Soap Ingredients
- Base Oils. The soapmaking process will work with any animal or vegetable fat or oil, but not with petroleum- based oils.
- Lye. Yes, lye is necessary in all handcrafted soaps made from scratch. ...
- Water. Water is used to create the lye solution that is mixed into the oils. ...
- Scent. ...
- Color. ...
- Preservatives. ...
- Ready-Made Soap Bases. ...
- A note about Ingredient Lists. ...
- Mix water and lye, set aside to cool.
- Melt oils, set aside to cool.
- Blend lye water and oils to form a soap “batter”
- Pour into mold and let harden for a day.
- Turn out of the mold, cut into bars and let cure for 2-3 weeks.
How to make homemade soap for beginners?
The Beginner's Guide to Making CP Soap
- Equipment. Safety Goggles (A must to protect your eyes from the caustic lye and raw soap mixture). ...
- Ingredients
- Make Your Recipe. To get started, decide on the oils that you will use to make your soap and the size of the batch. ...
- Prepare the space. ...
- Prepare yourself. ...
- Prepare your ingredients. ...
- Make the soap. ...
How do you make your own soap recipe?
How to make soap without lye:
- Choose a recipe and fragrance. If you are a beginner, the simplest way to start is to purchase a soap base — a pre-mixed combination of the soap, glycerin, ...
- Gather your tools. A heat-safe container to melt the base — Depending on the size of the soap you are making, even a 1- or 2-quart Pyrex measuring cup ...
- Melt the base. ...
- Mix in the fragrance. ...
What are the ingredients in homemade soap?
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What are the 3 main ingredients in soap?
The basic ingredients of soap are:
- animal fat or vegetable oil
- 100 percent pure lye
- distilled water
- essential or skin-safe fragrance oils (optional)
- colorants (optional)
What are the ingredients to make soap?
The basic ingredients of soap are:animal fat or vegetable oil.100 percent pure lye.distilled water.essential or skin-safe fragrance oils (optional)colorants (optional)
How soap is made step by step?
Now that we've got the basics, let's get down to soap making:Step 1: Melt and Mix the Oils. Weigh out your solid oils and melt them in a saucepan over a low heat. ... Step 2: Mix the Water and Lye. ... Step 3: Mix the Oils with the Lye Water. ... Step 4: Bring the Soap Mix to Trace. ... Step 5: Add to the Mold. ... Step 6: Leave to Rest.
What 3 ingredients are needed to make soap?
All you need is literally just three ingredients.Soap Base. With a soap base, you don't need to start the process of soap making from scratch or have to deal with dangerous lye solution - metal hydroxide that needs to be handled very carefully. ... Essential Oils. ... Natural Ingredients.
What are the 4 basic methods of soap making?
In general, there are four methods to make soap - cold process, melt and pour, hot process, and rebatch. There are pros and cons for each, and every maker has a personal preference. If you're wondering which method may be the best for you, find information below.
How do you make soap for beginners?
The basic process of making soap is:Mix water and lye, set aside to cool.Melt oils, set aside to cool.Blend lye water and oils to form a soap “batter”Pour into mold and let harden for a day.Turn out of the mold, cut into bars and let cure for 2-3 weeks.
How do you make good quality soap?
If you want to give it a go formulating your own soap recipe, try this basic soap formula builder:60% Hard Oils. 25% to 45% Lathering Hard Oils. 15% to 30% Conditioning Hard Oils.40% Soft Oils. 20% to 30% Nourishing Soft Oils. 5% to 10% Luxury Soft Oils. 5% to 10% Castor Oil.
What is a natural soap base?
Some all-natural soap bases include avocado oil, organic shea butter, glycerin, Aloe Vera, cocoa butter, olive oil, almond sweet oil, castor oil, coconut oil, vitamin E oil, and more.
What is the most basic soap?
A great place to start is a recipe that includes no colorants, design, or fragrance. I also highly recommend sticking to the three most basic soaping oils: olive, coconut and palm. This might sound a little boring to some, but there is a lot to learn when making your first batch of cold process soap.
Can soap be made without lye?
NO, chemically-speaking, soap itself cannot be made without lye. Soap is made by blending oils (like olive oil or coconut oil), a liquid (water, goat's milk, etc.), and an alkali (lye). Lye is needed to convert oils into soap.
How do I make soap at home?
0:368:26How to Make Soap from Scratch- Cold Process - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipThen you're also going to need something called sodium hydroxide. Or also can be called lye. TheMoreThen you're also going to need something called sodium hydroxide. Or also can be called lye. The lies dissolved in a liquid which is oftentimes water. And then add it to the oils.
How do you make all natural soaps?
Ingredients⅔ cup unrefined coconut oil (to produce good lather)⅔ cup olive oil (which makes a hard and mild bar)⅔ cup almond oil (grapeseed, sunflower, or safflower oil will also work, just make sure it's a liquid oil)¼ cup lye (100% sodium hydroxide. ... ¾ cup cool water (distilled or purified)
What is lye powder?
A lye is a metal hydroxide traditionally obtained by leaching wood ashes, or a strong alkali which is highly soluble in water producing caustic basic solutions. "Lye" most commonly refers to sodium hydroxide NaOH, but historically has been used for potassium hydroxide KOH.
How to make your own soap?
To make your own soap, put on protective gloves and eyewear, then carefully stir lye into a pot of cold water, making sure not to inhale the fumes. Allow the mixture to cool, then heat coconut oil and vegetable shortening in a pot on low-medium heat until they are melted.
What is cold process soap made of?
Cold process soap is made from oils, lye, and water. When these ingredients are combined at the right temperature, they harden into soap in a process called saponification. Go to your local craft store and grocery store to purchase the ingredients listed. Set up your soap-making workspace.
How to get rid of white lumps in soap?
The white lumps are lye. To dispose of this contaminated batch, neutralize the lye with vinegar. Submerse the soap bar in water and break up the soap either with gloved hands or something you can use to tear apart the soap to smaller pieces. The soap-vinegar mixture can be disposed of down the drain.
How to make soap out of a mold?
If you are using a shoebox or wooden mold, make sure it is lined with parchment paper. Use an old plastic spatula to scrape out the last bits of soap from the pot to the mold.
How long does it take for soap to cure?
Top Answerer. Generally, all soaps take a minimum 4 weeks for a "basic cure". Some soapmakers prefer to let their soaps cure for several months, even up to a year for soap such as Castile soap bars (100% Olive Oil soap with just lye and water). It is up to you, really.
How long does soap last?
A well-made soap - that is a soap that is made with fresh, long-lasting oils of good quality, and most importantly, a low "superFat" percentage, can last many, many months or even years in storage.
How to measure lye?
1. Measure 12 ounces of lye. Make sure that all of your ingredients are exactly the measurement that it is supposed to be, especially on smaller batches. Use the scale to make sure the measurement is exact, and pour the lye into the two-cup measuring cup.
How to make soap with lye?
Make sure you are making the soap in a well-ventilated area. Put on your gloves and eye protection, your mask, apron, and long rubber gloves. Pour the mineral water into a large glass/sturdy plastic jug or plastic bucket. Now, slowly, pour the lye into the water, using a plastic spatula to stir until dissolved.
How long should soap be cut?
The soap will still be caustic at this point so I would recommend still handling it with gloves for the first 48 hours. Cut it into bars, for this you can simply cut by hand for a more rugged look.
How to tell if soap is turning out well?
By dipping your spatula or spoon into the mixture and dribbling a small amount back into the mix. It should leave a light "trace" behind (like a small mound of batter that takes a few seconds to blend back within the mixture.)
How to get rid of lye odor?
Put on protective eyewear, mask, apron, and long rubber gloves to protect the eyes and skin. Should you get some on your skin rinse with vinegar before washing it off using water. Once you add the Lye to water it creates a small chemical reaction, some choking fumes will rise from your bowl.
What happens if soap doesn't harden?
If your soap does not harden or just hasn’t turned out quite as well as you expected it to, or maybe you forgot to add something. Then you may be able to rebatch it by melting it down and adding any missing, or miss calculated ingredients.
How long after a mistake can you use soap?
If you made a mistake and after 4 weeks it measures above 10 don’t just throw it away as you can rebatch it.
Can you make soap without lye?
And you have the simplest form of homemade soap known as melt and pour soap if you want to make soap at home without using lye. If you decide to have a go at making homemade soap, I would love to see some photos and hear how you got on.
How to thicken up soap?
Using a stick (immersion) blender, blend the soap in short bursts of a few seconds at a time, stirring by hand with the motor off in between times. Don’t run the stick blender continuously or you may burn out the motor and your soap will thicken up too quickly.
How long does soap need to be left in the mold?
(If making soap with milk, it needs special treatment and won’t need covering. Read “ How to Make Soap with Milk ” for more information.) Leave undisturbed for about 24 to 36 hours.
How to make lye solution?
Stir with a heavy duty plastic spoon or rubber spatula until fully dissolved and set in a safe place, out of reach of children and pets, until it cools to about 90 to 115 degrees F. 7. Weigh and heat the oils, butters & fats. Do this while the lye solution is cooling.
How hot does lye shoot?
Always add the dry lye to the liquid and not the other way around. Lye + water shoots up to over 200 degrees F quickly, so use caution when handling. Turn your face away to avoid directly breathing in the fumes.
How to get rid of air bubbles in soap?
Working quickly, pour the soap into your prepared mold, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon if needed. Pick up the mold and give it a few sharp raps on the table or counter surface to help get rid of any little air bubbles that may have formed.
Can you use a stick blender to make soap?
It’s a good idea to use a dedicated stick blender just for soap making and not for food use. (Not all soapmakers agree with this thought though.) Once trace is reached, add any extras such as honey, oatmeal, natural colorants, and essential oils and hand stir/blend for just a bit more until they are all incorporated.
Is cold process soap hot or cold?
Cold process soap is made without any external heat applied to it, while hot process soap is heated or most often cooked in a crockpot to speed up the soapmaking process.
What is the chemical reaction of soap?
With bar soaps , the chemical reaction takes place with sodium hydroxide. With liquid soaps, the chemical reaction takes place with potassium hydroxide, which is a specific type of lye for liquid soap.
How to neutralize liquid soap?
Take the following steps: Turn the slow cooker back on and bring the mixture back up to 180 degrees Fahrenheit or so. In a separate container, mix the neutralizing solution.
What is the difference between liquid soap and bar soap?
A major difference between making liquid soap and bar soap is that that it is a "hot process" soap. Instead of relying on the heat generated by the saponification process, heat is added using a double boiler, oven, or slow cooker. This recipe can be made in a double boiler or the oven, but a slow cooker is preferred.
How to make lye water?
To mix the lye water, take the following steps: Measure out your oils and put them in the slow cooker on low. You want this mixture to stay at about 160 degrees Fahrenheit (give or take 10 degrees). While the oils are heating up, mix your lye-water, using the standard lye-making procedure.
How long does soap need to settle?
The soap will need to settle for one week.
How to tell if soap is ready?
Once it's completely dissolved (several minutes) check to see how clear it is. If the mixture is lightly cloudy, that is a good sign that the soap is ready. The soap will "settle" after it's finished and become much clearer. If the dissolved soap mixture is milky or very cloudy, it may need more cooking.
How long does it take for soap to soften?
Once you've reached the 3- to 4-hour mark , the soap will have softened and turned translucent. At this point, you'll need to time the soap to see if it's cooked long enough. Take these steps to test: Take 2 ounces of boiling water in a separate bowl and add in one ounce of your soap paste.
What is the process of making soap?
Anything you don't have is available from soap-making suppliers online or some craft stores. The basic method of making soap from scratch is called cold process.
How to make soap with solid oils?
Place the soap-making pot with the solid oils on the stove over medium-low heat. Slowly melt the oils while stirring gently. Monitor the temperature with a thermometer. Turn off the heat when the oils get to about 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep stirring until all the solid oils are melted.
How to make soap with lye solution?
Add the Lye Solution. Make sure all the soap additives in your recipe, such as color and fragrance, are ready to go. Place all the spoons, measuring cups, spatulas, and whisks you're going to need nearby. Once you begin, you need to move steadily. Grab your handy stick blender but don't turn it on.
How to make soap thicker?
Pour the raw soap into a mold, using a back and forth motion to spread the soap evenly. Scrape the last thick bits of soap out of the pot with a rubber spatula. If the top of the soap in the mold is uneven, smooth it out with the spatula.
How to make a swirl in soap?
If you want to achieve a swirl effect, do the following: Ladle about 1/2 to 1 cup of the soap mixture into a measuring cup. Add the colorant to that bit of soap. Hold the measuring cup several inches above the pot and slowly pour the colored soap into one corner of the soap pot.
How to weigh soap oil?
Weigh the Oils. Put the soap pot or a glass pitcher onto the scale and zero out the weight. Following your recipe, weigh the oils one by one into the pot or pitcher. Zero out the weight after you measure each oil. Pour it slowly—you can always add more, but once the oil has been added, it's combined in the mixture.
How to make a lye oil?
Mix the Oils and Lye. While stirring the lye water and oil mixture with the stick blender, turn on the blender in short bursts. To start with, blend for 3 to 5 seconds. Then, turn it off and stir some more. Repeat this process and keep blending in short bursts until the oils and lye-water are completely mixed.
What is the process of making soap?
When you mix oil and lye (in the correct amounts) they blend together, the molecules go all crazy and they form something new: soap! The basic process of making soap is: Mix water and lye, set aside to cool. Melt oils, set aside to cool.
How to make soap out of mold?
Mix water and lye, set aside to cool. Melt oils, set aside to cool. Blend lye water and oils to form a soap “ batter”. Pour into mold and let harden for a day. Turn out of mold, cut into bars and let cure for 2-3 weeks.
What does it mean when soap batter comes off a blender?
Trace means that when you lift up your blender and soap batter comes off of it, that soap batter will rest on top of the pot, leaving a trail, rather than immediately sinking in. (At this point, you would add color and fragrance if you were using them, but I wouldn’t recommend either for your first batch.)
How long to leave gel soap in oven?
You can force gel phase by putting the soap in a 120 degree oven for one hour, then turning the oven off and leaving it in there for 24 hours. Or by wrapping it in old blankets.
How to measure lye and water?
Everything needs to be measured separately before you begin. The lye and water are measured separately, then you add the lye to water. Don’t do it the other way around. You can remember this with this saying “snow floats on the lake”. Mix the lye and water thoroughly, until the lye dissolves. It will be hot. Set it aside to cool in a safe, well ventilated place.
What is the best oil to use in soap?
Picking oils is the most fun part of creating a soap recipe. Each oil will bring its own property to the finished product. For example: Castor oil creates lots of lather. Olive oil is very moisturizing. Coconut oil helps harden the bar. Shea butter nourishes the skin.
How long does it take for soap to unmold?
Or if you don’t want gel phase, you can put the soap in the freezer. Either way, once it is has cured for 24 hours , it’s time to unmold. It still needs time to finishing drying out so the bar can get harder.
What are the ingredients in soap?
Liquid soaps have slightly different ingredients because their liquid state must be maintained at room temperature, and too many bubbles must be prevented from forming. Here are some of the common ingredients of liquid soaps: 1 Sodium benzoate and benzoic acid 2 Sodium laureth sulfate 3 Methylisothiazolinone and methylchloroisothiazolinone 4 Cocamidopropyl betaine 5 Fragrance, either from essential oils of flowers or from synthetic sources 6 pH adjusters
What are soaps made of?
In either case, the basic ingredients and the process are the same: soaps are made from an alkaline substance, namely lye (also known as sodium hydroxide), oil, and a choice of fragrance. However, the specific types of ingredients vary from soap to soap.
Why are soaps classified as salts?
Soaps are chemically classified as salts of fatty acids because of the presence of an ionic, or polar head, and a nonpolar glyceride tail.
How much lye is in soap?
Many recipes for soaps require a 40% lye concentration dissolved in water. The proportion of oil with the lye solution may vary depending on the type of oil. For example, coconut oil can be up to 33% of the lye solution-oil mixture, while only 5% of grapeseed oil is recommended for soapmaking .
What is step 8 in soap making?
Step 8 – Packaging: This step is optional if you’re only making soap for personal use. If you’re intending to sell the soap, however, then you need to package it, not only to make it look presentable but also to ensure that it’s protected. Silicone moulds are popularly used in soapmaking.
Why do you stop cooking soap?
This is because alkalis can deeply penetrate skin tissue, meaning that too much alkali in soap can be very drying or irritating to the skin.
What are some examples of oils used in soap making?
For example, there are many different kinds of oils used in soap production, including tallows from beef or mutton fats, palm oil, coconut oil, olive oil, laurel oil, and canola oil. Even though it’s an ancient practice, the steps taken to make soap haven’t radically changed over the millennia.
How long does it take for soap to be saponified?
After two days of cooking, saponification will be complete and the excessive soap alkali should now be removed from the soap to reduce its proportion in the soap; by doing this the soap will be more gentle and not irritate the skin. Step 3 – Stir.
How to make teasoap?
10 steps to making soaps. Step 1 – Cook. Pour the coconut oil, olive oil, water and soda crystals into the boiler in the correct proportion and heat to 100 degrees .（It will take two days to cook the soap. It is the most dangerous part of soap production and needs to be experienced staffs to spread ...
How does tea soap remove alkali?
Through the exclusive alkali removal process developed by Tea Soap, the natural materials or ingredients will be ground into a powder and added to the soapy liquid. Water is then added in a ratio of 1 as to 1, after which the mixture is stirred.
Why does soap float on water?
The soap is able to float on water due to differences in density, since oil is lighter than water and alkali is heavier than water . As the alkali sinks in the water, so the soap will consequently float on the water due to the oil proportion of the soap being increased by the removal of excessive soap alkali!
What is triple milled soap?
French-milled soaps are cold-processed bars that have been “milled,” or ground up, several times to a smooth paste before they are pressed into attractive forms. Triple-milled soaps have been ground up three times for extra smoothness. This creates a luxurious texture and lather but also keeps batch color uniform so there is no streaking or uneven shading. Though you can’t call your soaps “French-milled” unless you produced them in France using this specific technique, you can still mill your own soaps.
What is the chemical combination of lye, water and fat?
by definition, is the saponification of lye, water and fat. The consistency and appearance of the resulting soap depends on these three products. Saponification is the chemical combination of lye, water and fat.
Is soap a salt?
By chemical terminology , soap is a salt: an ionic compound resulting from neutral-ization of an acid and a base. Different “soaps” exist, such as calcium or lithium emulsions used in lubricating grease. Soaps for personal hygiene are made with fatty acids, such as animal fats and vegetable oils, combined with an extremely alkaline solution such as lye or potash mixed with water. The chemical change is called saponification.
Is it safe to melt and pour soap?
The safest of all techniques , melt and pour soap recipes can involve children as long as they’re protected from potentially hot splashes. There are no dangerous chemicals and little chance of injury aside from superficial burns. This is one of two choices for how to make soap without lye.
Is it easy to make your own soap?
your own soap at home is fun and easy! Plus, DIY soap making gives you control over the ingredients you introduce to your skin daily.
Can you make soap from scratch?
That means that a properly made bar of coco-nut oil soap only contains coconut oil. By knowing how to make soap from scratch you can eliminate all the detergents and fragrances which can cause allergic reactions.