How to Make Homemade Soap From Scratch

Making soap from scratch is simple and fun.

Making your own soap is a fun and useful skill. It allows you to create and personalize your own soaps for yourself as well as for your friends and family. You can even earn money by selling the soaps for profit. While you can make soaps using a pre-made soap base, it is also simple to create soaps from scratch using ingredients such as oils and lye. Make your homemade soap scented or unscented, colorful or plain, even give it a fun shape.

Things You'll Need

• Safety goggles
• Rubber gloves
• Long-sleeved shirt
• 6.9 oz. lye
• 15.8 oz water
• Stainless steel cooking pot (large sized)
• Stainless steel cooking pot or mixing bowl (small sized)
• Stainless steel spoon
• 16 oz. canola oil
• 16 oz. palm oil
• 16 oz. coconut oil
• Cooking thermometer
• Submersible blender
• Soap mold

Instructions

1. Put on your safety goggles, gloves and long-sleeved shirt to protect your skin in case of spills.

2. Add the lye to the water in the small cooking pot or stainless steel mixing bowl.

3. Stir carefully with a stainless steel spoon until the mixture is transparent. Once transparent, set the mixture aside to cool (the chemical reaction of the lye and water makes the mixture very hot).

4. Monitor the temperature of the lye mixture with a cooking thermometer. You want it to reach a temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

5. Place all of your oils into a large cooking pot while you wait for the lye mixture to cool.

6. Put the large cooking pot on low heat and allow the oils to melt (some oils seem more like a butter when cool). Stir to mix the oils as they warm.

7. Remove the oils from heat once thoroughly melted and combined. Monitor their temperature with a cooking thermometer. Again, you want the oils to cool to a temperature of 110 F.

8. Add the lye mixture to the large pot of oils when the contents of both pots reach a temperature of 110 F. Do this carefully.

9. Stir all ingredients using a submersible blender until they trace. This means that when you drag the blender through the mixture, it leaves a small trail behind it for a few seconds.

10. Carefully pour the soap into a soap mold and allow it to harden for 3 to 5 days.

11. Remove the soap from the mold and allow it to sit in the open air for 4 to 6 weeks to age before you use it.

Tips & Warnings

• It is important not to breathe in the fumes from the lye mixture. If you are not working in a well-ventilated area, place the lye mixture outside while you wait for it to cool.

• Be extremely cautious when working with hot liquids or tricky ingredients such as lye, as either can cause serious skin burns if handled improperly.

References

• TeachSoap.com: Easy Cold Process Soap Recipes
• Soap Making Resource: Cold Process Soap Making Tutorial