How to Make Soap with Soap Base?

What is Soap Base?

Soap base refers to the unscented saponified base of any soap. Actually, it’s a finished soap that does not contain any scents, colors, or other additives, so it’s the best option for beginner soap makers as it allows you to save time and helps increase your chances of success.

Soap bases can be divided into solid and liquid. Solid bases are used for classic bar soap, and liquid ones are suitable for making hand soap, shower gels, shampoos, and other liquid soap products. Soft (creamy) soap bases are also used for making scrubs.

Solid (or melt and pour) soap bases can be white or transparent. White soap base, also known as opaque, contains titanium dioxide, which gives it a white color. The transparent soap base contains an added sugar alcohol blend that gives it a transparent appearance. Melt-and-pour soap bases often contain extra glycerin that helps keep the base soft and meltable, making it easy to work with.

Types Of Soap Bases

Soap bases can be di­vid­ed into hard, liq­uid and soft types. The first type are used for mak­ing clas­sic hard soap, the sec­ond are suit­able for sham­poos, show­er gels and so on, while the third are used for mak­ing scrubs. If we look at the chem­i­cal for­mu­la, soaps are sodi­um salts of fat­ty acids, which are ob­tained by the al­ka­line hy­drol­y­sis of fats.

The clas­sic and most com­mon soap base con­tains the fol­low­ing com­po­nents:

• dis­tilled wa­ter;
• al­ka­li;
• glyc­erin (a sub­stance which nour­ish­es and moist­ens the skin);
• sur­face-ac­tive sub­stances (they have the ef­fect of form­ing a foam and re­mov­ing dirt);
• es­sen­tial oils (se­lect­ed de­pend­ing on the de­sired ef­fect from the prod­uct).

Soap bases are also di­vid­ed into trans­par­ent, white and or­gan­ic types. The white base is ob­tained from ti­ta­ni­um diox­ide, which is used in the man­u­fac­ture of dec­o­ra­tive cos­met­ics. Or­gan­ic soap has a min­i­mal chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion.

The unit cell of rutile

The ready soap base has prac­ti­cal­ly no smell, so es­sen­tial oils or per­fumed wa­ter are added to the soap for scent. The base cools quick­ly, which makes the work process eas­i­er.

What is Melt-and-Pour Soap Making?

Melt-and-pour soap making is a pre-made soap that comes in a block or bar form. It's made with various oils and fats, which are melted down and combined with lye (sodium hydroxide). Once the soap body wash is cooled and hardened, it can be cut into bars or used as-is.

Melt-and-pour natural bar soaps has many benefits, especially if you're new to homemade soap making. Organic soap base bulk is a great way to create beautiful, unique soaps without dealing with lye-making.

Plus, it's a fun activity that you can do with kids or friends. When choosing a premade soap base, selecting one made with natural, organic ingredients is important.

Some bases may contain synthetic fragrances, colors, or other harmful chemicals. These ingredients can be irritating to the skin and are best avoided.

How to Make Soap with Soap Base?

If you want to make melt-and-pour soap, you must buy a soap base (usually sold in blocks), cut a small amount into small chunks, and melt it down using a heat-resistant container. Then, add the desired additives—essential oils, colorants, plant extracts, exfoliants, and more and mix them gently to prevent bubbles. Pour the mixture into a silicone mold and allow it to cool and harden for a few hours. Once the soap has set, take it out of the mold, and it is ready to be used or packaged.

Making soap with a liquid soap base is also easy. Just put the soap in a container, add essential oils and plant extracts, mix well, and transfer to bottles. Essential oils are usually added at 2% to 3% of the total. If you want to adjust the viscosity of your liquid soap base, you can thicken it by adding salt water in small amounts until you reach the consistency you desire.

Keep in mind that essential oils affect liquid soap in different ways. Sometimes, you don’t need salt water to thicken soap because your essential oil does the work for you. Essential oils can also affect the clarity and color of the liquid soap base. That’s why you should always test an essential oil to see how it performs before scenting a large amount of soap. Allow the mixture to sit overnight, and examine it the next day to see what happened.

A ready-made soap base makes it easy to start making soap with minimum hassles and complexities. It is helpful to follow existing proven recipes when you are a beginner. This will allow you to get some essential experience, and then you will be ready to experiment with your scent mixes. Combining soap bases with essential oils will allow you to create perfect scent combinations and make unique soap products.