Commercial soaps are nothing compared to their homemade counterparts: commercial soaps dry out your skin and often leave a disgusting film behind. Homemade soap, on the other hand, is good for your skin and uses fewer chemicals. Although it might sound intimidating, homemade soap is very easy to make, and you’ll find that homemade soaps also have none of the problems associated with commercial soaps.

Commercial soaps are bad for your skin and the environment: rather than being soap, they’re usually detergents, which are petroleum-based products. Because they aren’t really soap, they have the tendency to dry your skin with their harsh chemicals. Also, when buying commercial soaps, it’s often difficult or impossible to tell whether the soap was tested on animals, and whether such tests were conducted in an ethical manner.

Homemade soaps are less complicated. Rather than being made of petroleum, they’re made chiefly with water and oil. As such, they’re better for your skin and help moisturize it. Also, because you control the process of how the soap is made, not only do you have comfort in knowing for sure that it hasn’t been animal tested, but you can also choose environmentally friendly and organic materials.

Another great thing about making your own soap is that, besides controlling the ingredients, you also control all the other elements of your soap. What will it smell like? What shape will it be? What color? All of these are totally in your control, and you’re free to create the soap as you see fit. Also, because you control every part of the process, you can control what stays out as well as what goes in: you can keep out oils, perfumes, and other components that you know are harsh on your skin.

Because of all the decisions and choices involved, soap making is a fun creative process. Choosing your colors, fragrances, shapes, sizes, and other elements lets you free your mind and use your imagination. Learning to make soap helps keep an old art from dying out, and helps you be more self-reliant. And homemade soap makes great gifts for others, too!

Use this basic recipe. You’ll need to gather lye, purified water, and three oils: coconut, grape seed, and olive. From your ingredients, create one mixture of all the oils, and another mixture of the lye and water. Be careful here: the lye and water will get hot quickly and begin putting out fumes, so you may want to do this part outside. Warm the oil to 110F, and let the lye mixture cool to that temperature, then add the lye mixture into the oil mixture. Pour the whole thing into a blender and mix it well until it reaches the consistency of a thin pudding. Finally, after it’s reached the proper consistency, pour your new soap into molds.

Because lye is very caustic, you’ll need to remember to exercise basic safety precautions, and you’ll want to make sure that you’re wearing gloves, goggles, and an apron to protect yourself. However, if you handle everything carefully, making soap is as easy as that!

Making soap is fun, easy, creative project that can help expand your imagination, help you and your family stay healthier, and also help the environment by keeping toxic chemicals out. There’s no reason not to give it a try!