Hand Made Soaps

Soap Making – Cold Process Recipe Ingredients
  • Sodium hydroxide (also known as Caustic Soda or lye)
  • Base Oils
  • Coconut oil – 10 oz (32%) or approximately 300 grams
  • Palm Oil – 10 oz (32%) or approximately 300 grams
  • Olive Oil – 10 oz (32%) or approximately 300 grams
  • Castor Oil – 1.5 oz (4%) or approximately 50 grams
  • Essential Oils (of your choice to give fragrance – around 1.5 oz or approximately 40 grams)
  Equipments
    1. Rubber gloves
    2. Goggles
    3. Soap Molds
    4. Scales that shows the weight both in grams and ounces
  • Stainless steel heating pans
  • Stainless steel pots
  • Wooden spoons
 
    1. Wax paper
  • Soap Cutter
  • Thermometer
  Cold Process Soap Making Steps Step 1 - Making Lye solution   Caution!! Lye or Sodium Hydroxide, is highly corrosive to skin and eyes and must be ued with great care!!  Wear long sleeves, gloves and safety glasses or goggles to protct your eyes.   To prepare lye solution, we need 8.5 ounces or 250 milliliter of water and 4 oz or 115 grams of lye or sodium hydroxide.
  1. Take 8.5 oz or 250 milliliter of water and mix in it 4 oz or 150 grams in a stainless steel pitcher and mix them properly. Heat the mixture to 95 degrees Celcius (200 degrees Fahrenheit). Stir the mixture with the help of spoon so that lye gets mixed up with the water completely. Remember to keep your rubber gloves, and mask on.
  2. Don’t inhale the mixture as the fumes may cause throat irritation.
  3. Once this is done, cover the stainless steel pitcher with lid and keep it in a cool place.
  4. After 30 minutes, measure the temperature of this mixture using thermometer. It should be between 40-50 degrees Celcius (100 -125 F).
Step 2 – Melting the Base Oils Take all the base oils by weight in a bowl and melt them in microwave. Usually, the Coconut and Palm base oils are solid at room temperature. Step 3 – Mixing Base oils in Lye Solution At our desired temperature, of 40-50 degrees Celcius (100-125 F), mix the melted base oils in lye solution. At this stage, you can also mix few drops of essential oil for fragrance. Allow the mixture to cool down. Step 4 – Preparing the molds While the mixture is cooling down, you can start preparing the soap molds. You can line the soap molds with parchment paper or plastic wrap. Once the mixture is cooled, pour the mixture in the mold and allow it to settle for 24 hours. This process needs to be done quickly because the mixture will be hardening more rapidly once it is below 40 degrees Celcius (100 F). Tap the mold from the bottom to be sure that there are no bubbles in the mixture. Step 5 – De-molding the Soap Take out the soap from the mold and allow it cure for around 4 weeks. The longer the curing period, the better the soap quality. Number of soaps that can be made: This complete mixture is around 45 oz which is equivalent to around 1275 grams. One can obtain around 15 soaps of 75 grams each approximately. It also depends on size of molds.