Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Any of you do it? My bestie and I want to make some cute (and kinda stereotypical) handmade xmas gifts and this was my favorite idea. I've been reading about it online and now I'm super excited. I'm thinking Cold Process.

This blog got me kind of excited:
http://thesoapbar.blogspot.com

And this calculator is making me even more excited:
http://naturalsoapboutique.com/soapcalculator/

The ideas that are getting me most titillated are:

charcoal
clove/cinnamon
almond
sea salt
coconut milk

I love cinnamon clove soap. Before they raised their prices to silly levels, I used to buy the Pangea bar. It's so soft though that it doesn't last long at all, so it's very much not cost effective.

i make soap and it is one my favorite productive activities (and i do all sorts of weird hippie things).
however, the soap i make is for household cleaning, and is made from recycled cooking oil. It is still awesome, but might not be what you're looking for in gift making. Or maybe it is, who knows.
I do cold process, using liquid lye. My recipe is not from a site but from my mother in law, and it is sort of quick and dirty (i will spare you her instructions for how to MAKE YOUR OWN FRIGGING LYE, which just about made my head explode. I buy my lye.) 5L used oil, the yuckier the better, strained. add 1L water and 1L liquid lye in that order - shielding your skin and eyes in the process. in a large plastic bucket, stir with a wooden spoon. it will get hot. DO NOT USE ALUMINUM ANYTHING with the lye, it will screw up the soap and your aluminum. stir til trace (it starts to look less like liquid and more like pudding). then add any scent additions [i like coffee grinds, but cloves would be awesome], mix in, and pour into molds. It needs to sit for some time, as it will undergo another heating process, and then cure for some weeks.
I have learned that herbs and spices are the way to go, as essences and even essential oils are just unworkable for me (i need to add ridiculous amounts of EOs, and essences simply don't work). I like coffee, as i said above, because my soap is for kitchen and laundry use (amazing on clothes, without the coffee grounds), but also orange peels, grated; any sort of fragrant herb.
There are awesome sites out there with recipes. One of these days I will have more time and get more serious about soapmaking, but in the meantime that 5L of soap I make is amazing stuff, and it's so punk-ass to be able to make soap.

My best friend makes cold process soap & it is about a zillion times better than any commercial soap I've ever tried. I love being his guinea pig for new formulations!

I make soap occasionally, I've done both hot and cold process and both have their own pros and cons.

Just a word of advice, avoid clove/spicy oils (and florals) when you're first starting out. They can accelerate trace and your soap can seize. Once you've got the hang of it, then go for it.

I wrote a blog post about it one year during mofo, I'll see if I can find it.

Oh gosh I am brand new here and was looking to see if others shared my soap making hobby. I absolutely love making soap; I know what's in it, and that it's far superior to anything I can buy in the store, plus I control the scent and everything about it!

How did your homemade Christmas gifts turn out? Did you make soap?

No I never did! Time got away from me. I still fully intend to though.

I've made quite a bit of soap. Like torque said, you need ridiculous amounts of essential oils. I use this calculator http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp and usually superfat at 5%. I also got a lot of good advice from a forum called the soap dish, or maybe just the dish (it's been a while since I visited).

No, but I have been looking into getting into it actually, I would really love to start making all kinds of body products (soap, lip scrub, face scrubs, lip balm..)