Make Organic Soap

Making your own organic soap offers the benefit of you knowing exactly what goes into it and what you will be cleaning your skin with. You can eliminate harsh chemicals or unwanted fragrances. These additives dry out your skin or wreak havoc on sensitive skin. You can make organic soap by taking earth friendly, skin friendly ingredients and creating a product that is equally as pleasurable. Most of the hardware needed to follow these instructions on making organic soap can be found in your home, and the ingredients can easily be obtained from your local home improvement, drug or health store.

Steps

  1. Line your box with your freezer paper or parchment paper. This will help release the soap when you are done making it.
  2. Wear your protective clothing. Lye will irritate and burn you if it comes in contact with your skin. Donning safety glasses, gloves and long sleeves and pants will help protect you from burns in case there are any splatters or spills while you are mixing the ingredients. The lye becomes neutralized by the oils in the recipe, making the soap safe to use.
  3. Measure your ingredients using the food scale. Measuring the amounts of the ingredients will give you a more exact portion than doling out cups. You will need 6 ounces distilled water, 2.25 ounces lye, 10 ounces olive oil, 6 ounces coconut oil and 1 tablespoon (0.45 ounce) castor oil. Pour the lye into your bowl, the water into one of your measuring cups and the oils into the other measuring cup.
  4. Add the lye to the water gradually. Stir slowly to avoid spattering. The reaction of the 2 items mixing will create heat and fumes. Once integrated, set the mixture aside to cool. Lye automatically heats up to over 200 degrees and takes nearly 20 minutes to reach a temperature of 115 degrees.
  5. Melt the oils, if necessary to bring them to liquid form.
  6. Warm the oils, being careful not to get them too hot or you will have to wait for them to cool to proceed.
  7. Take the temperatures of the oils and the water/lye mixture. You want them to be within 20 degrees of each other, somewhere between {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}. Rewarm the oils if necessary to get to this temperature.
  8. Mix the lye water into oils. Do this slowly, stirring constantly.
  9. Whisk or blend the mixture until it becomes the consistency of pudding. If you think you have blended enough, take the temperature of the mixture. The temperature should have risen a few degrees. This can take a few minutes with a blender or up to an hour with a whisk.
  10. Pour the mixture into your lined box. Cover. Let sit for 2 days.
  11. Check the soap with your gloves on. It should be solidified. Remove the soap from the box and cut in into bars. If the soap has separated or is crumbly, discard it and do not use.
  12. Lay bars out flat to cure. Turn the bars every day for 3 - 4 weeks until they are dry.
  13. Store your soap in a container that is ventilated.
  14. Clean up all soap-making areas with your protective clothing on. To make sure you keep from being burned, it is best to wear your gloves and goggles until all your work area and utensils are clean from the lye.
  15. Finished.

Tips

  • If you're able to wait 24 hours to clean the utensils used to mix the soap mixture, it will make cleanup safer and easier. The mixtures remnants will turn to soap on the used utensils.
  • Avoid using aluminum, tin or cast iron when working with lye, as the lye will react with the medium and ruin the soap and the utensil. Specifically the lye eats through aluminum.
  • Keep a spray bottle full of vinegar at your work station. In the event of accidental lye contact, the vinegar will neutralize the burning effect. Spay the affected area immediately, water will not help a lye burn.
  • Add essential oils to your soap for holistic treatments or aromatherapy. Consider ground almonds for exfoliation.

Things You'll Need

  • Distilled or spring water
  • Lye (sodium hydroxide) Usually found at hardware stores as a drain cleaner. Make sure the ingredients state it's 100% Sodium Hydroxide.
  • Olive oil
  • Coconut oil
  • Caster oil
  • Safety glasses
  • Gloves
  • Long sleeve shirt
  • Long pants
  • Food scale that measures in ounces
  • 2 food thermometers. One for the lye, one for the oils.
  • 2 - 4 cup glass measuring cups
  • 100% stainless steel, ceramic, plastic or glass bowl
  • Silicone, stainless steel or wooden spoon
  • Whisk or hand blender
  • Small box to use as a mold
  • Freezer paper or parchment paper
  • Knife

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Sources and Citations

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