some info, a soap recipe, and some links...
I too was mystified before I did it, but Jules who used to be a regular here, talked me through it about 12 years ago and I've been making it ever since.
I can post the "Tried and True" recipe that I use and offer you help, guidance, and support if you'd like to give it a whirl. I'd say skip the class and sink your money into supplies.
This is the basic recipe I use for my base (although I never make this recipe because I am always making tweaks). But this is a great, easy, and nearly fool-proof recipe:
Rachael's "Tried and True" Recipe (Thanks! to Rachael Levitan)
48 ounces Crisco (a 3-pound can)**
21 ounces Soybean Oil (or Olive, Canola, or a blend of these)
18 ounces Coconut Oil
28 ounces of cold water
12 ounces lye crystals
Temperatures: 100 degrees
**which no longer exists. Use any cheapo shortening you can find. You can also use the cheap vegetable-animal fat blends. That's what I normally use if I'm getting fat from the store because it's cheapest and works in this recipe. But normally I buy an all-veg shortening in bulk from Soaper's Choice (see links below).
Trace by hand should be in about 20 minutes. Cure about 24-48 hours before cutting. (I've done this with the stick blender and trace happens in about 1 minute! If you want to mix soap that way, this is probably not the recipe to use...unless you're quick! ...Kathy)
A Nice Variation: Cucumber with Shea Butter (very mild in scent and moisturizing)
Add to base oils:
3 T. shea butter
a few shavings of green wax candle color (maybe about 1 1/2 loose teaspoons)
Add at light trace (mine wanted to seize up...make it very light trace and then work fast!)
3 ounces Econocuke from Sweet Cakes (or some other cucumber fragrance)
I add a lot more exotic oils to my soap (almond, shea butter, cocoa butter, beeswax, avocado, olive, castor, kukui nut, vitamin E, etc) and have started adding upwards of 4-5 oz. of fragrance because I like stronger scents. This recipe will tolerate it. But you will need to use a lye calculator if you deviate too much (simple calculation tool that you can find any number of places on the web).
Lye. The soaper's mantra: "No Lye, No Soap." It's inescapable. Anyone advertising soap that doesn't have lye is lying. For big batches I mail order (see below), and I also collect it at local hardware stores. The big box chain hardware stores no longer carry it because of their lawyers. One thing you must be absolutely certain of, it must be 100% lye (sodium hydroxide). There are a lot of lye "drain cleaners" out there next to the lye that have additives and that will be a disaster.
But you must be careful with the lye. Measure it over the sink, measure the water, then add the lye to the water, never water to lye. I measure and go outside to combine so that I don't get fumes in the house. I use a giant 1 gallon pickle jar so there are high sides and a lid. I swirl the water and get it moving, dump in the lye, then swirl it some more. Do not breathe the fumes. THe swirl prevents the lye from settling to the bottom and melding into a clump that will take forever to dissolve. There is much more detailed on the millersoap link below.
The basic process is: make the lye solution specified in the recipe, set aside to cool to roughly 100F. Combine and melt your fats and oils. Set aside to cool to roughly 100F. Slowly and carefully pour the lye water into the fat. It will immediately cloud up as the chemical reaction begins (this is called saponification and it is the chemical reaction that creates soap when lye and fat are joined). Stir until thickened, about the texture of a thick white sauce. Not too thin, but not too thick that you won't be able to pour. The thickening is called trace. Light trace is when it begins to thicken and is the texture of a lemon sauce for gingerbread, full trace is when you can still stir it and pour. You can use a stick blender so you're not stirring for a long time. Careful on the stick as it will usually take under a minute to reach trace with the above recipe using a stick. Right before you get to the full trace stage, add any fragrance oil and stir again to combine thoroughly. You do this right before pouring so that the fragrance oil is not taken up in the saponification process and rendered "inert" and odorless.
Some links:
Great site for info, not so well organized, but I got most of my info and recipes here when I started out and it's still up after all these years.
http://www.millersoap.com/ss.html
Bulk oils:
http://soaperschoice.com/ (great prices, but you have to buy in bulk so store this info for later after you get hooked)
Great selection of fragrance and essential oils:
http://www.sweetcakes.com/
I have a soap sale at work (I made enough to buy a large flatscreen TV for Christmas one year)and give soap away as presents, housewarming gifts, etc. All my friends are as addicted to it as we are (my soap 'hos). I superfat my soaps and use no chemical colorants, dyes (I use ground mineral oxides for color when I want to color a batch), that all of the commercial soaps have.
I used to have awfully dry skin, particularly in the winter, and that is why I started making soap in the first place. Now, that is a distant memory. I superfat my soap (add more fat than can be saponified by the lye in the soap making process) so that these extra oils are suspended in the soap, acting like a moisturizer.
Fair warning, once you start making your own soap, you will not be able to use store bought again. It really is drastic the contrast between them.
Let me know if you need any help.
