If you have never made your own soap before, this lesson for natural herbal soap making is for you. I have been making soap for years and recently decided to try to develop a recipe for a reliable batch of soap using ingredients I can easily obtain that don’t require me to order exotic oils by mail.
Traditionally, people used a combination of wood ash and lard to make soap. The Soap Factory has an interesting account of the history and chemistry of soap making and the traditional methods of rendering fat and obtaining potash from wood ash. I applaud the farmsteader who chooses to make soap using materials at hand and traditional methods. Those of us who want to make things easier need to purchase our materials.
Oils Used in Natural Herbal Soap Making
In place of wood ash, we can easily find lye at any hardware store. The oils are more difficult. Many homemade soap recipes use coconut oil, palm oil, and olive oil as their base ingredients. Soaps made from these oils are nice and hard, lather well, and are soothing to the skin. The problem for me is that finding hydrogenated (solid at room temperature) coconut oil and palm oil can be a challenge where I live.
When I am going to make a large quantity of soap, such as for holiday gifts, I don’t mind ordering oils by the mail from Columbus Foods. They have a “Soaper’s Choice” area of their website with just about any exotic oil you could want in quantities as small as 7 pounds. For smaller and one-time batches, those large quantities are just not practical. You can’t store oil for long periods of time because it gets rancid, especially in my very hot summertime Chicago home. Also, some people don’t want to use palm oil because of environmental concerns.
I decided to develop a very simple and basic soap recipe for the beginner using supplies you can buy easily. We still want to make a batch of soap that is hard, produces lather and is gentle to the skin, but we are going to use oils that you can find at the grocery store and pharmacy.
Equipment
- Lightweight bowl to hold oils while you weigh them
- Glass jars, one to hold lye, one to hold water. The water jar should be around the size of a pickle jar or if it is a canning glass a #19 Ball jar is good
- Rubber spatula
- Digital kitchen scale (borrow one if you don’t have one and are just trying out soap making; you want to invest only after you know you’ll stick with it)
- Candy thermometer (able to withstand very high temperatures)
- Pot to heat the oil in. This must be stainless steel or no-stick. An aluminum pan will react with the lye
- Paper towels
- Plastic shoebox or a similar vessel, such as a small cake pan, to use as mold. Line with cling wrap or wax paper
- Hand stirrer, also called immersion blender. (You can find inexpensive models for under $20.)
- Newspaper or something to protect work surface
Materials
- 23 ounces (by weight) of olive oil. The photo shows extra virgin oil. In fact, the best olive oil to use for soap is the lowest-quality “pomace” oil so try to find the cheapest oil possible. Pomace can often be found in tins at Middle Eastern or Greek groceries or Aldi.
- 13 ounces (by weight) corn oil
- 4.8 ounces (by weight) red devil lye
- Two 1-ounce cocoa butter sticks (I find mine at a local pharmacy)
Plus, optional…
Herbs
You may add small amounts of dried herbs to your soap for texture and color. The herbs will not add any scent to the soap so don’t worry about how they smell. Remember that the lye is so harsh you will not usually retain bright colors from your herbs and instead need to aim for a range of natural colors if you are planning on using herbs for color. (You can also purchase synthetic soap colors at crafts stores to get any color of the rainbow.)
For example, lovely purple lavender flowers turn brown after they mix with the soap. Some herbs that retain a bit of color follow:
- Cocoa powder – for brown tones
- Paprika – for pale pink
- Turmeric spice – for yellow
- Oregano – pale green
- Spirulina powder (seaweed) – green
- Oatmeal – adds no color but is said to make soap more soothing
- Mixed tea – if you find it hard to obtain dried herbs you can buy a mixed tea like “Sleeptyime” and crush that up.
Scents
You can use either essential oils or fragrance oils to scent your soap. That’s it. Do not add old perfume, body spray, or anything else. Those products contain extra ingredients that will interfere with the soap making process.
Essential Oils
Essential oils are all natural, may have beneficial qualities and they’re expensive. You can find them at health food stores or at a much better price online at places like Glorybee Foods. You will need to add at least 1-1/2 tablespoons or more of essential oils for this batch to be scented. Oils to steer clear of are citrus oils, they smell great initially but fade quickly. I like to use strong oils that are on the less-expensive side like rosemary, lavender, patchouli, and cinnamon.
Fragrance Oils
Fragrance oils can be purchased at craft stores, some health food stores like Whole Foods, or online. They are less expensive than essential oils and made from artificial ingredients. For this recipe you would use around 4 teaspoons of fragrance oils. Occasionally fragrance oils can cause strange reactions when you make soap. This happens rarely, but is a risk you take in order to save enormous quantities of money.
Safety When Making Natural Soap
You’ll be working with very dangerous lye to make your soap — but if you exercise the abundance of caution required, you’ll be fine. Lye is sold in the drain cleaner department with lots of other nasty chemicals, because it heats up to a very high temperature when it gets wet and literally burns through the stuff clogging your pipes. Wear gloves and eye protection throughout the process when lye is involved. You can wear a face mask when you stir the lye into the water or otherwise avoid breathing in the fumes. Some other safety requirements are:
- Keep your work area clear of children, pets, and food or dishes.
- Do not use tinfoil or aluminum when making soap. Use glass jars, stainless steel bowls and pans.
- Store your extra lye someplace very safe with the child-safety lid on tight.
- I clear out my entire kitchen when making soap so that I can use the sink to hold everything. That way, if something overflows, it will go down the drain and not all over the counters and floor.
- Store the unused lye in a safe spot with other dangerous household chemicals. You will only be using a few tablespoons of lye for this recipe.
While caution needs to be exercised, you won’t have a giant cauldron of boiling lye to work with. This is another reason why this recipe provides an appropriate batch size for the beginner.
Make Cold Process Natural Soap
Step 1
Line your mold with plastic wrap or wax paper. Measure the oils. Use a small lightweight bowl to measure each oil and add it to the cooking pot. (This should be a no-stick or stainless steel pot.) Measure and pour each oil separately. If you are not sure how high your scale goes, divide the olive oil into two. Each time you put the empty bowl on the scale, make sure to clear the scale so that it starts at zero before you add anything.
Wipe the bowl clean between oils. Measure 13 ounces of corn oil, 23 ounces of olive oil, and 2 sticks of cocoa butter (2 ounces total.) Slice up the cocoa butter first for quicker melting.
Put the pan containing the oil on the stove to wait for the next step.
Step 2
Following the safety guidelines, take one empty glass jar and put it on the scale and carefully weigh out 4.8 ounces of lye. You should have newspaper under the scale that you can gather up and throw away when you are done, in case any grains pop out of the jar. In another glass jar pour in 12 liquid ounces of water. Let the water sit until it is room temperature.
When it is ready, pour the lye into the water and stir it in using a rubber spatula. Never pour the water into the lye. The lye goes into the water.
Protect yourself from the fumes. This is the most dangerous part of the soap-making process, when the lye water will quickly heat up to a very high temperature. Stir until the lye is dissolved, and plan to revisit the lye water periodically to make sure everything is dissolved. Put it somewhere safe to cool down.
If lye gets on you, quickly wash it off. It will sting slightly if it gets on your skin, but it can blind you if it gets in your eyes.
Step 3
Heat the oil on the stove pot. As soon as it is melted, or nearly melted, take it off the heat. Oil takes a long time to cool so you do not want to let it get too hot. Now you will have to wait for everything to cool down so that you can combine it. When the oil and lye are around 110 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit they can be combined. If you are using one thermometer to measure the lye and the oil make sure that it is clean and dry when you switch between the lye water and the oil.
Step 4
While you wait for everything to cool, prepare for the next step. If you are going to use herbs or scent have them right there, measured out and ready to go. Your mold should be lined and waiting. Remember to stir the lye water every once in a while to make sure everything is dissolved. Have your immersion (stick) blender plugged in and ready to go.
Step 5
When the lye and oil are both between 110 and 120 degrees F, it is time to mix them. Put on your protective gear if you took it off.
Put the oil pan in an empty sink and pour in the lye water. Stir with the stick blender. It will start out being totally liquid. This is when it is most inclined to spatter, so be careful. As you continue stirring, it will thicken.
Stop the hand stirrer every few minutes, and let it cool as they are designed for short bursts, not 5 to 10 minutes of continuous usage. Keep stirring with the blender until the soap traces. “Tracing” is a soap term for when the soap is thick enough that you can drizzle some back into the mix, and it will sit on the surface for a few seconds before sinking in. It is sort of like making a sauce. When the soap is traced, it will no longer be watery and will be more the consistency of a cake mix.
Once the mixture traces, you need to act quickly. Add your scent and mix it in, then add your optional herbs and give them a quick stir. Pour the soap mixture into your mold. Use a spatula to get every last bit. Cover the mold with the lid, and throw some blankets or towels on top to keep it insulated.
Do not disturb the mold for a day. This is very hard, but you need to do it. It will continue to react and turn into soap overnight and you want it to stay warm and undisturbed.
Step 6
It’s time to unveil your soap! Uncover it and examine it. You will be able to tell right away if it worked or not. If it’s hard as a rock and chalky, then somehow, there was an error and there was too much lye. If there is loose water and pockets of wet spots, it didn’t work out. If it looks like soap, but very soft soap, it is probably a success.
Take your creation out of the mold and turn it out onto wax paper or plastic wrap or a cutting board, and slice it up. Do not use newsprint as the dye will ruin your soap. Do not use aluminum foil, as it will damage the soap. I slice my soap freehand as it is for personal use, but you can use a ruler. Make it a bit big as it will shrink while it cures. I get 14 large, irregular bars from my shoebox mold. You might choose to make smaller bars, or whatever you want.
When they are sliced, put the bars out of reach someplace where they can dry out. You can use the soap right away, but it will be very soft. If you wait a few days or a few weeks the excess water will evaporate, and they’ll be nice and hard. You can find labels online or print out bands of paper to wrap around the soap, wrap in tissue or package however you choose.
Next Steps
To give people the most accessible introduction to soap making, I tried to come up with a recipe consisting of soap oils you can buy easily at the grocery store. My hope is that you will try out soap making with these easily-sources materials then move onto other recipes. If you want to see how I came up with the recipe, visit the Majestic Mountain Sage site and type our recipe into their lye calculator. You will see that it provides you with a range of water and lye amounts. I pick the middle range for both.
After you obtain other oils, there’s is nothing stopping you from creating your own recipe and obtaining lye and water specifics from the lye calculator. A shoebox need about 38 ounces of oil so aim for a combination of oils in that range. The Natural Soap Book by Susan Miller Cavitch taught me everything I know about soap making and then some. She has extensively researched everything from the composition of each oil to ways to naturally color your soap.
To continue your soap-making journey, try your hand at making soap using lard.
