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<\/a><\/p>\nWhat is the difference between handcrafted soap and soap that you buy from the grocery store?<\/h3>\n
There are two main differences between handcrafted soap and soap you can buy from the grocery store. Soap at the grocery store usually is made with synthetic surfactants (sometimes along with saponified oils). These synthetic surfactants can sometimes be irritating to the skin. There is also a move towards natural. Handcrafted soap is considered more of a \u201cnatural\u201d product than soap you find in the grocery store such as dove, dial, zest\u2026etc.<\/p>\n
Soap is composed of salts of fatty acids and glycerin which resulted from the saponification of oils and lye. Commercial soap manufactures will often times remove or \u201csalt out\u201d the glycerin from their soap and sell it or use it in other products. Handmade soap retains its natural glycerin adding to the emolliency of the bar.<\/p>\n
Why do people make their own soap?<\/h3>\n
1. To control what goes into the soap<\/p>\n
2. Making soap can be an artistic and therapeutic outlet<\/p>\n
3. Satisfaction from making something with your own two hands<\/p>\n
Let’s talk about safety.<\/h3>\n
When handling lye always wear safety goggles and gloves. It is even a good idea to wear long sleeves to protect your arms from splashes.<\/p>\n
When handling lye you must make sure your environment is free from distractions including pets, children and other family members. Always add your lye to the water- NEVER add your water to the lye or a volcanic eruption can occur. Make sure you mix your lye in a well ventilated area as it does let off fumes when first mixed with water. I personally mix mine on the stove with the vent turned on or outside. Some people choose to mix in their sink with a window open.<\/p>\n
The utensils, dishes, containers, pots, etc. that you use with your cold process soaps should not be used for regular use such as cooking or storing food. Keep your soap making supplies separate.\u00a0 Do not use aluminum or nonstick surfaces as they will react with lye. Stick with stainless steel, heavy duty plastics and silicone\u00a0to be on the safe side.<\/p>\n
Let’s make soap!<\/h3>\n
Get all of your supplies ready.\u00a0 I like to cover the surface (table) that I’m working on with a plastic table cloth.\u00a0 This helps to catch any splashes or spill I might have.\u00a0 You can also use plastic trash bags.<\/p>\n
You’ll need to decide which mold to use.\u00a0 My favorite mold for round soap is a pvc pipe.\u00a0 You can get pvc pipe from most any home improvement store.\u00a0 When I use pvc I don’t line it (although some people do) or “treat” it with anything for easy soap removal.\u00a0 You can find caps for the pvc.\u00a0 I also like to put a piece of tape to seal up any bottom seams that might leak.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Recipe:<\/h3>\n
Palm oil – 8 oz<\/p>\n
Coconut oil – 6 oz<\/p>\n
Olive oil – 6 oz<\/p>\n
Shea butter – 1 oz<\/p>\n
Castor oil – 1 oz<\/p>\n
Water – 7 oz<\/p>\n
Lye – 3.1 oz<\/p>\n
This recipe uses 22 oz of oils and will make 2 pounds of finished soap.<\/p>\n
Step 1<\/strong> – Measure out your water – you want to use distilled or bottled water. Some tap water can contain metals and minerals that react with the lye in your soap leaving specks and dots.\u00a0 Place your empty container onto the scale and hit tare.\u00a0 This will zero out the scale.\u00a0 Pour water into your container until you reach the needed amount.\u00a0 Remove this container and put it to the side.<\/p>\n Step 2<\/strong> – Measure out your lye.\u00a0 Gear up in your goggles and gloves before you handle the lye.\u00a0 Place an empty container onto the scale and hit tare to zero it out.\u00a0 Measure out your needed lye and put away your unused lye.<\/p>\n Step 3<\/strong> – Pour your lye into the water and stir.\u00a0 It is very important that you pour the lye into the water and not the water into the lye.\u00a0 Remember…snow falls on the lake…lye falls on the water.\u00a0 Use either a stainless steel spoon or a silicone utensil to stir.\u00a0 Stir it…let it sit until it becomes clear (5-10 minutes)\u00a0then stir again to make sure all of the lye is dissolved.\u00a0 It will fume…so stand back while stirring and stir in a well ventilated area.<\/p>\n Your lye solution will heat up to 190-240 degrees depending on the temp of your initial water.\u00a0 I like to use cold distilled water for making the lye solution.\u00a0 This\u00a0helps keep the temp down a bit.\u00a0 Set your lye solution to the side to cool down.<\/p>\n Step 4<\/strong> – Measure out your hard oils and melt.\u00a0 You can either use the microwave to melt your oils of if you’re doing a big batch – melt the oils in a stainless steel pot on the stove.\u00a0 Use low-med heat.\u00a0 Place your container onto the scale and hit tare to zero the scale.\u00a0\u00a0Weigh out the first oil.\u00a0 Hit tare again\u00a0to zero out the scale.\u00a0 Measure out the next oil.\u00a0 Do this for each of the hard oils\/butters.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Melt the oils just until melted and not longer.\u00a0 If you’re using the recipe in this tutorial you’ll need to melt the coconut oil, palm oil and shea butter.<\/p>\n Step 5<\/strong> – Once your solid oils and butters are melted add your liquid oils.\u00a0 This will be the olive oil and the castor oil.\u00a0 You can measure these directly into the melted hard oils or you can measure them out into a separate container and then add to the hard oils.\u00a0 Place your container on the scale and hit tare to zero out the scale.\u00a0 Measure your first liquid oil.\u00a0 Hit tare again and measure the next liquid oil until all of the liquid oils are measured out.\u00a0 Combine the liquid and melted oils if you used separate containers.<\/p>\n Step 6<\/strong> – Add your fragrance oil to the melted oils.\u00a0 If you’re using a fragrance oil use .7-1 oz per pound of oils.\u00a0 If you’re using an essential oil the amount to use varies greatly but a good starting range is .5-.7 oz\u00a0per pound of oils.\u00a0 We have 22 oz of oils which equals 1.375 pounds of oil.\u00a0 So for fragrance oils use about 1 oz – 1.3 oz and for essential oils use .65 – 1 oz for this recipe.<\/p>\n Step 7<\/strong> – We’re almost ready to make soap but before we do…let’s make sure we have everything ready.\u00a0 Make sure your mold and any additives or colorants are ready to go.\u00a0\u00a0I want to color half of my soap with rose clay.\u00a0 When working with clays be sure you hydrate the clay beforehand by adding water to the clay.\u00a0 I used about 1\/4 teaspoon rose clay and added about a tablespoon of distilled water to hydrate.<\/p>\n Step 8<\/strong> – It’s time to make soap.\u00a0 Gear up in your goggles and gloves!<\/span>\u00a0 If you don’t want to wear goggles please choose another hobby.\u00a0 I’ll occasionally not wear gloves and if I get a splash it is easily rinsed away under the faucet.\u00a0 But I never\u00a0forgo\u00a0goggles.\u00a0 It takes just one splash of lye solution in your eye to cause blindness or other permanent damage.<\/p>\n Take the temps of your lye solution and melted oils.\u00a0 I like\u00a0both to be between 100 and 120 degrees F.\u00a0 They do not have to\u00a0be the same temp…just both in that range.\u00a0 Once you get a bit more experienced you probably won’t need a thermometer.\u00a0 You’ll be able to feel the side of the container and tell if it’s in that range.<\/p>\n If your temps are\u00a0within range\u00a0pour the lye solution carefully into the oils.\u00a0 Be aware of splashes when doing this.<\/p>\n Step 9<\/strong> – Time to mix using a stick blender.\u00a0 Make sure the bell of your blender is completely submerged in the mixture.\u00a0 Tilt the blender to the side to “burp” out any air that might be trapped beneath.\u00a0 Turn on the stick blender and mix using 4-6 second bursts.\u00a0 We’ll mix until we see a light trace.<\/p>\n Almost there but not quite.\u00a0 You can still see streaks of non emulsified oils floating on top.<\/p>\n And here we have trace.\u00a0 The mixture is consistent in color.\u00a0 You don’t have any oil streaks on top and the mixture looks well emulsified.\u00a0 If you\u00a0drizzle soap on top it stays for just\u00a0a second before\u00a0flattening back into the mixture.<\/p>\n I wanted to color half of this batch with rose clay so I separated out half, added the rose clay and mixed it up.<\/p>\n Once I got that mixed up I drizzled it back into the main container.\u00a0 Don’t mix it.\u00a0 When you pour it into the mold it will swirl the soap!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n