Soapmaking

I'm in the middle of making my first batch right now! Yay. Just achieved trace. Bonus: it smells like ... soap!

I decided to go crazy and do hot process using this method. It seems to be the same as cold process, except after "trace" you cook it in a crock pot for half an hour. The soap gels. You stir. Then you add your fragrance & colors, and stick it in the molds as above. It cures for a week or two, and is ready.

Anyway, that's the theory. It's cooking in the crock pot as I write. Soap, y'all!

Huh. Hops flower essential oil is a thing.

(gotta scroll down page)

Yooper, I'm a little concerned that as a guy, I'm now making soap. I'm telling myself it's so I know how to do it when the zombies attack. Yeah, that makes it more manly...right? Anyway, I just made a small batch tonight to see what it's all about. 40% olive oil, 30% coconut oil, 30% lard with 7% superfat made all the numbers hit in the recommended range on the soapcalc thingy. I was trying to do it by hand but gave up after a while and pulled out the immersion blender. That got it to trace super fast although I accidentally whipped some air in there. I wanted to ask about the "gelling" stage though. I'm not messing around with doing that this time because it's optional, right? What does it do, make the end product clear instead of opaque? Or is it a texture thing?

PS. Please don't post a thread about flower arranging or any similar unmanly thing I'd rather not be talked into doing.

Hmmm, porter soap? Stout soap? I love it! Does any character from the beer come through the soap?

KingBrianI said:

Yooper, I'm a little concerned that as a guy, I'm now making soap. I'm telling myself it's so I know how to do it when the zombies attack. Yeah, that makes it more manly...right?
PS. Please don't post a thread about flower arranging or any similar unmanly thing I'd rather not be talked into doing.

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Ok, so you're a guy who is now making soap. How the heck do you think it feels to be a chick who makes beer?!? People have asked me if I'm: a. An alcoholic or b. a dyke. Since both terms are offensive to me, how do I answer that? Well, yes. You know me. I say, "I'm an alcoholic dyke, thanks for noticing".

Tomorrow's class is on body butter, cuticle cream and hand salve. Stay tuned!

KingBrianI said:

Anyway, I just made a small batch tonight to see what it's all about. 40% olive oil, 30% coconut oil, 30% lard with 7% superfat made all the numbers hit in the recommended range on the soapcalc thingy. I was trying to do it by hand but gave up after a while and pulled out the immersion blender. That got it to trace super fast although I accidentally whipped some air in there. I wanted to ask about the "gelling" stage though. I'm not messing around with doing that this time because it's optional, right? What does it do, make the end product clear instead of opaque? Or is it a texture thing?

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Gelling is optional, but may happen anyway if you don't prevent it. It is simply the soap heating more and saponification finishes up. No worries either way! It's not even a texture thing in the end, as the soaps are the same. A gelled soap may look less opaque, but that's about it. You don't want "partial gel", which is when part of the soap gels and part doesn't (the inside is hotter). It's not an issue either, just an appearance thing.

An immersion blender does bring trace fast- but it beats stirring for an hour or more with an olive oil soap! Air isn't good, you may notice some bubbles in the soap. A good thing to do is to tap the mold on the counter to "settle" the soap and knock out any air or air pockets.

KingBrianI said:

PS. Please don't post a thread about flower arranging or any similar unmanly thing I'd rather not be talked into doing.

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I have to tell you that Bob laughed and laughed when I told him you said that!

Proboscidea said:

I'm in the middle of making my first batch right now! Yay. Just achieved trace. Bonus: it smells like ... soap!

I decided to go crazy and do hot process using this method. It seems to be the same as cold process, except after "trace" you cook it in a crock pot for half an hour. The soap gels. You stir. Then you add your fragrance & colors, and stick it in the molds as above. It cures for a week or two, and is ready.

Anyway, that's the theory. It's cooking in the crock pot as I write. Soap, y'all!

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Pictures, please!

Quick test:

Say "Soapmaking."

Does it sound like "soapmaking?"

Or does it sound like "thoapmaking?"

If it sounds like soapmaking, then nothing to worry about. If it sounds like thoapmaking, then you may as well start picking some flowers now.

But you have to admit, for soapmaking skill, nothing beats an alcoholic lesbian ikebana artist with a sibilant S speech impediment.

Here are pics!

First pic: Two batches, one with manteca (the light colored corn-muffin looking ones) and one without (the squares). I didn't use color in either of the batches. You can see the vegetarian batch is a little darker at this point.

Second pic: A close up of the vegetarian batch square. It looks like cheese. Do not eat.

Third pic: The scraps from both batches were re-milled and the resulting loaf shown here.

Awesome!

I just ordered some more castor oil, and it should be here tomorrow or the next day. Next up for me is shampoo bars! I like the shampoo bars more than any shampoo I ever used, but I do have short hair.

I was at the Minneapolis Farmer's Market on Saturday, and they of course had homemade soaps/lotions.

4.5 ounce bars of soap (all natural) were $6. The shampoo bars were $8, and the body butters were $11 for a tiny amount (didn't see the ounces).

Interestingly, the shampoo bars and soaps were almost exactly what I use although some had some coloring in them. But the body butters and lotions used "emulsifying wax" and preservatives which I do not use.

Today's new recipe is lip balm. You should have the ingredients from soap making, but if not, get them!

.25 ounces Beeswax
.33 ounces shea butter
.33 ounces cocoa butter
.40 ounces sweet almond oil
2 ml vitamin E (use a pin to prick some Vitamin E capsules)
5-8 drops peppermint essential oil.

Melt beeswax and cocoa butter in microwave, adding shea butter last (it can get grainy if it gets too hot) and stirring well. Add the sweet almond oil and then add some peppermint essential oil. This fills up about 6 old "carmex" containers. Just clean and sanitize some old lip balm pots, or I used an old film canister (remember "film"? ). You can cut in half/thirds/double/whatever.

The cool thing is that cocoa butter has a natural chocolate smell, and the peppermint EO makes a "coco-mint" aroma. Everybody loves this lip balm, including Bob.

Just ordered my supplies. Looking forward to making some soap soon! I plan on using the recipe you outlined early in the thread (Olive, Palm, and Coconut). Thanks Yooper!

good stuff Yoop, nice of you to take the time to add all this great info for the forum.

Re: the guy asking about shaving soap. I spent the better part of a year trying to perfect a shaving soap and never quite got it right. I'll revisit it at some point, but the really good soaps out there use part NaOH and part KOH... they also use tallow as one of their ingredients, but that is attainable if you are willing to do some extra work.

the trick is getting a stable lather that isn't too bubby, mine have always ended up too bubbly, even using up to 50% tallow, which is supposed to provide exactly the opposite.

android said:

good stuff Yoop, nice of you to take the time to add all this great info for the forum.

Re: the guy asking about shaving soap. I spent the better part of a year trying to perfect a shaving soap and never quite got it right. I'll revisit it at some point, but the really good soaps out there use part NaOH and part KOH... they also use tallow as one of their ingredients, but that is attainable if you are willing to do some extra work.

the trick is getting a stable lather that isn't too bubby, mine have always ended up too bubbly, even using up to 50% tallow, which is supposed to provide exactly the opposite.

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I haven't tried shaving soaps (don't know anybody who shaves!) but it's tricky.

Something I wanted to mention that sort of makes me laugh. I know that many many people make soaps and sell them. A great shaving soap and a great shampoo soap are closely guarded secret recipes, and on one of the soap forums I pop in on from time to time they talk about this. It takes much trial and error to perfect the perfect formula and they will NOT give recipes.

In contrast, all of my beer recipes, wine, soap, whatever, are all an open book. I didn't say they were good, of course, but they are available!

My oil order came today, so I just made up a small batch of shampoo bars after dinner. I LOVE this recipe, and it's probably worth something to somebody. I already gave this recipe to Conpewter when he told me he loved my shampoo bar sample I gave him, but here's my recipe for anybody who cares:

3 ounces castor oil
1.5 ounces jojoba oil
3 ounces olive oil (Pomace quality- this is important!) that had been infused with lavender and rosemary from my garden for a month)
2.25 ounces palm oil
4.5 ounces coconut oil
.75 ounce shea butter
Lye 1.955 ounces
water 5.7 ounces
(everything by weight, including water!)

Mix lye into water and set aside to cool.

Melt "hard" oils together at low heat, just until the shea butter melts. Stir in the other oils and let cool.

Mix together at 110-115 degrees until trace and then add the essential oils and mix well then pour into mold.

Essential oils: rosemary, lavender, and cedarwood at trace. Rosemary is good for hair and scalp, as is lavender, and cedarwood. I don't use much, so they don't really have a strong smell, and after aging barely any scent at all. That's how I like it. If you like a strong scent, use .5 ounce per pound of oil.


This takes about 6 weeks to really get great, and after 3 months is heavenly!

This is a very small batch- it fills the bottom of a bread loaf pain so you can cut it into small bars. You can double, triple, half, etc, the batch, but make sure you use a lye calculator if you do!

This is set at 8% superfat.

I do use this soap to shave my legs, but it's not a "shaving soap" that I've ever tried to use a brush with. Most shaving soaps have clay for slip, and extra stearic acid for hardness, as far as I know. This shampoo bar gives a cleansing bar, but conditioning as well, with bubbly and creamy lather.

Yooper said:

Something I wanted to mention that sort of makes me laugh. I know that many many people make soaps and sell them. A great shaving soap and a great shampoo soap are closely guarded secret recipes, and on one of the soap forums I pop in on from time to time they talk about this. It takes much trial and error to perfect the perfect formula and they will NOT give recipes.

In contrast, all of my beer recipes, wine, soap, whatever, are all an open book. I didn't say they were good, of course, but they are available!

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i must be a member of the same forum...

it's kinda ridiculous... not like we're trying to compete with them for selling soap! just trying to further our own craft.

will the soaps go bad? like dry out too much or is the air bad for them after a certain amount of time? and how would i go about storing large quantities of soap i make? i want to make a whole bunch and have soap for a year lol

I've spent the last few weeks hip deep in soap making research, recipes, technique, blogs about soap. Side note: there are tons of blogs about soap making. Who knew?

On 8/31, I made my very first soap (Bastille Olive Oil), which is Not pictured (but smells great! Oats and Honey scent originally purchased for a candle), but it didn't gel, and it's slowly turning a really gross grey color (which was originally a gross orange color from liquid dye). But did I mention it smells great? If we don't like it, we can use it in laundry soap so we don't waste it.

Recipe:
680g Olive Oil
181g Coconut Oil
45g Castor Oil
124g Lye
345g H20
1 oz Oats Milk and Honey fragrance oil
Should be 5% superfat, but I didn't state that in my notes.

I'll let you know in October how it turned out, as it's still curing.



This wonderful swirley soap is my second attempt. It's scented with Bergamot fragrance, and it was supposed to be a deep pink and spring green, but the soap colorings at the craft store are horrible. I don't recommend them at all. Buying from a reputable online soap store is a much better idea.

Recipe with 5% superfat:
90g Shea butter (10%)
226g Coconut Oil (25%)
272g Olive Oil (30%)
90g Castor Oil (10%)
226g Lard (25%)
126g Lye
344g H2O
2 oz Bergamot fragrance

I was interested to see the difference between an all vegetable soap and one made with animal products (lard in the above recipe), so I made the exact same recipe as stated above, but replaced the Lard with Palm Oil. The batch was separated and half was colored pink, and one was colored blue. The light colored stuff on the far left soap is soda ash, and apparently you can spray on some 91% alcohol after pouring to prevent that from occurring.



It's still curing, but the batch made with lard was noticeabley harder right out of the mold. The cute butterflies were very soft after a week in the mold; I had to throw them in the freezer and pop them out like ice cubes. This may be the result of using a silicone mold, though. Perhaps a few more experiments are in order.

And This! This is soap made with Charcoal! My better half likes grey, and I thought it'd be cool to make a grey soap. We got some charcoal at the store (the aquarium filter type. It's grainy, so I threw it in the coffee grinder to make it fine).



Lemme stop here and say that if you have charcoal and a coffee grinder, throw the charcoal in the grinder and buzz away. The pitch black smoke that seeps from the lid is epic. Open the lid and it's like you're looking down into forever.

I was anticipating an all grey soap, so the freakin' awesome veins running thru it are totally a bonus. This is lightly scented with Blackberry Sage.

Recipe is:
272g Lard (30%)
362g Olive Oil (40%)
90g Castor Oil (10%)
191g Coconut Oil (20%)
3t charcoal (added to oils before trace)
121g Lye
344g H2O

That's what I have so far. We'll wait a few weeks to try out the first few batches, but I have big dreams of goats milk, honey, green tea, herbs, rosemary steeped in olive oil, the list goes on and on.

This is just as addictive as brewing. Now I ask myself 2 questions at the grocery store: Can I ferment that? If not, can I soap with that?

Wow, that charcoal soap looks AWESOME. That would look amazing in a modern style bathroom or one with dark colored granite countertops.

charcoal soap will be on my list for sure! that looks awesome, it would go perfect in a modern bathroom thats all granite, stainless steel and has soft indirect lighting. like i want haha. and im going to try to make shaving soaps soon as who uses shaving gel in a can? if you do then you dont know how to shave, you need a brush, soap, and a straight razor haha.

I like the look of the charcoal soap a lot! I wonder, does it make white or gray lather?

I have a chocolate soap that is great (just used baker's chocolate in with the oils), but it has a tan/brownish lather that is sort of weird.

I have a chocolate mint soap I made for my first batch like that. I'm afraid i'll be sticky from the cocoa. haha

That grey/black soap is BITCHEN. :rockin: Like something Saddam Hussein would stock in a gilded marble soapdish in one of his his sci-fi/fantasy art-filled orgy palaces.

(in a good way)

(as in, I want to make a batch of it right now)

"We were selling rich women their own fat asses back to them"

~Tyler Durden

Pratzie said:

"We were selling rich women their own fat asses back to them"

~Tyler Durden

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That's an awesome quote!

Not sure what color lather the grey soap will give. I'll try out a piece in a week or two and report back.

Does anyone know the location of a sci-fi/fantasy art-filled orgy palace? If so, I'll donate a charcoal bar to it... as long as I get a free or reduced rate membership in return.

Would there be a big difference if you used lard vs. olive oil?

TowsonTiger22 said:

Would there be a big difference if you used lard vs. olive oil?

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I just saw this question, so sorry I didn't answer. The answer is "yes. And no". What I mean is, the saponification amounts are different and the lard is harder in soap at least initially. But lard makes a lovely soap, so as long as you adjust the amount of lye (use a soaping calculator!), it should be great.



I made a batch of bastille soap today (bastardized castille). I have a friend in Texas with extremely sensitive skin, so I made up some "baby soap" without color or fragrance, and I will give it to him in February when I see him. I also have a friend with scleroderma, and I'm not sure what she can tolerate so I'll see if this works for her as well.

I'm making soap with different recipes, and finding what I like best. I really like the tallow soaps, it turns out. I only have 6 ounces of rendered tallow left, so I hope I either get a deer soon with my bow, or I get some extra fat when I pick up my side of grass-fed beef in a week or so.

I've made soap a few times and are wondering if there is a good soap for/against psoriasis?

Thanks in advance

Yooper, I bet you could put the word out to some local hunters, or maybe some deer processors. They might be willing to get you some deer fat for cheap around this time of year.

I think a lot of people don't use much of it in general. Most of the people I know throw out the fat and mix their venison burger up with pork fat for flavor.

Homercidal said:

Yooper, I bet you could put the word out to some local hunters, or maybe some deer processors. They might be willing to get you some deer fat for cheap around this time of year.

I think a lot of people don't use much of it in general. Most of the people I know throw out the fat and mix their venison burger up with pork fat for flavor.

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What has this world come to.

But a deer-fat soap would be awesome.

Yooper said:

I'm making soap with different recipes, and finding what I like best. I really like the tallow soaps, it turns out. I only have 6 ounces of rendered tallow left, so I hope I either get a deer soon with my bow, or I get some extra fat when I pick up my side of grass-fed beef in a week or so.

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We bought a grass fed quarter beef a few weeks ago, and I asked the butcher if I could have about 10 pounds of fat for soap. He said ok! A friend is going to drop of the meat and fat in a few weeks. Can't wait for more soap making goodness!

torstensson said:

I've made soap a few times and are wondering if there is a good soap for/against psoriasis?

Thanks in advance

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Check out this very interesting and informational linky:
http://www.plaqueplucker.com/soaps-for-psoriasis/

Looks like cold processed soaps, dead sea soaps, and charcoal soaps would work wonders for psoriasis. If you don't want to wait the 6 weeks for the soap to cure, hop on etsy and buy a few sample bars to see how your body reacts.

Bit the bullet and bought some supplies online a few weeks ago, and got up the courage to make Yooper's starter recipe this afternoon.
Wasn't at all clear what "trace" was supposed to look like, until I saw it -- just like she described.
The batch is cooling under towels on the counter now. (keeping themead and the cider company)

I'll let you all know how it turns out.

--Matthew

msabin said:

Bit the bullet and bought some supplies online a few weeks ago, and got up the courage to make Yooper's starter recipe this afternoon.
Wasn't at all clear what "trace" was supposed to look like, until I saw it -- just like she described.
The batch is cooling under towels on the counter now. (keeping themead and the cider company)

I'll let you all know how it turns out.

--Matthew

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Awesome. How long did the whole process take you? I keep putting it off but have an evening or two this week and am wondering if I could fit this in. Ordered my supplies some time ago and really need to just bite the bullet and try soapmaking out for the first time.

borden said:

Awesome. How long did the whole process take you? I keep putting it off but have an evening or two this week and am wondering if I could fit this in. Ordered my supplies some time ago and really need to just bite the bullet and try soapmaking out for the first time.

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My first soap took about 2 hours to cook and pour and put away. And that was carefully gathering and measuring stuff and I used an electric hand mixer.

I'm sure it would only take maybe an hour to do it next time.

If I had the stuff I want to use handy I could probably do it on any given evening.

Homercidal said:

My first soap took about 2 hours to cook and pour and put away. And that was carefully gathering and measuring stuff and I used an electric hand mixer.

I'm sure it would only take maybe an hour to do it next time.

If I had the stuff I want to use handy I could probably do it on any given evening.

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Great, thanks. May just give it a go one of these evenings. Hopefully the soap will be ready enough by Christmas to serve as a nice stocking stuffer.

My coconut and palm oils were solid (heater broke on Thursday, so house was at 58)
Put the bottles of solid oil in pot with hot water to liquify.

Once they were liquid, I measured and combined water and lye, then measures the oils and microwaved them to get them warm.
5 minutes of measuring (and worrying that lye was too hot for jar)
15 minutes waiting for everything to cool to under 120
10 minutes with stick blender (pulse, then stir: repeat)
10 minutes figuring how to support the silicone baking pan, wrapping towels about the pan for insulation and generally worrying some more.

That was Sunday afternoon, cut 15 bars of soap this evening (5-10 minutes)

Now not so much worrying, more planning next batch, and drinking homebrew...

Well, I took the plunge tonight and did my first soap, using the recipe Yooper provided on the first page of this thread (40/30/30 Olive/Coconut/Palm). It went well, I think! Only hitch was I forgot to stir when mixing the lye into the water -- I was so focused on not spilling that I totally spaced on that. When I looked a few minutes later, the lye had solidified in a ring at the bottom of the pitcher. I managed to stir it enough to get it to dissolve and heat up though, and after a little waiting, everything was ~110F and ready to mix. Got trace after only about 5 minutes of intermittent stirring/blending. The soap's now under a couple towels on my table, and hopefully tomorrow night I'll be cutting it up!

Thanks Yooper (and everyone else). This is definitely the start of something beautiful.

borden said:

Great, thanks. May just give it a go one of these evenings. Hopefully the soap will be ready enough by Christmas to serve as a nice stocking stuffer.

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Maybe. My batch was a different recipe and it took a long time to cure. I used just olive oil. From what I've read you should be good.

Olive oil soaps take longer to cure and harden, but once they finish curing they get really nice and hard. Other soaps, with less olive oil and more "hard" oils like shea butter and palm oil harden up faster. But once they cure, the olive oil soaps are the mildest.

I just made a "baby" soap for my friend, which is still pretty soft after a couple of weeks. But in 12 weeks, it'll be rock hard and perfect for him (it's 100% olive oil).