A Soap Making Craze

Maybe if I stay busy enough I won’t spend time wondering if I’m sad enough. Isn’t that weird? You all are so kind to me; thank you thank you thank you. I haven’t even deleted any emails yet; rereading your words and hymns is a great comfort. So, I’ve been on a soap making craze, and for the you-know-who’s in my life who want PICTURES and DIRECTIONS, here they are 🙂 Well, sort of. You have to get your own recipe.

Making soap is a little like making spaghetti. Every woman has her “own way” of “how it’s supposed to be done”. This is just how I’ve done it, and believe me, I’m no expert. But I am, however, a woman with lots of soap curing in my basement! There are a lot of soap recipes to choose from, but the basics are relatively the same. I’m going to show you the basics, and you can use whatever recipe you want.

The first thing I do is prepare my mold because then I won’t forget about doing it and panic when I have a pot of hot caustic soap to pour and nothing ready. My husband and son made wooden soap molds for me in 1lb, 2lb, and 4lb sizes. I like using wood because it absorbs the heat, but you can use glass or stainless steel containers or even clean milk cartons. Don’t use aluminum, though, because it can react to the lye. I like to line my molds with freezer paper (shiny side is soap side), but you could just use some sort of grease or whatnot. I like the paper because it gives me something to grab to pull my soap out with. Don’t use foil, though (aluminum…). I try to smooth the paper out so there aren’t a lot of creases, but I’m not too finicky. Does this sound complicated already? I hope not!

If I’m going to put in any textures like ground oatmeal or scents like lavender or colorants, I set those things up and have them at the ready to pour right where I’ll be mixing everything. That way I don’t have to stop to take off a lid at the point when everything’s moving quickly.

Next, I weigh my fats and oils. I love my digital scale! It’s so accurate and easy to use. Whatever fats and oils your recipe calls for, use. DON’T substitute until you are ready to come up with new recipes (using things like lye calculators), because different fats act and react differently. So find a recipe that uses ingredients you either have on hand or are willing to buy…some of which is cheap and some of which is definitely not. Different fats/oils have different lathering and moisturizing qualities, so you’ll just have to experiment to find what you like.

After weighing my fats and oils, I melt them gently over the stove top. You could use a microwave (carefully), but I wouldn’t want to use a microwave for at least a dozen reasons, including not being able to watch my melting. As soon as everything’s melted together, I turn off the heat and let it cool to about 100 degrees. I use a meat thermometer to gauge the temperature.

Now it’s time to mix the second batch: the liquid and the lye. A stainless steel pot (never aluminum…which you shouldn’t be using in your kitchen anyway, IMHO) cools down pretty quick so that is what I use. In this picture I used coffee because I was making a coffee soap for the kitchen. Always use distilled water as your base, whether you’re using it plain, or making a tea (or coffee!) for soap. Do NOT substitute dairy milk for your liquid; making milk soap entails specially preparing the milk (not horribly hard, but another step.) Again, weigh your water and then weigh your lye separately. When you are ready to add your lye to water (NEVER the other way around), PUT ON YOUR GOGGLES AND GLOVES. Once lye mixes with water it heats up very fast (like to 200 degrees!). Keep a window open (it will be gassy) and keep the children A-W-A-Y. As soon as the lye dissolves into your liquid (stir), put the pot into an ice bath to get it cooling. You want to bring the solution down to a range close to your fats temperature, 100 degrees. And don’t stress about using lye. Yes, it’s dangerous but so is bleach and gasoline and poopy diapers. Be smart about your movements (that is, pay attention) and wear those gloves and goggles.

Once the temperature has hit about 100 degrees, it’s time to mix the two batches together. Carefully pour the liquid/lye mix into the fats pot. And please make sure your immersion blender is IMMERSED before starting it up. Keep the thermometer in the pot and blend blend blend until it begins to thicken and the temperature goes up a couple of degrees. It can take like five or more minutes, but don’t be discouraged! In this picture it was just about ready; you can even see the “trace” which is the track the blender leaves as it moves in the pot. I like to blend on the floor because it gives me greater control.

After it’s ready (that is, the mix has moved up a couple of degrees in temperature), then is when I add my pretties: textures bits, scents, colors. I prefer a more natural product (that’s no surprise, huh?!) so I don’t use soap colorants, and I do use essential oils. For a one pound batch of soap, I use about 1/4 oz of essential oil (that’s like half a bottle!). For textures, I just sort of eye it and add about 1/3 cup or more until I like what I see. I blend the goodies in just until it’s mixed, really a few seconds. Don’t take too long because it will just be that much harder to get it all out.

It’s time to pour! I use a plastic spatula to get it all out. And yes, I use my regular kitchen ware for everything. I figure that’s what dishwashers are for, and I’ve never had a problem washing everything well. My friend used a baking dish, lined with freezer paper. Put your poured soap in a safe place where little hands (and bigger husbands) can’t bump into them.

After pouring it’s time to wash. And yes, keep those gloves and goggles on!!! You do not want lye-anything to splatter anywhere (it will burn but just rinse with water if you get some on your skin). After everything’s cleaned up, you are done for the day!

Find something else to do…

The next day, it’s time to cut soap! Put those gloves back on! Here is a handy-dandy cutter the men in my life made for me. I just pulled out my soap from the mold and then set it in the cutter, and used my bread scraper to cut.

Psssst. You don’t need a special cutter. You could even use a knife. In this picture you can see the soap is still a bit soft; I think it’s because of the coffee, but I don’t know. It still worked though. And you can smooth out the edges a bit with your gloved fingers at this time, too, if you have pokey edges.

Find a safe place to cure your soap (away from little hands…). You could use cookie cooling racks but whatever you use won’t be available for about a month. I use old trays and paper sacks as a liner, recording the kind and date. I flip my soap every few days or so. You can see how it’s drying already. The longer you cure your soap, the harder it will get. You can buy ph strips to see if your soap is “for sure” ready (that is, the lye is completely finished and won’t burn)…but I usually wait at least a month and go with it. I’ve never had a problem (not that there’s never a first…).

So here is all of my soap! Top left is 4lbs of rosemary shampoo bars, and underneath that is a pound of kelp/bay/peppermint/tea tree. Top right is a pound of oatmeal/calendula/chamomile/beeswax/honey. Right middle is a pound of coffee/cocoa (with coffee grounds, too!), and on the bottom right is lemon/lemongrass/lemon peel/poppyseed. And no, I’m not that creative. I just looked around websites that were selling soap and thought, “hey! That sounds like a good flavor! I’ll do that!” I don’t like using colorants, but you can see that just the additives alone colored the soaps nicely.

That’s it! If you’re new (or even not) to soap making, I recommend my very favorite soap making book ever; totally easy to understand and use:

Understand though, that making soap is a bit like making spaghetti…and you will find your own personal style and way of making it work. I, however, am done with soap for a while. Which is a good thing, because now I’m in the mood to make beauty products as my homemade moisturizer is almost out. Calendula is currently steeping in almond oil…and I am keeping busy.

May the Lord bless you,