How to Make Lye Soap

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By thebeaddoodler
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Gardeners Delight Soap

Making lye soap sounds a little scarey. Using lye soap also sounds a little scarey, but in truth if your measurements are precise, natural hand made lye soap is the best soap for your skin. I’ll introduce you to two recipes and a process that will probably become an addiction! This article doesn’t cover color and scents for your soaps. Do some research into skin safe colorants and fragrance oils as well as essential oils to color and scent your soap.
Recipe 1:
32 oz lard,
4.2 oz lye,
12 oz distilled water,

Recipe 2:
Olive oil 18 oz,
Coconut oil 10 oz,
Palm oil 4 oz,
Lye 4.6 oz,
Distilled water 12 oz.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

A good recipe
An online lye calculator
A digital scale that will read ounces in .1oz increments
A non reactive pan (heat resistant glass or stainless steel)
A non reactive large spoon. I use either stainless steel
A non reactive jar
A soap mold
Lye
Distilled water
Oils of your choice
Meat or candy thermometer
Vinegar
Googles
Rubber gloves
Apron

Step 1

Check the amount of lye called for in your recipe with a lye calculator. Anyone can make a typo and you need to be sure you don’t have too much lye in your recipe. The calculator I use is at Majestic Mountain Sage and is free to use.
http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php
In units of weight, select ounces
In form of lye, select Solid Form Lye, Sodium Hydroxide
Scroll down to the oils and type in the amount of each oil. Then scroll to the bottom and click on Calculate lye. The program will give you a range of “superfats” and you can select your lye amount from that. I always use 5%. This insures that there is plenty of oil to react with the lye, but not so much extra oil that the soap becomes rancid in a short time.
Step 2

Make sure your vinegar is within reach at all times. If at any time you spill lye, lye/water or raw soap on your skin immediately wash it off with soap, rinse with water and douse liberally with vinegar. Lye is caustic and can cause serious burns on skin.
Put on your goggles, rubber gloves and apron and weigh out your lye in a non reactive container (for this I use a plastic cup or bowl).
Weigh out your water into your non reactive jar or cup. For 2 lb batchs of soap like these recipes I use a plastic 2 cup measuring cup. Water is the same by volume as by weight, so you can measure the water if you prefer.
Step 3

SLOWLY add the lye to the water, stirring constantly. This mixture will heat up very fast and give off fumes so either do this step outside or in a well ventilated area. If you want you can put the water container in a bowl of ice water to help it cool down faster.
Step 4

Weigh your oils and put them in the non reactive pan. Place the pan on a burner over low heat.
If you’re using solid oils such as palm or lard be sure that they are melted completely, but you want to keep your heat to around 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
Step 5

While your oil is heating, and your lye water is cooling, prepare your mold. You can use any container you have on hand that will hold the 44 oz of liquid you will be pouring into it. Some suggestions are plastic shoe box, or plastic storage container. If you use a new plastic container you probably won’t need to oil it or line it. The soap will turn loose after it has set for 24 to 48 hours.
Step 6

When lye water and oils are both at about 110 degrees, put your pan containing oil on an easy to reach surface. I like to put mine in the sink so any splashes and drips are easily cleaned up. The height is comfortable for me too.
Slowly pour the lye water into the oils stirring in a figure 8 motion with your non reactive spoon. Continue to stir until the soap reaches trace. You’ll know it’s reached trace when your spoon leaves a “rut” behind it, or when you drop the soap onto itself and it leaves an indentation.
After you’ve stirred the lye/water into the oil and mixed it well, a stick blender will speed up the process considerably. Use blender for about one minute, then stir for a minute with the spoon. Continue alternating with the spoon and stick blender. Alternating between blender and spoon not only saves wear and tear on your blender, but assures that your soap doesn't reach false trace. The last stir should be done with the spoon.
Step 7

When your soap has reached trace, pour it into your mold. Set it in a place that will be free from drafts and cover it well. Leave it for at least 24 hours. Don’t peek! Just let all that lye/water/oil sit there and PARTY! In 24 hours the lye and oil will all be completely and irreparably mingled into a big solid block of soap! After it is completely cooled and set into a solid state, you can unmold it and cut it into bars.
Step 8

Gardeners Delight Soap

Allow the soap to cure for four to six weeks. During this time some of the water will evaporate and the soap will become hard. The longer it sets, the better the lather will be, so don’t get in too big a hurry to use it.

Comments

evelynsaenz said

Flag This Comment

on 9/3/2009 This is the clearest explaination I have found on how to make Lye Soup.

I hope you don't mind that I have added a link to this article on www.squidoo.com/1780 which is a unit study about life in the 1780's.

lorisoard said

on 5/16/2009 Really good, step-by-step directions. We may try this one day this summer. Thanks! 5*

1GoGetter said

on 4/4/2009 Soap making is a time honored tradition that all of our grandmothers or great-grandmothers were familiar with. Thank you for preserving the knowledge! 5*s