Resources

When you're first starting out in your soapmaking journey, there's a lot to wrap your head around! What equipment do you really need? What can you do without? What do all these crazy soapmaking terms mean? How do I put a recipe into a lye calculator? This resources section is meant to help you as a new soapmaker and you can return here as you grow as well. As we add more resources to our YouTube Channel and website, we'll add the link here.

  • The Ultimate Soapmaking Supply List: a list of everything you need to make soap (and nothing extra!).
  • The Natural Soapmaking Handbook: this book is a labor of love. I started talking to my publisher (Page Street Publishing) in January 2023 and the book was published on May 28, 2024. Click the link to learn more about my book and where to buy it.
  • Our Facebook Group: join us on Facebook where we discuss recipes from my book! This is a group that I started to support folks making recipes from my book, but it has evolved beyond that, even though the focus is still on natural soapmaking, using 50/50 lye water, and general questions and posts about recipes in my book and on our website. It is an open group for everyone (even if you don't have my book) and you can ask questions in the community about anything soapmaking. As of October 2025, we have nearly 12,000 active members and the group is very open and inclusive!
  • How To Use a Lye Calculator (Part 1): this is a YouTube video where I walk you through step-by-step on how to use Soap Calc (my favorite lye calculator). We go over the basics of soapcalc, how to enter a recipe, how to resize a recipe, how to swap out an oil, and how to enter a 50/50 lye water solution in the calculator.
  • How to Use a Lye Calculator (Part 2): in this YouTube video, we take a deeper dive into soapcalc and talk about recipe formulation. This includes soap bar qualities and fatty acid profiles, how to adapt a recipe to be palm oil free, how to formulate a recipe from scratch, and we talk about some recipes that break these rules!
  • Superfat in Soapmaking: are you confused about superfat? This YouTube video goes into detail on what a superfat is and why you want to use one in your soap.
  • Water in Soapmaking: did you know that water is not part of the soapmaking equation? Why do we use water and how do you decide how much to use? This YouTube video explains the difference between a water discount and a lye discount and the role of water in soapmaking.