We all use soap. In the old days, most people made their own. Today, we are much more likely to buy it from the store. There are lots of brands to choose from, and each brand has various formulations and scents.

But making your own soap has some definite advantages. One of the most significant is the price. We can make soap much cheaper than we can buy it. Making it ourselves also gives us complete control over the ingredients, so we can create a soap that’s perfect for our skin type in a scent of our choice.

Making soap is much easier than you might think. It is, however, important to take certain safety precautions. Here’s a basic recipe:
Ingredients
* 12 cups lye crystals
* 5 cups softened water
* 6 pounds lard

Instructions
1. Put water in a glass or plastic bowl. Carefully pour lye into water, stirring constantly with a plastic or wooden spoon. This should be done outdoors or in a well-ventilated area because it produces caustic fumes.
2. Mixing lye and water produces heat. When the lye is completely dissolved, set the mixture aside to cool.
3. Place lard in a stainless steel or enamel pan. Melt over low heat.
4. Allow both the lye solution and the lard to cool to room temperature.
5. Slowly pour the lye solution into the lard, stirring slowly and constantly with the plastic or wooden spoon.
6. Continue stirring after all of the lye solutions has been added. Drizzle a small amount of the mixture into the pot periodically. When the soap keeps its shape for a moment before sinking into the mixture, you can add scent, color, and herbs.
7. Pour the soap into a mold greased with Crisco. Wrap in a towel, and let sit for about 18 hours or until completely cooled. Uncover and let sit for 12 more hours.
8. The soap may now be unmolded and cut into bars. Let the bars cure for 3 to 4 weeks before using.
Customizing Your Soap

There are lots of different ways you can customize your soap. To make the best soap for your skin type, you may want to use different oils. Some that are commonly used include olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, and shea butter. The correct amount varies depending on which oil you use, so look for recipes online or in books until you get the hang of it.

Essential oils have therapeutic properties and add fragrance. Oatmeal, cornmeal and other grains can be added as exfoliants. And skin-safe colorants may be used to produce the desired color. These ingredients should be mixed together and added to a cup of the soap mixture, then stirred into the rest of the soap mixture immediately before pouring into the mold.

Making your own soap is easy, and it can be lots of fun. Coming up with the perfect concoction for your skin is rewarding, and sweetly scented homemade soaps make wonderful gifts for any occasion.
Please leave your questions and comments below.

The second most important aspect of your Etsy shop is to get visitors.

Let’s face it, if you have a shop running in the town and no one comes into your shop, because you either close the doors, you don’t have any doors or your shop is simply not easily accessed by customers/ potential customers (Visitors), then you’ll have no one to sell your products. Hence you may never make a penny in that shop even if it is there forever.

The trick to getting visitors into your Etsy shop is to advertise your shop/ products.
Think of your Etsy shop like an actual building. Think of your door/s as the actual links to your Etsy shop and products. In order to get visitors into your doors, you must first have products which in this case are your listings.

You must find a way to have enough people see your doors in order for persons who need/want your products to by chance or intentionally see your shop and stop by to either investigate and/or do business. Now imagine the Internet as the virtual streets which your shop is located on, of which social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) Are now like hot spots where lots a people hangout to gossip, chat, share information, you name it.

You will want to go to those hot spots to show and tell people about your products strategically in order for them to come into your shop to either investigate and/or do business. The beauty of a virtual store (Etsy shop), as opposed to an actual store, is that your doors are portable and always open, well of course if you pay your bills and relevant dues they should be long enough.

Your best bet for social advertisements these days are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter & Google. Ensure you create accounts on all major social media platforms and share links to your shop and products as aften as possible to get noticed. That is just a basic run through of getting web traffic.
We will create a different post regarding social media optimization and management, Search engine optimization (SEO) for an even more effective store and traffic.

Leave your questions and comments below.

When we talk about protecting ourselves from germs, the best way is that old-world handwashing. What if water and soap are not available? In this case, the perfect option is using hand sanitizer. Sometimes, you can’t find sanitizer, especially in today’s situation of COVID-19. So, make your own using simple ingredients.

Making DIY hand sanitizer at your home

We want everyone to be safe from the Coronavirus, so here is the step by step guide to making hand sanitizer.

Ingredients for hand sanitizer

The components which are necessary for our DIY homemade sanitizer are:

Tools

1. Measuring cup
2. Measuring spoons
3. Empty spray bottles
4. Vacant bottles to store sanitizer

Method

Let’s start to make our hand sanitizer.

Pour alcohol into a container

First step is to pour the alcohol into a medium-sized container through a pouring nozzle or funnel.

Note: One thing you must know that the percentage mentioned on the bottle of Isopropyl alcohol is the alcohol congregation in it. When we are using 99% of it, we are dealing with pure alcohol. If you use 70% alcohol, it has approximately 2/3^rd alcohol and remaining is water. A hand sanitizer less than 70 or 60% is not considered as a good one and it is not capable to fight with germs.

Add hydrogen peroxide

Now, you have to include hydrogen peroxide in Isopropyl alcohol.

Add glycerin in it and mix

In the next step, the glycerin will be added and mixed. As it is thick as compared to other two ingredients so it will take some time to mix properly. Make sure that the spoon you are using to stir glycerin is clean. If the container has a lid then it is suggested to shake it for combining everything.

Pour water into the mixture

Pour ¼ of distilled or boiled water in this amalgam and rustle. You have to consider one thing properly that water must be cold.

Include aloe Vera gel

If you want to make a gel consistency then you can skip water and add aloe Vera gel in the mix. Moreover, alcohol can be harsh on your skin and damage it but aloe Vera gel can minimize its hardness. It is better to use natural gel but you can bought it from the store too.

Use essential oil

To make your handmade sanitizer fragrant, you can add a few drops of any essential oil in it. Tea tree oil is perfect for this purpose due to its antibacterial feature. If you don’t have this oil, you can select any oil of your choice like lemongrass or lavender.  

Pour sanitizer into bottles

Pour your DIY hand sanitizer into spray bottles, but before it, you have to sanitize them as well. Here you go, your handmade sanitizer is ready to use.