2014 has been a great year over here at the Simple Life Mom family.  The kids have grown tremendously, we’ve learned a lot, and had a lot of fun. It’s been a blessing to share it all with you! Thank you for your support. It makes a huge difference to our family to have Simple […]

You can still make these 7 Homemade Holiday Soap Recipes from scratch and have them ready in a day or two.  How? You can Hot process them! Here’s instructions for Hot Processing Soap and a Video Tutorial. I thought it would be a lot of fun to have soaps in out kitchen and bathrooms that […]

Some might be thinking it’s early to be thinking about 11 homemade Christmas gift set ideas, but it isn’t if you make all of those gifts yourself.  A lot of us who make gifts have to plan ahead for production time, curing stages, or steeping times.  I have been teaching a class at our home […]

There are a number of reasons to hot process soap. Hopefully this “How to Hot Process Soap Video Tutorial” will answer a lot of your questions. Benefits Some people hot process every batch of soap because they like the idea of being able to use it right away. Hot processing it increases the speed at […]

Learning How to Add Milk to Soap is a great thing if you are a soap maker.  It makes a very popular soap for good reason. In fact, the wonderful lady who got me started making my own soap raises her own goats and makes amazing Goat Milk and Honey Soap.  I’ve always been partial […]

I’m excited to be able to bring you a Video Tutorial: Shampoo Soap Step by Step.  In this video I will walk you through how to make your own shampoo bar soap.  Really, this can be watched to get an idea of how to make any hot processed lye soap, as the directions are the […]

My first video published on tools needed to make soap seems to have been a great success, so here is the next Video Tutorial: Options for Soap Molds. This probably gave me the most frustration when I first started making soap. I was fine with finding the ingredients (though over time I have found better […]

It’s finally here!  I’ve said to myself, “Forget the self consciousness and just publish the video.” 😉  So here it is, a soap making video tutorial: Soap Making Tools, focusing…of course, on tools needed for making your own lye soap. One of the first things that I got stuck on when just beginning to make […]

So now you’ve made the basic soap recipes and you want to add some color and fun to your soap.  Adding Color to homemade soap is not difficult.  It’s a matter of finding out what to put in. There are a lot of ideas on the internet that I would not recommend simply because of […]

  DIY Liquid Hand Soap is an easy thing to make and has a lot of advantages.  For starters, it’s very frugal! I make my own soap (For Recipes, go Here), so there is very little cost to one or two bars. It ends up being tons cheaper than buying it from the store.  That’s […]

I’ve put together these 8 homemade palm oil soap recipes because a lot of people like to use palm oil in their soaps.  It makes a good hard bar with a creamy lather that will last longer. Palm oil can be used in place of tallow in a favorite recipe you have, but I, personally, […]

When I first started looking into making my own soaps, I could not figure out where I could buy this thing called essential oils.  I finally ended up at a large craft store and came upon an isle for candle making that had a large set of oils to choose from.  I was excited.  You […]

[Updated 1/12/2018] Here are 7 homemade shampoo bar recipes I’ve put together for you to choose from. I know that some people like to use Palm responsibly, while others do not. Some people like using tallow and lard, while others prefer a vegan bar. So, hopefully cover something for everyone. They are: Palm Shampoo Bar […]

I tried using shampoo bar soap before and it did not work. No one told me that you usually have to wait about 2 weeks for your hair to stop overproducing oils from being stripped consistently with store-bought shampoos or that sometimes hard water makes it difficult, or that you need to use a conditioner […]

Shampoo and Lotion: Best to Worst was created because sometimes I don’t feel like making my own stuff, or I don’t have the time, or someone in my family wants something different. I would like to be able to grab something at a local store and feel like I’m making an OK choice.  But I […]