Making Soap
There are a few books out on making soap, but
unfortunately many people have a hard time understanding the
directions and are afraid of trying something new. I'm not saying
it's easy to make soap, but after you understand a few basic
facts and read through the directions first, you should be able
to produce a good first batch of soap.
For a more visual and interesting article on what every newbie
soapmaker should know, please follow the link to Sue Frelick's
excellent column that should not be missed for those starting out
for the first time- *
Newbies' Nook
*NOTE! We have since come to the conclusion that the recipe
included in the above link may not be the best recipe for new
soapmakers, so please follow the link below to find what we think
is a very good recipe for beginner's to experiment with- the
Newbies' Nook does contain excellent information on equipment,
etc. so please do visit it!
http://www.soapnuts.com/indexcp.html
The information on this website is, to the best of our knowledge, true. Any suggestions made throughout the site are made without any guarantees on the part of Soapnuts or the web site owner Rebecca Erisch . Neither Soapnuts nor Rebecca Erisch accept any liability connected with the use of the information on this page or elsewhere on this site. You are ultimately responsible for completing research on your own and we do recommend having several books on the specific subject for reference, but please bear in mind that some books can contain errors so please verify everything before attempting anything, : )
These directions are
only a basic intro to making soap, temperatures, cure time,
mixing, etc. can all vary depending on technique, your experience
level, etc.
Equipment Needed:
Stainless Steel Pot or enamel(8qt. should do.)- anything else and
the lye will eat through it. Make sure it is big enough to hold
your oils and lye/water mix.
Stainless Steel Spoon- Long-handled. You can use a large wooden
spoon too.
3 qt. glass bowl or heat proof pitcher.
Scale- you can use a diet scale as long as it's accurate.
High quality thermometer- laboratory ones work best but you can
use a long meat thermometer that's easy to read.
Mold- This is where you can get inventive. You can use a heavy
corrugated cardboard box lined with wax paper or garbage bag, but
I find people have an easier time with a rubbermaid, etc. type
shoeboxes or container big enough to hold a batch. Some people
use wooden molds but I find the plastic molds work just as good
if not better.
Safety Goggles and gloves.
A sharp thin knife for cutting and carving the soap.
An old blanket or something for insulation.
This batch is quite large for a new soapmaker, feel free to substitute a smaller recipe or recalculate this recipe using an on-line lye calculator and reduce it to 2 pound size if you'd like.
Ingredients: To make an
8lb. batch.
44 ounces olive oil
17 ounces coconut oil
24 ounces Crisco
11.6 ounces lye(red devil)
32 ounces distilled water
Directions:
Note-all temperatues unless specified otherwise are generally Farenheit.
Prepare your mold(s).
Line with plastic garbage bag removing wrinkles and securing
sides. If using plastic shoebox or container grease the mold with
mineral oil or olive oil. All ingredients must be in weighed
amounts.
Weigh carefully and accurately or recipe could fail.
From here on out, you should be wearing all safety gear!
Weigh out water and place in glass bowl or pitcher.
Weigh out lye and add to water slowly, stirring carefully.
Do this outside if possible or in a room with lots of
ventilation. Stir until water turns clear. Set aside to cool.
Caution: the lye/water will be very hot and caustic. If any
spills on skin, run under cold water immediately.
Note-the Newbie's Nook and many soap makers recommend treating lye burns with vinegar, many chemists recommend the use of plain cold water since vinegar is acetic acid and is not generally used when treating caustic burns.
Heat oils together in the stainless steel or enamel pan.
When almost melted, turn off heat and let temperature drop to 98
degrees.
When oils are at 110 degrees, check temperature of lye/water. If
it has cooled down to far you must reheat it by placing container
in hot water bath......
When lye/water has reached 110 and oils are at 110 (may have to
re-heat to achieve this) You can start to make soap!
Pour lye/water into oils in a slow, steady stream. Make sure
you are still wearing your gloves and goggles in case of
splashing.Mix at same time with the spoon. After all of the water
has been added you can carry your pot carefully to a more
comfortable spot to get to trace. Tracing is when the mixture
leaves small trailings on the top of the oils when dropped off a
spoon. The mixture should look like thick pudding. Some recipes
are very hard to decipher tracing. A good rule of thumb is:
after 2 hours of stirring, you are usually safe to pour. Stir
constantly for the first 15 minutes, and then you can rest for a
few minutes and then stir some more. Most books tell you to stir
constantly but friends of mine have had good success with the on
again-off again method. Some recipes will trace in 15 minutes up
to 11/2 hours. When you are sure you have reached trace, you can
add your choice of fragrance oils, essential oils or herbs.
For this example we'll say we are making lavender soap. At trace
I would add 1 cup or so of lavender flowers and 2 teaspoons
of lavender essential oil (or more depending on likes) and stir
in.
Pour soap into prepared mold(s) carefully, try not to scrap much
off the sides(the reason for this is because the stuff stuck to
the sides usually hasn't been incorporated into the rest of the
soap base). When you are more experienced, you will be able to
keep the mixture in the pan and off the sides. Place in a warm
room away from drafts and cover with an old piece of cardboard.
Then cover with the blanket. Let sit undisturbed for 24 hours
then you can peek and poke with a gloved finger to see if it is
hard enough to unmold. The soap is still saponifying at this
point which means the lye can still burn you. If soap is not
hard, wrap back up and let sit for another 24 hours and repeat
test. When soap is hard enough, you can unmold onto waxed paper.
If using plastic box, pull sides away from soap and turn upside
down over the waxed paper. push gently on bottom until soap
falls out of container. If using garbage bag, pull bag away from
soap. You can either cut the soap into bars now, while wearing
gloves, the soap is still caustic, or let sit for up to a week or
two and then cut. The bars will have to be set on a rack to
continue saponification and evaporating the water. If the surface
is not 'lye proof' cover with waxed paper or similar item. If the
rack has ventilation holes, the better, if not, then turn your
soap daily to prevent warping and to allow better evaporation.
Your soap will need to cure for several weeks before you can use
it, depending on the recipe. Generally 2-8 weeks is best.
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