ByTanya Anderson February 29, 2024February 18, 2026

Essential Soap Making Equipment and Tools

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A comprehensive look at the basic soap making equipment you’ll need to make natural cold-process soap. This piece includes all the tools and equipment you’ll need and guidance on safety gear. You can use many of the items in your kitchen to make handmade soap!

Making handmade soap involves quite a few steps and needs specific tools, but you really don’t need to spend a lot of money. Some items can be picked up second-hand, while others are lurking in your kitchen cupboards – you’re often able to use them for both food preparation and soap making!

Let me take you through the basic soap making equipment you need, along with explanations of what they do and why they’re important. Anything else not mentioned will help you make more intricate soap designs or bigger batches, but it isn’t necessary for the beginner soapmaker.

Basic Soap Making Equipment

In cold-process soapmaking, you use quite a few tools and materials. Each helps you along each step needed to transform your ingredients into soap bars. In making soap, you first precisely measure the ingredients by weight. Then, you make the lye solution, which creates heat and fumes, and begin melting any solid oils that are in the recipe.

The liquid oils, usually waiting in a bowl at the side, get stirred into the melted solid oils, and when everything is at the right temperature, you bring the ingredients to an emulsion, add soap additives, and pour the soap into molds. Having the right tools and soap making equipment will make the process a breeze.

An introduction to the basic soap making equipment and materials you'll need to make cold process soap. Includes money-saving tips! #soapmaking #soaprecipe #coldprocesssoap — This is the basic soap making equipment that I recommend.

Before we carry on, let’s chat about what’s already in your kitchen and if you can use it to make soap. First of all, yes, you can reuse kitchen items that are glass and stainless steel and carry on using them to make food recipes. Just ensure that they are perfectly clean to avoid cross-contamination.

If materials are plastic or silicone, they can absorb fragrances and should not be used in cooking. No materials used will absorb lye – it doesn’t work that way. Lye is a caustic and corrosive substance that can eat away at certain materials, but lye solution does not stick to materials. Even a residue of lye solution left on your tools will react with the air and transform into a powdery substance called soda ash.

Essential List of Soap Making Equipment

Kitchen scale
Stainless steel pot
Immersion blender
Digital thermometer
Heatproof jug(s)
Soap mold
Silicone spatula
Small sieve
Bowls
Measuring spoons
Goggles
Rubber gloves
Shop Soapmaking Equipment (UK options)

Kitchen Scales

The ingredients in soap recipes are measured in weight. So, the first piece of equipment you’ll need is a kitchen scale to measure them out. Digital scales are best, and they’re easy and inexpensive to come by in the UK/Europe. You can buy them in North America, too. You can use a jeweler’s scale for tiny measurements of essential oils and soap additives. In the recipes I share on this website, I do tiny measurements for you and instead give a measurement in teaspoons or Tablespoons. That way, you don’t have to get a tiny scale, as well. If you ever come across a soap recipe that lists the main ingredients in cups, do not use it, as it may not be safe.

A look at the soap making equipment you'll need to make natural cold-process soap. Includes safety precautions & tips on using items you already have #lovelygreens #soapmaking #diybeauty — Always measure soap recipe ingredients using a kitchen scale

Thermometer

Being able to accurately measure the temperature of your oils and lye solution is important in beginner soap making. Soaping at too low a temperature or too high of one can cause issues including false trace, cracking, glycerine rivers, and soap volcanoes. You can use an infrared thermometer or a digital kitchen thermometer to work out temperatures. Even glass thermometers will do, but they take longer to give a reading and can break.

Most of the recipes I share will have you try to get the lye solution and oils around ten degrees of one another and around 100°F (38°C). This is to ensure that your overall batch will remain at a predictable and workable temperature while you make it. You will find soapmakers who work at room temperature or who say that temperatures don’t matter. However, in my experience, beginners have more success and fewer issues if they stick to this rule. Push the boundaries once you’ve successfully learned the basics!

Immersion Blenders for Soap Making

It’s possible to bring soap ingredients to an emulsion by stirring with a spoon. For some recipes, like my coconut oil soap recipe, this works a treat, and the mixture thickens relatively fast. Most soap recipes are not as cooperative, though, and a high-shear immersion blender speeds up the process. Otherwise, you can be stirring for an hour with nothing happening! Immersion blenders, also known as stick blenders, can be submerged in the ingredients, turned on, and force the oil, lye, and water in the pot to form a bond. This bond, called an emulsion, helps the oil and lye interact and kickstart the saponification process.

Immersion blenders help emulsify the soap ingredients.

The best type of immersion blender to use in soap making will be one that has holes in the head. These holes are helpful in allowing air to escape as you submerge it in the pot. You’ll learn the best technique for doing this later on in the series or in my online soapmaking course. Many immersion blenders are plastic, and that’s perfectly fine, but I’d reserve these for soapmaking alone. If you get a model that has a stainless steel head, then it’s perfectly fine to use in food recipes and soap making. As for blenders and food processors, do not use them to make soap. It’s not safe since there’s a chance of caustic soap batter being flung out and splattering on your skin, walls, and surfaces.

Pans and Containers

To make handcrafted soap, you’ll need to measure ingredients and place them into containers. You’ll also need to melt solid oils in order to get them into a liquid state. For this reason, you’ll need a few different types of containers to help you along the way. I highly recommend that all the containers you use are heat-proof and that any metal pans or bowls are stainless steel. Other metals, like aluminum, will react with lye and soap batter. Here’s a list of what you’ll need:

Tips on safely cleaning up after soap making including how to tackle dirty pans, soap-encrusted stick blenders, and counter tops. Includes ways to reduce mess and to avoid irritating your skin #soapmaking #coldprocesssoap — Learn how to safely clean up after soapmaking.

A stainless stee l pot or saucepan for heating solid oils on the stove. If it has a spout on it, even better! Solid oils include coconut oil, cocoa butter, and shea butter, solid at room temperature and need gentle heat to liquefy them.
A heat-proof plastic jug for making the lye solution. Polypropylene (PP) plastic or stainless steel is best for this. Glass and Pyrex are also used, but I’d warn against this. I once had hot lye solution split open a glass jar!
Heat-proof plastic jugs for melting solid oils in the microwave. You only need this if you aren’t melting the oils on the stove. Polypropylene (PP), plastic, glass, and pyrex all work.
Ceramic, stainless steel, glass, pyrex, or plastic bowls for measuring soap additives and liquid oils, such as olive oil and castor oil.
Small containers for measuring additional ingredients like essential oils, botanicals, and powdered ingredients. Avoid plastic when measuring essential oils.

Soap Making Utensils

You’ll need various utensils to make soap, but my essentials are the ones shown above. Note that all are stainless steel and/or silicone.

How to make carrot soap using real carrots: sieve the carrot lye solution as you pour it into the oils — Sieves are useful for catching solids that you don’t want in your soap bars.

Two silicone spatulas for stirring and scraping and for mixing the lye solution.
Stainless steel spoon for stirring liquid oils (if you don’t have silicone spatulas)
Large stainless steel spoon for mixing the lye solution (if you don’t have silicone spatulas)
A plastic or stainless steel sieve for pouring the lye solution and soap additives through and into your oils. It catches solid substances that you don’t want in your soap.
Stainless steel measuring spoon s for measuring small quantities of soap additives.

Making Soap Safety

Soapmaking is a form of chemistry that requires lye. In cold-process soapmaking, that lye is sodium hydroxide, and it comes in a granular form. When you mix it with water to create the lye solution, there’s a lot of heat and steam, which requires that you work in a well-ventilated place. The containers used must be heat-proof, and you must protect your skin, eyes, and airways. I have much more soapmaking safety in another piece, but the main pieces of PPE you’ll need are listed below.

Safety Goggles & Gloves

One aspect of making soap safely is wearing the right clothes and protecting your hands and eyes. Prepare yourself by wearing long sleeves, sensible close-toed shoes, long trousers or a skirt, an apron, goggles, and rubber, nitrile, or latex gloves. I’d also recommend pulling your hair back and wearing clothes you don’t mind ruining. Oil splatters can be a real pain to wash out!

Protect hands, eyes, and skin with appropriate clothing and safety gear.

Eye protection is a soapmaking topic that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Always wear goggles while handling anything that is or contains ley. If you wear glasses, they won’t protect you from splatters from the side. Use s afety goggles, which will fit right over your glasses. They’re inexpensive, and you can buy them online or sometimes in hardware shops. If you don’t wear glasses, the most comfortable goggles to use are the onion goggles you can purchase in kitchen shops.

Respirator Mask

Another safety item you might want to consider wearing is a respirator mask. Hot lye solution lets off some pretty potent vapors, and you don’t want to breathe them in. The bigger the batch of lye solution, the more dangerous these vapors can be to your lungs. For small soap recipes, like the ones I share on this website and in my soap making course, I don’t wear a respirator. Instead, I mix the lye solution next to an open window or outdoors. For larger batches, I would wear one, though. It’s safer for your lungs and health.

Soap Molds

Once you’ve brought soap ingredients to an emulsion or trace, you pour the soap batter into molds. The mixture will solidify in them, and after one to two days, you can remove the soap to cure. Soap molds come in three different types and in a variety of materials. The main types are cavity molds, which are used for creating individual bars, loaf molds, and slab molds. My favorite soap mold material is silicone since these molds are easy to pop soap out of and don’t require prepping. You’ll see all sorts of molds, though, with the traditional one being a wooden box lined with wax paper.

This six-bar silicone mold is perfect for making 1-lb soap recipes.

The recipes that I introduce to you in the next piece, Easy Soap Recipes, are all 1lb (454 g) soap recipes. For this size, there are several mold options open to you, including cavity molds and loaf molds. I recommend using a six-bar silicone mold to make them, but this small silicone loaf mold works well, too. I use both regularly, and they both fit 1-lb batches perfectly. The added benefit of silicone molds is that they last indefinitely and can be easy to get your soap out of. When it comes to choosing a loaf style vs. cavities, it’s up to you. The loaf style is easier to insulate if you wish to gel your soap

Simple and natural cold process soap recipe. Uses four eco-friendly oils and includes easy to understand soap making instructions #soaprecipe #coldprocesssoap #soapmaking — Milk cartons are great for using molds for small batches of soap

Alternatively, you can use a drinks carton to fashion another type of recycled mold. With these, you can either just open up the top and pour in to create a vertical block of soap or lay the carton on its side and cut an opening to pour the soap in. That way, you’re able to decorate the tops of the bars if you wish. When it comes time to remove the soap from the mold, just tear the paper away and discard it.

You can cut soap into bars using a kitchen knife and cutting board.

Soap Cutting

If you opt to use a loaf or slab mold, you’ll also need to cut the soap block into individual bars before curing. I recommend doing this two days after making soap for most recipes. Though there are hand-held soap cutters and soap loaf cutters available, you can use a stainless steel kitchen knife and cutting board for this. At two days, saponification is almost entirely complete, and any residue on wooden cutting boards is simply soap.

The Natural Soapmaking for Beginners Series

The next piece in this series is an introduction to three simple soap recipes. It then carries on with the full step-by-step cold process soap-making method:

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