Making soap from scratch involves working with chemicals and that poses a significant risk unless you are well prepared and work carefully and safely. Please read through these Soap Making Safety Tips before you start measuring out your ingredients. It might be less exciting than actually making your soap but believe me it is for your own good!
Soap making can be a safe and rewarding hobby, but it can also be a very dangerous pastime if you do not respect the ingredients and the process. So what are the risks?
Burns, inhalation of toxic fumes, skin irritations, kitchen fires, blindness. Is that enough in the way of risks for you?
Safety Tips for Working with a Heat Source
Regardless of which soap-making method you choose, you will have to use a heat source at some stage to make your soap so normal safety rules in the kitchen apply. As you would if you were baking a cake:
- Work in a well-ventilated area,
- Clear your work area of clutter before you begin.
- Avoid contact with hot surfaces or naked flames.
- Be careful when using electric appliances around water etc.
Safety Tips for Working with Caustic Soda
Unless you are happy to stick with melt-and-pour methods, making soap necessarily involves the use of caustic soda. Contact with dry caustic soda on your skin can cause skin irritations, and when you mix caustic soda with water, the mixture gets very hot, and I mean really hot!
Apart from the potential for serious burns if you splash the caustic soda on your skin or in your eyes, the fumes rising from the mixture can cause disorientation and dizziness.
You need to treat this chemical with respect.
But working with caustic soda does not have to end in tears, if you take a few precautions use the appropriate safety equipment, and exercise a bit of common sense. Below you will find my top tips for working with caustic soda safely.
- Wear gloves and a long-sleeved shirt to protect your hands and your arms.
- Wear safety glasses at all times (this one is very important!)
- Always add your caustic soda to your water.
- Just in case you missed the point above, NEVER add your water to your caustic soda!
- Only use stainless steel, pyrex, or unchipped enamel containers for mixing your caustic soda and water.
- Wash all of your bowls, wooden spoons, thermometers, etc immediately after use.
- Do not use any of your soap-making equipment and utensils for any other purpose.
- Do not use caustic soda if you have children or animals around you.
- Keep your caustic soda in an air-tight container out of the reach of children between your soap-making activities.
- Clear your work area of any clutter before you start to minimise the potential for spills or accidents.
- Work in a well-ventilated area to minimise the effect of the fumes.
Follow these soap-making safety tips and your soap-making experience will be a safe one!
