I am looking forward to trying to make my own soap tomorrow.
The first thing I did was investigate what is ‘Natural’ Soap? Here is what I found:
“Making natural soap means avoiding the use of any ingredients that could be toxic or are manufactured in ways that use questionable substances or methods. This means that I personally don’t use artificial dyes, perfumes, or additives in my own soap.”
So it is safe for everyone in the family to use – even my old dog “Alfie”
Secondly I looked for a beginners recipe I could try. Found a great one at http://thethingswellmake.com. Here it is!
Ingredients for soap making:
500 g extra virgin olive oil
100 g coconut oil
10 g lavender essential oil
80 g lye
195 g water
Instructions
Mix your lye into your water (Not the other way around!!!). Do this in a recipient that can handle heat; I used a glass bowl. It is best to do this step outside so that you don’t fill your house with the fumes. Try not to breath them in!! Once the lye has dissolved, leave the mix to cool in an area where no kids or pets have access to it!!!
Meanwhile, you can weigh and mix your olive and coconut oils. I mixed them in a large, glass bowl with room for adding and mixing the other ingredients.
After the lye mixture has cooled a bit, bring it back inside and pour into your oil mix. Mix them together gently at first.
Once your lye mix has been incorporated into your oils, you can start to blend them with a hand blender. Be careful not to spray the mixture all over!! I blended mine in the bottom of my sink, and distanced myself as much as the blender would allow, just in case!! You can do this step by hand, but it supposedly will take a very long time.
When your mixture starts to thicken like mayonnaise, after a few minutes, you are at the stage that is called “trace.” That is what you want!!!
Mix in your essential oils.
Pour into soap molds. (I used a silicone pan and some plastic containers. It’s a good idea to oil the plastic containers beforehand to prevent sticking.)
Cover and set aside for at least 24 hours. It will probably get warm. If you cover it with a cloth to keep the warmth in, it supposedly contributes to the quality of the soap. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I did it anyway. 🙂
After 24 hours, uncover and see if you can unmold it. If it is too soft, wait a few more hours and unmold. You can put it in a cold place to help shrink it a little to help the process out. Don’t wait too long or it will be too hard to easily cut into bars.
Cut into bars. I like the look of big, chunky square-ish bars. The nice thing about making your own, is that you can decided how you want to cut them.
Let set for around a month, turning every day or two at first, and then every week later on. This is to let your soap dry out and harden.
I shall let you know if it works!!
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