Soap Making Videos
YouTube channels worth watching, from your first batch to advanced techniques.
Why Watch Before You Make
Reading about soap making gives you the theory. Watching someone do it shows you what trace actually looks like, how fast a stick blender works, what the lye-water reaction sounds like, and a dozen other things that words can't fully convey. If you've never made soap before, watch at least one full cold process video start to finish before you attempt your first batch. It'll save you from the moment where you're holding a stick blender over a pot thinking "is this right?"
The old SoapCalc videos page used Adobe Flash, which stopped working in 2020. Rather than host our own videos, we've curated the best soap making channels on YouTube — people who produce high-quality content, explain what they're doing and why, and have been at it long enough that you can trust their techniques.
Start Here If You're New
Bramble Berry
Run by the Bramble Berry supply company (founded by Anne-Marie Faiola, who also wrote Pure Soapmaking). Clean, professional production. Their beginner cold process series walks through every step with clear close-up shots. Also covers melt and pour, bath bombs, and other bath and body products. This is the channel forum members most often recommend when someone asks "where do I start?"
Start with their "How to Make Cold Process Soap" and lye safety videos.
Soaping 101
No fuss, no background music drowning out the explanation. Just clear, methodical instruction on how to make soap. Covers cold process, hot process, and melt and pour with separate videos for each method. The channel has been around since 2011 and the earlier videos are a little dated visually, but the techniques are solid and the teaching style is ideal for someone making their first batch.
Lovely Greens
Tanya Anderson's channel pairs with her written "Natural Soap Making for Beginners" series on lovelygreens.com. Calm, well-paced, and focused on natural ingredients. She doesn't rush. Good for people who learn better from a measured, step-by-step approach rather than fast-paced content.
Cold Process — Intermediate & Advanced
Royalty Soaps
Katie Carson started Royalty Soaps as a teenager and built it into one of the biggest soap making channels on YouTube. Her content is heavy on design — swirls, layers, color work, embeds, seasonal collections. She explains her process as she goes, narrating decisions in real time. The production quality is high and the energy is infectious. If you've made a few plain bars and you're wondering how people make those gorgeous patterned soaps, this is where you'll learn.
Also interesting for anyone thinking about turning soap into a business. She's been open about the business side over the years.
Tree Marie Soapworks
If you want to color your soap without synthetic dyes, this is the channel. Tree Marie specializes in plant-based colorants — turmeric, indigo, madder root, activated charcoal, clays — and shows you exactly what they look like in finished cold process soap. Less polished than Royalty Soaps, more focused on the formulation side. Good for soap makers who want to understand why a recipe works, not just follow one.
I Dream in Soap
Lisa's channel is a community favorite for its warmth and detail. She talks through her recipe choices, explains her swirl techniques clearly, and doesn't skip the parts where things go slightly sideways. That honesty is valuable — watching someone recover from a fast-moving trace or an unexpected color shift teaches you more than a perfectly edited clip ever will.
Nocturn
This is the channel that makes you stare. Nocturn creates cold process soaps with designs that look more like art installations than bathroom bars. Minimal narration, satisfying visuals, and a level of precision that's almost meditative to watch. Not a teaching channel in the traditional sense — more of an inspiration channel. Watch it when you want to see what's possible once you've mastered the basics.
Hot Process
Hot process gets less YouTube attention than cold process, but these channels cover it well:
- Soaping 101 has a dedicated hot process tutorial series that covers the crock pot method step by step.
- Bramble Berry has several HP videos showing the full cook-and-pour process with commentary.
- Search "hot process soap crock pot" on YouTube and sort by view count — you'll find solid standalone tutorials from smaller channels. The technique is less visually dramatic than cold process swirls, which is why fewer big channels cover it regularly.
Melt and Pour
Bramble Berry
Bramble Berry sells melt and pour bases, so naturally they have a large library of M&P tutorials — layering, embedding, color techniques, fragrance tips, unmolding. These are some of the best melt and pour videos available, especially for beginners. Clear instruction, good production, and results you can actually replicate at home.
For written M&P guidance, see our Melt and Pour tips page.
The Business Side
If you're thinking about selling your soap, a few channels regularly cover the business angle:
- Royalty Soaps — Katie has done several videos about running a soap business, pricing, inventory, and the realities of scaling production.
- Muddy Mint Co — Focuses on scaling up a handmade soap business with practical tips on production efficiency, packaging, and growth.
- Soy and Shea — Keeley covers business building, product photography, and selling bath and body products online.
What to Watch First
If you're brand new and only have time for three videos before your first batch:
- A lye safety video from Bramble Berry or Soaping 101. Watch this before you buy lye. Not negotiable.
- A full cold process tutorial — one that shows the entire process from weighing ingredients to pouring the mold. Bramble Berry's beginner CP video or Soaping 101's introductory tutorial are both excellent.
- A "how to use a lye calculator" video — search for "how to use SoapCalc" on YouTube and you'll find several walkthroughs. Then open our calculator and follow along.
After that, explore. The soap making YouTube community is large, friendly, and endlessly creative. You'll find your people.