Soap Making Help & Community
Places to ask questions, get recipe feedback, and learn from people who've been doing this for years.
You Don't Have to Figure This Out Alone
Soap making has one of the friendliest online communities of any hobby. Beginners show up every day asking questions that have been asked a thousand times before, and nobody gives them grief for it. That's rare on the internet.
Whether you need help with a recipe that went wrong, want feedback before you commit your oils to a new formula, or just want to see what other people are making, there's a place for you. Pick whatever platform you're most comfortable with.
Forums
Forums are the best format for soap making discussion. Questions stay searchable forever. Threads build up detailed back-and-forth. You can find answers to problems people solved ten years ago. Social media moves too fast for that.
Soapmaking Forum
The largest dedicated soap making forum on the internet. Been around for over 15 years. Separate sections for cold process, hot process, melt and pour, liquid soap, bath and body products, candle making, and business discussion. They run monthly soap challenges, have a recipe feedback section, and a photo gallery where people post their work.
The search function is your best friend here. Whatever you're dealing with — orange spots, ash on top, fragrance that seized your batch, trace that won't happen — someone on this forum has already solved it. Search first, ask if you can't find it. The members are very patient with beginners, but they appreciate people who've done a little homework.
Soapmaking Friend Forum
Run by the people behind the Soapmaking Friend calculator. Smaller than Soapmaking Forum but active and beginner-friendly. They also have their own recipe builder tool if you want to compare results with SoapCalc.
Soaps ~N~ Lotions Forum
A mixed group covering soaps, lotions, creams, and bath products. Both men and women, all experience levels. Less traffic than the big forums, which some people prefer — you won't get lost in the crowd.
r/soapmaking
Active subreddit with a mix of recipe sharing, troubleshooting, and photo posts. The format is better for quick questions and visual inspiration than deep technical dives. Good for getting a second opinion on a recipe before you make it, or for showing off a batch you're proud of. Reddit's voting system means good answers tend to surface.
Facebook Groups
Facebook groups move fast and posts disappear into the feed within days, but they're where a lot of soap makers hang out. The advantage is immediacy — post a question and you'll usually get a response within an hour.
Soapalooza
Originally connected to the SouthernSoapers Yahoo Group. When Yahoo Groups shut down in 2020, the community moved here. Includes class PDFs, training materials, and a broad range of discussion from beginners to experienced soap makers.
Tallow Soapers
For soap makers using lard, beef tallow, deer tallow, goat tallow, and other animal fats. Open to all methods and experience levels. If you're rendering your own tallow or working with fats from butcher shops and farms, this is your group.
Liquid Soapers
Focused on liquid soap (KOH-based). Assumes some basic soap making knowledge. If you're formulating liquid soap recipes and want help with paste dilution, clarity issues, or KOH calculations, this is the right room.
YouTube
Sometimes you need to watch someone do it, not read about it. These channels are worth subscribing to if you're learning:
- Royalty Soaps — Katie Carson's channel has been running since 2013. Great production quality, very watchable, covers cold process extensively with detailed commentary on what she's doing and why.
- Bramble Berry — Bramble Berry's official channel. Clean, well-produced tutorials that cover basics and specific techniques. Good for beginners.
- Tree Marie Soapworks — Detailed cold process videos with a focus on natural colorants and recipe formulation. Less polished than Royalty Soaps, more educational.
- Soap Queen TV — Anne-Marie Faiola's channel (founder of Bramble Berry). Mix of melt and pour and cold process tutorials, fragrance reviews, and technique demonstrations.
We also have a (small) soap making videos page with introductory content if you want a starting point.
Online Courses & Classes
If you want structured learning rather than forum advice, there are a few options:
- Udemy and Skillshare — Search "soap making" on either platform. Courses range from free to $20–50. Quality varies. Read the reviews and check the date — you want something made in the last few years, not a 2015 recording with outdated advice.
- Bramble Berry classes — Bramble Berry occasionally runs online workshops and has free tutorial content on their website. Worth checking if you're already buying supplies from them.
- Local classes — Search "soap making class near me" or check your local craft stores, community colleges, and maker spaces. In-person classes are great because you get to handle the materials and smell the process (for better or worse, during the lye mixing). Many cities have soap makers who teach out of their home studios.
Books
We maintain a recommended reading list covering beginner guides, natural soap making, milk soap, and advanced formulation. If you want to understand the chemistry — not just follow recipes — a good book is worth more than a hundred forum posts.
Tips for Getting Good Help
The soap making community is generous, but you'll get better answers if you make it easy for people to help you.
When asking for recipe feedback: Post your full recipe with percentages, your superfat percentage, water amount (or lye concentration), and which oils you're using. A screenshot of SoapCalc's output is even better. "I'm thinking of making a soap with olive oil and coconut oil" is vague. "Here's my recipe: 40% olive, 30% coconut 76, 30% palm, 5% SF, 33% lye concentration" gives people something to work with.
When troubleshooting a problem: Describe what happened, when it happened, and what your recipe was. "My soap has weird spots" could be a hundred things. "My soap has orange spots appearing after 3 weeks of cure, recipe is 40/30/25/5 OO/CO/palm/castor, 5% SF, 33% LC" will get you an answer in one reply. (It's DOS — dreaded orange spots — and it's usually the linoleic acid in your olive oil oxidizing. Reduce cure temperature or add ROE to your oils at trace.)
When you're brand new: Say so. Nobody will judge you for being a beginner. People love helping new soap makers — it reminds them of when they started. Just mention that you're new and which process you're using.