Make Your Own Soap!

Introduction to Cold Process Soap Making 




Why make your own soap?

  • Save money 
  • Reduce unwanted ingredients 
  • Reduce plastic waste 
  • Customize ingredients 
  • Give as gifts 
  • Sell extra 
  • Learning new skills is fun! 
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Soap-making in the past:

  • Drizzling water through fire ash = lye 
  • Animal-based fats = oil 

Soap-making now:
  • Store bought chemical lye 
  • Mixtures of many types of vegetable, nut and fruit oils
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MATERIALS:

Where to get supplies?
  • Canadian Tire 
  • Co-op Coco 
  • Websites 
Guides:

Soap recipe
Bramble Berry ingredient calculator
Troubleshooting Guide
Online Conversion guide

General Materials:

  • Measuring cup $7-10 
  • Spoon (silicone is ideal, not wood or aluminum) $4 
  • Immersion blender $60 
  • Mold (cups, milk cartons $5) ($20 silicone) 
  • Pot (never again used for cooking) 
  • Stove or hot plate 
  • Scale $50 
  • Knife to cut soap 
  • Candy thermometer $15-$25 
  • Ladel $2 
  • Safety gear - googles $12, rubber gloves 
  • Long sleeves and pants 
  • Lye (sodium hydroxide) Corrosive $15 
  • Water - distilled ideally
Oils:
Each oil used in soap making has a different saponification value which means that each oil requires a different ratio of lye to water depending on the amount and type of each oil used. Different oils also have different benefits when making soap. For example, coconut oil makes a hard bar that has good cleaning properties while olive oil makes a soft bar with moisturizing benefits. The trick to soap making is to find the right combination of oils to give you a perfect balance for your needs.
  • Olive - soap can be up to 100% olive-based. It`s cheap and easily available.
  • Coconut - up to 30% - pre-melt
  • Jojoba - up to 7% - moisturizing effect
  • Avoid palm! Terrible for the environment right now
  • Essential oils (not all are good for skin and in soap) Generally 0.5 ounce per 1 pound oil 
  • Almond Oil
  • Avocado Oil
Optional Materials:
  • Metal Soap cutter 
  • Silicone or wood soap mold 
  • Colouring agents 
  • Natural Exfoliant: Poppy Seeds, Coffee Grounds, Oats, Apricot Seeds 
  • Decorative Elements: Rose Petals, natural dyes 

Safety Considerations: 

Lye, lye-water, caustic lye-rich soap (flush with water, call 911)

Lye and aluminum = gas

Lye added to water = eruption

Dedicated equipment to avoid contamination 

Only work in a well ventilated area

Always wear gloves

Wear glasses when measuring lye and mixing

Terms:
Trace: When there starts to be a line in the mix, when you drip a line and does'nt immediately sink in, leaves a trace.

Saponification: When mix turns to soap

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Cold Process Soap Making Process:

1. Add lye to water or ice water (to get colder quicker), slowly stirring, don`t use wood, silicone is ideal. NEVER ADD WATER TO LYE - will react! It will heat up. Check temp and cool down to 125-145 degrees.

2. Add olive oil to pot on burner and heat medium to med-high. Heat to 120-135

3. Add lye-water mixture to pot of hot oil when both are within 10 degrees of each other, example 120-130.

4. Mix slowly with spoon or spatula by hand for 3-5 minutes, then switch to immersion blender, being careful to not introduce air. Blend evenly until the mixture looks like pudding and there is a trace - a line of the mixture that sits on the surface and does not immediately sink in.

5. Add essential oils and textured ingredients. Mix.

6. Ladle into mold.

7. Wiggle to set. Add any ingredients to embed in the surface
(When using colouring, this is the point where you can add colours to the surface and use the spatula to create ripples, waves, swirls, stripes etc at the surface.)

8. Leave to set overnight, covered with plastic wrap - 24-48 hours max.

9. Open up/pop out of mold.

10. Cut soap using a knife.

11. Dry soap: Set on rack or on paper towel, and flip over.

12. Abrasive lye will be cured after 4-6 weeks.

Optional - Label or add ribbon or twine to decorate for a gift.
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ESSENTIAL OILS

Use an essential oil usage rate of 2% to 4% of oils. Use the equation below to calculate the amount.

For example, if your soap mold holds roughly 4 oz of oil per cavity (giving you 4.75 oz bars of soap), a 3% usage rate would be found like so:

4 oz x 0.03 (3%) = 0.12 ounces or roughly 3.5 grams of essential oil

Notice how the essential oil usage rate is calculated from the oil of the formula, and not from the total. Why is that? In soapmaking, we use water (or other liquids) as a carrier for the sodium hydroxide (lye) to complete saponification. After saponification is complete, the water mostly evaporates from the formula during cure. If you calculate your essential oil usage rate based on the total formula, it will become more concentrated during cure – not good!

Where this gets complicated with essential oil usage rates is that each individual essential oil poses its own unique challenges, guidelines and needs, due to possible skin irritation, sensitization, photosensitivity, and performance in soapmaking. Some essential oils have a lower recommended usage rate than others due to these issues.

Your combined essential oil usage rate (the total sum of all essential oils) should not reach over 0.8 ounce to 1 ounce per pound of oils (5% to 6.25% of the oils.)


TIP: WEIGH OILS - DON`T USE DROPS - More precise measurements!

ESSENTIAL OIL GUIDE:
https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/essential-oil-usage-rates-ifra-guidelines/


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COLOURS


Micas:

They can fade or change colors in your recipe. Blue, purple and yellow work best. Reds and greens can fade.


Pigments:

Pigments are a great option for achieving brightly colored cold process soap. They stay true in the soap and there are plenty of colors to choose from. Mix the color with liquid glycerin, light oil or 99% isopropyl alcohol before adding it to the soap.


LabColors: These liquid dyes are super concentrated and work for cold process soap. Incredibly vibrant, bright hues. They do need to be diluted before use. High pH LabColors are used for cold process soap. LabColors do bleed, which is something to keep in mind when planning your design.

Natural Colorants:

Natural colorants, like clays and herbs, create lovely hues in melt and pour and cold process soap. Natural colorants tend to be a little more subdued than other colorant options, but there are tricks to make natural colorants more bright. Mix with a light oil like avocado, almond or jojoba

Sea clay is mixed with Hydrated Chrome Green for a minty green shade.
Morrocan clay - red.
Indigo - blue.
Woad - lighter blue.
Alkanet - purple.
Madder + Indigo - purple.
Calendula - yellow.
Paprika - red.
Dandelion greens - green.
Tumeric - yellow.

PATTERNS

  • Use a lazy susan, or simply spin mold on table to creating swirly pattern 
  • Use a toothpick to create marbling and swirls 
  • Use a chopstick to create waves 
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RECIPES

NATURAL HOMESTEADER SOAPS

1. LARGE BATCH PURE OLIVE OIL

Olive Oil Soap Recipe (Castile Soap)
100 oz. olive oil (4 L container of oil = 140 oz)
12.6 oz. lye
30 oz. water

Makes about 24 big, chunky, creamy-white, 4-plus oz. bars.

2. MEDIUM BATCH OLIVE OIL AND COCONUT OIL
Coconut oil - 9.88oz
Olive oil - 17.5 oz
Water - 9 oz
Lye - 3.9 oz

Essential oil - 1 oz (not all types will work in soap making - look it up!)
Vitamin E - 1oz

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Cold Process Soap Pros:
Allows you to customize every single ingredient to suit your personal preferences.

You can add fresh ingredients like milk and fruit/vegetable purees because you control the saponification process.

The trace of cold process soap batter can be manipulated for a wide variety of techniques and effects. Thin trace can be used to make swirls, while thick trace soap creates frosting.

The thick texture makes it great for suspending heavier additives.


Cold Process Soap Cons: 

Cold process soap must be made with sodium hydroxide lye, which can be dangerous when handled incorrectly.

Cold process soap takes about 4-6 weeks to cure. The soap can be used before then, but it will last longer in the shower with a full cure. 


TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE:
https://thenerdyfarmwife.com/troubleshooting-cold-process-soap-problems/
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OTHER PROJECTS:

Hot Process Soap Making 

1. Add oil to double boiler or crockpot

2.Use distilled water and add lye to water (NOT WATER TO LYE)

3. Be careful of fumes (don`t hover over) Do in ventillated area or wear mask

4.Wait until lye is dissolved

5. Add to oil in crock pot, mixing with blender until reaching trace

6. Continue to heat until it reaches a gel stage - will become bubbling and sticky

7. When more transparent, stir together until unform semi-transparent

8. Add any other oils and butters, stirring in with a spoon



Hot Process Pros:

  • Allows you to customize every single ingredient, including fixed oils. 
  • The additional heat speeds up the saponification process. Three cheers for instant gratification; hot process soap can be cut within one day, and used right away. 
  • The bars have a “rustic” appearance with a less smooth texture than cold process. Whether or not you like this look is a personal preference. 
  • Can be made in a Crock-Pot or double boiler. 
  • The thick texture makes it great for suspending heavier additives. 
  • Generally considered a more “natural” bar of soap. 
  • Clean-up is easier because the soap in the slow cooker/Crock-Pot is already soap. 
Hot Process Cons:

  • The thick texture of hot process soap makes some swirls and techniques, such as layering, very difficult. 
  • The bars have a “rustic” appearance with a less smooth texture than cold process. Whether or not you like this look is a personal preference. 
  • If your fragrance or essential oil has a low flashpoint, some soapers find the high temperature of hot process tends to “burn off” the fragrance, causing it to fade. 
  • As the soap cooks, it expands. Because of the possibility of it overflowing, it’s important to not leave it unattended. 
  • Difficult (but not impossible) to add fresh ingredients like milk and purees; they tend to scorch during the cooking process. 
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SHAMPOO BAR

Oils for Shampoo Soaps:
  • Sweet Almond Oil
  • Avocado Oil
  • Macadamia Nut Oil
  • Castor Oil
  • Palm Oil (AVOID)
  • Wheat Germ Oil
  • Grapeseed Oil
  • Rice Bran Oil
Recipe:

  • ⅔ cup olive oil
  • ⅔ cup coconut oil
  • ⅔ cup other oil (see list above)
  • ¾ cup cool distilled water
  • ¼ cup lye 
  • 2 tablespoons essential oils, optional - research which ones are good for hair and being used in soap
Follow cold process soap making method as seen above.

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