How to Make Homemade Soap
Step by step guide to making soap
How to make homemade soap.
The two most common methods for making soap at home are the Melt and Pour method and the Cold Process method.
Here we provide soap making instructions for making handmade soap from scratch using the Cold Process method.
Go to the Melt and Pour Soap Recipe if you prefer to make homemade soap using this simpler method.
How to Make Homemade Soap Using the Basic Cold Process Method
Have this equipment ready:
Safety goggles, thick rubber gloves, heavy apron, large stainless steel pot, scale, candy thermometer,
plastic or silicone spoon, rubber spatula, hand held stick blender, soap mold or container.
Ingredients for about 4.5 lbs of soap
30 oz Olive Oil
10 oz Coconut Oil
10 oz Palm Oil
7 oz Lye
16 fluid oz distilled water
Fragrance oils - between 1.5 and 2 oz
Colorants
How to make homemade soap - step by step instructions
- Put on your safety clothing. Put on your gloves, apron and goggles. Wearing long sleeves
is advised. The lye and uncured soap mixture are very caustic and can burn your skin and damage your eyes if it gets into them. So it is essential to
wear safety goggles and to protect your skin.
- Get your molds ready. Make sure your molds or containers are easily accessible. You can grease them with
a little canola oil with a pastry brush. Make sure there are no oil droplets in the mold.
- Measure the oils and melt. Carefully weigh out your solid oils (coconut, palm). Measure the liquid oils
separately in a glass pitcher. Put the solid oils into a pot on the stove over a medium heat. Slowly melt the oils while gently stirring. Keep about a tablespoon of the oil mixture aside for mixing in your fragrance and colorant. Using your
thermometer remove the pot from the heat when the oils reach 110 degrees. Add your liquid oils, these should be at room temperature, to the pot.
This should bring the overall temperature down to between 90 and 100 degrees.
- Add the lye to the distilled water. Weigh the lye in a plastic container. Slowly add the lye to the water. Stir well and carefully trying not to breathe in the
fumes. Make sure all the lye is dissolved and the liquid is no longer cloudy. A very important instruction about how to make homemade soap is to ALWAYS pour the lye into your water, and not the other way around.
Pouring water onto the lye can cause a dangerous volcano effect in the container you are using. Have some white vinegar accessible as this can be used to
neutralize any contact the lye makes with your skin.
- Add the lye water to the oils. Slowly add the lye solution to the soap pot. Stir well until
the mixture thickens and trace occurs. This means that the mixture becomes the consistency of pudding and leaves a mark or "trace"
when a drop is dripped onto a surface. The surface may look a little wrinkled. This is the point called trace when your soap is ready to be poured.
Using a stick blender greatly speeds up the process. Turn the stick blender on in short bursts of about 5 seconds, stirring briefly between bursts. Using a stick blender
reduces the time it takes to reach trace from about an hour if you are just hand stirring to a minute or less.
- Add your fragrance oils. Once the soap mixture is properly blended but before it thickens further
add your fragrance oils. Mix these in using a spoon.
- Add any exfoliants.
If you are using any exfoliants like seeds or petals and spices stir them in now.
- Add the colorant. If you want a single color add your colorant to the pot and stir. If you want to
create a swirly look then transfer about a cup of soap into a measuring cup using a ladle and add the colorant to this portion of the soap. Slowly pour the
colored soap back into one corner of the pot from a height of about 5 inches. Use a rubber or silicone spatula to gently swirl the colored soap through
the pot.
- Pour the soap into the mold or container. The soap will have become quite thick by now and is ready to
pour into your mold. Pour the soap using a back and forth motion to ensure it spreads evenly in the mold or container. Use a spatula to get all the soap mixture out of the pot.
Smooth the surface of the soap in the mold with a spatula. Gently tap the mold with a spoon to get rid of any air bubbles.
- Start the curing process. Leave the mold in a warm place to begin the curing process. Wrapping a towel around the mold
helps to keep it warm.
- Unmold the soap. After one to two days the soap should be hard enough to release from the mold to slice and trim into bars.
Leave the soap bars in a safe place to cure properly for the next 4 to 6 weeks.
This is a basic recipe for how to make homemade soap using the cold process method. Soap makers experiment with different types and amounts of oils and fats, fragrances, colorants and additives
such as lavender buds, seeds, grains and flower petals to make their own special and unique handmade soap. Find out about the
different oils and fats you can use to create different properties in your homemade soap. Go here to view some interesting
Soap Making Ideas
The writer of this article acknowledges that lye is a controlled substance and accepts no responsibility for others' use of lye for purposes other than the intended soap making.
Learn how to make homemade soap and start a profitable and creative home business
Use the search box to find what you are looking for.
Return from How to Make Homemade Soap to My Home Business Ideas
