Behind the Bubbles: How My Handmade Soaps are Created

Ever wonder what goes into creating a bar of handmade soap? At Blue Jewel Handcrafted, every bar is made with intention, care, and skin-loving ingredients.  Unlike mass-produced soap, my small-batch process ensures quality, creativity, and a touch of artistry in each bar.  Let's take a look behind the scenes so you can see exactly how my soaps come to life.

Finished Chamomile Soap with an infusion of chamomile tea

 

1. Choosing the Ingredients

It all starts with high quality, natural ingredients.  I carefully select plant-based oils like olive oil, coconut oil, and mango butter - each chosen for their unique benefits to the skin and for how they perform in the final product.  I also include avocado oil, castor oil, and a touch of sunflower oil to each batch, ensuring a long-lasting, hard bar of soap.  These oils form the base of my soaps (the majority of my batches start with this base) to make them moisturizing, creamy, and gentle.  

How do I know which oils to use and how much?  I use a soap calculator that helps me create a bar that is balanced between hardness, cleansing, conditioning, and lather.  I simply input the oils I want to use into the calculator, enter the percentages, and hit enter.   Since I have a base recipe that I use for most soap batches, I only have to do this when creating a new recipe with different oils. 

I also incorporate clays, botanicals, essential oils, and natural colorants like turmeric or alfalfa powder.  Every ingredient has a purpose, whether to cleanse, nourish, soothe, color, or scent.  Clays give stable color and offer a plethora of minerals that contribute to healthy skin.  And I often infuse botanicals or use herbal slurries for the added benefits they contribute, like antioxidants and vitamins, or even relief from skin irritation.  Even though soap is a wash-off product and doesn't stay on the skin for long, you'd be surprised to find that for the short time soap does stay on your skin, it is working towards maintaining the health of your skin. 

Mixing Green Tea Soap

2. Mixing the Magic: Saponification

Once the ingredients are measured, the saponification process begins, where oils and lye water combine to create soap.  This is the heart of soapmaking, where science meets art.  Soap cannot be made without lye, but no lye remains in the soap once saponification is complete.  It's the golden ticket to turning oil into soap and is completely neutralized in the final product.

 

I use the cold process method of soap making, which involves blending the oils and lye at just the right temperature, then mixing until the soap batter reaches "trace", a thickened consistency that can be anywhere between pancake batter and pudding.  This is when the real creativity begins!  

3. Adding Color, Texture, & Scent

At trace, I add in essential oils for fragrance plus natural colorants or exfoliants (coffee grounds, or ground up leaf material).  If I want to create a swirl or other design, I separate the batter into different containers and add colorants to each pot before pouring the different colors into loaf molds to achieve a swirl or stripes or other pattern.   

Pouring a one color soap, Black Rose Soap

There are different pouring techniques that produce different artistic variations in soap, and every batch and every bar will be different. Once the soap is poured into the molds, the tops are textured to create peaks and valleys and left to rest overnight. 

  

Texturing the tops of White Sage Soap

 

When creating the soap tops, the soap batter needs to be just the right consistency for the texture to hold its shape. If it's too loose, the shape won't hold.  If it's too thick and already starting to harden, which can happen with spicy essential oils, like clove and cinnamon, then getting a smooth texture will be difficult.

4. Cutting & Curing 

The next day, I remove the soap from the mold and cut it into bars, but it's still not ready to use. Cold process soap needs time to cure, typically 4 - 6 weeks depending on the amount of water used in the recipe. Curing is a necessary step to allow all the water in the soap to evaporate, ensuring a hard, long-lasting bar of soap.  I've been experimenting with using less water so that I can get a batch out in less time and into your hands more quickly.

Cutting Coffee Blast Soap

5. Labeling & Packaging with Love

Once cured, I inspect each bar and wrap them with an eco-friendly paper band.  Each band lists the ingredients and the name of the soap (usually named for the essential oils I used for scent or a botanical that is the star of the show), and I take pride in making sure every soap bar looks as good as it feels.  Interestingly, in the United States, I’m not required to list ingredients on the soap as long as the label includes the word “soap” and the weight. However, I always provide a full ingredient list for your safety, so you can make an informed decision, especially if you have allergies or sensitivities.

The Handmade Difference

When you choose a handmade soap, you're not just getting a cleanser, you're also getting a bar full of care, craftsmanship, and natural goodness.  I like to say you're feeding your skin from the outside in!  Every batch is a labor of love, and I'm so grateful to share my creations with you. If you're interested in purchasing a bar or two, you can find them here.

Whether you're new to handmade soap or a loyal customer, I hope this peek behind the bubbles helps you appreciate all the magic that goes into every bar.

Want to see more behind-the-scenes or have questions about my ingredients?  Let me know in the comments.  I'd love to hear from you.  Thanks for reading!