FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
You will learn to make gorgeous soap with luxurious oils, healthy additives and beautiful natural colours and fragrances. The pictures of soaps you see are made only with natural colours, oils and fragrances. You will learn in-depth to make soap with the cold process method, you will receive natural soap formulas and learn to make your own formulas.
If you feel uncomfortable working with lye you can sign up for the course in person where you can practice making soap under guidance.
The online course gives you more detailed information about cold process soap making, you can sign up anytime and learn when you have time at your own pace, without travelling or having to wait for a specific date. It’s also great if you have signed up but something comes up unexpectedly, it’s not a problem to postpone for a bit when you start, until you are ready. You also have access to the course for one year and can see all the new information added.
The course in person is great if you want to practice making soap under guidance, until you become more confident. You also get to make your own first soap without buying ingredients or equipment, and get on the spot tips on how to best make soap.
No, you don’t have to fulfill any requirements to sign up for the course. Anyone is welcome to sign up.
Yes, during the course you will be learning how to make natural vegan soap from scratch with the cold process method. We will describe the hot process/rebatching and melt and pour methods too.
Yes, we will. Natural soaps are made of luxurious oils, natural fragrances and colours. In the course we will tell you all you need to know about the ingredients and equipment. We will give you a list of ingredients and equipment you need, how to use the ones you already have at home and where to buy them.
You cannot make soap from scratch without using lye. Soap is the result of a chemical reaction between fats (oils and/or butters) and a very strong alkali, in this case lye (NaOH – sodium hydroxide). You need the lye to break down the molecular makeup of the oils and butters and create the soap.
In a well made soap (you need to check the formula in a soap calculator and make sure you add the correct amount of lye) there should not be any lye left in the soap after curing, when it’s ready to use.
In the course we will give you detailed information about how to protect yourself and others when working with lye and what to do when you have a lye spillage. We have dedicated an entire module on working with lye! Just as with everything in life, you need to know what you are doing and take the right steps to protect yourself.
If you are still uncomfortable, you can sign up for a course in person where you can make your own soap under the supervision of a seasoned soap maker. They will guide you and give you the confidence you need to start making your own soap at home.
Yes, but unless you have tried rendering animal fat before you should read and practice first. The fat must be very clean and free of bits as they could be found in the soap afterwards. If you want to add a percentage of lard/tallow/other animal fats to your soap you can do so by adding it to the list of ingredients when calculating your soap formula in a soap calculator.
The courses have a module which talk in detail about the main issues you might have and how to avoid them. We also discuss how to save your soap if things still go wrong. It’s a soaper’s nightmare to make a batch of soap and not be able to save it!
And remember – always write down your new formulas so if something goes wrong and you need to save your soap, you can recalculate it and find out what needs to be added to repair your soap.
Some of the modules have quizzes and suggestions of exercises. Don’t worry, you can still continue with the course if you didn’t get the responses to the quiz correctly. They are just added to encourage you to read, learn and practice more so you can become a very accomplished soaper.
Yes, upon finishing the course you will receive a Diploma of Completion issued in your name on the date you finish the course.
Please make sure you use your correct name when siging up for the course, as the user details will be used on your diploma.
The course is self paced, so you don’t have a deadline until when you have to finish it. You can also access the information after you have finished the course. You can access the course for one year after you signed up and see all updates and information added.
Yes, as the course is self-paced you can interrupt it and continue later.
Please note that this is a soap making course, not a soap business course. You will learn what you need to know to make your own soap and this will be a very good base if you want to build a business.
We do our best to keep the FAQs updated, but if you have any unanswered questions please contact us via the contact form here or write an email to roxana@naturalsoapworkshop.com