Recipes for Home Made Soap and Natural Products

Easy Basic Soap Recipe

24 oz. coconut oil
36 oz. vegetable shortening
24 oz. olive oil

24 to 28 oz cold water
12 ounces lye crystals

Add at trace:2 oz. Peach or Sweet Orange FO or EO
2 tsps. paprika or turmeric for light orangish-yellow color

Temperatures: 95-100 degrees before adding FO/EO

Follow basic instructions for making soap and make sure you take all the precautions seriously! Always keep vinegar handy in case you splash a little lye on your hands or face.  To bring trace, I've begun relying on my handy dandy stick blender - brings on trace in a few minutes and saves my arm muscles! Well worth the $20 I put out at Wallyworld :-)

Another Really Simple Recipe

16 oz coconut
4 oz olive
48 oz vegetable

29 oz water
9 oz lye add to water.

Again, follow basic soap making instructions - and take advantage of the stick blender! This soap doesn't have any superfatting added and is scent free - but you can change that if you choose.

Liquid Soap

2 cups grated bar soap (just grate up your old soap!)
1/2 gallon water
2 tbsp glycerin

Simply mix all ingredients together in a large pot and heat over a low setting until soap is dissolved - stir occasionally. Pour into a nicely decorated jar and cover tightly. If you like a thinner consistency - just add about one gallon of water.

My FAVORITE Standby HOT PROCESS Recipe

16 oz. coconut oil
16 oz. olive oil
12 oz. water (6oz. liquid per pound of fats)
4.80 oz. lye (allows a buffer of 6% fat to be in soap)
0.64 oz. shea butter or cocoa butter (to superfat)
Finished batch size: 2 pounds

24 oz. coconut oil
24 oz. olive oil
18 oz. water
7.21 oz. lye
0.96 oz. shea butter or cocoa butter (to superfat)
Finished batch size: 3 pounds
32 oz. coconut oil
32 oz. olive oil
24 oz. water
9.61 oz. lye
1.28 oz. shea butter or cocoa butter (to superfat)
Finished batch size: 4 pounds

This is a recipe for Hot Process (Oven Process) but please follow instructions and precautions for making cold process soap. I usually wait till lye and oil are no higher than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, then you can combine lye water and melted oils in a large pot. Make sure you have plenty of room as hot process methods tend to 'grow' soap; so allow about 6" of room to spare in your pot. In cold process, you always have to have trace, but in hot process it's not really necessary, but I do it anyway.

After trace (or just stir with a wire whisk until slightly cloudy) place pot in 220 degree preheated oven. Set timer for 20 minutes and then check and stir the mix with a wire whisk to mix oils thoroughly. Place back in oven and wait another 20 minutes. The mix should be similar to applesauce - in texture and color - if it doesn't look like this, then it may need to cook another twenty minutes. At the end of this 20 minutes it should now have passed the creamy applesauce stage and should look a bit curdled. Wisk or blend thoroughly and then test for lye. I usually take a bit of the mix (watch out its really hot) and roll it between your gloved fingers ... after its a bit cool, then touch it to your tongue - if it zaps your tongue - put it back in the oven for another 20 minutes. If you are leery about touching your tongue with this mix, then just take a small piece of soap and soap up your hands under running water. If it stings, then you still have lye! So pop it back into the oven. After taking the pot out of the oven after 60-90 minutes, it may appear to have some oil in the bottom of the pot - just mix it thoroughly back together.

At this point, you can add the fragrances or essential oils but be sure that the soap mixture is 10-20 degrees BELOW the flashpoint of your fragrance/essential oil - or you will just burn off the beautiful scent! You also have to work fast with hot process as the soap can get VERY hard to pour if left to cool very long - so it can be a bit touch at first - but keep at it - HP (hot process) is great!
 You can also combine your fo/eo's together with your fat oils or melted butter and then add/stir this mix into your soap - this will keep the mix more pliable for pouring into molds. After you pour/glob the soap into your lined mold, pound the mold a couple of times on the counter and then cover with freezer paper and smooth out the top of the soap in the mold. Allow the soap to set/cool for about 4-6 hours and then pop it out of the mold and you're good to go! Hot process soap is great because you can use it the same day - although it is better as it ages a few days to a few weeks. PS ... if you have a hard time getting it out of the mold, pop it in the freeze for an hour or so and then take it out and allow to warm up a bit - it should pop out very easily. Enjoy!