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I’m getting ready to make soap! Are you? I hope Clover’s getting ready, too….in her own way.
Making homemade soap can be daunting. There are so many decisions and preparations. I’m breaking them down and working through them, dreaming about yummy-smelling homemade soap. I can do it! So can you!
I’ve never made melt-and-pour or hand milled soap. Many people consider these to be homemade soap impostors as they begin with a commercially-made soap or soap base. You’re not really making soap as much as re-making soap. The difference between melt-and-pour and hand milled is that in melt-and-pour, you don’t have to add water. You just melt the soap base and go from there. In hand milled, you grate soap and add water then go. In either case, you can still get creative with color, fragrance, and additives to make your own unique product, and it’s a perfectly valid craft. You don’t have to deal with any of that scary lye stuff.
Of course, I can’t take the easy way out, and, to me, that just doesn’t sound as satisfying. I want to really make soap, which means hot process or cold process. In hot process, the entire process takes place over a heat source. This is how our great-grandmas did it. In cold process, the saponification process takes place away from the heat source. (Saponification is the chemical process that occurs when fats/oils are combined with lye.) External heat is only used to melt the fats/oils. I intend to try both.
What goes into soap? What is soap? Soap is created by combining fat with lye. The fat can be all sorts of things–lard, tallow, shea or other butters, and all sorts of oils–many of which you can find in your kitchen. Lye is sodium hydroxide, otherwise known as caustic soda. This is, no doubt about it, a dangerous product, and I’ll post more about safety precautions before I make soap and I encourage you to research safety precautions on your own. Using lye is the fear that holds most people back from making soap. It’s a legitimate fear, but there’s no reason to let fear stop you from making soap. Many people have made soap and lived to tell about it. The key is educating yourself about safe use and proper procedures.
Our great-grandmas made their own lye by leaching wood ashes, resulting in uneven levels of strength. This is where homemade lye soap got the bad rap for being harsh. Commercial lye available today is of a standardized strength, which makes non-harsh soap a reliable accomplishment. (I’ve been a bit interested in making lye since we have a wood-stove, but I’m not so sure now. I’m more comfortable with using lye of a standardized strength. This is similar to the use of commercial lemon juice in canning–standardization in the product is a helper in safety and quality.)
What else goes into soap? Water. Our great-grandmas used rainwater–for the purity. You can try that (boil the rainwater after collecting it) or use distilled water. As for what else besides water–anything! This is where soap gets so creative and fun, in the additives. All sorts of things out of your kitchen or garden can be put in soap, as well as essential oils (natural) or fragrance oils (synthetic). You can also add color. Eventually, I hope to make soap using my own goat milk, too, but for now, that will have to wait. (CLOVER!)
I want to make a soap as natural as possible, so I intend to use additives right out of my kitchen. I like to smell like cookies, so I came up with a vanilla sugar recipe. Not only will this help me smell like cookies, it’s frugal. I’m going to use fat and oil out of my pantry–lard and olive oil. Creating your own recipe is fun–though it requires a little math. You can find soap tables online or in books that will guide you in the proper measurements. You can find a soap calculator here.
Math makes my head explode, plus I don’t know what I’m doing and the soap calculator looks like Greek to me, so I consulted my soapmaking guru, Cindy, for help in running my recipe ideas through the soap calculator to come up with the proper measures. (I’ll be posting it here when I make my first soap.) If you want to make soap with me using my recipe, you can probably find what you need in your kitchen, too. All we’ll need after that is the distilled water (or boiled rainwater) and lye.
Where can you get lye? Lye can be hard to find nowadays because of drug use, but you can sometimes find it at hardware stores. You can also buy it online.
So who’s getting ready with me? Your homework, should you choose to accept it:
1. Determine where you can get lye.
2. Decide on a recipe and lay in the ingredients.
See? Baby steps. We’re not making soap yet, we’re just getting ready. We don’t have to be scared, we’re not even going to open the lye and look at it. (Tuck it away safely, away from children and pets.)
Remember, if you want to make my recipe, other than the lye and distilled water or boiled rainwater, you’ll just need what’s probably already in your kitchen. (Vanilla, sugar, cinnamon, lard, and olive oil.) If you want to create your own, get crackin’ using the soap calculator or research tried-and-true soap recipes online or in books. (Soap is a chemical equation–don’t try to create a recipe without making the proper calculations–this is why it’s best as a beginner to either use an already-existing recipe or use a soap calculator and consult with an experienced soapmaker in formulating your own.)
Watch for Part 2 of my series on Getting Ready to Make Soap and not opening the scary lye yet!
And–surprise giveaway (ya gotta pay attention around here!): I’ll draw a random comment number on this post for another copy of Smart Soapmaking by Anne L. Watson. (I’ll have to actually order this one for you since I only bought one extra copy last time.) Eligible entry closes at 10 a.m. Eastern tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb. 23). The winner will be announced in this post soon after 10 a.m. Eastern tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb. 23).
Return to this post for an update with the winner. (You’ll need to send me your address if you win, so check back. Please understand that I can’t track giveaway winners down! Thank you!)
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on February 22, 2010
UPDATE 02/23/10: The winning comment number is #77, Cindy H. Email me at CITRgiveaways(at)aol.com with your full name and address for shipping! (If anyone wonders how I draw numbers, I use random.org. It’s great for drawings!)
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It would be marvelous to win the book, but no matter what, I’ll be here reading every post and admiring every picture.
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I’m with everyone else with your guidance it may not be scary making soap after all!
~HUGS~~
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Thanks for a wonderful and enjoyable web site. Chickens in the Road is now my #1 site to visit
Sonia (Lexington,SC)
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Richelle
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Its fun!
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“Over-the-counter cold and asthma medications containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, red phosphorous, hydrochloric acid, drain cleaner, battery acid, lye, lantern fuel, and antifreeze are among the ingredients most commonly used.”
Wow, really sounds like something you’d want to cook up :-) Kind of puts drugs in the Darwin Award category, if they weren’t there already.
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I really enjoy your blog. We are living parallel lives in parallel counties! Life is good!
susan
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Thanks for this tutorial, Suzanne, I’ve been dreaming about making my own soap for at least 20 years!
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A book would be wonderful~!
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Thanks.
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This is going to be so much fun. I feel like the little sister trailing behind her big sister (Suzanne!). Cool stuff happening here.
Nancy
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~Jenny~
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By the way, I would love the soap making book!
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I’m really looking forward to seeing your posts about soap making.
I’d love to win the book. Thanks!
Wishing you a sunshiny day.
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Think I have just about enough grease in the fridge, maybe we should have bacon for breakfast……..
Would love to win a book with more ideas/directions for soap.
PS I ALWAYS check this blog first thing, love to read your posts.
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Thanks
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Thanks.
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I’d be so very happy if I won the book. :-)
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http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php
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BTW…how is your cheese coming along?
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Another interesting thing is that a local church in our area gathers tons of partially used hotel soap bars from all over the country and they grate them and melt them to make all kinds of soap products for the needy and third world countries – isn’t that a great recycling idea!!!?
I would be honoured to win a copy of your book.
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I remember once reading (or on TV? It was a long time ago) that typically an egg would be cracked in the lye solution (ash bucket & rainwater); if it “fried” the strength was right for soap making. It definitely sounds like something to be careful with!
Good luck in your soap-making endeavors! (If I win the book I will gift it to you Erin!)
Lynn
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Susan
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Having a book would be nice…
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would love to win the book on soapmaking, can’t wait for you to post on making goat’s milk soap!
We started our own little farm last year,so we love your blog, it’s like reading about our own lives, only well written and with great humor! what an adventure and your posts on the goats trysts was too funny, we pulled up lawn chairs the day we got our reg. nigie bucks and sat there like true city folk gone country listening to their vocals and watching their x-rated antics, lol.
love your blog!
Karen W
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Suzanne, please put me in the drawing for the book. Thanks!
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Jane in Kansas
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I’d love to win the book!
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Thank you so much!!!
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As you can tell, I would love to have the book to answer all my questions.
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Good luck! And I love your blog!
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I just purchased goat’s milk soap and lotion from a great lady named Marsha of Laurel Fork Farms in Tucker Co. WV. My Dad grew up on the other end of the Laurel Fork River in Randolph Co. WV. God’s country.
Connie Lambert Crowl
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Handmade soap is just about the best thing ever and I miss it. Hmm, might be time to bring out the old soaping pot!
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Woo-Hoo! I’m soooo looking forward to this one, and I’d love the book… of course. Though I may just go pick one up myself
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Making soap sounds like the most awesome gift idea…you can give low-cost gifts from the heart. Thanks Suzanne for bringing your ideas to the web. I always love coming to your site and finding something new
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Please enter me in the contest.
Happy farming,
Kelly
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If all you did was strain the fat, you’re going to want to clean it before you use it. Google “cleaning fat” and it will tell you how to do it.
Lye isn’t scary, it’s all the horror stories we’ve heard from people who didn’t respect it that’s the problem. Sort of like being afraid to cook because you’ve heard about houses being burned down by cooking.
1.) A poem: Do what ya oughta, add the lye to the watta (water)
2.) Keep an open bottle of vinegar next to you. Vinegar instantly neutralizes lye. So if the bottle is open, you can instantly access it to pour on any spill.
3.) Use your enamel roasting pan for the “cooking pot”. One half for the lye mixture, the other for the fat melting & mixing together of the soap.
4.) Use a scale to WEIGH your ingredients.
5.) DO NOT USE ALCOHOL-BASED additives in your soap. It WILL ruin the batch! So that means regular Vanilla extract is OUT. It also means that CANDLE scents are out! Now if you put a vanilla bean in sugar, oil/fat or water and let it soak and then use THAT, it may work. I think it might be worth it to try warming a SMALL amount of oil, soaking the vanilla bean in that for a few weeks and then using that at the end of the process. Where you normally add the scent so that the scent isn’t cooked out of it. Otherwise, you’re going to have to buy scent. I’m not so sure about using sugar in a soap recipe. Most of the “sweet” scents are artificial, I’m not sure of the chemistry if real sugar were used. Again, you’d want to use it at the end, when you’d normally add scents. Use just a portion of a batch of soap, that way, it will only ruin a small amount of soap if it doesn’t work out the way you want (the soap doesn’t set up).
I’ve only made soap a few times, but these are things I’ve gleaned from doing it.
I’d love the book!
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Please enter me in the drawing.
Grace in CA
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I think this would be a good Girl Scout project to make at Camp with older girls. I’d use your book give away to make soap at home a few times, then be ready to make it for a Tour of Homes and then at Girl Scout Camp. Better yet, supervise the girls making it at Tour of Homes.
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Beth aka oneoldgoat
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Mafong
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Thanks for letting me post!
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Thank you!
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