How to Make Turkish Soap

Olive oil is a main ingredient of Turkish soap.

Soaps have been made in Turkey since the 1500s, and each region has its special variety. Turkish soap is a natural product, made with a simple olive oil base and often palm and coconut oils, too, which help create thick lather. Modern tools have made soap making much less labor-intensive than it originally was; hand-held immersion blenders specifically have greatly decreased the necessary stirring time previously involved in soap making.

Things You'll Need

• Rubber gloves
• Safety goggles
• 1 large stainless steel bowl
• 5 cups distilled water
• Plastic measuring cup
• 18-ounce can of 100% lye
• Rubber spatula
• 1 stainless steel or enamel pot
• 16 cups olive oil
• 2 cups coconut oil
• 1 cup palm oil
• 1 cup canola oil
• Candy thermometer
• Stainless steel immersion blender
• 2 ounces laurel oil
• 1 plastic storage container with lid, 13" x 9" x 6"
• Blankets

Instructions

1. Pour 5 cups of distilled water into a large stainless steel bowl.

2. Add an 18-ounce can of lye; mix and dissolve with a spatula until the water appears clear. This mixture will give off fumes and get hot, so keep some distance from the bowl after mixing and wait for the fumes to disperse. Wearing safety goggles is recommended. Set the bowl aside and allow the mixture to sit until the container feels just barely warm to the touch.

3. Pour 16 cups of olive oil, 2 cups of coconut oil, and 1 cup each of palm and canola oils into a stainless steel pot fitted with a candy thermometer. Heat to 100 degrees.

4. Pour the lye solution slowly into the oil mixture. Be very careful not to splash or spill the lye; stir continuously and carefully with the spatula.

5. Use a stainless steel immersion blender to blend; stir with this tool for a few minutes, then alternate mixing by hand with the spatula. Stir until the mix becomes opaque and thick, like pudding.

6. Continue mixing until you reach "trace." This is a soap-making term meaning that the oil is completely incorporated and will no longer separate from the mixture; you can test for trace by dipping the spatula into the solution and dribbling some on its surface. If it leaves a small raised line across the surface, or the trace, it is ready. This will take 10 minutes or so of mixing.

7. Add 2 ounces of laurel oil to the mixture for scent once it has reached the trace stage; stir until incorporated.

8. Pour the mixture into a 13" x 9" x 6" plastic container and cover with a lid.

9. Cover the container with blankets. A process called "saponification" will take place in the container. The soap will heat up again in this state, then liquefy, cool off slowly and harden. Keep the container wrapped in blankets for 12 hours. It should feel cool to the touch after that time.

10. If there is water on top of the mold, leave it to be reabsorbed; this is condensation from saponification. Remove the soap from the plastic container and cut it into bars. Olive oil soaps should be cut into bars as soon after saponification is complete as possible.

11. Age for 4 weeks on shelving lined with brown paper, in a place with good ventilation. This recipe makes 10 pounds of soap.

Tips & Warnings

• Never make soap in aluminum pots or use aluminum utensils.

• Lye is poisonous, use with caution. Wear rubber gloves and eye protection. Keep children and animals away from your soap making area.

• Lye is fatal if swallowed, and gives off noxious gas that can irritate the lungs.

• Work in a well-ventilated area; be careful not to inhale the fumes.

• Keep vinegar nearby to neutralize the lye solution if it splashes on your skin.

• Never add water to lye, only the lye to water, as the former may cause eruptions of caustic material.

• Be certain to use 100% lye.

References

• A Simple Soap Recipe
• Kwintessential: How Make Turkish Traditional Hammam Soap
• Kwintessential:Turkish Natural Soap