Go ahead, make a Fight Club joke. I know you want to. Oh, wait, you can’t, or you’ll break the first rule of Fight Club and Brad Pitt will hunt you down and make you eat that bar of pink soap he’s always holding. (I realize some of you would probably like Brad Pitt to hunt you down, but let’s move on, shall we? I’m sure he has better things to do than make you eat cleaning products.) So—homemade soap. Why? It’s not like store bought soap is the most expensive thing on your grocery list by a long shot, and you probably only buy a bar a couple times a year. So why bother to make your own? Well, for starters, it’s pretty freaking fun, especially if you’re a DIY-type. And, even if you do end up buying a bunch of new ingredients for your soap-making endeavors, almost everything but the lye can be used for other body-care things. And the lye can be used to clear drains. Or start your very own fight club (shhhhhh).
Second reason—there’s a lot of suspicious stuff in mass-produced soap. The fragrances are almost always entirely synthetic, and even the “unscented” stuff has fragrance in it to cover up the scent of the plain soap (makes me wonder what kind of wizardly goes into “unflavored” stuff…). The oils used are usually just whatever’s cheapest, so beef tallow, palm oil, and coconut oil are very common ingredients. These oils make a bar that is hard and has a nice lather, but it won’t be very moisturizing. And, both palm and palm kernel oil are environmentally controversial right now as they are often harvested by destroying Orangutan habitat.
There are countless other reasons that natural soap is better for you and the environment than the mass-produced stuff, but I’m climb down off my soapbox (haha, couldn’t resist) and get to the chemistry part of things now!
Soap is made by combining a variety of oils with a lye (sodium hydroxide) solution. Each type of fat requires a different quantity of lye to convert it into soap, so most people (myself included) use a lye calculator (my favourite is Soap Calc—and here’s a video on how to use it) to figure out how much lye and water they’ll need for a given amount of any given recipe.
As far as choosing fats for your soap go, there are 3.5 different categories of fats, and you generally want one from each to make a nice bar. First, there are the hard fats (tallow, lard, and palm), which will help firm up your bar so it doesn’t melt into a lump of goo when it gets wet. Second, you have the lathering oils, which are pretty much coconut and palm kernel. Third, you want the soap to be moisturizing, but not ridiculously expensive to make, so something like olive, canola, or sunflower will do. The half category is for castor oil (USA / Canada), which is a nice double-whammy with both moisturizing and lathering love to contribute, generally at a 5–8% level. You can also create another category of more expensive, luxury oils like jojoba if you so desire. If you’re interested in learning more about the properties of different oils in soap making, there’s an in-depth article here.
You will likely want a separate set of pots and spoons for soap-making to avoid cross-contamination. I definitely recommend hitting up Value Village or whatever your local op-shop is for some super-cheap used stuff.
Alright? Ready to get started? Rad! I’ll be making a 500g batch, but you can enter any final weight you want into the calculator (no less than a pound), using the percentages in the recipe for easy-peasy scaling.
Basic Soap
Oils
30% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
25% beef tallow
25% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
15% avocado oil
5% castor oil (USA / Canada)Lye solution
Use a lye calculator to determine how much lye and distilled water you’ll need (here’s a video on how to do that).Extras
Essential oil(s) of choice; 30g essential oils per 500g of oils (1oz essential oils per pound of oils)Equipment—anything plastic should be dishwasher safe, and nothing metal can be aluminum
- Digital scale with tare function with a capacity of at least 5kg/11lbs (you’ll be measuring everything by weight)
- Heavy-bottomed pot
- 2L juice jug
- Ceramic mug or small glass bowl to measure essential oils into
- Empty plastic container with a lid to measure lye into (I use an old cream cheese spread container)
- Sturdy silicone spatula
- An extra bowl or glass measuring cup with a spout, for mixing up multiple colours
- Immersion blender (My Braun one is still going strong after 5+ years)
- 2x instant read thermometers that start at 100°F or lower
- Something to mould your soap in; you can buy specific moulds or a loaf tin will work (silicone bakeware is fantastic)
- Parchment paper (Not wax paper! The wax will melt and fuse the paper to your soap.)
- Safety gear: Goggles, rubber gloves, & lab coat
- Spray bottle of white vinegar for any lye spills
Ready your mould. If it’s a square mould, you’ll be able to line it with parchment paper (with overhang for easy removal) without much trouble. If you’re using a mould like mine, I find using rubber bands around the end to hold the paper down works really well (since tape tends not to stick to parchment). For cake tins and other things with a semi-irregular shape, line it with plastic wrap first, and then with parchment paper.
Measure your oils (by weight!) out into your soaping pot, attach a thermometer, and place over low heat to start melting. While that’s happening, measure the essential oil into the ceramic mug. Measure the distilled water into the juice jug. Check on your oils and make sure they’re still melting. If they’re all melted, take them off the heat and get them cooling down. Do not let your oils overheat of you can get a nasty, super-hot mess on your hand.
Next up, bringing lye into the equation. Put on your safety gear. Lye has the potential to be dangerous (similar to bleach), so treat it with a healthy dose of respect. Measure the dry lye into your little plastic container, and in a well-ventilated area, add it to the water. Never, ever, EVER do this the other way around, or you will have a caustic lye volcano on your hands. Stir the solution with your second thermometer, taking care not to inhale the fumes. The lye will cause the water to heat up quite a bit, and that steam that is coming off will smell foul and make you feel pretty icky if you inhale it.
The next part is pretty boring. You have to wait for the oils and the lye to reach the same temperature, ideally somewhere around 100º–110º Fahrenheit. They don’t have to be exactly the same, but they should be within three or four degrees. You might have to do a bit of juggling to get things to match. For the oils, they can be reheated on the stove, or cooled by placing the pot in an ice water bath. Ideally, you’ll be fiddling with the oils, not the lye, but if the lye needs to be warmed a bit, place it in a hot water bath.
Just after adding the lye solution to the oils, without any stirring.
Once the oils are at the same temperature, pour the lye solution into the oils. Now, we stir. Using the immersion blender in short bursts, you’re looking for the mixture to be fully emulsified. About.com has a handy video that will help you figure out what you’re looking for. Once you’ve reached trace, you can stir in the essential oils.
How thick of a trace you take your soap to depends on what you plan on doing with it. If you’re just pouring it into a mould, it doesn’t have to be thick at all. If you want to suspend something in it, you’ll have to take it to a thickness that will be able to hold up your dried flowers or whatever. If you want to do swirls or layers, it will have to be thick enough that the different colours won’t just combine, like pouring milk into coffee. You’ll be looking for a trace as thick as good, cold pudding for those sorts of things.
This is a medium trace.
If you’re not going to do anything special, it’s time to mould. Pour the soap into your mould, cover, and insulate with an old towel. Make sure you leave the mould somewhere it won’t be disturbed for 24 hours.
Cleaning up… urg. You can either do it straight away, still wearing your safety gear. Or, you can wait a day or two until all the leftovers have turned into soap.
After 24 hours your soap should be firm enough to cut. Using the parchment paper overhang, pull the soap out of the mould. Slice it into soap-sized bars. You can roll any trimmings into little balls, which you can use as-is or suspend in another batch of soap.
Now you wait. Place the bars somewhere cool and dry, where they’ll get decent air circulation, and wait for at least three weeks to let extra moisture evaporate out. The longer the cure time, the harder the bar will be, and the longer it will last once you start using it. This also gives the scent a chance to mellow out. Some scents last better than others, but they’ll all fade a bit.
Don’t want to fuss with all that temperature juggling?
Try soaping at room temperature—it’s basically all I do anymore (I chat about it in my Cinnamon Swirl Shampoo Recipe). It takes a bit of thinking ahead, but gives you more time to work with the soap batter as it won’t thicken up as quickly. You also don’t need any thermometers, so you can save a few bucks there.
Got all that? Here’s some extended reading!
Why there is no such thing as making soap without lye and Why I use lard & beef tallow in my soap and why you should, too, and my All in One Soap Recipe.
This entry was updated June 1, 2016.
The lye calculator doesn’t work anymore. Do you have another link?
SoapCalc (http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp) still works for me, but you can also check this list (http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/lyecalculators/tp/toplyecalcs.htm) for alternatives!
You live in Calgary! Cool! I grew up there. Now I live in Edmonton. I followed my handsome hubby here in 2001. I sell beauty products on Etsy and am getting ready to sell miniatures on Etsy. I am just getting up the courage to make my first batch of cold process soap. Kinda intimidated! (The whole lye thing!) So many tutorials and differing things/info all over the web). Where did you buy your thermometers? Where did you buy your scale and what kind of scale do you reccomend? I’ve been wanting to try to make CP soap for ages but I was waiting to take this course….I was willing to pay almost $200 to learn! Then a couple friends talked me out of it and encouraged me to try learning on my own. Any advice would be greatly aprecaited! thanks!!
Thanks for visiting, Ruth—it’s always great to ‘meet’ a fellow Albertan! I know how you feel about trying out CP soap—I was terrified of lye the first couple times I made soap! You really don’t have to be, though. Looking back on how I was around it when I first started is kind of funny; like wearing a full body crash suit when driving, lol. Respect it, work in a well ventilated area, and don’t stick your fingers in it. If you get any on you (most likely to happen when you’re using the immersion blender to incorporate the lye water into the fats) you’ll notice pretty quickly as it will sort of prickle/tingle on your skin. Just rinse it off (maybe with a bit of vinegar if the tingling persists) and carry on. No big deal. And wear clothes you don’t like that much. Lab goggles are also a good idea, as lye in the eyes probably isn’t fun.
I got my thermometers from New Directions Aromatics, and they also sell scales (though I got mine at Costco). I’d definitely recommend getting a digital scale that can tare and toggle between g, oz, kg, and lb. Also check and see what kind of batteries it takes—if it takes a kind you can never find, get a different scale!
Hope that helps! Feel free to post any other questions you might have 🙂
I made my first batch of soap about a month ago. I used one of the trimmings this evening in a nice relaxing bath. The essential oils I had chosen for moisturizing, also happen to be the same oils good for mood elevation. It’s been a rough week, so I decided to treat myself with a small piece of my homemade soap with all of it’s EO benefits. IT FLOATS! My soap FLOATS! And it had a wonderful lather to it!
Isn’t homemade soap awesome?! I’m especially curious about why it floated—do you think it was just that the scraps were quite light, or was the soap whipped?
I used an immersion blender just like your recipe. So not sure!
It’s probably just that they were scraps, then, because they’d be really light with a fair amount of surface area. Let me know if the final bars float, though—that will be a true mystery!
I am going to try your lemongrass and ginger coconut milk soap tonight! will let you know how it turns out.
Blessings!
How’d it go, Loyda? I love the toasted rice in it, it’s an amazing exfoliant.
well- I tweeked it a bit. first off I made it hot process so I could use it right away. I didn’t add the toasted rice but I definately will next time. I am a newbie soapmaker so it took my a while to find a calc that changed percentages to ounces, then I had to figure out what to exchange for beef tallow….nevertheless- it smells wondeful!!
My favourite soap calculator is Soap Calc because they let you choose your desired final amount of oils (usually 500g or 1000og for me) and then specify the quantities of oils in percentages. Super handy!
What did you end up using for beef tallow? I find lard is a very easy to find substitute.
I used this one – https://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php In case anyone needed more options. For some reason I could not get the link in the blog to open up so I just did a search and found it. I like it because I could choose gms or ounces. Lots of options for the oils too.
Great, thanks Amanda! I once found a book listing the numerical SAP values of a wide variety of oils, along with instructions on how to calculate how much lye you’ll need. It looked just like high school Chemistry and made me very glad that we have soap calculators online!
Marie, wonderful site … I don’t think I haven’t found one that’s come even close to it! I have a couple of tips I thought I’d share. One, I can only get to soap calc with the EXTENDED link listed here: http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp Two, it might help if you list the room temperature CP method at the top as an option so it will show first for the newbies to see. Some of them are on a limited income trying to get started and this with save them the expense of buying one or two stainless steel thermometers, not to mention it will keep them from having to juggle both the lye/water and the oil mixture to get the temps to match perfectly. : )
Hi Sonya! Thanks for giving me the kick in the pants I needed to give this entry an update—it was one of my very first 🙂 Where did you find the link to the SoapCalc home page? I checked all the links in this article and they all go directly to the link you listed.
Great news, I just tried the link to soapcalc.net and it works so you don’t have to use the extended link after all. I’m not sure why I couldn’t get it to work for a few days, but it was probably operator error. LOL Can’t wait to see your next post!
Awesome! They might have also had something going on over on their end 🙂
Hi there from across the pond!
I came across your site whilst searching out Tiger Balm and then I found you make soap too. How wonderful. I’ve been making soap for two years now and have made practically every type of bar I can think of. No-one told me before I started that it was a ridiculously addictive hobby. Once you start soap making you just can’t stop!
You might like my website http://www.khandala.co.uk
I’m happy to help any newbie soapmakers with queries.
Helen—It sounds like we got bitten by the soaping bug at the same time! It is a great hobby, isn’t it? And a great conversation starter, I’ve found. In my first interview for my current job, the very first question they asked was “Do you really make all your own soap?!” (I’d included a bit of handmade soap in my portfolio, so it wasn’t that odd of a question, haha!). I also love having an arsenal of pre-made gifts for last-minute housewarming parties and what not!
I agree about the gifts! Another advantage is that the house always smells wonderful. I’ve just started to experiment with creams too and that’s another rewarding hobby. I made my first batch of handcream on Friday, was delighted to find that it’s incredibly light, easily absorbed and smells beautiful. I made six pots and sold them all at a village market yesterday. We’re having a particularly harsh and long winter so these are going down well!
Creams & lotions are actually where I got started (well, after body butter and lip balms). It was so exciting for me to realize I could make this mystical substance that I generally go through at an incredible rate, haha. Did you use emulsifying wax, the borax/beeswax method, or some other recipe?
Hi Marie
Yes, I’m doing it all the proper way, i.e. the two phase method with emulsifier, preservatives etc. I over-whisked my first batch of handcream and so it’s turned out like a mousse rather than a cream but… it’s wonderful!! Light as a feather and easily absorbed. Last night I made lavender hand mousse!
Oh, and by the way, yesterday I also made the tiger balm using your recipe. The only slight difference was that I added some wintergreen for good measure. It’s great and I really thank you for this. When I first thought about making soaps and read up I was too terrified to take the plunge but then I bought The Handmade Soap Book by Melinda Coss which changed my life. The creams and lotions I’ve been experimenting with are from her second book ‘Natural Soap’. Have you come across this?
I would love to know what preservative you all use. I made a wonderful body cream recently and sold some. More people wanted some and 2 of the 3 containers developed mold from the 2nd batch. Mine being the one that didnt mold. I was so disheartened that the other two people’s molded! I told them I would replace it and ordered some grapefruit seed extract from From Nature With Love. I even still have from first batch that still has no sign of mold! But I guess it’s better to be safe than waste my expensive ingredients.
Also, my soap still floats. ;). The actual bars float too. 🙂
I’m using Optithen (phenoxyethanol ethylhexylglycerin). I’ve not encountered any mould yet but it’s early days for me! I also add glycerine at the water phase.
I should clarify. Sorry. I bought the grapefruit seed extract BECAUSE if the 2 containers molding. I’ve not used it yet though. :). I hope to prevent future problems. 😉
Amanda—I don’t actually use anything that’s considered a preservative in my creams and lotions. I do add vitamin E, which is an antioxidant and thus helps extend the shelf life of products, but it’s not strictly a preservative. Because I am generally the only person using my creams and lotions, I have pretty good control of the conditions they are stored under. I’ll usually make a ~300mL batch of lotion and then divide it between a few bottles, ranging in size from 60–125mL. I keep them all in the fridge and then have one that I keep with me and generally use in a month or two. I’ve never had issues with mould doing things this way. I also, of course, ensure my instruments and containers are clean, but I’m not hyper vigilant about this. So, given that yours was the one that didn’t mould, assuming everything else was the same until you sold them, it may be the conditions that your customers stored them under (hot, or perhaps some cross contamination?). I always encourage people to think of my products like food, rather than the way they are used to thinking of lotions (which is that it will last forever).
Ah! Your floating soap mystery! Someday we’ll get to the bottom of that lol. I need to try and make some whipped soap now that I finally have a dedicated DIY mix-master!
Helen—I love the sound of hand mousse! I may have to try it. I’ve just made a batch of hand milk, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what you’ve done. It absorbs in an instant as it is quite liquidy, I just have to work on striking the proper balance with it so it’s closer to the consistency of heavy whipping cream than plain milk as the very liquid stuff tends to just run off my hands before I can rub it in. Gotta love experimenting!
I’m glad the tiger balm worked for you! I’ve recently had a flu that has made my neck very sore (so sore I couldn’t sleep) and I found that applying my tiger balm was the only thing that let me sleep.
I’ve not actually read any books on soaps and creams—I get all my information online. I likely should pick up a book or two, I just need to find a pretty one—that’s oddly important to me as a graphic designer. I can’t stand poor typography! A funny little thing, to be sure, but I just feel like poor presentation doesn’t bode well for the contents.
Ha! You’ve struck another chord with me too! I can’t stand poor typography either. I spent 10 years in advertising years ago and whilst I wasn’t on the creative side the experience gave me a lasting love of typography and fonts. I have a book that I came across by chance some years ago called Victoria Calling Cards – it’s about creating beautiful business and calling cards and is exquisite. If you love typography and design you’ll probably love this. It’s published by Hearst Books, New York.
I love balms. They’re effective and easy aren’t they. My last one is a Gardener’s Balm with watermelon oil and essential oils of tea tree, rosemary and eucalyptus. Today I’m visiting the lady who wanted the Tiger Balm so I hope mine proves to be as effective as yours! She wants it for her neck too so it bodes well.
I’m still experimenting with creams. It’s early days but it’s so much fun! The mousse seems the most successful one at the moment. I sell them at local craft fairs and take a couple of tester pots along. I’ve just purchased some argan oil and olive squalane!!!! Watch this space!
Hi! I have been making soap for a month now and only just realized that my recipes have not been correct 🙁 Previously, my oils only have totaled the 100% of my batch weight, and I have been advised that total oils plus lye and water measurement should total 100%. My conundrum is not knowing the percentage weight in oils vs. lye and water. For example, for an 80oz (5lb) batch should oils total 70% and lye and water be 30%? That is the gist I figured out from about.com, but am not sure if I am correct.
Can you help? I really want to get this right.
Thanks,
Suan
It looks like Helen beat me to it on this one 😉 Thanks for helping out, Helen! In my experience, if your soaps harden up relatively well in 3 weeks and pass the zap test, you’re doing well!
Hi Suan
My feeling is that you have actually been working correctly. If you want say 5lb of soap then your oils and fats should total 5lb and the water content is additional. The water content can be anywhere between 30 and 40% of the oils. I actually work with 38% in most of my recipes and particularly if I’m using fragrance oils as opposed to essential oils. It’s taken me two years of experimentation to figure all this out! 🙂
Hi Helen, Thanks much for your reply and assistance. I wondered, because my soaps have been coming out great, but i was concerned that the lye calculation may have been too high. There have not been any adverse effects to any of my users though. However, I just wanted to make sure I was on the right path.
One Love,
Suan
Jamaica
Thanks, Helen 😀
OOPs! Hope I’ve not broken any blog rules here but the message suddenly appeared in my InBox and you know how enthusiastic us soap people are!!! 🙂
I don’t even know what message you’re talking about, lol, so I’m sure you’re fine! HA!
You make this sound pretty easy, Im sure its not though. If I made a batch of soap how many loaf pans would I meed? How do you cut the soap into bars?
If you’re making a 1lb/500g batch, one loaf pan will be more than enough 🙂 And you can just cut it with a big chopping knife, after a day in the mould it’s about the texture of soft butter.
Also, it is really easy! Just measure everything out before you start, stay organized, and respect the lye 😉
I can’t make soap so where would i buy some good quality soap? Do you sell it or know where to get some? I really want some good hair soap. My hair is awful. Thin, fine, dry ends, oily roots and scalp. Just horrible. Lays flat on my head …if my hair was scalp color it would look like i didn’t even have hair! UGH!!! I would like to grow it out but not with it like it is..i have to keep it short. So anyways, rant over, lol Anyone know where i could purchase some good quality hair soap?? Thanks!!
You totally can make soap, Traci! It’s really quite easy and not nearly as scary as some people will have you believe 🙂 Otherwise, I would recommend Etsy as a place to find some good, handmade soap. Be sure you are getting something that is cold or hot process soap, not “melt & pour”. Review the ingredients and make sure there are no “fragrance oils” in there. I would also recommend avoiding palm and palm kernel oil, as they are bad for the environment. After that I suppose it’s all reviews, the photos, and your own personal taste 🙂 It sounds like you could also benefit from an ACV rinse, which you’ll definitely be able to make yourself.
Is there anything that we can use to substitute the coconut oil? I am highly allergic to it and can’t find a soap recipe without it ..
Angelina—Coconut oil provides the great majority of the bubbly lather for soaps, which is why almost all recipes call for it. I believe babassu oil provides a similar effect (I’ve never tried it), so you can try that, though it’ll be a lot more expensive, sadly. Otherwise, you can just leave out the coconut milk and swap it for something else (maybe shea butter), but the soap won’t be nearly as bubbly. It will still lather, just not as much, and it won’t be as bubbly. But it’ll still be awesome homemade soap!
I agree wholeheartedly with Marie. There is no substitute for coconut oil in terms of getting a lather but one of the first soaps I ever made was simply olive oil, palm oil and white beeswax. I added essential oils of star anise and pine. It turned out to be one of the best soaps I’ve ever made. It was beautifully white, remained very hard, lasted for ages and retained the essential oil fragrance better than anything else. Eighteen months on I still have some bars and they’re as good and strong smelling as they ever were.
Thanks for chiming in, Helen! Your olive/palm/beeswax bars sound incredible, though—I’ve never had any success with beeswax in soap. What’s your secret?
You’re right – beeswax is tricky but I used a small amount; the percentages of this wonderful bar were 70% olive oil, 24% palm oil and just 6% beeswax. I mixed at around 130 degrees. The inclusion of beeswax leads to a quick trace – about 8 minutes in this case – and adds a hardness to the soap which you need with all that olive oil! If you worry about palm oil then you can substitute palm kernel. I superfatted this soap with a little avocado oil.
Going off at a tangent…one of my newest discoveries is rosehip seed oil which lends a lovely luxurious quality to soap. Oh…the joys of soapmaking!
Oh neat, thanks for the tips/recipe, Helen! I would definitely never use palm or palm kernel oil (they are from the same plant and share the same ecological/sociological issues). I’m interested to see that your recipe doesn’t use coconut oil—what’s the lather of the finished bar like? Also, what temperature do you combine everything at? I’m guessing relatively low—~25°C?
I just ordered some rose hip oil! I have heard wonderful things about it for skin care as well, I can’t wait until it arrives so I can play with it! Have you ever used oat oil for soap making? I’m just trying out some bars I made with oat oil a few months ago, and I love the final result.
Hi Marie
Yep, you’re right about palm products. I don’t use them frequently but if I do I make sure they’re from sustainable sources. It has to be said that the soap I mentioned doesn’t have a great lather but the hardness, whiteness and lasting smell almost make up for this! Every soap I’ve ever made with fennel has good hard qualities and a long lasting smell. I generally mix at around 38 C unless I’m using fragrance oils when I lower it to about 32. The pine and fennel soap, curiously, was mixed at around 49 -this was in my early days of soapmaking!
I LOVE rosehip seed oil with a passion! It is my favourite oil for super-fatting and I also make a rosehip healing balm which is very effective. Along with rosehip oil, I add shea butter, olive wax, sweet almond oil and borage essential oil. It’s a goodie!
I’ve never heard of oat oil!! I looked into it and it seems that you can’t get it over here. I’ve used ground oats in soap and will remain on the lookout for the oil. It’ll get here eventually!
Here’s one for you….Kokum Butter! I’m using it in creams and first impressions are good, it lends a lovely fluffiness to the final cream; quite a unique texture in fact.
Glad to hear you’ve found a sustainable source for your palm products. I pretty much just stay away from them on principle now, especially since lard/tallow do the same job, and I don’t sell my soaps, so I don’t have to worry about the rather silly, squeamish public and their rather fickle love of animal by-products.
I had some great success this week making a shampoo with molasses—it was one of the first soaps I made, and it worked brilliantly… and then when I went to make more it curdle, and I didn’t know exactly why, so I was a bit afraid to make it again. Anyhow, it worked, and now I’m feeling more confident when it comes to making some of the more “tricky” soaps. Do you refrigerate your mould when you’ve got a beeswax soap saponifying?
I found oat oil in the UK for you!
I’ve never tried kokum butter… perhaps it will have to be in my next order 😛 I have an ingredients problem, haha. I just got some Chaulmogra oil in the mail yesterday, it’s rather… interesting. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it quite yet. Hmmm.
I love kokum butter! I’ve not used it for soap, but for lotions and creams. Wonderfully thick and luxurious!
Guys! I seriously don’t need any more ingredients… you two are a terrible influence on me 😛 Haha, who are we kidding, I am totally getting some!
Well from what I can see Chaulmoogra oil is used to treat leprosy! 🙂
Thanks for the link to oat oil in the UK. I’ll have to give this a go.
I’m in complete agree with Amanda on kokum butter, it’s really lovely in creams.
No, I don’t refrigerate the mould when using beeswax in soap but I use small quantities and you do need to work fast because it does promote a very fast trace.
I’m thinking ahead for a Christmas soap – any ideas for a nice fragrance combination?
Ah, yes, good thing I can finally treat that pesky leprosy I’ve been dealing with all these years 😛 I bought it because NDA described the scent as a “strong, woody aroma”. Not sure if I agree, but I’m sure I’ll find a use for it somewhere with its impressive list of benefits and what not.
Last Christmas I did a cinnamon & orange bar, and a wintergreen & spearmint bar. I loved them both! My gingerbread shampoo would also be very fitting 🙂 I’m thinking about doing something with pumpkin puree this year… we’ll see!
Whoa….wintergreen and spearmint sounds intriguing. I’m going to do a smell test with these!!!
Last year I made a fir needle and lavender soap for christmas which was interesting but, as is sometimes the case, the actual soap didn’t quite live up to its name! This morning I’ve made a geranium and May Chang! Sounds a bit exotic doesn’t it!
It seems dreadful to be thinking about Christmas when we’ve only just reached a proper summer here!
I’m with you on dreading winter weather—we’ve only just had a few nice days in a row here 🙁 Booo! And those nice days are drying out the leaves and the grass, and it is starting to look alarmingly like autumn. Sigh. I really should move…
My to-do list has just told me that it is time to start making Christmas soap. Yipes! I programmed that it ages ago, and now the time has come. I think I’ve figured out what I’m going to do, but I’m keeping it under wraps until the blogs go up 🙂 Don’t worry, there will be more than enough time to age them before Christmas comes!
Hi, great blog by the way !
Dumb question: do you ever use used cooking olive oil for you DIY soaps? If so, what do you suggest as the best cleaning method for removing impurities?
I accumulate some oil and have given it away so far, but would like to make my own soap.
Thanks!
Hey Guilherme! I’m not quite sure what you mean by “cooking olive oil”. All the olive oil I use for my soaps is oil that I could also cook with. Do you mean oil that has been used to fry something and then saved afterwards?
Hi Marie,
Yes, oil which has previsouly been used to cook. I was wondering if the cooking alters its properties and one must use more or less lye.
Also what is the best way to remove the impurities.
Thanks
Ok… so, I wasn’t able to find any sources on this, but here’s my thought process on the matter:
The only issues I can think of are the impurities and any residual smell they might contribute. Additionally, if you’ve introduced any water or other contaminants, there is a higher chance your soap will go rancid. I would recommend passing your oil through a coffee filter—beyond that, I can’t think of anything to get rid of any particles smaller than that.
Hope that helps! 😀
Hi Marie,
Thanks so much for the response. Now that you said it, it reall makes sense that the heat wouldn’t alter the SAP values.
I guess I’ll try different ways to remove the impurities to see which one works best. Will let you know.
I take it you always use clean unused oil for yout soap batches?
Let me know how it goes! I always use clean oil for my soap, but that’s because I never cook in ways that produce excess oil. I generally roast, steam, BBQ, etc.—never deep fry—so there’s never any surplus oil to find a use for.
Hi Guilherme
Right, this is going to make me very rustic, but here we go. As a way to reduce any sort of waste, my grandma used to make bars or soap out of used olive oil, caustic soda and sometimes (I apologise to any vegetarians out there) even pig fat! Oh yeah, I’m Spanish and my grandma grew up during a tough period in Spain, so nothing would go to waste. Anyway, the resulting bar didn’t have a smell and it was simply a white bar of soap, since my grandma never bothered with fragrances, other oils to add beneficial properties or even to make it look pretty. I have no idea what made the bars white as I thought oil would make them kind of green, but to be honest, I’ve never tried it myself. I must ask her. My family also used these bars for hand washing delicate clothes – with the benefit of using a soap that wouldn’t ruin your hands!
So I would say it’s pretty safe to reuse your oil, but make sure it’s filtered.
I also know that some non-for-profit organisations collect used cooking oil and they use it precisely to make soap – I knew this was common practice in my country, but many other environmentally-conscious organisations encourage it:
http://www.isfoundation.com/news/college/reusing-cooking-oil
http://www.sabor-artesano.com/gb/artisan-oil-soap.htm
I’m vegetarian and I love using lard & tallow in my soaps 🙂 I wrote all about it here. I agree with your grandma—no waste is best! The lard is what will make the bars white—that is why lard and tallow are so popular for bars like Ivory.
Hello Mandrake,
Thanks for your input. I lived in Spain for eight years and met a lot of people who lived through the civil war. Tough times indeed. You grandma was right. I save every drop I can of leftover cooking oil. So far, i have given it away for recycling, or to a friend of mine who makes soap.
Quoting an article in one of the links you added: one liter of oil down the drain contaminates one million liters of water. That is the water used by one individual for fourteen years.
Looking forward to making my first batch, will let you all know. I am moving to Bahia next week so, once I am settled there, will try it out.
That is an amazing (and scary) statistic about oil going down the drain—yipes! If that’s true, I’m amazed there isn’t more public awareness about it. Good luck with the move, those are always crazy.
What happens if I don’t use tallow or lard? Is it absolutely necessary to use an animal fat of some sort?
I am completely ignorant of these things as I have never tried soap making before.
Also, can I use these bars as shampoo?
Hey Janelle—check out my article on using soap & tallow in soap 🙂 I’ve developed an all-purpose soap recipe that works beautifully as soap, shampoo, and for shaving.
Where did you get your soap mold?
My dad made it for me! It’s based on one from Canwax.
Just found your website and I am greatly looking forward to trying some of these recipes!!! Love your ideas and your healthy yet fun mindset. Thank you so much!!
Awesome! Thanks for reading & have tons of fun with your DIYs 🙂 And be sure to get in touch if you have any questions, I’d love to help!
Hi, Can’t believe i’ve only just found your blog it’s awesome! I really want to give making shampoo bars a try but wanted to do a quick cost compare with shop bought shampoo bars. I realise you could cut up the bars to whatever sizes you like but could you tell me how many bars you tend to get out of your 500g recipe?
Thanks in advance 🙂
xx
I’ll get 16 bars out of a 700g recipe, so that’s about 12 bars for a 500g batch. Also, no packaging! Thanks for reading and have fun with your homemade soap & shampoo 🙂
Is there an oil that I could use in your basic soap recipe that I could substitute for the avacado oil? That’s an expensive oil…and I am trying to keep cost down without taking much away from the product.
Also, I am adding goat’s milk powder to the mix…should there be anything different to that? I have used a recipe twice, and once was just a throw away…and the other, well there was a pool of oil at the top in just ONE area (but it looks as if it ate away the first layer of soap), and only some of the bars actually have a white layer under them…it’s weird.
Lastly, what do you suggest as a good way to hot press the soaps? I have a store that would like to buy my soaps…but obv with a 3+ wk curing time…I probably wont be able to move as quickly (these too would have the goats milk powder).
I generally use shea butter instead of avocado oil—I love how shea butter soap turns out. It’s super lovely and creamy and wonderful. The role of the avocado oil or shea butter is the luxury oil. You can replace it with more olive oil if you like. Also, where are you getting your avocado oil? It’s about $12/L at NDA, which isn’t too expensive. And, at only 15% of each recipe, that’s pretty good.
I’ve never worked with goats milk powder, just whole cows milk powder. I generally add about 1 tbsp of powder per 500g oils, after trace. I blend it in with an immersion blender, and I’ve never had any troubles. It sort of sounds like your soap might be curdling on you. This is a soap that split on me, and it had a layer of oils on the top and bottom. Did it look anything like that?
I’ve never made hot process soap since it seems like a lot of added work for relatively little saved time (especially when I’m under no pressure to produce a lot of soap in a short period of time). I think you’ll find that if you make a couple pounds of soap a day you’ll have more than enough after 3 weeks, and if you’re making some every day, after 3 weeks you’ll have a new batch ready on a daily basis. It’ll just be that first three weeks that you’ll have to wait, and that’s not really thaaaat long.
Thanks for taking a moment to reply! I have to be honest with you, I am getting discouraged. I really do not know what I am doing wrong at this point!
I looked at your picture, and it sort of looks like that, but it’s hard to tell. I do have a picture that would like to share with you, but I cant seem to find a way to get it on here 🙁 As I am leaving the soaps to cure, I am noticing that they are leaking oil or something. On this last batch….what I did that may have screwed it up was that I ran out of olive oil…adding in pure canola oil (ugh).
So here is the run down of what I did. Made my water/lye solution on what was on Soap Calc. Then, melted all my oils/fats (10% castor, 15% lard, 15% shea, 25% coconut oil, 35% olive oil) But again, I did use canola oil to replace some of the olive i didnt have. Once those were melted, I poured a little to my goats milk powder and mixed in a seperate bowl. Added lye/water to my oils (they were very close in temp), got light trace and added the goats milk powder/oil to my lye/wate/oil. Used immersion blender til it was a pudding texture. Then, poured into my molding. Covered with plastic wrap, as well as 2 towels. Let it do it’s thing for 24 hours in the oven (no it wasnt on lol).
I took it out to find that most if the soap looked awesome, except for one spot on the soap that had a pool of liquid (pretty sure it was oil) and it looked like it ate away at the soap. Then I looked at the bottom and there was a pool of dark looking…almost reminded me of burnt oil on the bottom…but it was goop. Weird. The only thing that I could think was that it was the canola oil…because it didnt cover all the soap on the bottom…just under the area that pool of liquid was at the top. I wiped off the goop, just to notice that it bubbled a bit..and that goop smelled horrible btw. I wiped it off…and the small small bubbles reminded me of pruning if you’ve been in the water too long…Only a pic can show you what it turned out like.
But I am wondering if maybe adding the goats milk powder/oil made everything hotter again and burnt things 🙁 I just dont know….PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP!
Again, I would love to show you a pic…if you know how to get it on here…or if I can send it to you somehow.
Also, I forgot to mention that even though I am putting % in soap calc, I am measuring by oz. I dont know if that would make a difference.
Oh, and what is your thoughts on a soap with the following ingredients/%: 10% castor, 15% lard, 15% shea, 30% coconut, 30% olive oil. It seems like all the numbers would be better across the board (in soap calc) and the INS is 157, which is close to the ideal 160. Any thoughts??
I don’t think measuring in ounces is making the difference here, and your recipe looks totally fine. It’s pretty close to the one I use all the time, and those bars always turn out well. I’d definitely suggest making a batch of this soap without the goats milk powder if you haven’t. I’ve found recipes that use shea butter tend to trace very quickly, and then go straight into saponification (and heating up), so that might be part of your problem. Not the shea butter, but the quick trace leading to quick heat. Try keeping everything cooler so you can work more slowly.
Hmmm. Well. The things that stick out to me are:
1) milk powder is water soluble, so I wouldn’t add that to the oil phase. I always add mine after the two halves have come to trace, so there’s water in there for it to dissolve into. Also, how much milk powder are you adding? I usually do 1 tbsp per 500g of oils.
2) It sounds like your soap may be overheating. Between the oven, the towels, and whatever insulating properties your mould might have, it sounds like it is getting far too hot. That was the problem with my split soap as well. If you check out this article on making goats milk soap, they recommend not even using a wooden mould because even that is too insulating! Ideally, you don’t want to get to a gel stage with milk soaps. So, I would try a batch with far less insulation and see how that goes.
3) What temperature are you combing your oils & lye water at? I have found the biggest help in making tricky batches of soap is to let everything come down to room temperature. That really slows things down and has allowed me to successfully make batches of soap that I’ve botched before.
I highly, highly doubt you actually burnt the oil (most oils start to smoke above 300°F, and with all the water soap contains, it’s not getting that hot—if it did all the water would have to evaporate out first and then we wouldn’t have to age soap).
You can upload your images to http://imgur.com and share the links with me here.
Another thought… you’ve made non-goats-milk batches of soap successfully before, right? If not, I would definitely get that down pat first 🙂
Marie, have I told you how wonderful you are??? LOL. Seriously though…thank you.
When you say keep them cool…I have a few questions on that, well just mainly one. When I go to melt my oils, should I ONLY melt the ones that need melting? For instance only melt the shea, lard and coconut? And then adding them into the other oils at room temp? Or does that make a difference?
– If it wont make a difference…then do you maybe suggest that after melting I just let them cool to room temp?
1) I never actually thought about the powder being water soluable…DUH! LOL. Sometimes the mommy brain gets the best of me. I actually got the adding oils to goats milk first from about.com. But, obv he may be WAY wrong! I am adding about 1oz to every 8oz water/lye solution….but I am thinking that would be more than what you add.
2) My insolation method was the plastic mold, with plastic wrap right on top with 2 towels on that. Then I just put it in the over because I knew no one would touch it. But….I can see how the over just kept it insulated even more. I will actually be using a silicone mold this time. Any thoughts on that in general? Or specific to powder? I read the article, and it talks a lot about actual milk…however, as you stated I will be adding everything together first before adding the goats milk powder.
3) This past time I had combined the water/lye and oils when they were both at 110 degrees F. But, what you are saying is allowing both oils and lye to come down below 100 and then add together and mix in the powder. But, what temp should I be having my mixture at all times after they are combined? Also, I am looking for just a light trace by the time I pour correct? I could really use advice on the silicone mold as far as insulation!
Here is 1 picture about a 24-48 hours I cut it…. http://imgur.com/Mfcp9HA , see all the oil under the soaps? The ones in the front are the ones that actually was touched in the plastic wrap when I insulated because it fell into it 🙁 Maybe that had something to do with it? The one that is laying down behind the first 2…looks, and feels perfect. I DID preform the ‘zap’ test on the one in the back and besides tasting bad…there was no tingle.
Here is a 2nd link ( http://imgur.com/CrMF6rZ,SugdPbO,oEmqaD2 ), there are 3 images all taken today…so about a wk if that after cutting them. 1st image are the 2 most damaged bars. They are EXACTLY where that plastic hit on the soap after being poured into the mold, the bottom white layer doesnt look AS bad as it did before. 2nd image is the top view…the ones all the way to the right had the brown goo on the bottom of them (a little bumpy) that i thought was burnt oil…but def not the case. They arent as bad as they were. But, in the middle row, there is a bar to the left and this one looks like the top wants to seperate and it’s soft…but its not crumbling or anything at this point. Then the 3rd image…just on one side there are those white specs. When I touch them…my fingers dont tingle so I dont think that it would be the lye. But, I havent done the zap test on this one yet.
p.s.
Any hints on insulation with silicone would be AWESOME, and whether or not these soaps are still useable even if they pass the zap test???? Is this just cosmetic????
Thanks again Marie…I appreciate you so much!
I know you already said you had success, but I’m replying just in case somebody else wants answers 🙂
When I melt my oils, I melt all of them together, and then just remove the pot from the stove and let it cool. This way, the liquid oils keep the solid oils from re-solidifying as they all cool.
I have never used a silicone mould, but I have two in my shopping cart. I’m really excited to give them a go—I’ve never bothered with specially shaped soaps since the plastic moulds always seem so poorly made. Anyhow, I imagine silicone is less insulating than wood, so maybe just clingfilm and a towel or a sheet?
I never worry about temperature when after I’ve combined my oils and water. As long as they were the same temp when I put them together, I’m not fussed. When you’re working at room temperature trace can take a while to reach, and you do need to be careful you’ve actually reached it (I’ve read about “false trace” from the oils being thicker at room temp, but this has never been a problem for me). From there, the level of trace you want is really up to you. I’ll usually go with something fairly thin for swirls, and thicker for layers. If I’m not doing anything fancy, thin is fine 🙂
It does sound like your soap is totally fine to use. I’ve had a batch or two turn out like this, and they were fine to use (and ended up smelling like caramel after a few months, funnily enough). They were just a bit ugly, but even so, my singing teacher was nuts about them! She said they were the best bars she’d ever used, so hey 😛
Hi Marie!
A question about substituting the Shea butter for Avocado oil–do you use the same percentages?
Thanks 😀
Jillian
Because avocado oil is softer, I’ll usually drop 5% off and add that onto the lard/tallow. So, if it was originally 15% of each, I’ll do 10% avocado oil, and 20% lard to help the bar harden up a bit better 🙂
Thanks!
🙂
oh, that is wonderful news! I just happen to have a 5 lb. block of unrefined organic shea butter on hand. Shea is cheaper for me than olive oil.
Lucky you! I tend to buy my shea butter about 2kg at a time as well, I just love it 🙂 I get my olive oil at Costco, where it’s actually pretty darn affordable if you get the 2 bottle pack of their lower grade stuff. $30, I think?
I am NEW to the soap making hobby, and just came across your site a few days ago! I have been clicking through all of your links and have a pile of recipe and DIY projects I want to try now!! I had few questions on the process of soap making, which I have forgotten now that I’m asking 🙂 but I do remember one. I read in one of your posts that you let the fats and lye water cool to room temp before mixing. During this cooling, do the fats solidify or harden?
Hey Hannah! Welcome to the soap making/DIY world 😀 To answer your question, no, the fats to not solify or harden when they come to room temperature. Between the 40% olive oil (liquid at room temperature) and the 25% coconut oil (melts just a few degrees above room temperature), the vast majority of the oils are already soft/liquid at room temperature, so they prevent the entire pot from solidifying at all. The fats are still very, very liquid (and I live in Canada, lol, so if they were going to solidify, they would, haha). If you were making a batch of soap entirely from hard/soft fats like shea butter, cocoa butter, and lard, they likely would solidify, depending on what “room temperature” is where you live.
I look forward to you remembering the rest of those questions 😛 Thanks for reading!
Marie, thank you again for all your help! Just wanted to let you know that I sucessfully made 2 batches of the goats milk powder soap and found a recipe that I adore!
Honestly, if it werent for you….i’d still have those batches from the images above. I really wanted to thank you a million times over…and I still have NO idea if that other batch is useable…but here is a pic of the PERFECT batch: http://imgur.com/zIYAjmc
Just a perfect creamy white 🙂
So, thank you again! I will def be recommending you to others 🙂
YAY!!! What did you do differently? I want all the details 🙂 And you are very welcome for any help—that’s what I’m here for. Hey… maybe you could send me a bar 😉 😛
SURE! So here’s what i did:
1)made water/lye solution
2)melted only the hard oils
3)while the water/lye was still cooling and the hard oils were melting, I measured the soft oils.
4)once hard oils melted, I took off stove and poured in my soft oils.
4)once everything was melted I set my water/lye and oils in a sink of cold water until they reached about the same temp. Now, I could tell what exact degree they were because I was using a candy therm, but it was WAY less than 100 F. I would prob guess about 80-90 F.
5)then i slowly poured the water/lye into the oils while stirring. Once everything was nice and stirred, i used the immersion blender in short spurts. Stirred, then used blender…on and off to make sure I didnt get a false trace. I noticed I would…because when I started stirring again, the mixture would become very liquidy.
6)once i got a decent trace, i added the goats milk powder, stirred, then used blender…back and forth until it was a medium trace.
7)poured into the silicone mold I have.
Here’s the thing…I wasnt sure how to insulate. I couldnt find research…but what I did next worked BEAUTIFULLY! I put the bars on a baking sheet (i mainly did this because it was flimsy), and covered the soap with plastic wrap. I then put them in the over…and BAM! BEAUTIFUL…CREAMY white bars of soap!
Getting them out of the silicone was a little difficult so I put them in the freezer for about an hour and it worked great!
Thanks again marie!
Yay! This is great info, thanks so much. It’s nice to see that my tips didn’t make things worse lol. How much goats milk powder did you end up using in the end? I’m considering trying a batch or two myself as I just finished up a bar that was a gift from a friend, and it was just divine. I need more! 😛
I actually used what you recommended. 1 TBsp per 500 grams 🙂 Worked great! I didnt use your exact recipes on here…I tweaked them to have the hardness, INS and all that, that I wanted 🙂 If you ever want to exchange tips, etc. You can contact me at labellenaturelle@yahoo.com
I also have a website http://labellenaturelle.webs.com …but mine is not a blog like yours… lol. I couldnt compete with you! I just love what you do here!
Ok, neat! I will get on that… sometime. I need more shea butter, lol 😛 I enjoyed browsing through your website, your testimonials are fantastically heart warming 🙂
hahah I just actually ordered 8lbs of shea…LOL. Anyway, it is an honor to know that you browsed my website and enjoyed it.
Thanks again,
Sincerely…Anna D.
Jealous! I need to get my stuff together and place another order… but my cart is so darn huge… but I don’t want to give anything up… lol! The story of my life 😛
Thank you for taking the “scary” out of lye for me! I figure that if I’m going to make soap, i need to MAKE SOAP, not just pour two things from the craft store together and call it good. I’m looking very forward to getting the kids off to school (for SO many reasons) so I can whip out the dangerous stuff and get to work!
Thank you!
You’re very welcome 🙂 Thank you so very much for reading, and I’m thrilled to hear you’re going to get down & dirty and make some soap from scratch! How long until those kids run off to school? For soap making, even a good play date could work 😛 Are they old enough for slumber parties? Ha!
What a wonderful blog! Came across your site whilst researching homemade body product recipes. I found myself with an abundance of shea butter (a somewhat impulsive black friday online purchase… discovered New Directions Aromatics afterwards and turns out their shea prices are still wayyy cheaper). Poor overhead planning aside, shea’s turning out to be my gateway drug too. I’ve made some whipped body butters with it and after taking a quick CP soap class I am looking forward to making my first batch of shea soap at home
It wasn’t until I browsed through all of your soap recipes that I decided to check out your ‘About’ page and discovered you live in Calgary too!!
A few questions:
– Do you know of a good place to buy lye in Calgary? I picked some up from Soap & More, but their prices in general seem high
– As our water is excellent here, do you use Calgary tap water for your lye solutions or do you still buy bottled distilled for soapmaking?
– Do you buy castor oil from NDA or do you know of a place in Calgary that sells it for a good price/L?
– Have you tried approaching Hoven Farms at the Kingsland market for beef fat to render tallow?
– You mention that you find shea soaps are at their prime after 12-18 months of curing… do your aged shea soaps retain their EO scent after this amount of time? If so, are you doing anything particular to make the scent last?
– Do you just stop the shea in your aged soap from going rancid after +1 year with Vitamin E or grapefruit seed extract, or has rancidity with aged soaps not been a problem for you?
Sorry for all of the questions and thanks ahead for you input!
Best,
– Tara
Hi Tara! How funny that shea is your “gateway” drug—it was mine as well 🙂 I ended up doing a bulk by with a bunch of girlfriends before I found NDA in an effort to secure lower prices. It ended up taking me just over 2 years to go through all of it, lol. Oops! But it is a seriously awesome ingredient, and definitely one I’ll never be without.
Yay for a fellow Calgarian! I love hearing that our little DIY community is growing 🙂 I buy my lye at Home Hardwear. We lost our Calgary Home Hardware a while ago, but I’m in Canmore often enough that I can pick up a 4kg jug of it that easily lasts me a full year, and it’s quite reasonably priced.
I definitely just use tap water for my soap. I used to use distilled, but I got lazy and haven’t ever noticed a change between using distilled and tap water.
I get my castor oil from NDA or Saffire Blue since you just can’t compete with their prices. I haven’t even looked for castor oil locally—sorry!
I haven’t even been to Kingsland (gasp, I know) to ask, but I definitely should. It’s just that I don’t live anywhere near there.
I’ve taken to adding tallow to my shea butter soaps, so you don’t have to wait 12—18 months—just 3–5 weeks 🙂 And for that shorter period of time the scents hold quite well.
I’ve never had any troubles with rancidity in soap. In my experience/reading it’s not a particularly large problem unless you superfat above 10%.
Hope that covers it all, have fun with your soap making!
Hi Marie,
Thanks so much for all of the input you gave a few months ago. Since then I’ve made a few batches of soap, and they all turned out great. My first was a simple shea/coconut/olive oil soap using green tea and regular Calgary tap water, no probs. My next was a 5% neem cinnamon/cardamom/turmeric funnel swirl soap (plus ricebran oil, shea, coconut and pastured lard) with a rooibos chai lye solution using distilled and I also saw no difference in quality when using distilled water. I’ve also made a beer soap using my friend’s hibiscus-nettle gruit homebrew, a striped honey/maple syrup/molasses bar, some laundry soap, a coffee-steeped Wild Rose Cherry Porter kitchen soap bar, a shampoo bar and I just made some shaving soap using a marshmallow root mucilage solution. All small batches but I still haven’t been in need of a hostess gift since! (And much more economical than raiding our wine stash).
I really appreciate that you post your soap recipes in percentages. Yours was one of the first blogs I came across when learning how to soap and since when reading I like to triangulate between recipes to formulate my own (like with cooking), it got me thinking in terms of ingredient ratios from the start. Now when I’m trying to figure out how to use a new ingredient (like yogurt) and I look at what someone else did, I always reach for the calc to see how much of that ingredient is being used in percentage of oil weight.
Best,
– T
Wow! It sounds like you are making some wonderfully creative, super beautiful soaps 🙂 It sounds like a good portion of your free brain time is going towards dreaming up lovely new soaps—something we have in common, I’m sure. I’m so glad I’ve been able to help you get totally hooked on soaping and set up with the awesome flexibility of percentages. I can’t wait to hear what you create next! Maybe you could share some photos on my Facebook page, or tag me on Instagram (@MarieRayma)?
Hi Marie,
I actually went facebook free a few years ago and don’t currently have an instagram account (I swear I don’t live under a rock, I’ve just been trying to be more conscientious about my social media usage) but here’s a pic of samples from my most recent batches http://tinypic.com/r/j5chi1/8 . The one of the far right is a dead sea mud with charcoal swirls that I made last week. I used frozen whey for the lye solution (I make my own yogurt on Sundays and sometimes end up with a whey-y batch if using skim milk) and just tested the end trimming – the lather is already super creamy so I will definitely use whey again. The round ones are the mallow root bentonite & kaolin shaving soap made a couple weekends ago; learnt how to get the ying-yang look from a soaping101 youtube video using a pringles container and thin plastic cutting board (a bit messy when pulling out the plastic sheet, prob won’t try it again). The one next to that is the coffee-steeped WR porter, and the last one on the left is my first shampoo bar with steeped mint & rosemary for the lye plus rosemary EO in the scent blend (which apparently is good for dark hair, but we shall see). That bright orangey tan color came from using red palm in the oil batch… picked up a bottle from an African foods shop in the NE; it was sourced from Ghana so figured no orangutans were harmed but I can’t speak to the plantation practices… apparently it is super high in carotene and since I don’t need to make my soap more tan, I will probably just cook with it and not buy it again.
My next batch will be salt bars (thinking half pink salt with red clay, and half sea salt with charcoal again) and then I’ll have most of my soap bases covered lol. I also have some frozen water kefir that I want to experiment with; I think it will have all of the benefits of using beer without the alcohol to evaporate off. Eventually in the coming months I will try a carrot or papaya with yogurt or cream, and a cucumber bar with coconut milk, and a wine soap (I have a stash of yerba mate so I’m thinking an Argentine-themed yerba & malbec soap with woody, spice and benzoin scent notes – ah, someone stop me!). lol clearly some sort of soaping OCD has kicked in and looks like I won’t be running out of soap any time soon!
Now we’re really getting to the heart of the matter. Soap addiction!!! I feel a kindred spirit here. In fact many kindred spirits on this wonderful blog. If you’re interested I’ve dedicated a page for addicts on my website: http://khandalasoap.weebly.com/soap-addiction.html
Oh, the joy of soap-making!
Thanks, Helen 🙂 I love my wee community of addicts 😉
Wow, beautiful! From the sounds of it you must be quite the cook as well with your knack for combining flavours and scents 🙂 I love how soap making allows me to meld so many different types of creativity, and also to never buy another bar of soap again 😛 This is my basement lately…
I’ve been reading a lot wanting to start doing my own DIY stuff, and I am loving your blog! I appreciate how you give enough detail for us to follow what you’re doing even when we’re newbies, but you don’t make us feel “beneath you” either. So far I haven’t been able to make any of the things I want to yet, but ice really enjoyed reading your blog too- it relaxes me and makes me smile. Thanks for sharing with us!
For some reason the left side of the comments are cut off on my screen (except for the comments that are indented like they are for a response). Is this because I’m using my iPhone? I don’t have that problem with other sites it but I didn’t have that problem on here last night either? If its my phone that’s fine but if it’s something that you might have a solution to I thought you might want to know?
Hi Laurenski! Thanks so much for your kind words 🙂 Sorry for the delay in getting back to you as well, this holiday season has gobbled up all my free time, as I’m sure you can imagine.
I checked out the comment cut off issue you mentioned, and you are most certainly correct—whenever the comments are nested more than two or three, they seem to dance off the left hand edge of the screen, but only on mobile. I will add that to my list of development to-dos 🙂 Thanks for the heads up, I rarely look at my blog comments on my phone!
Can I use cocoa butter as a Hard Fat?
You definitely can, but it’s a very expensive hard fat (~$14/lb). I prefer to use lard or tallow (~$0–$3/lb) and here’s why.
The link to the lye calculator seems to be broken. Can you check on this please? I am gathering info and materials to take the plunge!
Thanks!
I fixed it, thanks for the heads up !
I hate to be the bearer of bad news (seems like you and I are talking a lot of late), but even though the Lye Calculator link is fixed, it is now loaded with viruses! I clicked on the link at the top “how to use the lye calculator” and was instantly infected. I have just spent the last half hour uninstalling spyware and malware, and resetting my computer backup to a previous date. Hopefully that will take care of most of it.
That’s very odd (and obviously bad), but I don’t think it’s this calculator… I checked it before re-linking it, and just now, and I clicked on every link, and it’s totally fine 🙁 (?) Which one were you looking at? All that said, you can also just google “lye calculator” to find a substitute, there are quite a few around—that one is just a favourite of the soaping community.
Whew! I took the plunge and made the basic shampoo bar. It has not set for the 24 hours as of yet…. and I just realized I forgot to add the clay. Is there a way to remelt it to add the clay? or should I just chalk it up to “oh I must remember that next time”?
Exciting! No worries on forgetting the clay 🙂 It’s not necessary, it’s a nice to have (or, in my case, a love to have). I’ve made loads of batches without clay, and all you won’t want to do with it is shave as the slip isn’t that great without the clay. Enjoy your first shampoo bar & thanks for DIYing with me!
Very interesting….I’m thinking of giving this a go and your site is full of useful information.
However sodium hydroxide will not spit or create any kind of volcano if you add water to it….it is conc acids that create this kind of reaction. …the worst that would happen is that the NaOH will clump up and not dissolve as readily and a very hot solution could be created if only a small amount of water is added …….I am a chemistry technician and have made many a NaOH solution in my time. I would be more concerned about wearing gloves as the solid has an affinity for skin and is therefore attracted to it….but as you say the worst that will happen is an itching sensation.
Sorry for correcting but I’m a stickler on this kind of thing. …..cant wait to have a go at making some soap though 🙂
I made the mistake of reaching for my safety glasses while still wearing my gloves and got a very nasty lye burn on my temple. The danger of lye is more serious than an itch.
Well thats odd as I use this stuff on a daily basis in my job and have had the solid on my skin several times without getting a burn……was it the solid or a strong solution (the solutions tend to be more caustic) or was it mixed with something else perhaps. I do agree that you should wash it off straight away if you get it on your skin and obviously everyone using this shouldn’t be flippant, especially if you’re not confident with your chemicals…….however trust me when i say that conc Sulfuric acid on your skin is much worse…….now that burns!
I was finished making the soap and ready to wash up, which is why I left gloves on…so it should have been soap mixture on my gloves, or so I thought.
Do you have very sensitive skin, Tina? I, too, have got raw soap on my face, and it was nothing more than an itch.
I do yes…but never had a reaction to anything this severe. This has left a wound.
Ow 🙁 I guess you can at least take comfort in the knowledge that your reaction is very out of the ordinary? Is there a chance you were allergic to anything is the soap recipe? I’m assuming you were using pure lye—sometimes people use something like Draino instead because it contains lye, but it’s also got all kinds of other nasty stuff in it.
Yes, it was pure lye. No not allergic. Hopefully the soap does well once it ages?
Hmm. Well, assuming you did all your calculations & measurements correctly (and I’m sure you did, you’re obviously very careful) I’m sure the bars will be awesome… but maybe you should do a pH test rather than a personal use test, given your sensitive skin?
Is there really any merit to using vinegar to cleaning up a spill of NaOH? I understand the chemistry behind it, but on the few occasions I’ve had to clean up some raw soap, I’ve never noticed vinegar to be any more effective than water, even when the raw soap is on the skin.
Thanks for the correction, Sam—as I’m sure you can imagine, after reading vehement warnings against adding water to NaOH, I was none too keen to try it in my kitchen 😛 So, I am definitely guilty of repeating unconfirmed information, though at least I did it in the name of safety, I guess. Have fun with your homemade soap!
I have 2 questions. First, when you say don’t put less than a pound in the calculator, why is that? Would it just bee too small? And second, the link for the article about the properties of different oils didn’t work for me. I was really wanting to look at that. And yes I just realized the second part wasn’t a question. Lol
Yes, it’s basically because the batch will be too small. Your margin of error starts to become quite small for the lye, and you will likely encounter issues keeping your immersion blender submerged, which can lead to splattering raw soap everywhere, which is obviously not good. Plus, a pound doesn’t make that much soap—maybe 8–12 bars, depending on how you cut it. Having more bars from the batch allows you to evaluate them as they age, and leaves you some to give away 🙂 Something I like to do is make a larger batch (maybe 1400g of oils), and once I’ve reached trace, I’ll split it in half and add different EOs and colours to each batch. That’s an easy way to do two soaps in one day 🙂
Thanks for the heads up on the link, I fixed it!
Thanks you! And yeah I though about it. One pound isn’t a lot. For some reason I imagined a giant pot. I’m not sure why.
🙂
So.. I just attempted to make my first batch of basic soap. Though I was prepared I was very unprepared. I’m sure I did some things wrong. I forgot to ask you why is it that you can’t use wax paper? I admit that I used wax paper. I thought I had parchment paper, I didn’t. I was tired of going and getting supplies and I was impatient. If I didn’t do it now I’d have to wait more almost 2 weeks. So if it turns into a crazy mess oh well I’ll just do it again. Also I’m confused about the measuring. Are fluid oz different than the ounces in weight. Cuz I would pour 4 oz of coconut oil into my measuring cup and then put it into the scale and it would be 1.9 oz. so I used way more oil than I had expected to. Was that just my scale? Or is the weight actually different?
And lastly when I mixed the lye into the oils it seems to have had some kind or reaction with the bottom of my pot. I got a decent sized old fashion steel pot at the goodwill. It’s a very nice pot. But as I was pouring the soap mixture I kept seeing specks of black stuff almost like pepper. And then when I got the the bottom it was all smeared with black smug and was getting all in the soap. Do you know why that would happen? I took a photo of it but I wouldn’t know how to send it to you.
Actually I just realized the measuring thing. Cuz a measuring cup would measure volume not weight. But still you’d think an oz is an oz. I get that different things have different masses. Waters not going to have the same mass as coconut oil. But idk I still don’t get it.
Yes, this is partly it, but a fluid ounce is also different from a weight ounce, even without taking density into account. An ounce is approximately 28.3495g, but a fluid ounce is 29.5735mL. Needlessly confusing, if you ask me.
It is ridiculously confusing. I never had even considered that weighing oz would be different. But now I know. And I admit I skimped a little bit on the castor oil. It wasn’t even mine it was my mom and I felt so guilty that I would have had to use the whole bottle probably. I used more than half of it. Probably half of what I needed. I say probably because I used the measuring cup not the scale. Just for that. At the time I was prepared for failure. But now I wish I had just used the scale. And bought more castor oil. I guess I’ll see what happens.
Well, if you skimped on the castor oil but weighed everything else out you could be flying pretty close to the sun on this one. What size was your batch and what was your superfat?
It was 1lb. And I already know it’s super lye heavy. Something weird happened and some how I ended up putting in a crazy amount of water and lye. I must have had the scale on some weird setting. I’m still trying to figure out how to use it. It randomly decides that things weigh nothing, or it takes way more than it should to get 2oz or something. And having never made soap before I didn’t realize it was a ridiculous amount of lye. Even though I was pretty sure something was wrong. I’m still trying to figure out what I did to get whatever amount that I got. But whatever, I’ve figured it out now. Next time I’ll just do everything in grams. That way I won’t be so confused. Lol
Hmmmm…. darn 🙁 Sounds like you may need a new scale, since that one seems to be out to get you! Or, if it has a reset mechanism, do that, maybe it’ll help. For a 1lb batch you’re looking at an amount of lye around 60g (2.1oz), depending on the blend of oils. But yeah, totally go for grams 🙂 My favourite thing about them is how tiny they are—it’s so much easier to make a wee bit of lotion or lip balm when you’re working in grams (which is great for me as I’m making new stuff every week, haha).
I use parchment because I love it, lol. I believe I’ve used wax paper in the past and it’s been fine, so you should be fine there.
And I see you have run into one of the many stupidities of the Imperial measuring system! There are TWO kinds of ounces. And they are super different. And that is really dumb because you can live your entire life and not realize that until you are in the middle of making soap (it took me ages, I was baking by weighing out fluid ounces for years…). So yeah, fluid ounces are different than ounces in weight. And that’s dumb as all get-out, but I suppose it makes sense when you consider that the entire measurement system is based around barley corns (seriously). I hope you used weight for everything in the end (it sounds like you did) or your soap may not be safe to use on skin.
It sounds like your second hand pot may have been a bit dirty. Raw soap is quite caustic, and as such, a rather fantastic cleaner! It’s popular in the dairy industry for barn cleaning. Anyhow, I once got a drop or two of raw soap on an antique counter top I have that’s covered in tin or aluminum, and after I wiped it off those spots were sparkling clean (and they didn’t look dirty before at all). So, I’ve guessing those tiny specks of black stuff were just some wee specks of gunk coming off the pot, not a chemical reaction. I’ve never had this happen to me, so I’m guessing it’s nothing to do with the soap reaction itself. If that’s definitely not it, feel free to upload your photo to Facebook to show me (link in the upper right hand column) or to Imgur 🙂
No I think your right. I kind of scraped off the black stuff and the pot is so freaking shiny and clean!
Ha, score! Cleanest pot ever 😛 Now I guess you know how to clean any particularly dirty pots & pans, just be sure to give ’em a super good wash afterwards 😉
Your so nice! 🙂
🙂
Hi, your sit is so interesting and after gathering materials for 3 weeks and much late night soap recipe gathering, oil/eczema researching I think Im about ready, my only question is what size pot should I get? My 2 quart pot looks to small considering I’ll have to be immersion blending, how big should I go?
Thank you!
Jade
I think my pot is about 2 gallons (maybe 3… I’m not all that familiar with the Imperial system for gallon measurements… look at the photos to get an idea lol), and it works well for batches of at least 500g/1lb oils. I haven’t tried anything bigger than about 1500g/2000g oils, but it’s worked very well for that, too. Basically, it’s all about how much soap you plan on making at a time. You will probably find 2 quarts is too small for most batches, though. See if you can pick up a pot that’s ~2–3 gallons at Value Village 🙂 That’s where mine came from!
Hey Marie,
I’m about to dive head first into soapmaking – I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I just ordered my first container of lye, butters, essential oils and flavour oils from saffire blue so there’s no turning back now! I’ve probably spent countless hours researching methods and recipes and I have an idea for my first batch, but is there a general rule or guideline in terms of how much essential oil to use per kg of soap? And likewise for flavour oils for lip balms? I can’t seem to find this info anywhere. I’ve purchased Sweet Orange essential oil and I don’t want to overuse it since it could irritate skin if its too concentrated.
Thanks,
Laura
The general guideline on EOs in soap is 30g EO per 500g oils, or 1oz EO per 1lb oils 🙂 This rule of thumb has served me well over the years, though some scents will fade faster than others. I tend to use the 5 fold citrus EOs whenever I can.
For flavour oils in lip balms, all I can really say is be careful—I made a few batches of lip balm with them when I first started and it was far too easy to make them very strong! I really don’t use them anymore, but err on the side of caution, and read up on any manufacturer recommendations. Just drop, smell, drop, smell, etc., and stop just a bit shy of it being “enough”. You can always gently re-melt and add more, but taking away is pretty difficult. Plus, the smell/taste lasts for ages as it is artificial.
Thanks for reading and have fun with your first batch of soap! Exciting 😀
Hi! I’ve just gotten into DIY products as well and your blog is great for advice! I am planning on starting with some soap and shampoo bars, but I’m planning on using a really great melt and pour base for my soap instead of creating a lye mixture.
I’m having a lot of trouble finding recipes for melt and pour soap and I am wondering if you have worked with it or know about it.
I mostly just want to know if I can use any soap or shampoo bar recipe with my melt and pour base as a replacement for the lye, or if I should be adding significantly less ingredients since the m+p base is already full of natural oils. Please let me know if you have any advice! Thank you in advance!
Hi Abra! A melt and pour base is like a cake mix. With a cake mix you can add things like chocolate chips and choose your frosting, but if you decide you want whole grain flour or a different flavour cake, you’re out of luck because all those things are already in the mix and you can’t just take out and replace what you don’t like. So, with melt and pour soaps, you can add a little bit more oil (maybe 5%), colour, essential oils/fragrances, and exfoliants. That’s about it. Melt & pour bases are ready to use when you buy them. They are not a substitute for lye—they are a substitute for making soap. You basically just get to dress it up. That’s why you won’t find recipes for melt and pour soaps, just instructions on different ways to dress them up.
So, no, you can’t just take a soap recipe and combine it with a melt and pour base. The best you can do is to superfat with a small amount of an additional oil/butter of your choice, and then use the same colours/EOs. And even then, you aren’t making soap—you are dressing it up.
I’d really recommend making your own soap from scratch. It’s not hard and it’s not nearly as scary as many sources will have you believe. I wrote an entire article on it, and you should definitely read it 🙂
Hi, thanks for writing back!
So, that makes a lot of sense, I can definitely see how the m+p base is like a mix. And I will not write off real soap-making!
A lot of the ingredients in the base I ordered are the same as in the actual soap-making recipes (I went the organic, chemical-free route when ordering it, which is actually the whole reason I’m getting into DIY products.) so I thought they were almost interchangeable.
I figured that I just would just omit all of the different kinds of oils/goats milk/honey (or whatever) that the recipe called for which was already in the soap base. Is it the Glycerine that makes it different?
I kind of assumed m+p was kind of like someone had done the lye bit of soap making for me, essentially fitting the analogy of a cake mix (which does seem like a bit of a copout!)
In terms of proper soap-making and m+p soap, is there a big difference between shampoo bars and regular soap? I’ve read a lot about castor oil being good for shampoo but that less oil in general is better. But aside from that, I can’t actually find a whole lot of difference between the recipes of soap and shampoo (within their respective categories of homemade soap and m+p soap.)
Thanks again for your response!
Sounds like you’ve got this sorted 🙂 You’ll want to leave out anything that’s called for in large amounts—basically milks, water, and most of the oils. You could probably add a wee bit of honey, and a bit of oil, plus colours, clays, and essential oils. Glycerine is actually a byproduct of soap making, so assuming the base is all natural that’s just there as a natural byproduct of the saponification reaction.
The main difference between shampoo and soap bars is the percentage of castor oil included in the recipe, and the superfat percentage, neither of which you can change in a M&P base as both are part of the initial soaping calculations. I’ll generally do 20% castor oil instead of 5%, and ~7% superfat instead of 5% for shampoo bars. All that said, I happily use my all-in-one bars for, well, everything 😛
Does your M&P base actually tell you the percentages of the oils it uses?
Okay, thank you for answering that question! I’ve been wondering about the castor oil aspect… Also your all-in-one bars look fantastic, I definitely want to give those a try!
You know, I don’t think the melt and pour bases I ordered have the percentages of oils, but I would absolutely love to know and may email the company to find out.
As an aside, I am super into your website, I’ve been roaming around and checking out all of the recipes, I’d have to say this is one of the best and most comprehensive websites out there right now for great DIY products and information about them. Thank you so much for providing all of your knowledge, it’s really great for starters like me!
Abra
Thank you so much for your kind words, Abra! I sure do spend a lot of time on this blog, and it’s nice to know my efforts are appreciated 🙂 Have fun with your soap!
Marie,
I must say I absolutely LOVE you blog! I am planning on trying many of your recipes. Thank you for being so precise in your explanations. I am curious to try soap making, my only concern is I have terribly dry skin along with eczema. I also live in Colorado which has been horrible for my skin this year. Do you have a soap recipe that is extremely gentle and moisturizing? I have been making my own lotions and butters for a year now and even with all the moisture loving ingredients still cannot seem to keep this dryness under control. Thank you again.:)
Hi Vanessa! Thank you so much for reading and for your kind words 🙂 I think you will find that homemade soaps are much more gentle than the store bought soaps you might be familiar with. Liquid soaps are often made from nearly identical ingredients as your dish soap, meaning you are washing your skin with the same stuff meant to strip grease off pans! Yipes. No wonder people complain that soap is harsh on the skin. Natural soap is entirely different, made from saponified oils and butters combined with a strong base—as such it’s not nearly as strong.
My All-in-One soap is the base for almost all my soap recipes, and I find it to be a great balance between gentle and cleansing. I live in Alberta, 1500km or so north of you, and we have a similar dry, high-altitude environment, so I am very well acquainted with dry skin. I also wash my hands quite frequently (especially during winter cold & flu season!) and I find my hands are much happier when I’m washing with my homemade soap than stuff I might find at work or a friend’s house. While I don’t suffer from eczema, my dad does, and he pretty much insists on a constant supply of my soaps for the bath (along with a vat of shea butter for extra dry spots).
So, all that is to say I’d recommend giving my all-in-one soap a go, but perhaps with a 6% superfat instead of a 5%. If you find your skin is quite sensitive, try leaving out the essential oils. You can also try using coconut milk (or other milks) as the liquid once you get a bit more into soap making.
And I know this is painfully obvious, but how is your water consumption? I know I can always tell when I haven’t been drinking enough as my lips will just shrivel up and be painful and miserable until I start chugging water again. Just a thought 🙂
Hi Marie,
Thanks so much for your response. I am going to try your soap recipe and see how it goes.
As for water I drink quite a lot, and if I don’t my skin is even worse then normal, so I know what you mean about the lips and skin.
Another question is what oil could I replace the Castro oil for, my skin is rather sensitive to it.
Thanks
No worries, Vanessa 🙂 I look forward to hearing how the soap works out for you. If it is too drying, it makes great gifts, and can also be used to make some nice housecleaning products.
Castor oil is in a category of its own in soap making—it contributes both lather and moisturizing, and cannot be replaced with anything that will duplicate that effect, sadly. I would increase the amount of shea butter or olive oil, both of which will be moisturizing, but won’t boost the lather in the same way.
I had the same issues. I was mixing all these wonderful ingredients into butters that were great, but just could not keep up with my itchy dryness. After an hour or so, I was pulling my skin off again! Then I found something wonderfully simple and effective. No more itch, no more dryness, and it lasted 24 hours. (Half almond oil, half vegetable glycerin) I do add essential oils to scent it and the scent acts as my perfume. It is the perfect balance. The oil sinks right in and the glycerin makes it last all day without feeling greasy.
Great tip, Tina! How do you go about emulsifying the glycerin and the almond oil?
I don’t! I just pour them into a bottle, shake and use it as is.
Oh, that’s easy! 🙂
I don’t know if you addressed this elsewhere, but when you line your soap mold do you not line the end pieces or the separators?
I just lined the main part of the mold, not the ends or separators. I’ve been using the same mold for years now, and the unprotected bits are still doing fine (they always get to dry out between uses). The parchment paper really is needed for the main part to get the soap out of the mold—I have to use a knife to slice the ends off the soap loaf.
wow! you are the first person to explain why we need lye in soap!!! i found your blog looking for a way to make soap without lye =)
will try with lye. i am ready!
I’m so glad I was able to help out, Heike 🙂 Have fun with your homemade soap!
I was scared to death to try it the first time! Marie coaxed me, I gave it a go. After a bumpy first attempt, I am now a pro! Just mix your lye water in a large glass measuring cup and set it aside until you need it and all will be well. 🙂
😀 I feel so proud, haha.
In the soapcalc, you don’t put any carrier oils on step six right? otherwise it will mess up the recipe?? the carrier oils belong in the FO part?? I’m still confused on those two. xD Please help if you can. Thanks!
Step 6 is for the carrier oils (the ones that make up the vast majority of the recipe)—select the oil you are using and then hit the little “+” sign next to an empty row. Then you can enter in the percentage of that oil in the next column over. Fragrance/Essential oils are not carrier oils, and they are not saponifiable (they don’t contain any lipids like true oils & butters do), so those stay in step 4. For more detailed instructions, read this 🙂
I’m beginning to homestead and have been perusing various DIY blogs for yeeeears. Yours is definitely one of the best for making homemade cleaning, soaps, lotions, etc. I adore when people give me the SCIENCE behind it instead of assuming I’ll take it as gospel. I do have some questions:
1. In your list of items there is a soaping pot and bowl which makes sense because of the caustic properties of lye. However, do we need separate bowl/pot for making the lotions as well? I use cast iron and I’m afraid the EO will permeate the pots.
2. Same question as above only for the other items: whisks, spatula, measuring cups, spoons- should you always use separate soap ones? Also, I do not have a dishwasher so should I err on the side of caution and have three different sets (soap, DIY other, cooking)?
3. Without an immersion blender should I look forward to lots of stirring? I can’t purchase one unless it’s hand powered, either (off the grid= precious electricity). I’ll try to find one but they’ve proven elusive.
4. You said earlier that the pot you use is 2-3 gallons which is 12 quarts. It… doesn’t look like a 12 quart pot? To use Canada measurements your pot would be 11.3 litres which is 47 cups. Which, eh, is a LOT. That’s like stockpot size. Is that what you use to make the big batches? The 500g you made here is half a litre which is roughly .053 quarts. It sounds a lot more manageable in my Camper Kitchen. What do you think the size of that pot was? Easy way is just to take a measuring cup and keep pouring water in until you have an estimated cup/ml size.
It’s awesome to see a fellow Canadian! I don’t encounter many Canadian blogs and one so close to home (I’m in BC)! I’m sooooo excited to order online now because, again, shipping is *boo hiss* unless you find a good distributor 🙂
Hi Reagan! Thanks so much for your kind words, it’s always wonderful to know all the hard work I put into my blog is appreciated 🙂 Now, for your questions:
1. I don’t use different pots/bowls for lotions. In fact, now that I’ve chilled out a bit, I’d probably be ok with using the same pot for soaping & souping. Just stay away from aluminium (add lye to aluminum for a caustic metal volcano!), and I’d probably avoid cast iron as the whole benefit of it is that it absorbs oil (which goes both ways, meaning you could end up with bacon scented body butter lol). I just use a small stainless steel pot for most things, and it works brilliantly. Since it sounds like that’s all you have, you should check your local Value Village for a small stainless steel pot for lotions & body butters, but you could still use that pot for cooking with if you wanted to.
2. I have a wooden spoon that I use to stir lye water, but other than that, all my non-wooden utensils do pretty much everything. Wash ’em carefully and thoroughly, and you should be good to go as long as they are non-porous. Most of what we’re working with isn’t flat-out poisonous, it’s just usually not food grade.
3. You won’t need an immersion blender (or arms of steel and a lot of patience) if you choose your recipe carefully. One of my favourite things about my all purpose soap recipe is how quickly it traces, even without an immersion blender 🙂
4. I’ve definitely over-estimated the size of that pot. It’s probably more like 6L, not 12L. A 500g batch of oils + necessary water & lye is about 3cm deep at the bottom of it, and that’s about as small as I’d go. I’ve also made 2000g batches in that pot, and it also works really well. You could use an even smaller pot if you think you’ll only be making smaller batches, of course.
It’s always awesome to meet another Canadian 🙂 My parents are out on Gabriola, so I’ve spent quite a bit of time out there. Whereabouts are you? I keep hearing wonderful things about the Kootenays. I will warn you that shipping from NDA gets quite steep if you’re rural—it’s $10 more for my parents than it is for me in Calgary.
Hello Marie,
I apologize if you’ve received this question repeatedly…..but I’m curious about the temperature at which to combine the oil mixture and the water/lye. Is it necessary to use thermometers and ensure both are 100-110 F? You also mention leaving both for several hours until they’re room temp, which seems easier and requires less equipment. Would that work? Any types of soap it wouldn’t work with?
Thanks very much! You have such a wealth of knowledge!
Hi Leanne! You definitely don’t have to use thermometers and juggle the temperatures of both parts to 110°F before combining. This is how I started, but it is a pain in the arse 😛 I now let everything settle to room temperature before proceeding, and that works brilliantly. The only thing to be aware of is that the soap will take longer to trace when combined at cooler temperatures, so you’ll want to have an immersion blender, especially if you want to bring the soap to quite a thick trace before pouring. As long as you’re making CP soap I can’t think of any recipe this wouldn’t work with, but if you’re working with a recipe that already takes a long time to trace (100% olive oil soap, for example), you may want to go with a 110°F combination temperature so you don’t go stir crazy (haha, punny) trying to get the batch to trace in less than an hour.
Have fun & thanks for DIYing with me!
Thanks so much. Anything that lets me be lazier is great 🙂
Your soap recipes look great! I’d like to try making my own soaps, which is something I’ve never done before. I notice many of your recipes contain tallow or lard, and was wondering what a possible substitute would be? I’m a vegetarian, and don’t use animal products other than milk, so I was hoping you’d have a non-animal sourced suggestion. Thank you for your time!
Hi Raquel! I’m vegetarian as well, and after doing my research I’ve decided that lard & tallow are the most responsible options for soaping. You can read more about that (and alternatives) here 🙂
Awesome, thank you so much for your advice – and quick response!
🙂
Hi Marie! I’ve done a fair amount of lotion/body butter crafting, but I’ve never tried my hand at soap making. I’m curious; would it be possible to use aloe juice or rosewater in place of distilled water when making the lye/water solution? Or might this also erupt into a caustic lye volcano of doom? (Or anything less dramatic but also unpleasant…) I love using those ingredients in lotions and wondered if there’s any way to incorporate them into soap/shampoo bars. Thanks!
Hi Becca! Both of those liquids should be fine—I would recommend freezing half, though—it helps speed along the cooling process, and reduce any reactions. Just be sure to work in a well ventilated area since lye water smells awful enough on its own, and is usually much worse when it’s lye + some other liquid 🙂 Have fun with it!
Thanks very much! I’ve found your website so useful…. there are so many things I never thought to try making! I’ll let you know how it turns out. I really appreciate the advice =]
No worries! Have fun & I can’t wait to hear how it goes 🙂
I have just begun to soap! I love it I find a need to make more even with soaps sitting to dry. I’ve mainly been doing HP. I tried a carrot recently it was a disaster. I believe because I used some Crisco with other oils, not quite sure, tried rebatching 4 times now each time I save a bar to sit, its all been very crumbly, no not lye heavy. I am trying a charcoal next. I will stick with lard. I cannot find palm oil in the stores anyway in Wash. I am only beginning to understand some of the reasons behind oils and hard fats. I’m going to soap until I die!
Ooooh, I know that addiction 😉 I’ve made about 3kg/6lbs of soap in the last 48 hours, lol. I just ran out of lye or I’d be planning my next batches. And yeah, I’d always advise sticking with more natural fats for soaping—Crisco is generally hydrogenated heavens-knows-what (whatever was cheapest at time of manufacture, basically), so it’d be hard to get a reliable SAP value for that. It sounds like you may have a nice cleaning soap at any rate 😉 My ugly ones often get ground up and mixed with washing soda and borax to make a cleaning powder. You simply must try tallow next—it’s just divine 🙂 Thanks for reading & DIYing with me!
I love your page! I can’t wait to try my hand at making my own soap!
Thanks, Zach! Have fun with your homemade soaps & feel free to reach out if you have any questions 🙂
You really set my mind at ease about lye. When I was a very little girl I was babysat by a wonderful older woman who always made homemade soap. (Funny I don’t recall her using goggles or other protective gear…I just remember I wasn’t allowed to get too close when she was making soap) Anyway I have 4 goats that I’m milking now;I don’t want to waste any milk and you can only consume so much yogurt, milk, cheese, custards and gravies! I will be starting to amass the gear I will need to go into this venture. Thanks for breaking it down!
Hi Kristy! I’m glad to hear you’re feeling better about lye 🙂 I find that after umpteenth batches of soap, I tend to ditch most of the protective gear as well, now. I do make a point of wearing clothes I don’t care about too much, but the goggles and gloves usually stay downstairs now.
Your future goat milk soaps sound amazing! I am super envious 🙂 (The cheese, too—if you ever get sick of it, feel free to send some my way!)
Do you use a stainless steel pot? Do you keep your equipment for only soap use?
I use a stainless steel pot (no aluminum, learned that one the hard way lol), and I keep most of my soaping stuff just for soaping. Some things, like cups for measuring out essential oils, are just ones from my kitchen, but my lye jug, thermometers, pot, and spatula are all soap-specific 🙂
Hi Marie,
I ran accross this mushroom soap at Paul Stamets’ Fungi Perfecti website.
http://www.fungi.com/product-detail/product/mushroom-soap.html
Have you ever made soap with mushrooms ?
Very cool! I never have, but what a neat idea—I’ll add it to my “to try” list 😉
Hiya! I would like to know if Hydrogenated Soybean Oil is ok to use in soap making?(if you know what it is) haha I saw a recipe that uses this and I cannot find any info on what it actually is. Do you have any idea? Thankyou
Hi Margaret! Hydrogenated soybean oil is basically soybean oil shortening—soybean oil that’s been hydrogenated so it’s solid instead of liquid. You can use it for soaping as long as you can get a SAP value for it or find a soaping calculator that lists it, and SoapCalc does 🙂
Thanks Marie. I still cannot get my head around using the Soap Calc but I shall keep at it until the light globe flicks on in my brain 🙂
I am sooooo excited Marie! I have found a local butcher who has fresh suet every Friday! Where I live in Tasmania Australia it is very much agricultural so I am guessing the cows are grass fed( you see them roaming in the pasture everywhere). I just went to collect it and he had 4 kg of it bagged up ready for me! So that’s approx 9lbs? I asked how much he wanted for it and he said nothing! He gave it to me for free! I felt like it was Christmas! Haha he also said when I need more to just let him know! Now for some serious Tallow making 🙂
How exciting! Colour me jealous 😉 How did the rendering go?
Have you checked out their directions page?
Hi Marie. The rendering went fantastically well! I only used half of the suet and froze the other half for another day. The amount I did render turned out beautifully golden and then a nice clean white when cold. I used my crock pot and rendered it for a very very long time, checking and stirring it regularly so I could get the last bit of fat from it!
Wonderful! Something you might consider doing is melting down the final, rendered fat and pouring it into an ice cube tray to freeze it in smaller bits. Big frozen hunks can be a bit unwieldy 🙂
That’s a good idea! I shall take that suggestion on board thank you Marie 🙂
🙂
Still loving your blog Marie.
Every time I read about all this rendering I feel very lucky that here in the UK we can just go out and buy refined tallow (dripping) at any supermarket. It’s as cheap as anything and is beautifully white and pure. Maybe you ought to lobby your supermarkets to stock it!
However, the real point of my post is to ask if you still use the thermometer method when making cold process soap because I have thrown mine away (with gay abandon I might add) and now use the room temperature method which works superbly. I’ve not had a failed batch.
This simply involves pouring the lye mixture onto the hard fats; stir briskly and they will dissolve with the heat of the lye. Then, add your liquid oils and simply mix. On average my soap traces in between 5 and 15 minutes depending on the oils etc. but it’s a joy to do and saves faffing about with thermometers!
Hi Helen! You’ve added yet another tally to the “pros” column for moving to the UK 😉
The only thing I use my thermometer for in CP soaping is for stirring, if that 😛 I only soap at room temperature now, and it’s downright brilliant. I don’t do things quite the same way you do (I mix the two parts and let them come to room temperature overnight), but I am downright tempted to try your method ASAP as it sounds awesome!
hi
love your blog great stuff. cant stop reading it LOL. i am very keen to make my own soap but living in france i cant seem to find lye anywhere am getting frustrated as im soooo keen to start but cant without the ingredients, all you guys are so lucky to just be able to buy this stuff from anywhere. its not so easy here you cant get anything being in the country and nothing online – nobody sells it. Anything else other than lye?????????
Hi Michelle! I’ve written a blog on why there’s no such thing as soap without lye… so sadly, no 🙁 I will ask my Facebook audience if they know of anywhere you can get lye in France, though!
The comment is pretty old ad maybe had an answer from FB but I thought I’d leave an answer here anyway for other French people looking for Lye:
You want Soude Caustique pure : NaOH, you’ll find it in the bricolage section of grocery or hardware store.
Leroy Merlin has 1k of Spado Soude for 10.25€ for exemple.
/
Regardez au rayon bricolage d’un grand magasin ou d’un magasin de bricolage et vérifiez que c’est de la soude caustique pure, sans autre produits!
Il existe de la lessive de soude, c’est dilué, il parait que ça fonctionne mais il faut faire les calculs pour prendre en compte la concentration.
/
Marie, you made the whole idea of making your own soap sound so easy and fun that I can’t wait to try myself!
Thanks so much, Carto!
I don’t have an immersion blender, what can I use instead? If I got one would I only be able to use it for making soap?
Hi Amie! There aren’t really any alternatives to an immersion blender. You could try electric beaters, but they aren’t as thorough and I’d be concerned about splattering. If you use my All in One soap recipe it traces fairly quickly without the need of an immersion blender, but you will find you have trouble incorporating clays and other powders smoothly without an immersion blender.
I recommend checking out your local Value Village/op-shop and looking for an immersion blender—they are often available for around $10. If cleaned thoroughly you could use it for food as well.
I absolutely adore your site! It has inspired me to expand my crafting addictions. I supplier of handmade soaps but she switched to noxious perfumes without telling me. Epipen in the shower is awkward to say the least lol.
Today I made 3 different kinds of soap and 3 body butter bars/ salves. My Gran said the minty camphor salve is Better than Rawlleys. This is the highest compliment anything has ever received.
To sum up, I crafting thanks you!
Hi Charity! I’m so thrilled to have pulled you into my wonderful DIY world 🙂 Thanks so much for DIYing with me and keep at it!
Where do you buy your lye i cant find a good kind anywhere
I get mine from Home Hardware, but Saffire Blue (link in the big box above) sells it online 🙂
I didn’t even think about HomeHardware – that’s brilliant Marie. Are lye crystals pretty well universal as far as what you can use in soap, or only certain ones?
will this one work? http://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/index.htm/Indoor-Living/Home-Commercial-Cleaning/Cleaners/Household/Specialty/3kg-Free-Flowing-Lye-Crystals-Cleaner/_/N-2pqfZ67l/Ne-67n/Ntk-All_EN/R-I3226431?Ntt=lye
That’s exactly what I buy! As long as it’s pure NaOH, you’re fine 🙂
Marie,
I’ve become totally addicted to your site… I love all the DIY info and your easy-to-follow instructions. I’ve made four batches of soap and one shampoo bar since I found you in November!
I have a question about storing oils. The link you provide in this post (about.com “Qualities of Soap Making Oils”) is fantastic… but they mention using something called rosemary oleoresin extract as an antioxidant. Do you use it in your oils? Is it really necessary? I’ve bought a supply of oils that were on sale at NDA, Brambleberry, and different soaping sites, but don’t know when I’ll use them. I have a hazelnut oil that I’m saving for just the perfect recipe… I would hate for it to go rancid before I have a chance to use it! I haven’t seen it listed for sale on NDA and just wanted to know if you’ve used it and if you think it’s worth buying.
Thanks for all the great posts!
Robin
Hi Robin! I’ve never added antioxidants to my oils and I’ve yet to have anything go rancid on me. If you suspect something is on the edge, incorporate it into a batch of soap to use it up. I store my oils in a cupboard in my basement where it’s cool and dark, and anything that has a reputation for spoiling quickly (flaxseed oil comes to mind) can be stored in the fridge. Most oils will last at least a year, though 🙂
Marie!
My first batch of soap is sitting doing it’s thing! I did your all-in-one soap recipe with green clay and pine and cedar wood eo’s. Looking forward to seeing what it smells like after curing! 😀
I’m wondering what you do with your plastic lye measuring container after? I ended up squiring it with vinegar and cleaning it thoroughly not wanting to leave stuck in NaOH beads just lying about. :/
And if you don’t have space to leave things to soap, do you just wash with hot water and detergent? (That’s what I assumed…)
I think I need to lay down some sort of drop cloth/newspaper next time, as I ended up with my blender splattering a bit – and hoping I got everything fully cleaned up’s got me a bit twitchy… O.o (This is no surprise. My anxiety about working with chemicals is what took me so long to finally try soap. Needles to say, I did not enjoy highschool chemistry.)
All seems to have gone well though!
Thank you for your thorough instructions and tips!
KM
Exciting! 😀
My lye container usually just gets a quick swish with some water in the sink and left to dry. A few beads of lye won’t make a very strong solution with lots of water, so it’s not much of a worry as it goes down the drain. I also don’t use that container for anything else (it’s usually an old yogurt container or something similar).
And yes, hot water + detergent does a nice job of cleaning up 🙂 I like to use a silicone spatula to make sure I get as much soap out of the bowl and into the mould as possible to reduce clean up.
Don’t worry about the splatters. I remember the same anxiety when I first started (every itch for the next three days must be a chemical burn, right!?). In reality it’s not that big of a deal. Raw soap generally just feels a bit itchy on bare skin and is easily noticed and rinsed off.
Congrats on your first batch!
Hi! I’m curious if the heavy bottomed pot, immersion blender and thermometers should be dedicated to soap making? In other words, once used to make soap, can these items be cleaned and then used to make food?
Hi Marie (another one!) 🙂 I have dedicated versions of all those things, but you could definitely bounce things back and forth. You may want to wait a good 24 hours after soaping to ensure everything’s had a chance to react itself out if it didn’t get cleaned properly, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use one of each for both uses. Just be sure to very thoroughly clean everything 🙂
I just recently found your site and wow, you’re incredible and such an inspiration to start making some of my own products and such! One quick question, what is the soap on the very top of this page? (self cleaning you homemade soap page) It’s incredible gorgeous and hoping you have a recipe for it!
Thanks so much and so thrilled to have found your site!
Hi Jade! Thanks so much for reading 🙂 You won’t find that top soap anywhere on the website, it was a rather bunged up batch/recipe. It photographed well… from that angle 😛 Definitely not worth actually making, though!
HI I was trying to find link to soap mold box . I used to have it saved and now I can’t find it at all. Thank you so much for sharing!!!
Voila 🙂 (also, there’s a search box above my photo in the side bar that’s really good at finding things)
Hey there!
I wanted to make soap for the first time for christmas this year and I was wondering about a few of the ingredients like olive oil
Can I just use regular olive oil? Especially becaue of the smell, as olive oil has quite a strong scent or will the essential oils cover that up?
And is it better to take refined or unrefined oils/fats? (also because of the scent again)
And last but not least: does it matter if I use liquid cocnut oil or would the hard version be better?
Thank you a lot! (:
Hey Hannah! You can use regular olive oil, but it’s pretty expensive, so I’d look for pomace grade, which is cheaper. The scent doesn’t come through. I usually use unrefined butters for soaps, generally tending to whatever is cheaper—again, scent is not really an issue. Maybe with cocoa butter, but you need to use a lot of it (like here). I always use solid coconut oil and have never used fractionated, but if you do, remember that both of them have different SAP values, so calculate your recipe accordingly 🙂
And, last but not least! This is the recipe I’d recommend above all other for your very first batch 🙂 Soap at room temperature (detailed in this post) and you’ll find the whole thing super easy!
Have fun soaping!
Hi Marie,
This post has been so useful!
I haven’t got an immersion blender and have to stir with an egg whisk for about 3~4 hours. Not a big deal as I do it on free nights (while watching a movie and chat), but I think if you are using a whisk then it’s important to be very patient. Just don’t give up and it’ll eventually turn into a thicker mixture!
I made a batch of rose charcoal soap a few weeks ago and it worked out very nicely. Now as this winter is especially humid and rainy, I was wondering if there were any good ways to keep the bars? I now wrap them in re-sealable plastic bags and store them in containers.
Thanks,
Celine
Hi Celine! Thanks for reading & soaping with me 🙂 I don’t deal with humidity at all (hence my love affair with lotions), but I have heard from soapers who live in humid areas that a dehumidifier can come in quite handy. You might look at some silica gel as an alternative; I know my dad uses brick-like bags of it to keep his truck from moulding (literally, haha, he once came back to it after a couple months to find the inside coated in mould).
Thank you, Marie!
It turns out my mum has those little boxes/bags with silica gel beads in them, which she puts in the piano and wardrobes. I think I’ll just use them:)
Thanks again,
Celine
Ooh, handy! I look forward to hearing how that works for you 🙂 Make sure you dry out the silica gel in a low temp oven every so often so it keeps working 😉
Hi Marie!
I came across your page yesterday:0) I am pleasantly surprised by all of the wonderful information on your site. It is really easy to navigate and all of the tutorials are east to follow. It is clear you put a lot of time into this endeavor.
I have looked up different methods of coloring soap and was wondering if you have ever used mineral make-up to color your soap? I have an abundance of baremineral eyeshadows that i will never be able to use up. Thank you for your help!
-Emily-
Hi Emily! Thanks for reading 🙂 I’ve got an article on colouring soaps here. Mineral makeup is usually made from iron oxides and other minerals to keep things silky smooth, so you should be able to use it to colour your soaps. You will likely find you need more than the advised amount for pure oxides, though, since the oxides will be diluted in cosmetics 🙂
Hello! I love your website and blog. Ive found numerous helpful ideas!
I’ve made about six or seven batches of soap. While researching recipes and etc., I came upon a woman’s website (can’t remember what it is any more!) who wrote about making soap. She said that her method differed from the usual and was much easier. Instead of melting the fats and then getting them to the right temperature (which in one of your other posts, seemed like it could take quite a while), she put all of her oils/fats together and then added the lye/water mixture directly to the oils and unmelted fats. She said that this melted the fats and then brought the lye down in temperature and allowed for a normal trace to happen. What are your thoughts on this method? I’m curious and want to try it, but wanted to run it by a more experienced soaper! Let me know what you think and if you try it please!
Thank you! Keep up the wonderful blog and website. Always inspiring!
Hey Shari! I actually just tried this yesterday, and it worked brilliantly 🙂 I’ll talk all about it on the 14th!
Great! Looking forward to the post !!
😉
Hi Marie, I just started reading your blog and love it. My question is this–does the juice jug need to be glass or is plastic ok? I read somewhere else that the temperature of the water/lye mixture could reach 200’F and could that melt the plastic?
Thank you!
Hi Bonnie! Welcome to my blog 🙂 Plastic is totally fine for making your lye mixture, just make sure it’s dishwasher safe. Dishwashers get hotter than lye mixtures usually do, so as long as your jug can tolerate the dishwasher, you’re fine. I use a plastic juice jug I got at Value Village.
It should be fine, then, because I have put it through the dishwasher before. Thanks for responding to me!
Happy soaping! 🙂
I thought you made it yourself “pruttekop”!!!
I’m afraid Google Translate has no idea what “pruttekop” means, so I’m afraid I don’t, either :/
Hi,
I am trying to product the transparency solid soap. Can you help me?
Sorry, I’ve never made transparent soap. I believe it involves alcochol? I suggest doing some googling 🙂 Happy making!
Stumbling on this site has changed my life! I’m working my way up to soap. So far I’ve made your body butter bar and wood polish. Next up is the hibiscus lip tint 🙂
Right now I’m amassing soaping tools. Is there a minimum volume you recommend for a soaping pot? Could a 2 quart Pyrex measuring cup work?
Thanks, Sarah! I’m so happy to hear I’m helping you make all kinds of awesome stuff! I would not use a Pyrex measuring cup for a soaping pot because you cannot put it on the stove (the major advantage of a “pot”!). Mine is probably more like 3–4L in volume, though I’ve definitely used Pyrex measuring cups to mix up individual colours for multi-coloured soaps 🙂
I’ve been making hand creams and lip balm for a few months now, since we got a couple of beehives and I have a surplus of wax. I’d like to try soap next- so glad I stumbled across this blog!!
One question: am I reading the recipe correctly- 30g of essential oil? Is that a whole 30ml bottle? I want to use rose oil but the real stuff is very expensive…
Yes, you are reading that correctly—the rule of thumb for soap is 30g EO to 500g oils. If you don’t use that much, don’t bother using any at all—the saponification process is very hard on EOs, and between that and aging, you need to use that much to have any noticeable scent remaining in the final bars. That high amount is why you won’t find any rose soaps on my blog that would use the real thing—that would be over $300 of EO for 500g of soap!
I’ve bought everything I need to get started, but am I reading the recipe correctly- how much essential oil do you add to a 500g batch? Is it really 30g?
Yes, you are reading that correctly—the rule of thumb for soap is 30g EO to 500g oils. If you don’t use that much, don’t bother using any at all—the saponification process is very hard on EOs, and between that and aging, you need to use that much to have any noticeable scent remaining in the final bars. That high amount is why you won’t find any rose soaps on my blog that would use the real thing—that would be over $300 of EO for 500g of soap!
Also, check this out 🙂
Oops! Sorry for double post 🙂 Thanks for the reply- okay, grapefruit it is then…just waiting for all the ingredients and kit to arrive. Can’t wait! I’m going to try your Christmas bath bombs too. Thank again for such a fantastic website 🙂
I made some!! It was SOOOOO easy! I played around with the soapcalc thing because I didn’t want to beef tallow. I used almond oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, and beeswax. It has set nicely and smells delicious. It looks promising so far and is drying out so I’m hoping the recipe works.
Thanks again- this is so much fun!
Woohoo! The first batch of soap is always so exciting—a bit nerve wracking, but ultimately thrilling when it’s done and you’ve succeeded 🙂 Enjoy it!
Hello! I was wondering if you could recommend a book on soap making. Thank you!
I love your videos!
I don’t actually own any soap making books—I’ve learned entirely online/through experimentation. Anne Marie’s Pure Soapmaking: How to Create Nourishing, Natural Skin Care Soaps looks good, though!
Hi Marie,
Thank you for the recommendation! I’m gathering supplies for my first soap project. I’m very excited about this new venture. Thank you for your soaping videos cause that’s what made me think, I can do this!
Have fun! You’ll be hooked in no time 😉
Hi Marie, would you be able to suggest a nice mold to purchase. I am newbie in soap making and have no idea what is the best for this. I’d like a wooden one though (probably something similar to what your Dad made for you but smaller as just planning to make them for my family. Would you have any idea where to look? There are so many that it’s confusing. And probably I’d need a cutter. Any suggestions appreciated. 🙂 Thank you
Err… well, as somebody who has never had to purchase such a mold, I’m not sure I’m a great person to ask. Crafter’s Choice makes some nice silicone loaf moulds, and Brambleberry has a good selection, though I’ve never ordered from them due to the cross border thing. If you have a good kitchen knife, you don’t need a cutter. I still don’t have one! Just slice it like cheese 🙂
Hi Marie, I’ve been reading and loving your blog and YouTube channel for a while now, and after trying a few of your beautiful recipes, I think it’s time to make some soap. How relevant is it to use food grade lye instead of the common one that you can find easily in a shop? TIA x
As long as it’s pure NaOH, you’re good to go—I get mine at Home Hardware 😛
Hi Marie!
I´ve been watching all your videos during my holidays, just subscribed and received my beginners shopping list; currenyly waiting for my first recipe to arrive. After watching plenty of your recibes (and saving them for when I have more experiencie/money to buy fancy ingrediente) I realised there´s no preservativos, but you must have a reason for it.
–> Comment: Anyway, wanted to say thank you! you are really good on this girl. I can understand and learn from your explanations. The time you invest on how you lay down everything is reflected on the quality of your blog and recipes.
–> Question #1: Also wanted to ask, can I use the same NaOH one will get for a scientific laboratory? (hint I work for one) or could it damage my skin?
–> Question #2: I currently don´t have castor nor avocado oil, however I do have almond oil. I read on your substution site avocado and castor are slow to absorb and almond is mid-range to absorb so, do you think I could use it? … also as I´m from Costa Rica and my flat is at a warm city I really really hope the bars don´t need to be store at the freedge!
Anyway, I´m REALLY excited!!! got all my beginners ingredients, although getting some stuff in Costa Rica is really difficult and/or complicated but I´m trying to properly understand what each ingredient do so maybe I can swap for something else.
Happy New Year to you and all the subscribed bees!! Can´t put in words how excited I am!!
Will come back soon with the results for my first recipes.
Hi Marie, I’ve been following you for quite a while and have used many of your recipes to make cosmetics, thank you for being such a wonderful source of inspiration. I have a problem I hope you can give some advice on. Have you ever had an infestation of mites on your bars of soap? I left my freshly made bars of soap to cure on top of a kitchen cupboard, and three weeks later found hundreds of microscopic white mites happily living on them! I eventually found they had come from the onions I had picked from my garden which I had left on the kitchen table, but how they managed to get up to the top my kitchen cupboard I don’t know. Anyway, I’ve made soap three times before and never had this issue. I put my soap in the sun for a few days, and the mites have started dying in the light it seems. I wonder if you’ve had this kind of problem before, how common is it and how you resolved it? I am worried about the bugs digging holes into my soap and eating it! Thanks for your help 🙂
Hey Marion! I’m afraid I haven’t had that issue with soap, though (touch wood) mites aren’t really an issue where I live at all. I also have never heard of it or read about it. I know my mother has reported that mice will eat the soap she leaves in her outdoor shower in BC, and my dog has definitely tried a bit in the past, but that’s it 😛
It sounds great! Followed your advice and recently made my first soap! Thought I’ll make you cocoa one next, so it’s going to be ready for Valentine’s Day x
Oooh, lovely! I can’t believe you’re already thinking about Valentine’s Day… meanwhile I’m sitting here figuring Christmas is still a good three months off lol!
Soap making appeals to me, but I am allergic to coconut, olive, avocado, palm, sunflower, and cotton seed oils. What can I use and in what ratio to make decent soap?
You can use babassu instead of coconut, and lard/tallow instead of palm. Olive, avocado, sunflower, and cotton seed oils aren’t particularly special/necessary for soap making—check out rice bran oil 🙂