Making Soap From
Scratch ... and Loving It!
How To Make Soap From Scratch....it's not hard....
First things first - you need a
recipe. Just check our Soap Recipe Link for free
recipes. I would suggest choosing a simple recipe
- one that has only 3 oils - keep it simple at first
and then you can always gussy things up.
By choosing a recipe with either Palm Oil or
Coconut Oil, you'll get a fairly hard bar of soap
and it will also 'trace' quickly then having all
Olive Oil or mostly liquid oils. I always try to
have 2 solid or semi-solid oils to one all liquid
oil. And don't forget, no matter WHAT recipe you
choose - or where you get it, run it through a lye
calculator like Soap-Calc or another free online
soap calculator. Then you can adjust the lye content
to increase or decrease the amount of excess fat
in your soap. Making sure that your recipe
has excess fat (over 5%) will ensure that it will
moisturize your skin a little more than one with
less than 5%.
Step One -
Gather all your ingredients - your molds, your
scale, your oils, your herbs, your fragrances or
essential oils, your pots, pans and your handy
dandy stick blender - wouldn't be without that!
Your molds can be anything from a greased pan
to a pvc pie, candy molds or a cardboard box. You
can either spray with PAM or line them with freezer
paper. Prepare your molds. Molds can be anything
from a greased pan to capped pvc pipes or candy
molds.
Step Two
Measure carefully the water and lye. Dissolve
the correct amount of lye in cold water (best cup
to use is an 8 quart Pyrex pitcher). Do not
pour water into the lye. Pour the lye slowly into
the water a little at a time stirring as you
pour. Set this aside until it cools. This
mixture will become very HOT in a matter of
seconds so it takes a while to cool down to
about 100 degrees. Unless you are using milk as
part of your liquid, the mixture will be very
clear after it cools.
Step Three
Now you can measure, mix and melt your hard oils and fat
and then let them also cool gradually to around 110 degrees. If
using liquid oils simply heat them up to around 110
degrees. Your pot should with the oils in them
should be
large enough to hold both the oil and lye
solution with enough room left over for stirring
without splattering. If you don't think your
your pot with the melted oils is large enough,
pour the melted oils into a larger pot before
pouring the lye into it.
Step Four
Carefully pour the lye solution into the
melted oils
in a slow, steady, stream. Stir slowly to mix
the two ingredients. Depending upon the
type of oils and the way you stir (by hand or by
stick blender) the mixture will thicken in from
15 minutes to up to 3 hours. If using the stick
blender, carefully stir it on slow for a few
minutes, turn it off and use the blender to
slowly mix 'by hand'. Blend until 'trace
appears. Trace simply means that when you lift
your spoon or blender, the mixture will 'leave a
trace' of soap on top. It resembles pudding.
Step Five
After the solution thickens, you can then
safely add any essential oils or fragrances as
well as any other additives that your recipe calls
for - just know the flashpoint of your essential
or fragrance oils so that they don't burn off if
the mixture is too hot. Ask me how I know this
:-).
Step Six
Now the exciting part - pour the combined mixture into your molds.
If doing cold process, cover the mold with a
towel to keep the soap from cooling to fast.
Doing so helps the soap cure.
Step Seven
Set the molds aside for at least 24 hours and
then pop out of the mold. If they won't come out
easily, put them in the freezer for a couple
hours and then unmold them easily. After you
unmold, cut to size and let rest for about 3
weeks before using.
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