Inside: a curated list of all the best places to buy soap making supplies: everything from fragrance to molds to oils.
Soap making is one of those hobbies that can get expensive…fast.
The good news is, once you invest in basic tools and oils, you’re set for a while and can make dozens of bars. The bad news is, the more you make, the more you’ll want fancy molds, new fragrances, and pretty colors!
That’s okay! Let’s go over the best places to get all of these things! There are a few items that are essential for beginners and you’ll find those marked with a star.
Table of contents
Want this in a handy printable list? Enter your email address and I’ll send you a free PDF
Soap making ingredients
Supplies
- ⭐️ A digital scale that can measure in ounces and grams (essential)
- ⭐️ A stick blender (essential)
- ⭐️ Safety gear, including gloves and goggles (essential)
- ⭐️ A mold of some sort (essential, but you can make your own)
A word about molds
You can use a box lined in parchment paper if you really want to, but I recommend a basic 10-inch mold or 12 cavity bar mold for your first batch. Keep an eye on the batch size of your recipe.
- Recommended bar mold available on Amazon (requires more pouring work but you don’t have to slice anything.
- Nice quality loaf-style mold (Easy to pour but you’ll have to cut the bars)
If you find that you love this hobby, there are many beautiful choices out there. You can find silicone molds that imprint designs, solid wooden molds for making swirls, and much more.
Looking for the best soap-making books? Find a list of my favorites here.
Best lye for soap making
You have a few options here. Lye typically comes in either flakes or little bead-like pellets. I find the pellets easier to pour and measure.
⭐️ Nurture is my preferred source for lye, as they carry the pellet form and I can be sure I’m getting the right thing.⭐️ (Yes, lye is an essential for making cold process soap!)
You can also find lye at hardware stores, where it is sold a drain cleaner. You must be very sure that you are buying pure lye (it might also be labeled sodium hydroxide).
Sourcing bulk oils
When you’re looking for bulk oils such as olive, palm, or coconut, make sure you do not order food grade oils. Not because there is anything wrong with them, but because they are extremely expensive!
The best source for affordable bulk oils
Nurture Soap is my favorite source for oils. They are affordable and have free shipping.
- Their coconut oil comes in two convenient sizes that aren’t too big but are will still make dozens and dozens of bars.
- They also carry sustainably sourced palm oil at a competitive price.
Other good choices
- Brambleberry.com is more expensive and has expensive shipping, but their products are very good quality and their customer service is wonderful. They also have a great selection of harder to find oils and butters.
- For smaller quantities of things like castor oil or shea butter, Amazon is a good choice.
Finding soap bases
If you prefer melt and pour soap, all you need is a base, a mold, and any additional products you want. Melt and pour bases can be pricey, but they are a great choice if you don’t want to deal with formula percentages, new supplies, and other somewhat complicated elements of soap making.
- Bulk Apothecary has a great selection of melt and pour soaps to customize, everything from goat milk to shea butter to clear glycerin soaps. They are purchased by weight and this can be a very affordable way to make a small bar size.
Where to buy fragrance oils
The world is your oyster here! You can find fragrance oils on Amazon, in some craft stores, and of course, from reputable soap making companies such as Nurture Soap and Brambleberry.
You can often find collections of smaller sizes of fragrance to test out what you like, or even email the companies and ask for samples.
Fragrance in soaps is totally optional, but one of the most fun parts of the process.
Some personal favorite fragrances:
- Comfort and Joy, from Nurture Soap, is a complex Christmas scent that I actually use all year.
- Mango Mango is my number one fragrance, a sweet fruity fragrance that I add to my popular shower soap recipe.
- Sweet Pea, from Amazon, is a sweet floral that’s super feminine but young.
- Awaken, available here, is a fresh citrus perfect for shower soap.
Colorants for soap making
- Color is, of course, mostly personal preference, but I find that the micas found at Nurture Soap come through very well. You can order very small sizes and build up a library of colors to choose from
Other body supplies
Most soap making suppliers also carry what you will need to make lotions, bath bombs, homemade hand cream, and lip balms. A lot of these ingredients will be used in all of these products, so if you are interested in making homemade items beyond soap, don’t be afraid to buy in bulk.
Keep in mind, each company mentioned here is full of kind people who can help you with any specific question you have about ingredients or supplies, and you can always leave me a comment here.
Now what?
Start with some recipes! See what oils appeal to you, and go from there.
Some of my most popular:
Hi Pattie,
Lisa List with Willow Tree Soaps here. Here’s a great tip I discovered a few years ago and it works fabulously to totally prevent ash on top of your beautiful soaps! I dislike the time you have to spend to steam the ash off from the tops & sometimes the sides of the soap. I’m sure I’m not alone here. Though they do look spectacular after steaming. I had a few styrofoam ice chests with lids (like the kind you get from Honeybaked Ham) but you can buy similar chests very inexpensively at Walmart or one of your local grocery stores. 98% of the time I make log molds. I love the way they turn out with zero ash on top using my tip below. What I’ve been doing is putting my mold(s) with my freshly made soap inside one or 2 of these styrofoam chests and put the lids on top of their chest and allow to firm up for between 12-24 hours. I want it firm enough to hold it’s shape before unmolding. But soft enough so that I can cut it. Using this method and depending on the size of your styrofoam chests you can fit multiple molds inside each chest. If you pull your soap out too soon, ash will form all over it if you’ve unmolded it prior to it being ready for unmolding. I usually just leave it overnight and that seems too work perfectly.
I hope this tip helps you Pattie as well as any others who read this and care to try it out.
Wishing you all my best and happy soaping!
Lisa List
Willow Tree Soaps
ForGoodnessGrape
The Lip Balm Queen
Willow Apothecary
ps; a box with a removable lid (such as a box that copier paper comes in.) I feel this works almost just as well and maybe you already have this type of box in your office or garage. If you don’t buy copier paper then a “bankers box” will work just as well since it has a removable lid.
Thank you for the information. When I go to the Nurture Soap website I find no bulk oils to be purchased. I wonder if I’m going to the correct website? https://nurturesoap.com this is the website I go to.
Thank you, Rena
that is the correct website, they must be out right now! check brambleberry.com
Thank you for the video tutorials. They are very helpful. I just made my first baby soap and it came out nicely. A little ash on top after cure day 3 and I had sprayed it after pouring it in the mold with the 70% rubbing alcohol. Would 99% make a big difference or maybe it is just the humidity and it wasn’t cured enough after the 24 hours in the oven. I had put a kitchen towel around it. What would happen if I waited 48 hours to remove it from the mold??? I also ordered a baby soap stamp on Etsy and I’m hopeful that the stamp will work around week 3/4 of cure time???
The other question is that my first batch was made with my Organic Costco Olive Oil that I cook with. That is what I had on hand and like you had said, it is way too expensive. I remember you recommended a particular Costco brand Olive Oil that wasn’t as expensive as the Costco Organic Olive Oil, but I can’t find the video. You had said to stick to the same oils and I picked up the Kirkland 100% Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I can always return it. What Costco brand do you use and in the future, should I order the olive oil from Bulk Apothecary or Nurture soap.com? Oh, I put the mango mango fragrance in the baby soap and it smells great! Nice and mild. I didn’t have the lavender.
Hi Pattie: Both sources are good! The Costco olive oil I get comes in a 2-pack and it’s not organic. Much more affordable! Don’t stress about the soda ash. The. 99% spray will help, but I almost never use it: sometimes I get ash and sometimes not, with no real rhyme or reason.
Thank you