Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:34 pm Post subject: How to make soap
I made some soap today and thought I'd post how to make soap with photos. The recipe I used today is from the soap kitchen's website, there are so many recipes to choose from but generally the principle of making soap is the same, it's just the ingredients that might be different.
Get all your ingredients and equipment together. The ingredients needed will depend on the recipe you're using, the equipment you'll need is:
a stainless steel saucepan,
accurate kitchen scales,
a spoon for stirring (I find a flat spatula is good for scraping down the sides of the pot whilst stirring),
two (although you can get away with one) thermometers,
a mould to pour the soap into (I use a square plastic tub that once contained biscuits),
eye protection and rubber gloves (these are very important, caustic soda will burn),
a small tub for weighing the essential oil or a measuring spoon to measure the essential oils,
two plastic or glass bowls/buckets for weighing the water and caustic soda.
Accurately weigh out the solid and liquid oils (excluding essential or fragrance oils and including beeswax if the recipe calls for it), and place in the saucepan. Put on gentle heat to melt the oils. Stir occasionally to make sure they mix well together. When the oils have completely melted turn off the heat, place the thermometer in the pan.
Put on your eye protection and gloves. Very carefully weigh out the caustic soda. In a separate bucket/container weigh out the water. Slowly pour the caustic soda into the bucket containing the water, DO NOT add the water to the bucket containing the caustic soda. Keep your face away from the buckets as you combine the two ingredients so as not to breathe in the vapour, the vapour will stop after a few seconds. I do this step in the kitchen sink.
Place the other thermometer into the caustic soda/water mixture.
Now keep an eye on the temperatures of both mixtures. The caustic soda mix will initially be hotter than the oils but should cool more quickly. You want to get both mixtures to a equal temperature between 49C and 60C. If you need to cool the caustic soda mixture down more quickly put the bucket containing the mix into a sink or bowl of cold water, this should drop the temperature more quickly.
Once both mixtures are at the same temperature between 49C and 60C, carefully and slowly pour the caustic soda mixture into the oils, stirring all the time. If both mixtures are not of similar temperature, or if they are outside the recommended temperature range, you run the risk of the mixture curdling. If this happens, beat briskly with a whisk, but be very careful of splashes, the mixture is caustic and will burn.
As you mix the caustic solution with the oils you will notice the oils turn opaque. Keep stirring, the mixture will thicken very slowly until trace is reached. This can take anything from around 10 minutes (sometimes even less) to a couple of hours. The soap I made today took nearly 2.5 hours and even still wasn't as thick as I've had in the past. Keep stirring at regular intervals whilst waiting for trace, but don't leave the mixture unattended even for a few minutes if anyone or anything (cats, dogs etc.) are in the house with you, you don't want a nasty accident.
Trace is reached when you drizzle some of the mixture from the spoon over the surface of the mixture and it leaves a raised line before sinking back into the mixture. The photo here shows the mixture is reaching trace.
Once trace is reached measure or weigh out your essential or fragrance oil and add it to the mixture, stir in well to make sure it is evenly mixed. Pour the mixture into your mould, cover with a cloth or towell and leave in a safe place out of reach of children and animals, mine goes into a locked garage safely away from our children and cats. Now you can remove your eye protection and gloves. Leave for 12 - 24 hours until firm. After the 12-24 hours, put your rubber gloves back on, unmould and cut into the bars of the desired size. Stack the bars of soap onto a tray, cover with a cloth or towell and return to a secure place for about 4 weeks, 6 weeks if you have sensitive skin. During this time the soap will possibly lighten in colour (if you coloured your soap), it will become harder and the fragrance should mello.
I'll post more photos tomorrow when I unmould the soap and cut it.
Last edited by Leonie2 on Wed Dec 27, 2006 7:01 pm; edited 2 times in total
Here is the soap in the mould having sat overnight.
It came out of the mould very easily and I've cut it into 12 chunky bars, this batch of soap is very soft so could have been sliced with a cheese wire.
Now it will sit in a safe place to cure for 4 weeks before I use it.
Last edited by Leonie2 on Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
the recipe I used is linked at the beginning of the post, here are the ingredients:
INGREDIENTS
12 oz (340g) of cold, clean water
125g of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) beads or pearls
1lb (454g) olive oil
10oz (284g) coconut oil (hard variety)
6oz (170g) palm oil (hard variety)
1/4 tsp vitamin E oil
20ml sweet orange essential oil
I've never made a soap without using beeswax before so it will be interesting to see how this turns out, it took much longer to trace than usual and on cutting the soap it is much softer to what I'm used to, usually it has the consistency of hard cheese whereas this batch has the consistency of a softer margarine. It will harden and dry out as it cures.
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Aqui
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Posted: 28 Mar 2006 11:13 am Post subject:
OK - I've been looking through the soap kitchen shop and am completely lost. I thought I might buy ingredients for making some moisturiser too, but there's so much my brain is gone all confused.
Jesse - with the melt and pour ones - can you add extra things, like essential oil or oatmeal (I have very dry skin, so anything that's good for that)...
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Jesse
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Posted: 28 Mar 2006 12:17 pm Post subject:
Aqui I don't have much experience with making melt and pour soaps, only ever done it once using the clear base and I used essential oils and fillers for fragrance and texture and it worked well. If you look at my website (www.news2share.co.uk) on I think Feburary's page there are some photos of what I made.
Have a look here http://www.thesoapkitchen.co.uk/melt_and_pour_soap_descriptions.htm this is a list of all the melt and pour soap bases that the soap kitchen sells, olive oil soaps tend to be moisturising. I'm not sure if all the bases are good for adding fillers and essential oils, I'm sure they probably will be. The service at the soap kitchen is excellent and if you have any questions just email them, I have found them very helpful in the past.
If you were to make soap from scratch at some point in the future a good one for dry skin is an olive oil and goats milk soap. You can also make bath soaks using goats milk (powdered form) and it's very moisturing, add oatmeal and other bits in and it's lovely.
Oatmeal & Goats Milk Bath
13 oz Milk Powder (can be goat milk powder , whole milk powder, or buttermilk powder)
2 oz Oatmeal (ground to a coarse powder in a blender or food processor)
0.5 to 1 oz Essential or Fragrance Oil
Combine all of the dry ingredients, and then add the essential oils to the powder mixture. Stir thoroughly, until the fragrance has been evenly distributed (takes a few minutes). Seal in airtight container, add a large spoonful to each bath.
For a moisturiser look here http://www.cosmeticsathome.co.uk/recipes.htm for some recipes, they are part of the soap kitchen so you can buy all the ingredients from the same place.
Just remember, whatever soap you make, it will be soap and soap by nature is drying so if you suffer with dry skin you'll likely still need to moisturise your skin after washing. If you have sensitive skin you'll want to avoid a melt and pour base that has any nasty chemicals in it, homemade from scratch might be a better option but I think there is one melt and pour base listed that excludes any of the nasties.
updated with bath soak recipe
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Aqui
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Posted: 28 Mar 2006 12:47 pm Post subject:
Thanks Jesse - I've had a look at the natural melt and pour one - it still has some nasty sounding things in. I shall go away and read the procedure and have a good think...
Thanks for the bath soak recipe.
Must go hunt the charity shops for stainless steel pans too - all my cooking ones are non-stick, apart from the steamer, but I don't want to use that!
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Jesse
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Posted: 28 Mar 2006 12:59 pm Post subject:
Don't let the names frighten you Aqui, as part of the international names database thingy all ingredients have to use their official names, some things can sound like a nasty chemical when it's simply olive oil or something similar.
I'm in the same place here Aqui, really keen to make soap but scared rigid by the caustic soda! So have been thinking about melt and pour, adding my own essential oils and flowers.
Also suffer from dry skin this time of year so not quite sure where to start. Have trawled through the Soap Kitchen and then had to retire to a darkened room!!!
I just gave away some of my first ever batch to MIL for mother's day.
I told her it was lard and drain cleaner!
It makes nice big bubbles, and the lardy smell has gone totally.
The caustic soda isn't too scary. When you add the water to the powder/granules, it causes an exothermic reaction so it gets hot all by itself, you aren't actually heating it at all. Once I had given it a stir to dissolve it, I left it on the window sill to cool by itself.
If you get someone to look after the kids CP ( ) you'll be fine.
n
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Jesse
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Posted: 28 Mar 2006 06:15 pm Post subject:
absolutely right n, it sounds scary when you read about it but really it's quite straightforward and if you know about the safety things (wear gloves and eye protection) then there isn't really anything to worry about, just be sensible that's all.
so pleased you gave some away n, nice feeling isn't it
Yes it is, I'm not sure of the chemical name for what happens but it needs to "cure" and the caustic soda becomes benign.
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agapanthus
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Posted: 30 Mar 2006 11:07 am Post subject:
Watched Fight Club again last night, so now I'm wondering where the nearest lypo clinic is (ewww)...
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Jesse
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Posted: 31 Mar 2006 10:29 am Post subject:
Hey - don't blame me - the film told me the best soup is made using human fat.
Fortunately it also taught me that vinegar nutrilises the caustic soda if you get any on you, so I'm not quite so scared now.
Didn't manage to find a stainless steel saucepan in the charity shops, so will have to start trying cheap shops instead. Did, however, manage to buy the bit of furniture I was looking for - bit expensive (by my standards) but it's money for charity. Just have to wait for them to deliver it now!
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Jesse
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Posted: 31 Mar 2006 11:28 am Post subject:
soup please tell me that's a typo and it should read soap!
Vinegar does apparently neutralise the caustic soda, but I found washing under lots of running water worked fine, I've only splashed onto my arm once and it really wasn't that bad, you'll know when/if it splashes on you from the burning sensation, you'll wash it off quickly and in my case there wasn't even a mark of me, perhaps different if you spilt a large quantity on you but if you're careful that shouldn't happen.
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Aqui
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Posted: 31 Mar 2006 11:51 am Post subject:
Order raised! eek - it was rather pricey. But it should be enough to make at least two batches of soap and two of cold cream. Plus the two thermometers.
hopefully it'll arrive next week so I can have fun (careful fun, I must add!) making it all! can't wait!
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Jesse
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Posted: 07 Apr 2006 02:18 pm Post subject:
I've used the sweet orange soap that I made for these instructions and I'm pleased with it, it has a delicate orange fragrance (I don't like my soaps to have an overpowering fragrance) and it's a nice lathery soap. Not soft at all which is what I expected as it doesn't contain beeswax.
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Aqui
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Posted: 30 May 2006 11:22 am Post subject:
Started using my homemade soap yesterday. I tested it (just in case) on Sunday night and had a whole bath with it yesterday. Very lovely it was too. It didn't smell particularly like honey. and the oats had gone a little soggy. But it left me feeling all soft. I must remember to get some more coconut oil so I can make another batch!
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Jesse
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Posted: 30 May 2006 11:51 am Post subject:
excellent aqui! the honey soaps using real honey rather than fragrance never smell much like honey, the scent is too subtle to survive the saponification process and curing, a shame really.
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Lloyd
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Posted: 03 Jun 2006 07:27 pm Post subject:
Just discovered this one......I really fancy having a go myself, I like a strong exfoliating soap, ofen buy them on holiday on Greece, olive oil based, with lavender flowers, that kind of thing.
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Caustic soda (lye) is probably the least harmful thing you'll find in most shop bought soaps. Lye can also be made in a more natural way from ashes but is still caustic until cured.
Here is a wee bit I found about it:
Caustic soda, or sodium hydroxide, is a strong base soluble in water. Produced by the electrolysis of salt brine, it is available on a wide industrial scale.
Caustic soda is used in the manufacture of products which form part of our daily lives and in applications or uses as varied as the Pulp & Paper, Soap & Detergents, Chemical, Cleaning in Process, Oil Refinery, Metallurgy, Foodstuffs, Rayon, Textiles and so on.
Once it has "cured" in the soap making process it is benign and because you've made the soap yourself you know there are no "nasties" in it.
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