to get your soap it may get marred and you'll have to dispose of it. Generally these containers can be used over again.