How to Make Natural Soap at Home

Homemade soap can be formed in trays and cut into bars. Notice the wax paper for convenient removal of the soap.

Make your own soap with lye that you make at home. This process is not to be done indoors, and you need to wear goggles during this process, but it gives you a feeling of independence and accomplishment every time the soap is used. This also allows you to customize the soap to meet the needs of the people in your home to avoid allergens and select the fragrance used. The hardness changes too, based on the intensity of the lye solution (a sharper lye makes harder soap).

Things You'll Need

• Cooking oil (clean)
• Essential oil
• Hardwood white ashes (oak, maple, cherry)
• Cheesecloth
• Strainer
• Bucket
• Mason jar
• Baking soda

Instructions

1. Extract an essential oil (see our other how-to articles) for smell and add a few drops of it to 3 cups of oil that you have around the house for cooking. The best oils to use are unsaturated oils, like olive oil, since they are already solids at temperatures slightly below room temperature.

2. Burn hardwoods (oak, maple, cherry) in your fireplace at a high temperature and only scoop up the white ashes. When you gather 7 cups of white ash from fires throughout the year, you have enough.

3. Put a strainer into a (non-metal) bucket large enough to hold it, outside of your house and away from pets, children and others. Put a cheesecloth into the strainer and pour the white ashes into the cheesecloth.

4. Boil 2 cups of distilled water and slowly pour it over the ashes. Make sure that the bucket does not melt/pour hot lye onto your feet or anywhere it does not belong. Pour this same water over the ashes several times while it is hot. Cover and let the water cool.

5. Pour the oil into a mason jar on the ground outside until the jar is 1/3 full. Pour the lye into the oil slowly. The mixture may get hot. If it starts to splatter, you are going way too fast and are putting yourself at risk of burns since the lye will heat up the oil as it is added and starts to react with the oil. Do not touch the jar since it can get very hot. When the jar is almost full, put a lid on it. Wait for a day and then test the soap to see how solid it is. If it is not solid enough, add a stronger lye solution.

6. If the lye does not thicken in two weeks, add more oil. If there is a layer of oil in the soap instead, add more lye. When the right balance is reached (with two weeks in between each adjustment and subsequent evaluation of the soap), the soap can be scooped out and moistened to put into molds, where it is pressed and will dry again.

Tips & Warnings

• As soon as you have poured the lye into the oil, dispose of the rest in accordance with the laws in your area. If not restricted by law, put several cartons of baking soda into a toilet and "slowly" add the lye to it. Flush several times when you are done. Do not use aluminum containers since aluminum is especially reactive.

• Wear goggles, an apron, gloves and any other gear to protect yourself from the lye. If lye gets into your eyes, immediately rinse under a gentle and steady stream of water for 20-30 minutes and get medical help on the way as you do this. Lye will damage clothes, carpet, and anything else that it gets in contact with since it is a strong and corrosive base (like bleach). Do not let is stay on your skin or come in contact with your body for any period of time. It will kill plant life and render soil unable to support life by destroying the pH. Do not store any dangerous chemicals. The lye can be remade again easily and should not be stored. Do not breathe in the fumes from the boiling lye.

Resources

• Safety Techniques and Recipes
• A History of Soap Making
• Soap Moulds and Instructions
• Frontier Lye Making