Rule number one is you CANNOT make soap without lye. No lye, no soap. Simple. Unless you are buying a melt and pour kit at hobby lobby or some similar place. These are fun, good if you've never made soap before. Though realize that home made lye soap and these melt and pour kits are two TOTALLY different things. As a general principle, if you can't take one of those boxes of pre-measured brownie mix and come up with something that atleast resembles brownies, soap making is not your craft.
Always line your box or pan with a plastic liner. It makes it so much easier to remove, it will save you a lot of time and your nerves will thank you.
Invest in a stick blender. Also known as a handheld blender. While it will take you an hour or more to reach trace while stirring with a spoon, it takes about five minutes with a stick blender. Spend ten or twenty bucks on one of these babies and believe me, you wont be sorry you did. Neither will your wrists.
If you pour your soap in the mold and you wait a few days and you still have an oily sticky glob, then chances are you didn't get trace. This means that you didn't stir (or if you have a stick blender, blend) until your lye and lard mixture thickened and turned an opaque color. This resembles pudding, or thick creamy looking gravy. You will probably know when you get trace. But if you aren't sure, take your spoon and drip a few drops onto the surface. If it makes a dent on the surface or doesn't sink at all, then you're set! If not, then keep blending or stirring.
It's important not to add your fragrance or essential oil until you get trace. Otherwise, it might mess up your saponification process. That's no good.
When adding color, don't use regular food coloring. The color will "bleed" to the top and make an ugly mess. Use spices, powders, or other types of coloring agents specifically for soap. I know a woman who uses crayons to color her soap. It turns out alright, but I'm not brave enough to try it.
Ever notice that when you weigh out your essential oil and come back for it a few minutes later and there is a noticable drop in the amount of it? Well, thats because essential oils evaporate rather quickly. Wait until you're going to use it. This stuff is too expensive to waste.
Never put your soap in the refrigerator. I did this once when I was first starting to make soap. It dried my soap out and made it rock hard, even after I got it out of the fridge and let it set in the open air for a couple days. BIG mistake on my part. I couldn't even grate it to melt it down again, it was almost like trying to shred stone. Disaster strikes once more for the amatuer soaper.
If you wait until your soap is firm, as in not liquid but not totally hard either and slice it, you'll have a MUCH easier time getting out out in pretty little bars when its time to take it out and let it cure.
If you wan't big "fat" bubbles, use coconut oil. If you wan't fine little silky bubbles (my preference) use olive oil. Olive oil is also much cheaper and easier to find than coconut oil. Also, olive oil is much easier on the skin than coconut oil, which tends to be harsher.
Don't EVER add a regular perfume to soap. It contains way too many other agents and is not good for your soap.
If you put your hand on the surface and your soap is still warm in places, the saponification process is not done. Sometimes the mixture is thicker in places and takes longer. In that case, leave it alone for another day or so. It might be firm, but the soap hasn't finished its cycle and needs longer.