Answering Onyx's ping.
Yes, I make soap and have used my own soap since September 5, 1999.
I thought about selling it, applied for a copyright for my logo, and did some preliminary selling to some of the tourist traps around here.
That took the wind out of my sails. My lovely hobby, that provides soap for my family and friends, turned suddenly into a chore. I dropped it and ran.
I still make soap, but I give it all away or Bryan and I use it up ourselves. Most of my relatives have passed away, and I have lost touch with my friends
in California so there aren't many people to whom to give my soap anymore.
I can give you a recommendation to an excellent soap site online.
It's Majestic Mountain Sage in Utah.
There you will find soap formula and scent calculators and information about soapmaking. Their ingredients are the highest quality, and they sell
everything you need to make soap.
I have found that the main tool for making soap is a triple-beam balance, available from
The Lab Depot, Inc. for WOO HOO! $60 less than I paid for mine!
It is imperative that you weigh all your ingredients very carefully. Too much or not enough lye can lead to disaster. I weight my oils and butters
directly into a lightweight stainless steel soup pot so that I can put it right on the stove to heat/melt the butters while I'm preparing the lye mixture.
Getting lye can be a problem, but you can buy it in hardware stores in the drain cleaner section. Searching the Internet can get you a good supply as well.
And finally, search online for "soapmaking" and read, experiment, and learn. it is MUCH more regulated (soap is a "cosmetic" - rolls eyes) to go into the
soapmaking and selling business than what I do, and I didn't get that far into it to give you much advice about that end of it, but if you have any questions,
don't hesitate to ask about the manufacturing process itself.