Hand Mill Additives for Homemade Lye Soap Making

Video Transcript

"I’ve just taken the melted soap out of the pot. It is a very nice consistency and I am going to mix everything right in this bag. I am going to add 1/8 tsp of product called orris root, this will help to fix the fragrance of the oil and help it last a little longer. We have a wide variety of fragrance oils, essential oils, that’s what I have most here and blends of essential oils that can be used. This is where your creativity comes in. We have picked this essential oil. Now this little bottle will go a long way. The amount you use will be pretty much up to your own individual taste. It should smell a little strong to you because it is going to spend some time curing. We are going to add calendula petals, this is a really nice texture and is very gentle on the skin. Now I am going to close over the bag and knead it until everything is mixed. There is a wide variety of things you can add. Like I say this is where your creativity comes into play. There are textures you can add. You can dry your own herbs like we did this rosemary. If you add fruit, particularly the first time, I recommend that you use a published recipe. You will get a lot more information from that and you will also have to add a preservative. I have some grapefruit seed extract there that would be added. You can see that this is all mixed together, I check the scent and I got it about the way I like it and so to pour these in the mold, I am just going to cut the corner off the bottom and I simply going to squeeze this into the mold. That’s one filled mold. In this next batch, we have added lavender buds, some lavender scent and a little coloring and you just keep mixing this. See the colors starting to come out, so is the soap. You do have to be gentle with these Ziploc bags that are warm. It is important when using colorant that you use colorant specifically designed for soap. Crayons, fabric colors, shoe dyes, candle dyes are not appropriate for the use in soap. I put saran wrap on the top of these and smoothed out the bottom. Now I am going to pop these in the freezer over night to solidify these bars and in the morning we will take them out for their final curing. "