I am so excited to find a board on soapmaking. I have made soaps in the past but very little. Over the last several months, I have been really studying the soapmaking with a passion and have been collecting all the supplies to get it going full swing.

I hope that we can get this board revived because I am certain that I will be having a lot of questions about it once I get making my first few batches again.

A book that I've been reading on the subject suggests that you only use essential oils in your soap as other fragrance oils lose their scent more quickly. Does anyone here find that to be true.?

Look forward to any helpful posts on this subject and once again, so excited to find this board!

Yes,it is true that essential oils are the best way to scent your batches of soap. They do last longer and that is important if you sell your soaps because they may sit for awhile before the whole batch sells. If they loose their fragrance they will not sell. At least that has been my experience.

Thanks for the reply Jacqueline. I'm assuming since you said you've had experience with the soaps not selling that you are also a soapmaker. That's great!

Do you have any creative ways that you wrap or present your soaps? I am a computer graphic designer and was considering making my own decorative paper in which to wrap my soaps. Just curious if you've tried doing something different with the wrapping part.

Have a blessed day and looking forward to hearing about your soapmaking endeavors.

Peg

What essential oils are you using that last longer in soap? I always liked to use essential oils in soap, but from what I remember, some of the oils couldn't make it through the soap making process, whereas many of the fragrances could.
I like essential oils, though. If I am going to take my time to make soap, I want it to be full of the ingredients I really like.

there are a few soapmakers still around here - so post away in this forum!

I would like to make my own soap. I met a woman last year in Prescott, Arizona that is a soapmaker and gave her the web address of this BellaOnline site. I was hoping that she'd been posting.

I haven't made soap in several years but I just downsized from 3 to 2 chest freezers and realized I have several ice cream buckets of lard left from the last pig. So, once the weather cools down I'm going to try to remember how I did it. We raised 7 kids using homemade soap, but I didn't always have success. I was making plain soap, just lard, lye, and water (money being a big issue). Now my youngest is 20 and everyone is off to college/deployed/married, so I'll have time to experiment with frills like scent!