While there are other methods of making soap (hot process and melt & pour), this tutorial will provide a basic overview on how to make your own all natural cold process soaps. It will be added to the Soapmaking page on my blog along with other helpful links and recipes, so be sure to bookmark or pin it for easy reference.
This is not a stand-alone reference. Go to YouTube and watch some videos, do some Google searches and by all means check out great sites like The Soap Queen!
Making soap is one of my favorite hobbies. There are so many ways to personalize a single recipe, that I rarely make the same soap twice! Once you get the hang of it, you will never want to go back to store-bought again!
A few things to note, before we start:
- Making soap is not the most frugal activity out there. I like to use top-grade, organic ingredients, so I spend about $3.00 and up, per bar, and and that’s not including the cost of packaging. You can certainly use cheaper ingredients (in fact, I suggest you do so for your first learning batch), but if you want free or almost free soap, check out Money Saving Mom. I still have stacks of Ivory soap that I got for FREE using her grocery shopping deals and tips!
- Many people are afraid to make soap because it involves handling lye. I know that feeling, because I was the same way! I had my husband do that part at first until I got more comfortable with the idea. Lye requires a huge amount of caution, but you just need to employ the same common sense you’d use for any potentially dangerous situation such as cooking with a hot stove, or driving down the road in your car. Handle the lye with proper protective gloves and eye wear along with a healthy dose of respect. If you’re careful, you’re not likely to get splashes, but just in case, wear long sleeves. Do NOT involve your children in this activity. There are other fun ways they can “make” herbal soap, that I will cover in another post, another day.
- This is just an overview. There are many tutorials and books out there that cover soap making. I have some listed on my Soapmaking Page and a Google search will help you find others. It’s prudent to do your research and view the art from many perspectives before attempting. Kathy, an experienced soap maker of 15 years, has a great comment below, outlining further precautions to keep in mind.
- An accurate digital scale is essential! I used this one from Amazon.com for five years before it broke (and by that, I mean it stopped measuring in anything but grams – which is still usable, but not always useful for my various projects.) I bought a replacement at Walmart that also works great.
Okay! Now, we’re ready to start! You’ll want to do the following things:
- (1.) Choose a recipe and run it through a lye calculator, especially if you decide to make changes to it. Each type of oil requires a different amount of lye to saponify (turn into soap.) So, if you’re out of the castor oil called for in a recipe and want to use shea butter instead, you’re going to need a different amount of lye or your soap will end up too harsh or too soft. I like to use the Majestic Mountain Sage Lye Calculator. Just plug your recipe into the blanks and calculate the lye needed. If you click the screenshot above, you’ll see it gives a range of liquid to use and a range of lye. I use around the 6 for lye and a midway point for the water/liquid (about 15 ounces in the example above.)
- (2.) Assemble your ingredients and safety gear. Lye is sometimes hard to find; my local Tractor Supply store carries two containers at a time and I found a small, local Mom & Pop type hardware store that has a few as well. Make sure the bottle says Sodium Hydroxide and nothing else. You may have to order online. If so, here are two sources: Brushy Mountain Bee Farm and Bramble Berry.
- I buy my oils & butters from Mountain Rose Herbs, but you can also check your local grocery and health food stores. Don’t forget you’ll need heat & chemical proof gloves and safety goggles along with a kitchen or candy thermometer (a separate one used strictly for soap and not food use.) Wear long sleeves in case any lye splashes on your arms. (This has not happened to me in 10 years of soapmaking, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry!)
- (3.) Prepare your molds by lining with parchment paper. I have homemade wooden box molds that my dad and brother made for me, but you can also buy them from several places online such as Bramble Berry. I’ve even seen people use rubbermaid containers or heavy duty cardboard boxes. A quick google search will likely give you plenty of inspiration!
- (4.) Now, we start measuring stuff. First, you’ll want to measure out your water into a heat proof tempered glass jar, pyrex measuring cup, stainless steel or heavy duty polypropylene plastic (recycle symbol 5) container. [NOTE: I've been told that glass/pyrex can weaken over time and shatter, so to be absolutely safe, use one of the alternatives.] Mark this container clearly with a symbol such as a skull and crossbones and don’t put it in your fridge or on the counter where someone might mistake it for a beverage.
- All soap ingredients should be weighed with a digital scale, this includes your liquids. This picture shows me measuring water for a recipe that called for 20 to 31 ounces of liquid. I decided on a mid-range of 26 oz. You can see I went over .3 ounces. This is okay for liquids, but not okay for oils and most definitely not okay for lye. Those need to be precise. More liquid means your soap takes a bit longer to set up (useful if you’re adding honey or beeswax or other items that speed up things) and less liquid means it sets up and is ready to pour into molds faster.
- (5.) Next, measure out your lye. (Make sure you have on those gloves and goggles!) I use an old plastic cup, labeled “Lye” in several places all over with a Sharpie. I pour slowly and carefully then immediately re-cap the lye container and place it far from the reach of children and pets. I take a wet paper towel and thoroughly wipe down the scale and surrounding area in case a tiny grain got loose. Then I do it again with a fresh paper towel. This may seem over-kill, but I have kids and pets and just one tiny grain accidentally picked up and rubbed into an eye or eaten wouldn’t be cool. I’d rather take a few minutes to be safe now than sorry later.
- (6.) Pour the lye into the water (or other liquid.) I do this in my kitchen sink in order to catch any splashes or drips and just in case I have a “volcano.” This only happened to me once because I tried to pour my lye into a very hot herbal tea. I should have been patient and waited for it to cool first, but did not and had to start all over. So, make sure you pour the lye into water that is cool or no warmer than room temp. Also, you always add the lye to the liquid and not the other way around (the other cause of lye volcanoes.) This mixture shoots up to over 200 degrees F quickly, so use caution when handling. Avoid directly breathing in the fumes. (I keep the window over my kitchen sink opened during this step or work outside on my back deck. If you don’t have proper ventilation, consider wearing a mask.) Stir with a long wooden 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 125 degrees.
- (7.) While the lye solution is cooling, weigh out the oils and butters called for in your recipe. Place these in an enamel or stainless steel pot, that you plan to use for soap making only. (Do not use aluminum during any stage of the soap making process.) Turn the heat on low and gently heat the oils until they reach 90-125 degrees F.
- (8.) Before mixing, make sure your lye and oils are roughly the same temperature in the range of 90 – 125 degrees F. I sometimes add an ice cube or two to my lye solution to cool it faster (remember the water amount can be adjusted by this small amount) or set my pan of oil down into a sink filled with a few inches of water and ice cubes if it needs cooling. Temperature is a subjective, personal preference that varies between soap-makers. Some will only mix at higher temperatures than I list while others let everything sit overnight and mix the next morning at room temperature. The main thing is that your lye solution and oils are about the same temperature when you mix them. Once the desired temps are reached, slowly drizzle your lye solution into your pot containing oils and butters.
- (9.) Using a stick blender, start combining the lye solution and oils, stopping to occasionally stir and check consistency. It only takes a few minutes for most of my recipes to reach “trace” – which means when you drizzle a small bit of the soap mixture over the surface, it will leave a faint pattern or trace before sinking back into the mixture. (Click on the picture above, which demonstrates this.) My first several batches of soap were made without using a stick blender. Every single one failed. I highly highly HIGHLY recommend using one. I have one by Cuisinart that I’ve had for many years. Make sure you use it strictly for soap making and not for food use. Once trace is reached, you’ll add any extras such as honey, oatmeal, natural colorants, and essential oils and blend for just a bit more until they are all incorporated.
- (10.) Working quickly, pour the soap into your prepared molds, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Pick up your 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. The soap is still caustic at this point, so keep your gloves on and be aware that the mixture can burn your skin. If that happens you can rinse thoroughly with water or pour vinegar over the spot to offset the alkalinity (or both.)
- (11.) Cover with the mold top, then several layers of blankets and quilts to make sure the soap is well insulated and retains the heat needed to finish saponifying. Leave undisturbed for about 24 to 36 hours.
- (12.) Unmold your block of soap. You can cut it into bars right away or later. I like to do it fairly soon after making, so that the soap is still soft and easy to cut. Use a ruler and a knife to cut into desired sizes. Let the bars cure in the open air on pieces of wax paper or brown paper, turning occasionally, for about 4 weeks. Since I almost always superfat my soaps, (which means I put in extra oils that the lye does not transform to soap), they are gentle enough to start testing after three weeks. I always test on myself a few days before trying out on other family members, just to be safe.
This wraps up my post on the basics of soap making. Remember, this is just an overview! I did not cover every tiny detail there is to know about soap making because that is impractical for the space limitations of a single blog post. Be sure to check out the links and books on my Soapmaking Page so you can research more thoroughly before you make your first batch.
Next time, I’ll write about how you can create custom soaps from a single recipe. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some of my favorite soap recipes from The Nerdy Farm Wife Shop too!
Shared with: Clever Chicks Blog Hop & Natural Living Monday.
This is great! You make it sound so simple. Totally unrelated, I love the heart quilt. Did you make it? Can you share the method some time? Thanks.
Hi Debra! I’m glad you found the post helpful! My mom made that quilt for me – I’m fairly certain she just drew/copied a heart onto plain paper for a pattern, then cut as many as she needed out of fabric, appliqued them with some wonder under onto plain muslin blocks then zig zag stitched around the hearts before sewing the blocks together. She hand quilted around the hearts and the seams of the blocks. I would love to post on quilting some time – will add that to my list!
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Thank you for sharing your directions. I’ve been thinking about making my own soap for a while. Maybe your directions will help me find the courage to collect all of the tools/supplies and just go for it. And, I love the name of your website!
Hi Carol, thanks! I hope you do get to try making your own soap. It’s such a good feeling to create something so useful! Go for it and let me know how it goes!
I’m still scared to use Lye, even with goggles and gloves. I don’t trust myself. (Super clutzy) Is there no way to make soap without lye? I’m thinking with beeswax or shay butter, ..something? Thanks though, I am bookmarking this page
Hi Bridget, I am the same way, so understand your hesitation!
You need lye to make soap from scratch, but you can try melt and pour soaps – http://www.brambleberry.com/Bases-Melt-Pour–C151.aspx has a selection you could look at. (not chemical free though)
I was scare to use lye to but once you do it once you will enjoy making soap and the fear will go away. try it
Ooo great stuff there, thank you! I’m liking the “melt & pour” idea. Glycerin, hmm..=) Thank you again!
I make all of my soaps from a melt and pour method using different glycerin blocks. I use essential oils, oatmeals, blueberry seeds, eucalyptus leaves etc for exfoliates, coconut oil, olive oil, Shea butter, even almond oils and goats milk, then pick your essential oils and any colors. You can make great soaps and they lather and they sell quickly too:) I as well don’t like using the lye:)
I really like your idea of this soap making. Do you have a website that you followed for these soap recipes? I would love to make the soap without using The lye .very excited to start this project. I’m also on Facebook if it will be easier to shoot me a message or website. You can find me at tina lacey lee. Thank you for your ideas.
lawebd me at tina
Nice tutorial ,, my grandmother used to make all types of soaps , when I was a kid , of course she kicked me out when handling the lye,, so I really never knew the procedure (s). Thanks for the great info. I think I’ll share on my Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/othomestead (if you don’t mind) the link will come directly here,, no stopping along the way !! Thanks again ,, Regards ,, Rich @ NY Homesteader
Definitely not a problem to share, thanks for asking!
This is brilliantly laid out and precisely detailed, Jan. Well worth the wait! Thanks for sharing…and I trust all your assignments went well for you, too. Best regards, FD @ Ladybug’s Mew.
Thanks Farmer Doug! So far, so good as far as my homework. I’m putting a project off this week so I can get a post or two up then I’m likely to disappear again into a state of confused muttering and head scratching for another week or two.
What happens if you pour the mixture if it’s not “traced” enough or if it’s “over-traced”? If it’s not thick enough when you pour the soap in the mold, what will happen? Likewise, if it is too thick how to you fix that? Can you tell, I’m not a risk taker? Actually, I just hate wasting my time & money-I don’t have a lot of either
Hi Christi, I know exactly what you mean about time and money!
I know for sure what happens when you pour it too thin – it will leak out of your molds and all over your table and floor. (Assuming you use molds with seams vulnerable to this.) This happened to me the first several batches. We stirred and stirred and got tired of stirring so thought it was enough (it wasn’t.) Using a stick blender however, will speed things up considerably. You’ll quickly see the mixture turn thicker and it will be somewhat like a thin pudding by the time it’s ready. If it’s too thick… you would just have to work as fast as you can to scoop it into your molds and you might have a few pockets where it’s not completely smooth & pretty, but it will be perfectly fine to use. In fact, for my camo soaps, I like it on the thick side so the colors won’t run together.
Thanks for the information, next step will be to find a recipe using oils & butters I have on hand. I look forward to reading your future posts-let the soap games begin!
As we learn in chemistry, do as you ought ta, add acid to water. I didn’t know that worked the same for Lye.
Hey Joshua, That’s a great looking soap supply site you have there. I bookmarked it so I can check it out better soon!
I have just started making soap as a hobby and have found it to be really relaxing. So far, I have made coffee mint, vanilla rose, neem, lemongrass with mint and tea tree with lavender. I must say that they have been the best soaps to bathe with. So refreshing! No unnecessary chemicals! I so enjoy this, that now am experimenting with making body butter. I live in the Caribbean, so the body butter always melts. I have no idea how to keep it nice and creamy! Any advice?
Those soaps sound so lovely Suan!
I haven’t experimented with body butters, since I love making and using all types of creams, but something I do for those when it’s hot is keep them in the refrigerator. I also found this link that suggests adding beeswax to help:
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/MailbagMonday/f/Keep-Whipped-Shea-Body-Butter-From-Melting.htm
I would suggest adding beeswax – you might want to read up on making Lotion Bars.
That sounds like a very good idea, anyone tried that?
http://www.livingthenourishedlife.com/2012/02/homemade-whipped-coconut-oil-body.html
Scroll down to the comments. Alot of helpful advice there on body butters
I love the idea of your coffee mint soap .and the body butter. For the soaps do you use oils, with fragrance? And is there a website I can follow for making the body butters? Thank you for the new ideas.
Hi Tina! I don’t use fragrances other than occasional use of essential oils (because of allergies) but you can find a lot more soap ideas and information at The Soap Queen’s blog:
http://www.soapqueen.com/
Here’s one of their tutorials for whipped body butter, but there’s tons more recipes out there if you do a google search.
http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/lotion/how-to-make-whipped-body-butter-on-soap-queen-tv/
I’ve tried mixing my oils and lye and oils at different temperatures between 90 and 125 but I prefer about 120 degrees. You mentioned that some soapers let theirs sit overnight before mixing. I have never heard that before. How well does that work? What’s the pros and cons?
Hi Lori, I haven’t tried it myself, but have heard it mentioned a few times. I tend to prefer mixing at a higher temperature as well. Here’s one link I found that talks about room temp soap. On Day 1, she melted her oils/butters together & mixed the lye/water solution and set both aside. On Day 2 she continued with the soap making process. Judging by the pictures, looks like it turned out well!
http://www.craftserver.com/forums/showthread.php?61968-Intro-To-Room-Temp-Cold-Process-Soap
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Very interesting, can you also use essential oils on them?
Yes, you can essential oils to them at trace, right before pouring into the molds. (They can sometimes make your soap suddenly set up faster, so you want to add, stir and pour quickly.)
My next post after this: http://thenerdyfarmwife.com/how-to-create-custom-soaps-from-a-single-recipe/
gives a few sample ideas for the amounts. I often just start with a teaspoon or two total then add more if desired, judging by a ‘sniff test.’ The scents fade with time, so you want to add a bit more to compensate for that.
I thought they will quickly evaporate which will defeat the objective but glad to hear it can be done
Thanks
hi love yr recipes its so confussing as theres so many ways to do it and so many recipes yrs is simple but i need to ask if u have a recipe that only has a few ingredients meaning olive oil and palm oil i have tons of it i have a little bit of coconut oil to so im trying to use the 20 ltres of palm oil up asap before it goes of can u help please i also have fragrances to
a recipe with only these items would b great and save me lossing all the stuff before it goes of money is tight as everyone is aware im getting desperate all the recipes i find have other oils to i just want the ones i have as im am a beginnner
cheers
Hi Ingrid, That’s a lot of palm oil!
You can make a soap with just olive and palm oil, though adding a third oil or butter would help balance it a bit more.
You can plug the oils you have into a lye calculator
https://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php
and create your own recipe that way.
OR
Here’s a recipe I found in “Making Scented Soap” by Linda Hamblen – a book from my library. I omitted a hard-to-find oil so that you just have olive oil and palm oil. I haven’t tested this recipe though! But, the book looks lovely and I feel like it should turn out well.
— 23 ounces olive oil (abt 655 grams)
— 14 ounces palm oil (400 grams)
— 4.75 ounces lye (sodium hydroxide) (135 grams)
— 13 ounces (375 g) water
If you try to double or triple the recipe, then make sure to run it through the lye calculator so that you get all of the numbers right.
Fragrance oils should be added at the end (at “trace”) Make sure you have everything ready because once you add scent, it will sometimes set up fast. Add the fragrance, then stir in well, then pour into your molds, cover and insulate – all in quick succession.
I hope this helped a bit, feel free to ask if you have any more questions! Good luck with your soap!
I have never made soap before so I am wondering, can you just pour into your mold and then add the oils? I just started reading up on making soaps and body butters, ect. I love all that I am learning
Thank you for sharing! I have never messed with Lye before, but I am definitely going to give this a go. Thanks so much!
It’s a lot easier to mix the essential oils in the soap pot – sort of like mixing all of the cake ingredients at once and then pouring in a pan before baking, instead of making a cake, pouring it into the pan, then adding vanilla.
I’m so glad you’re excited about making soap! I hope you have great luck with your experiments!!!
hiya thanku so much for this recipe i love it simple
cheers
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This is wonderful! I am so excited to finally just do this and give it a try! Can you share how you superfat your soaps. I have dry skin and I would like to do this as well.
Hi Avigail! What I do, is just stir in a bit of extra oils at the end, right before pouring into the molds. I save my most expensive and nourishing oils for this, since you only need a small amount. (such as tamanu oil, rosehip seed oil, pomegranate seed oil, etc)
If you look at the next post:
http://thenerdyfarmwife.com/how-to-create-custom-soaps-from-a-single-recipe/
you’ll see a few examples of how I did that!
Thank you very much for your willingness to share your expertise. Can’t wait for all of my supplies to arrive and to finally give this a go!
How exciting! Have fun crafting your soaps!!
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A friend and I have been making soap with goat milk as our liquid and a combination of coconut, olive,and palm kernel oil and shea butter as our fats. We’re cautious when mixing the lye with the milk and now we feel like pros. I love this soap so much I can’t imagine using anything else. It’s so creamy, moisturizing and the alpha hydroxy acids in the milk make it a great exfoliant. Once our PKO is gone though I’ll try some of the suggestions for using other fats.
That sounds like a lovely soap!
I know what you mean about not wanting to use anything else – I hope to never have to go back to store bought again!
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I have always wanted to try this, but, like you said, the lye always scares me away.
It can be scary thinking about it at first! It helped me to approach it somewhat like I would bleach; it’s also a super strong chemical that requires a lot of respect in handling, but something we’re all so familiar in dealing with, that it’s kind of old hat. I hope you do get to try one day – it’s a really fun hobby!
Enjoyed the post!
Making soap is on my to do list this year.
I have talked about it for yearas and decided this is the year for doing!
I have a few goats I milk so plan on making goats milk soap.
Thanks again for the good read. Definately going to make a copy
Hi Sandra, thank you so much! I hope you enjoy your soap making fun!!
I have always wanted to try soap making and now can’t wait to give it a go. I am just starting to dig up various sections of my yard to plant herb and edible garden beds around the place. the biggest challenges I see will be Kikuyu (evil stuff that comes up everywhere!) and my 1 year old fur baby getting his paws coated in lovely lush and smelly soil! Whilst looking for herbs to plant that were also going to be useable I stumbled upon your website… it is AWESOME!! Thank you so much for sharing all of your experience and recipes… My mum is a naturopath and my grandmother was a real greenthumb , and so I have grown up hearing about the uses for different herbs but have sadly waited until my late 30′s to get into it . Please keep adding to your recipes, I am fascinated! And seccretly hoping I can work out how to make most herbs grow in our Perth Climate – Western Australia (its Autumn and still 37 degrees) I seem to do real well with oregano… Do you have some balms, salves etc that use that? LOL. Thanks again! Ness
Hi Ness and thanks for the kind words! You sound like you have a great herbal heritage and a wonderful place to get your herb gardens started! I have an abundance of oregano as well, but don’t use it that often – I need to come up with some new ideas for it!
I am very glad to have found your Blog! I am a soap maker and use goats milk rather than water. I do not have the fumes that happen with water. I am curious about supper fatting as I would love to add a bit more creaminess to my soaps. I am very grateful for the information you offer!
Hi Khrista!
Here’s a great technical explanation on superfatting from an expert:
http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/superfatting-soap-an-explanation-2/
But here’s my un-technical way: I figure out a soap recipe I love, then right at trace, I add a few tablespoons of extra oils or butters. (3 extra tablespoons for large batches of that have a total of around 80 oz oils/butters in the recipe, half as much for my half recipes.) I save my more expensive or luxurious oils for this like tamanu oil, pomegranate seed oil, rosehip seed oil, etc. A favorite way to add creaminess is extra mango or shea butter.
You can see in this post how I took a plain recipe (hard bar, not overly creamy) and doctored it up. The violet soap is especially nice:
http://thenerdyfarmwife.com/how-to-create-custom-soaps-from-a-single-recipe/
This is another of my creamiest soaps, you can see how & what I added at trace:
http://thenerdyfarmwife.com/rosa-rugosa-soap-recipe-palm-free/
Hope this gives you a few ideas!
Hi there, I used to make my own soap, but haven’t in quite awhile. Your post has me excited to do it again! It is so satisfying to use your own soap, and it makes a wonderful gift. One thing…you mention that lye can be hard to find. The person I learned from used Drano and it worked beautifully. Is there a reason why this isn’t the best method? Thank you!!
I’m glad to hear you’re going to restart your soap making!
Drano isn’t recommended because it isn’t pure sodium hydroxide and has other ingredients harmful to your health, including shards of aluminum. Here’s the full list from the maker:
http://www.whatsinsidescjohnson.com/en-us/products-by-brand/drano/drano-crystals-clog-remover.aspx
Thanks for sharing your instructions! Quick question, for your recipes, how big do your molds have to be? What are the dimensions? Thanks in advance!
Hi BV, thanks for asking! I need to update the posts to reflect that information. I have homemade wooden box molds and the INNER dimensions are: 16 inches by 11.5 inches by 2 inches.
made soap for the 1st time used a silacone mold, let set for 24 hours covered, used 24oz coconut oil, 24 oz olive oil, 15ml of each lemon, lime and tea tree oil 16oz of distilled water, 7.7 oz of lye when i cut it it cracked was not able to get a nice even cut bar. What do you think I did wrong?????
Hi Tawn, I’m so sorry to hear that! When I run your recipe through the lye calculator at:
https://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php
It says for a recipe containing 24 ounces coconut oil and 24 ounces of olive oil, you should have 7.21 ounces of lye. (Using the 6% extra oils allowance that I normally use.)
Is there another oil that you forgot to type in here or did you use that much extra lye? If so, your bar is going to be really lye heavy so dry, hard and/or crumbly plus too caustic to use.
If you try this recipe again, I’d use the 7.21 ounces of lye. Your water is spot on though. Also, make sure you measure the oils by weight on a scale and not fluid ounce.
I’m sorry your first batch did that! I know my first several failed as well and it was discouraging, but don’t give up! I hope your next batch is perfect!
Is it ok to use silicone molds ?
Hi Cindy! I’ve not used them myself, but I see a large selection of them at BrambleBerry so it appears that you can:
http://www.brambleberry.com/Soap-Molds-Basic-C81.aspx
I make soap for a living and have for over 15 years. I learned by reading a book by Sandy Maine. I started in my kitchen with an 8 lb mold (I live alone) and today I make more than 1200 lbs of soap a week in a commercial store setting using 40 lb molds.
Please, please, if you’re going to make soap at home, please wear a mask while you’re preparing your lye solution. Do the stirring of the lye outside your house, if possible. Make sure there are no children or elderly people in the room. When you add lye to water, it creates a chemical heat of almost 200 degrees F. It must be vigorously stirred to disolve or will turn to solid lye in the bottom of the container, making it useless. During that stir it produces noxious fumes. If you’re unmasked you will inhale the fumes. They will enter your nose and lungs and burn the lining of them. DO NOT make lye solution when there are children in your home. Those fumes travel and can burn skin. If you get lye or hot soap on your skin, please rinse for a long time with cool water to break the bond. Once the lye is stirred into the water it becomes very hot! NEVER start with hot water! The fumes dissipate quickly and then the lye has no smell. Chemically produced heat takes a long time to cool. While waiting for the lye to cool, be sure it is labeled as lye and a poison emblem of scull and cross bones, especially if you put it in the fridge or on the kitchen counter. Someone could mistake it as something to drink and pour themselves a glass. I’ve seen this happen on old soap forums. Husband comes along, sees a pitcher, pours a glass of “juice” and starts to drink. Instantly, lye will remove the mucosal lining of the mouth and digestive tract. The person will spend many miserable days in ICU and could possibly die. Making soap at home should not be taken lightly. Lye is a dangerous chemical. Use caution at all times. Once you make your soap, that soap is caustic until saponification is complete, especially while it is still liquid. It will burn your skin. Be sure to wear long sleeves while making soap. If you decide to try your hand at soap, it is a very fulfilling hobby. It could even turn into a business. I cannot stress strongly enough to use all necessary precautions. A mask and long sleeves is absolutely essential when making your lye solution.
Hi Kathy, I’ve only been making soap for about nine or ten years now, but among the first books I bought on soap making was one by Sandy Maine as well! It was a great inspiration!
Those are some wonderful safety tips. As I mentioned in the post a few times, this is just a *basic overview.* The format and space limitations of a blog keeps me from being able to make any post overly comprehensive; that’s why I love books so much more than the internet when it comes to my own learning process. However, I realize the validity of your concerns so when I’m able to work at my computer for a few hours this evening, I will definitely edit the post to further highlight the safety topics you mentioned.
Thanks for the feedback!
We used to make soap in a cast iron pot. We put the water in them added lye. Waited a bit for it to cool and then carefully opened the lard and let it fall slowly into the pot. We mixed it with a long stick until it was creamy like hot cereal and then pored it out to finish. This was the best thing we could do with the lard since we never would use lard for cooking. That was a long time ago so more than 45 years has made the details a bit fussy. My scale does 2 grams at a time so I can’t get exact grams. I would rather make soap outside so if it splatters I don’t have a mess in my house. Looks like recycling an old barbecue grill would make a good soap making station especially if it had side stations on it. I would just be able too close the lid and not have to worry. you could ever lock it so no one would mess with your stuff when you were making it. Thanks for a more scientific way to make soap so you get a better soap. I don’t remember how it turned out but I am sure we used it and were OK.
Hi Renee’! What great memories! My husband’s grandpa’s family made soap in such a way and he grew up strong and sturdy too.
I like your barbecue grill idea as well!!
Jenny
Thank you so much for your recipes and great directions. Could you please tell me the dimensions of your wooden soap mold and lid? I am asking my husband to make one. Does yours make 2lbs of soap? How many bars do you get per batch in your mold?
Hi Jenny,
The inner dimension on my soap mold are: 16 inches by 11.5 inches by 2 inches tall. The wood is about 3/4 inch thick, so add that all around to get the outer dimensions which is the same size as the lid. My soap batches that I post, don’t 100% fill it up, so there’s some leeway in there, if those exact dimensions aren’t made or if your recipe has a few ounces more oil. My brother made me some slightly different sized than the one my hubby made and it all works out. I get about 18 bars from each batch, though a few times, I’ve gotten 20. It depends on which way I cut (I never can remember which side to start on) and how even the edges are/if they need trimming or not.
If you’d like a smaller/bigger/differently sized mold, you can do the formula here and adjust your recipe accordingly:
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/suppliers/tp/Calculating-The-Size-Amount-Of-Soap-To-Fill-A-Soap-Mold.htm
I had to edit your email address out of your comment, so a spammer wouldn’t pick it up. However, I’ll email this reply to you too, so you’ll be sure to see it!
I like coldpressed soaps but the lye drys out my skin so bad. I now understand when I’ve read stories from the early centuries and they mentioned their hands looking so bad with hangnails etc from washing with lye soap. So I use glycerin, coconut or others to make my soap.
You’re right – too much lye in a batch of soap can certainly dry out your skin! That’s why I like to superfat my soaps so that they are very gentle and moisturizing.