Making soap

For those of you that don't know, I am starting a business making handmade soap. In the picture above and below is the only equipment that I need for this type of soap.

Soap is made by a chemical reaction between the oils and the lye to make soap and glycerine. The best part of this soap is that the glycerine is not removed so it is really moisturizing and luxurious

I scent my soaps two ways...100% natural with essential oils (which can be quite expensive for some scents, I use only the essential oils that are a more reasonable price) and also with fragrance oils. There are so many scents available that I have been having a really hard time deciding which scents to work with.

After the soap is mixed I also add another oil to add extra moisturizing. This process is called superfatting. Currently I have been using grapeseed oil, hemp seed oil, cocoa butter and shea butter.

This is the coconut oil... it is solid under 72 degree so it usually needs to be melted before making the soap.

I just added the lye to the water. At this point I am wearing gloves and goggles...I also have the window over the sink open for the fumes to escape. You can see the fumes in the picture right below the faucet. The fumes are dangerous to breath. Adding the lye to the water causes a chemical reaction that heats the water over 180 degrees...that's as far as my thermometer goes.

To cool the lye water it sits in an ice bath for about 20 minutes or more

While the coconut oil is melting and the lye water is cooling I weight out the olive oil. Then I add the coconut oil to the olive oil.

Once all the temps are around 80-100 degrees I mix the lye water into the oils.

The oils and lye water need to be mixed until it comes to 'trace'...it should be thick like pudding.The hand blender makes what would be hours of stirring only take a few minutes...thank goodness for electricity

A few minutes later and the soap has reached trace and is ready to superfat

We wait until after the soap reaches trace to do the superfatting so that all the lye is used up by the olive oil and coconut oil. This way we can guarantee all of this special oil for superfatting is free in the soap for moisturizing

Stirring in the hemp seed oil.

There are two ways to make soap at this point...cold process and hot process. For cold process I would just pour this into my mold and cover it with blankets for insulation and leave it like that for 24 hours. Then it would be cut and stored on a shelf for 4 weeks to cure.

The hot process method is normally cooked on the stove and you need to stir a lot to make sure it doesn't bubble over. I never liked that method because it is dangerous and time consuming. I came across a way to make hot process soap with a crock pot and it is wonderful. All I do once the soap is superfatted is dump it in the crockpot on low for 5 hours.

This is what it looks like after 2 hours. The curing process that the cold process soap goes through on the shelf for 4 weeks all happens for this soap in those 5 hours in the crockpot.

About halfway through I stir it all up.

I line my mold with freezer paper to make removing the soap a lot easier. Once the 5 hours is over I stir it all up really good to make sure it is even and then I add the fragrance. It is hard to tell how much fragrance is needed because it is a lot stronger at this point than when the soap is finished. If enough fragrance isn't added then the soap won't have a strong scent.

Once it has been in the mold for 24 hours the soap is ready to remove and cut. At this point the soap is ready to use.

If anyone is interested in buying any soap you can leave me a comment. I have Rose and Sandalwood handmade soap and Lemon and Lavender 100% natural soap. Also more products coming soon!