Making Soap?

Question

I need to make soap. I need to know a recipe that says everything I need to know including the amount of ingredients, the materials, and how I will have to make the soap. The recipe should preferably have lye as an ingredient, but lye crystals are okay. Also, if you are going to give a link, don't give anything confusing. Also, can you say a place where lye can be bought in Rockford, Illinois? Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Recipes

How to Make Cold Process Soap

Making soap base is a cumbersome task, however, it is so rewarding to change the nature of natural things. What once was fat, water and lye turns into a beautiful, rich and creamy soap! This method is going to appeal only to the alchemist, or the pseudo chemist type of person. If you can't make brownies from a box mix turn out right, you'd better go to the Shredded Soap page and order some soap shreds instead of attempting to make it yourself.

Equipment you need:
An accurate scale , it needs to weight down to 1/10th of an ounce
A stainless steel pot or enamel painted pot
A plastic or stainless steel spoon
2 Rubber Maid Plastic Pitchers, at least one needs the lid.
(make sure you write "LYE & Dangerous" all over the pitchers)
Rubber gloves
Goggles to protect your eyes
A heavy Apron
A thermometer which reads as low as 90 degrees and higher than 200.
A stick Blender (used for making milk shakes in a glass)
A corrugated box, approximately 8"x8"x9"
A small size plastic trash can liner.
OR instead of a the box method, enough SoapCrafters.com Molds to hold Seven Pounds of soap

Supplies you will need :
(All ingredients are weighed, even the water)
11.2 ounces of lye. (I use Red Devil brand, you can get this in the drain opener section of your supermarket)
32 ounces of water
1 Pound of Olive Oil (any type will do, the cheaper the better)
3 Pounds of Lard
1 Pound of Coconut Oil (76 degree)
1.4 ounces of Soap Crafters Fragrance

Directions:
Put on your gloves and goggles. Read the warning label on the lye. It is a caustic and dangerous substance. It makes wonderful soap, but it is not your friend as it will burn a hole in you.

The first thing you need to do is put your scale in your sink, place the empty container on it, THEN turn on the scale, THEN start pouring your water in.



Weigh 32 ounces of COLD water in a plastic container. Never use hot water to mix with lye, it will volcano!


Very slowly, pour the lye into the cold water. Make sure you leave everything in the sink. It is safer that way. Lye has a lot of static cling, so spills are easy to do.

You'll notice the lye reacts with the cold water and it gets very hot. It'll also give off a gas, that's why you should be outside. Don't breathe the fumes. When it is stirred, put the cap on the lye solution and bring it back inside.

Let your lye sit in a safe place (out of the reach of everyone including pets) until it cools off to room temperature. This will take two to three hours.

You can make this lye solution the day before. Lye solution is a very dangerous substance, it can cause death if ingested. Make sure everyone in the house knows what it is and it is not to be touched.

When the lye gets back down to room temperature you're ready to start making your soap, start weighing out your fats.
Put your weighed fats into a stainless steel container or porcelain (enamel) painted pot.

Put the pot full of fats on the stove. Heat on the stove, stirring often. Keep a close eye on it because it reaches temperature somewhat quickly. Stir well before taking its temperature. You're looking for a temperature between 120 and 130 degree Fahrenheit.

Always wear your gloves and goggles when working with the lye!
Always clean your thermometer before using it.

When your fats reach between 120-130 degrees Fahrenheit, put your pot in your sink. If you made the lye solution the day before, it is now at room temperature. Put on your gloves and goggles. Very carefully and slowly pour the lye solution into the fats.
Use a large spoon (slotted spoon works best) to stir it in. Hold your head back while pouring to avoid any splash back getting you. In this photo we are adding the lye solution to the fats.


Once the lye solution is mixed in, (a couple of minutes), use the stick blender, use it off and on (continuous use will blow it up, I know). Blend for a minute, stir with a spoon for a minute, that kind of thing. You should come to a very thick soap with this equipment, probably in about 5 minutes
You will see changes in your creation. It will immediately start to become more opaque. It will become thicker and more opaque as time goes on. This is the mixture changing into soap.

The lye, water and fats are turning into something completely different. SOAP! If you weighed accurately and had your temperatures accurate, then the bowl the mixture is in will stay warm to the touch.
If you don't have a stick blender, you can stir with that spoon for about 1-1/2 hours. A stick blender costs about $20 or less, I highly recommend it. Your wrist will thank you!


Stick blenders do have their disadvantages, they tend to give a soap that's done being stirred, but it is still so raw, the soap may burn your skin. When I used to hand stir, I didn't have this problem. But it really isn't much of problem. You should be using gloves!
Stick blenders also tend to cause overheating of the soap from time to time. But this really isn't much of a problem unless you really overdo the mixing.


After one hour of stirring, (If you're using a stick blender, this point will happen about five minutes into stirring), you'll notice that if you drop some of the mixture from your spoon onto the surface, that it kind of dents the surface. It looks very thick and this particular recipe that you're making has a light tan color.
Now is the time to use your stick blender to stir in the SoapCrafters Colorant if you are using one.

Stir in your weighed SoapCrafters Fragrance that is cold process certified.Do this with a spoon, do not use a stick blender to stir in fragrance.
Immediately pour your soap into your molds. The molds we sell at SoapCrafters.com do not need any oil or grease on them. :)


Let it sit undisturbed in a warm room for 24 hours. As the chemical reaction is taking place it generates heat. If you put your hand on the side of the box in about 1 hour, you will feel its warmth.

Twenty-four hours are up. HURRAY! It should still be a little warm to the touch. You can now remove your bars from the mold! They should just pop right out. If you have to struggle, then put the mold in the freezer for 3 hours. Take it out and use a blow dryer on the back of the mold. When condensation forms, it will slip right out.

If you used the box for a mold, just pull the plastic liner out of the box, remove it from the soap and cut into bars.

The soap should have a nice, solid consistency. It may be a little oily to the touch. But it should be the same texture throughout. It will resemble a cheese, like monterey jack, and have a similar texture.

If you are going to melt the soap, now it is ready for shredding. If you're not going to melt it, just cut into bars and let the bars cure for 4 weeks or more for the best soap. You can use it in a day or two, but a well cured soap lasts so much longer and has better lather. So go ahead and use a bar, but let all the other bars dry in the open air for over a month.

To be sure that your soap making project went well, purchase some ph testing papers from SoapCrafters.com. A good soap will fall in the 7-9 category. A successful batch does not burn the skin in use. It is rich, bubbly, creamy soap that is extremely gentle to the skin. The reason I give this recipe is that it is the only soap that I can use on my overly sensitive skin. It keeps me from scratching all winter long. :) If you're seeking out soap making, I'm guess you're having problems with the detergent bars/harsh soaps in the store too! So enjoy!

Notes
When your soap is almost thick enough and you're hand stirring, now is the time to weigh out your essential oil in a very small bowl (not a plastic one because the essential oils will mar it) or shot glass. You want to weigh this now, because if you had weighed it before all that stirring, you're missing some of it. Pure essential oils are not stable. They evaporate away rather quickly. So weigh your essential oil or fragrance and pour it into your mixture. Stir well with a spoon. A stick blender used to stir in scenting material may seize your batch of soap! (If you will be using this soap for soap crafting, do not add any essential oil nor fragrance.)

If you'd like to avoid that white powder that forms on top of soap, you can put a layer of plastic wrap right on top of the soap. It needs to be touching the soap. That way the air won't react with the soap making what we call 'soda ash'. But that step isn't necessary, you can just scrape that white powder off when the soap is done. This step can also cause soap to overheat in the molds.

Overheated soap has a bit of a rind appearance around the edges. You probably wouldn't notice it unless you cut into the soap. Overheating is also the main cause of a soap's scent disappearing. The soap can sour up to 200 degrees in the mold due to insulating it and this will cook your fragrance or essential oils. Many people who have instructions on the internet mistakenly think this 'gel stage' is a disirable event, it is not. Originally it was talked about in Liquid Soapmaking by Catherine Failor. She was discussing a HOT process of soap making. Cold process soap making should not go through this stage. If your soap overheats, then remove whatever insulation you have on it and move it to a cooler spot. The soap is still great to use, it just has lost it's scent typically and has a rind appearance in the soap.

The most common problems
There are no "air bubbles" in soap usually, but a stick blender can actually cause little tiny empty holes in the soap. If you have bubbles in your soap, and there is liquid in them then they are really lye pockets and this is not safe to use. You might be able to save it by crafting it.

If there are tiny pin holes with no liquid in them through the texture of the soap, these are caused by overstirring with a stick blender. They are nothing to be concerned about. :)

Gone Cold.: If your soap goes cold during the first 24 hours or turns to mush, you probably lost the saponification process. There can be a lot of reasons for this. Your weights of oils, or lye may have been off causing a bad batch and Mother Nature shut down your operation. Or your temperature was not high enough with the fats and it just lost temperature. Or it just caught a chill. :) After thinking long and hard about what you did during weighing, and if you're sure your weighing was correct, then pour it into your soap pot, put it on the stove. Heat it while stirring constantly. When it reaches 130, remove from heat, pour back into a fresh mold. This is what I call 'kick starting' it.

Answer 2

I would like to tell you that Technically, all hand made soap is “Glycerin Soap.” In many commercial soaps, all the extra glycerin (formed naturally by the cold process soapmaking method) is harvested out. Thus, all handmade soap is glycerin rich (since hand made soapmakers don’t harvest out glycerin in their soap).

In today’s market, the term “Glycerin Soap” is commonly used to refer to clear soap. Generally, the clear soap has extra glycerin added to it to produce a very nourishing, moisturizing bar. Glycerin is a “humectant.” It draws moisture to itself; the theory is that if you wash with glycerin soap, a thin layer of glycerin will remain, drawing moisture to your skin.

Clear soap base can be purchased in large blocks to be melted down, colored and fragranced, and placed into molds (or used to make loaves of soap to be sliced). This type of soap is called “Melt and Pour” and the artistry of melt and pour is called “Soap Casting.” Melt and Pour soap making is gaining in popularity because of its ease of use. There are no significant safety measures (other than basic common sense – don’t put your hand in the hot soap, don’t cut your finger off with the knife etc…) needed for soapcasting. Children can do it. It’s a great outlet for creative types.

Answer 3

hiya if i were you i would use the melt and pour method its so easy. You basically buy a soap base so u can buy a clear base or opaque base then buy your choice of colours and fragrances and moulds you can use your microwave to melt the soap you simply add your colour and fragrance pur into a mould of your choice and let it set check out youtube put "melt and pour soap" into the search bar also check out ebay for your supplies theres loads of great stuff on there, hope this helps :)

Answer 4

Drano is lye. For your recipe, you will have to decide about why you want to make soap, and what kind of soap you want to make. If it's a saving-the-world soap, you may want to save cooking fat. In Rockford or elsewhere, you will have to have a source of animal fat.