Soap Making 101

[me&thegals]

I did it! My first batch of soap! Well, I hope it is soap. Just to learn h ow to do it, I used olive oil and crisco because I had them both on hand. Ran it through the soapcalc lye calcualtor, and jumped in. I think the only thing I forgot was to grease the molds before I poured the soap in. It may be challenging to get the bars out. :/

Now I have ordered scented oils in a sampler size to try. I can't imagine you need a lot of scented oil- do you calculate it in? The samples come in 1 ounce size- wt or fluid ounce I don't know. Is that enough to scent a small batch (1 pound total fat is what I am using to try and learn with.)?

Good for you!!!

I hope someone more experienced will jump in, but I think the amount of scenting oil needed depends on a couple things: Size of batch, obviously; method of soaping used (hot process, cold process, melt and pour...) and if this is a fragrance oil or essential oil.

I'll try to look it up again, but I thought I read a guideline of 1 oz of essential oil per pound of soaping oil in cold-process soap.

Edited because I mixed up valmom with noobie

 

[me&thegals]

Sodium lardate is saponified pig fat
Back when we first started talking about doing soaps, my BFF did some research on it (a lot more than me) she didn't want to put lard on the labels either. So that is what we were going to use.

At first I laughed, thinking you were kidding. Now I think you're serious! Hmmm... this is a tough decision...

I really am serious! Just google it, you'll see. Tallow is Sodium Tallowate.Here's a link to a bunch of techie terms.

I'm circling around my oils & lye, still trying to work up the nerve to just try it, dang it! I've read until I think my eyes are going to fall out, I have several basic recipes, I have a good book, a stick blender, molds. Just do it, girl!

I was laughing about this with DH last night. It's like a Pig Latin way of sneaking the word "lard" into the ingredient list: sodium lardate.


So, noobie, jump on it!! The water is great!

Seriously, just pick a simple, small recipe and do it. If I can, you definitely can. My one soaping book has a boatload of 1-oil recipes, or even just plain 2- and 3-oil recipes. Would you like me to post some?

I started with 1-oil recipes and just dumped each batch in a custard cup. It built my confidence and got me started in understanding the process without wasting too many ingredients in case of a severe screw up. It teaches you a lot in a short time, few ingredients.

After that, it's been whole hog. Five batches of 12-24 bars each on my "curing" table, and they all turned out great! Now I sit at my desk (while working) and fantasize up all sorts of new recipes. Can't wait to try another EIEIO soap with more egg yolks, goat's milk, beeswax, cornmeal, etc.

You can do it!!

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Pig latin, yep! Everything just adds "ate" to it
I've got several recipes, but most of them are multi-oil, so sure! Especially if you have one that is extra simple
I dunno, just putting it off cause I'm nervous about the lye, I guess. Or screwing up.

I have a ton of soybean "Vegetable oil" that has been languishing in my cupboard for several months. Maybe 30 ounces or more.
Plus I have 16 ounces each of palm & coconut and I can get olive anytime.

I have nothing to can & nowhere to go this weekend. Perfect time to start

 

[me&thegals]

Here's the 5-oz Experimental Bar recipe. I'm going to use this one when I want to try out new things. Not much loss of ingredients that way. Plus, I want to learn how to "rebatch" when things don't go well. Anyway, here it is:

16.8 grams lye
45.4 grams distilled water
42.2 grams olive oil
36.2 grams coconut oil
42.2 grams palm oil

Fats and oils: 90-120 degrees
Lye solution: 90-120 degrees

Very carefully add the lye to your water. Mix until well blended. Set aside to cool. Gently heat (I use microwave) oils until coconut and palm are melted. Let cool to suggested temp range. Slowly add the lye solution to the oils. Whisk, stir or stick blend, etc., etc.


Single-Oil Soap
1.5 oz water
0.5 oz lye
desired oil (see below)

soy oil: 3.75 oz
coconut: 2.75 oz
olive: 3.75 oz
palm oil (not palm kernel):3.75 oz.
palm kernel: 3.25 oz

Place the water in a small heatproof measuring cup. Add the lye and stir until it is dissolved. Warm the oil over hot water or in the microwave. When both solutions reach 110 F, slowly and carefully pour the lye solution into the oil. Stir the small batch to trace and pour into a tiny mold. Tiny is relative, of course. My custard cups worked perfectly.


As for lye, per FC's suggestion (or somebody's), I keep a spray bottle of vinegar right next to me, don't wear gloves (I just don't have any yet) and spray my hands with vinegar when I get splashed. I ALWAYS have goggles on, though.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Thank you! That single oil is a nice easy recipe. Thanks for the tip on the vinegar, I think I saw that in Fight Club Of course, I think about that movie everytime I think about soakmaking

I think one more thing too. I'm going to have to get a better scale if I decide I want to do this more.

 

[okiegirl1]

yep, I keep a jugo of vinegar next to the sink. If I get raw soap on my hands or anywhere else, I just pour vinegar on it and wash.

Also, I pour vinegar in my pots that have raw soap before I wash.

 

[Mackay]

Compared to all you guys my little experiment seems cowardly!
But I got a bar of Dr Bronners Lavender scented castile soap with hemp oil, (and other nice oils) and per instructions from this forum, I grated it up and dissolved it in hot water. The next day I had just really fine liquid soap. I threw the trash out of my store bought soap pump and everyone really likes it. So for about $2.25 I got a gallon of liquid soap.

 

[me&thegals]

That's great! My son was resting his dirty shoes on my soap molds (full of new soap), so I made liquid soap with a bunch of the trimmings, too. It's getting a little "snotty" in texture, but it's just for cleaning eggs anyway.

I love Bronner's soap! Just don't EVER get the liquid peppermint variety in your eyes. Oh my goodness. I was using it for shampoo and the suds rinsed into my eyes. Wow.

 

[Yaklady]

Wow. Well, I just read every single post on here from start to finish. I've toyed around with the idea of making soap since we moved onto our farm this past May. We raise Tibetan Yak, amongst other things. Come Spring, I'll have Yak milk, yak fat (from processed carcasses), sheep milk, sheep fat, chicken eggs, duck eggs, etc. Not many people in the USA have yaks right now. Of those who do, not many actually milk their yaks (they're fuel efficient animals, and do not produce much milk-they also have very small teats). I could definitely offer a unique product. I've never made soap, though, and really don't know how to start. I grew up in Oklahoma on a cattle ranch, and I remember my great grandmother actually making soap from ashes from our woodburning stove. I have a woodburning stove, and lots of ashes. Does anyone still do that?

 

[me&thegals]

Hey, Yaklady--Welcome! Another midwesterner Are you as bitter cold over there in MI as were here in WI?

Sounds like you would have some really unique products for soaping. I have a recipe that uses animal milk AND egg yolks--sounds perfect for your farm!

As for making lye from scratch, I hope someone else answers this one. I have just noticed that most "modern" recipes are for factory-made lye. I don't know the specifics, but I know the homemade is different than factory made chemically.

I have found thedishforum.com to be really helpful as well as the books The Everything Soapmaking Book and another that I can't think of the name of right now, but it sounds like you would want to find books geared more towards homemade lye and animal fats and products. Good luck!