Viewing the process as a whole, ignoring the extraneous dye and stamps; it’s a pretty simple to make usable:
- Mix fat with sodium hydroxide.
- Solidify soap into shape suitable for compaction (in this case, ribbons).
- Repeatedly compact shaped soap into desired shape.
How efficient and usable would the soap be if it was just sold as cut ribbions, instead of bars?
I was not ready for that blast from the past.
Making soap seems fun.
I make my own soap (hot processed) from lard and tallow I collect from cooking. I prefer to generate as little waste as possible. It’s stupid easy to make your own soap. I always do at least 10% of the soap being either coconut or olive oil. Mix the lye with the animal fat portion first then follow up with the coconut and/or olive oil. This let’s the bulk of the lye react with the animal fats then most of the “superfat” (I usually do 4-5%) be the other oils which have more benefits to your skin. Olive oil is better for moisturizing. Coconut oil leave you a little dryer feeling but also is naturally antimicrobial. I add in some essential oils as well. Also, a really good tip, if you like citrus scented/infused soaps, you can get orange oil and “citrus solvent” for waaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper than some “lemon” or “lemongrass” essential oil. Citrus solvent is just d-limonene which is the primary chemical component of all citrus oils. Seriously it constitutes like over 90% of all citrus oils.
Personally I prefer a mix of peppermint, tea tree, cassia (basically off brand cinnamon and extremely any fungal) and the the limonene. It give off what I would consider as a “medicinal” scent. Pleasant in a “this smells like 'good for me. '” sort of way.
Doing this I haven’t bought soap from the store in years. I just recently made another batch of soap out of 2 quarts of rendered lard, a quart of tallow, and about a cup of olive oil. It made 30 bars worth. Which is at least 2 years of soap worth. If not more. As far as cost is concerned I can confidently say it’s less than 50¢ a bar.
interesting video!
these videos could make for some prime high watching
When I was younger, everytime I got sick and had to spend the day at home, I would watch How It’s Made marathons on the tv. It was crazy comforting to just watch some dudes screw some bolts into some obscure structure or to watch all these robot arms create a toothbrush or something.
Fun fact: iirc you can make lye (aka sodium hydroxide) from hardwood ash and water (with some simple processing).
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The same goes for herbs and spices to some degree. I buy one herb plant from the store and then just place it in a pot and give it water. I’m not the world’s best gardener in any way but even I can keep my herb plants alive for months, and they produce more herbs than I can eat basically.
With some proper research you should be able to maybe buy a new plant every year or so instead of the small, overpriced containers at the store. I grow, basil, mint, parsley, just to name a few. A pre-planted and pre-grown plant at my local supermarket costs 2-3 euro’s, maybe.
The trick is, the capitalists want us working so much we don’t have the time or energy to do any of this. This requiring us to buy it all. Which costs more money. Which causes us to need to work more…
I’ve heard mint will take over garden plots if not physically constrained, so watch out for that.
Totally agree on herbs, though. Having fresh herbs in hand makes cooking way tastier and fun, plus fresh herbs from the store are a big rip off (in the u.s. at least) and come with plastic waste. I live in a Mediterranean climate and so my thyme grows as a perennial and we have rosemary growing everywhere ornamentally ♥️
We make our own soap. It is comforting to know what is in it and what we are applying, daily, to the largest organ of our bodies (skin).
The upfront cost to start is cheap and the process is relatively easy. We save money and produce enough to trade with neighbors for vegetables or to give as gifts.
To control production costs you should not use essential oils. They are the reason folks at farmers markets have to charge $8 a bar. A bar should be under $1 using all organic materials.
Avoid using palm oils, please, rainforests are being destroyed to harvest that product. Instead harden bars by using castille methods and long cure times
