Make Money the Clean Way

Image Gallery Always wear protective gloves when you're creating your batches of soap. Otherwise the caustic lye may burn your skin.

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Soap is practically the easiest thing in the world to make and everybody uses it, so why not make your own specialized soap and start a profitable business?

Make Up A Batch of Soap

Ingredients:

1 pound package of lard, available at grocery stores (or see "Make Your Own Fat and Lye" on page 70)
4 tablespoons lye crystals, available at grocery stores
6 1/2 ounces of cold water, soft or distilled 1 container of lye, available in plumbing department of hardware stores (or see "Make Your Own Fat and Lye" on page 70) fragrance, perfume, cologne, potpourri, etc. (optional)

Equipment:

low-temperature cooking thermometer (usually ranges from 50'F to 200°F)
2 mixing containers made of glass, stainless steel, or enamel
rubber gloves
 wooden spoon
wooden molds (or bottom of juice cartons lined with piece of plastic trash bag)
eye protection

Place lard in a glass bowl or suitable metal container, and melt in a 150°F oven. While waiting for lard to completely melt, read the precaution label on the lye container thoroughly. Lye is caustic and can burn your skin, so wear both rubber gloves and eye protection while working with it; handle lye with care at all times. Next, place the lye crystals in a small, dry container. Pour cold water—either soft or distilled—into a separate heavy glass container (canning jars work well). Don't use plastic, tin, or aluminum containers because lye reacts negatively with these materials.

Once the lard has melted, remove the bowl from the oven and place the cooking thermometer in the liquid. Wait until the fat cools to 95°F before proceeding to the next step. You can hasten the cooling process by immersing the bowl into a sink filled with cold water. Next, begin to add the cold water (which is already mixed in with the lye crystals) to the pre-measured lye in a glass container with a wooden spoon or stick, and stir. Continue stirring until all of the lye is dissolved.

The temperature of the lye solution will have risen to approximately 120°F. Let it cool down before you add it to the lard. When the lard has cooled to 85°F and the lye solution has cooled to 75°F (room temperature if you are estimating by touch), start slowly stirring the lard, and then add the lye solution in a thin, steady stream. Again, you can obtain the proper working temperatures of both liquids by transferring each vessel to a sink of hot or cold water, depending on whether you need to maintain heat or hasten cooling. Stir the mixture continuously for the first five minutes, and then stir only occasionally, until it reaches the consistency of sour cream and offers resistance to the spoon. (This process should take approximately 20 minutes). Then pour the mixture into your wooden molds or plastic-lined boxes.

I often use the bottoms of milk or juice cartons, lined with a very lightly oiled piece of plastic from a thin garbage bag. Cover the soap with a clean towel in order to prevent it from cooling off too quickly, and leave it to harden for three days so you'll be able to cut it into bars. Then remove the soap from the mold (or box) and place it on a bunch of paper towels to absorb excess moisture. To cut, wrap a piece of monofilament fishing line around the soap block, cross the ends like you're crossing shoe laces, and pull in opposite directions to cut even bars (see diagram on page 70). The soap will need to be cured for a minimum of two weeks (four weeks is even better) before being used.

This chemical process allows the soap "to keep" for longer periods of time. Stack the soap bars in a pyramid fashion to allow air to circulate, neutralizing any free lye; rotate them so all of the surfaces will be exposed to air. Here's a quick test to check for free lye: touch the tip of your tongue to a bar. If it stings a little, more curing time is required. Like wine and cheese, soap improves with age-which is why it's always best to make batches of soap well in advance of when you'll need them. If you wish to customize your soap, add some of your favorite brand of perfume, cologne, potpourri,

or other fragrance into the soap mixture, after the lye solution has been thoroughly mixed in with the lard. Do this in a separate container from the main mixture if you only want to try out a small amount. Figure that six or seven drops is enough for an entire batch. To make a moisturizing beauty soap, purchase a bar of cocoa butter from your pharmacy and melt it over a double boiler. Pour a quarter cup of the melted cocoa butter into the soap

mixture after the lye solution has been mixed with the lard. To make a dirt-buster soap, mix in one or more tablespoons of cornmeal (some people prefer ground pumice) after the lye solution has been mixed with the lard.

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