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It’s not hard to make your own custom soap at home, but there are some safety precautions you should take before embarking on this homemade adventure.

Homemade soap contains lye, which can make you sick. If you’re careful, though, you can have fun making soap and save yourself some money in the process. To make soap, you’ll need lye, water, and whatever mixture of oils you want to make the scent for your custom soap. Oils have to be heated gently and even though they don’t actually need to get hot enough to cook they can still burn you, so you have to be careful with them. Also, be cautious of the heating process. Different oils require different temperatures that they must be heated to in order to combine with the lye. If you decide to use a different oil, do your research first!

Lye is caustic, so don’t breathe any of it or get it on your skin. Goggle, skin protection, and good ventilation or a respirator are necessary. You’ll also need a mould to pour your mixture into. You can use something as simple as a cake pan lined with wax paper. If you have a big block of soap you’ll want to cut it with something other than a knife because of the instability. A guitar string works well; just wrap it around something that you can use as handles, like chopsticks or something similar.

If this is your first soap making experience, it may behoove you to purchase a kit from your local craft store that includes everything you need.

Make sure you read about the ingredients and how to use them properly before you begin.