Introduction to Cold Process Soap Making

Morning session :
Brief history and basic chemistry of soapmaking
Everything you’ll need to get started – ingredients and equipment
Safety aspects of working with Sodium Hydroxide
Preparation of moulds and moulding options
Using additives in soap such as flowers, seeds, oats, oxides, herbs, spices and clays
Colouring your natural soaps
Adding nutrient oils for various skin conditions
Blending Pure Essential oils for fragrance
Mixing, pouring, cutting, curing and storing your finished soap

Lunch is included at the local pub, The Travellers Rest

Afternoon session :
A demonstration by Emma
A supervised afternoon of soapmaking using a variety of oils, fats, butters and nutrient oils. Playing with colours and fragrance options and experimenting with additives such as poppyseeds and oatbran
Recipe formulation – explanation of the soap calculator and SAP values
Advanced design technique tutorial including swirling and layering

As soap takes at least 24 hours to set in the mould depending on the recipe used, unfortunately you will not be able to leave with your creations on the same day. If you are local, they can be collected or delivered the following day for you to cut or if you have come from further afield and not staying locally I will post them to you for free.

We are flexible with our start and finish times, just mention your requirements when you contact us and we’ll work around you.
Upon arrival, we’ll start with tea, coffee and cake while we have a full discussion around the kitchen table about what you want to achieve from the day ahead and go through the theory part. We’ll only go through the basics that you need for the day as we’re sure you’ll be itching to get started in the workshop and will answer any questions you have during the experience.

We will then explore all of the raw ingredients that you can pick from to make soap and begin to look in detail using your touch and smell senses to start to learn about the oils and butters as we talk you through your first batch where you will watch Emma and ask as many questions as you need to get your confidence.

We break for a delicious lunch at The Travellers Rest and return buzzing with ideas and ready to get started on your first solo batch.
The afternoon brings plenty of experimentation where you will create between 4 – 8 batches (time dependent) and get lots of practice in.
Whatever you have made is yours to take home and use or give as gifts to friends and family who will no doubt be amazed at how clever you are