Soap

Welcome to the Soap Page! This page was started during the 2017 - 2018 school year, and will contain all sorts of information about making soap and other natural beauty products.

Background Information: So I started on this project by finding some youtube videos that described how to make soap. Here are some of the videos I watched: [], [], and []. I created a PowerPoint with what I know: []

I started out making coconut and caster oil soap. I broke 3 plastic spoons measuring all the coconut oil out. It was hard to measure the coconut oil because the recipe called for ounces instead of grams like the weight measured. I had to melt the coconut oil in intervals and convert the ounces to grams.

The first attempt was no able to reach trace and turned into a layer of soap and a layer of coconut oil. I had read online that you could rebatch them by melting it and mix to trace again. The soap mixture would not melt and so I tried a different oil, olive oil.

The olive oil was easy to pour and measure and therefore made collecting ingredients fairly easy. The recipe online stated that specifically olive oil reached a liquidy trace.



I’ve decided to focus on micro beads after hearing about them from a friend’s dad. They are little plastic beads that are used to exfoliate the skin. They extremely harmful when washed down the drain. They build up in clusters and fish/other marine life mistake them for food whivh is toxic to their health. You can read more about thm from this link: [] [] or watch the video []



I reasearched microbeads further and found out that many countries have banned microbeads. Canada, Sweden, US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, and others have either officially banned it or in the process. This further proves that microbeads can‘t be part of the ecosystem. I bought peanuts with shells and plan to make soap next week with the shells

I made soap but added crushed up almonds as a natural organic and safe substitute for microbeads.(The picture above)

I discovered an app called “Beat the Microbead”. It allows the user to easily look up products and check if they have microbeads. The link to get it is: Beat the Microbead by Plastic Soup Foundation []

According the the FDA website, a product is considered soap when:
 * “the bulk of the nonvolatile matter in the product consists of an alkali salt of fatty acids and the product’s detergent properties are due to the alkali-fatty acid compounds”
 * “the product is labeled, sold, and represented solely as soap”

The last theee weeks I’ve been trying to decide how to complete this project with the goal of raising awareness. My teacher and I have decided to write a pamphlet to spread awareness about micro beads and the reasons why you should make youre own soap. Since the year is coming to an end, the project is progressing slowly but I’ve made a rough draft of the flyer and have to prefect it next week.