About Terry Knorr Expertise I can answer most questions concerning the making of handmade soaps. Those which I cannot answer, I am willing to research for you.
Experience Began making and selling handmade soaps under the name of Earth Soaps in 1994. Have since expanded under the name Good Earth Herbs to 24 different soaps. We do both retail and wholesale business. I also teach two different classes on soapmaking: a basic class and an advanced class.
Question Hi Terry. I have a few questions. I wanna know where would I go to get lye? I want my soap to be 100% all natural, but I cant find a lot of the scents I want in essential oils. Only with the fragrance oils. Scents like hazelnut, pecan, and a lot of fruity scents. So do I just need to keep looking or do these essential oils just not exist? If they dont then what oils would I mix together to create what would smell like hazelnut? Also can I put sugar in my soap? Thanks a bunch...
Answer Hi Stacy!
I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. My computer was down for several days.
You can get lye at most hardware stores or grocery stores. It will be called "red devil" lye. You can also order it from most any soapmaking supply such as Rainbow Meadows. I get my lye from a lab supply store call Apple Scientific. They are located in Erie, PA.
I would check with Herbal Accents for the essential oils. If they don't have what you want, they will help you locate it or they might be able to blend the oils to give you the scent you are looking for. I've never tried mixing oils to get a scent similar to something else, so I can't even suggest how or what to mix to get the scents you want. As far as a fruity scent, you might try the Ylang Ylang.
You can locate each of the businesses I've mentioned on the internet. Simply do a search for the business name.
Yes, you can use sugar in your soap. I don't think it will affect the scent much, but that is one of the ingredients used to produce transparent soaps.
