海角大神

Let鈥檚 just start this one off with two big, giant warnings!

Warning #1 Making soap at home can be very fun and rewarding, and if done right, it can be an inexpensive way to make gifts. But it can also be very dangerous if proper precautions aren鈥檛 taken. Before starting any soap-making project, please familiarize yourself with the dangers, and I would strongly encourage any soap-makers who have children (and even those who don鈥檛) to read this account of . Then, be sure you have someplace you can send your kids while you make soap鈥攑reschool, a grandparent鈥檚 house, a friend鈥檚 house, etc. If you 肠补苍鈥檛 get the young children out of the house, don鈥檛 make soap!

And if that wasn鈥檛 clear enough鈥�

Warning #2 The purpose of this post is to demonstrate that you can, in fact, make very high quality hand-crafted homemade soap at home and to describe how we make homemade soap. However, before you even consider making your own, you should thoroughly read the additional soap-making resources included in this post, understand thoroughly what you are doing, and take every possible safety precaution. If you choose to make your own soap, you do so at your own risk, and neither The Simple Dollar or Trent Hamm takes any responsibility for any accidents or damage that may occur during that process.

Here鈥檚 the scoop, folks: making homemade soap at home is a lot of fun and results in some great soap that not only works well for your own use, but makes for a great gift, too. However, you do use some harsh chemicals in the making of this soap and you absolutely need to take precautions when making it to keep yourself safe and others safe. I hate having to warn people so directly about it, but lye can be dangerous and I don鈥檛 want anyone getting hurt by it. Be safe, people.

Now that we鈥檝e got that out of the way, we made this year鈥�

My wife, Sarah, has made many batches of homemade soap over the years and has even conducted classes where she has taught others how to make their own batches of soap. To put it simply, she鈥檚 an old hand at this, and she鈥檚 turned out some very impressive homemade soaps over the years.

This year, for our homemade gifts project, we decided to make a large batch of homemade soap. Sarah took charge of this project 鈥� I mostly served as an assistant to her, doing things like taking our older children to preschool and caring for our baby on the other side of the house and offering hands-on help during the period when the baby slept or when she needed to be around for feedings. She also documented our procedure quite well, so much of this post is made off of her notes.

Before you consider doing this yourself, we both strongly encourage you to read other soap-making resources carefully. Sarah highly recommends the following websites:
offers details on designing your own soap
(and the whole website) provides specific details about soap ingredients
provides more details about various possible soap ingredients

Soap Ingredients
are the basic ingredients we used in our soap recipe.

Sodium hydroxide (a.k.a. lye) 鈥� this can be fairly hard to find. We have had success finding it at Lowe鈥檚 Hardware, where we purchased a 2 pound container (with substantial leftovers). Look for it in the drain cleaner section.
Olive oil 鈥� we purchased a three liter bottle and used all of it
Coconut oil 鈥� we used the entirety of a 14 ounce jar
Lard 鈥� we used a one pound block of lard

The three oils (olive oil, coconut oil, and lard) each serve a different purpose in the soap: the olive oil is the base, and is a good soap for your skin but doesn鈥檛 lather well and it makes a relatively soft soap. Both the coconut oil and the lard will make the soap harder and improve its lathering. The coconut oil makes a fluffy lather, and the lard makes a stable lather. Overall, this soap would be considered a 鈥渃astile soap鈥� because it is mostly olive oil. Other recipes that you can find online will use different oils and in different amounts. We chose these oils because they should make a good soap, and they are easy for us to find locally.

These are the two basic ingredients you need for soap 鈥� an oil and sodium hydroxide. Everything else that follows is either equipment or is intended to 鈥渟pruce up鈥� the soap.

Equipment
Pictured is the safety equipment we used to keep ourselves safe during the soap making. Keep in mind that almost all of this stuff is reusable for other purposes.

Safety goggles (for safety, use goggles, not safety glasses) 鈥� we found these at Lowe鈥檚
Latex gloves 鈥� again, found at Lowe鈥檚
Vinegar 鈥� keep a jug of this on hand to neutralize any spilled lye; if you鈥檙e careful, you won鈥檛 need it
Old clothes 鈥� shirt (long sleeves), pants (preferably a thick fabric like denim), socks and shoes (Don鈥檛 wear shorts, sandals, etc!)

We also needed quite a bit of equipment for the actual mixing.

Kitchen scale (it鈥檚 just generally useful to have one in the kitchen)
Large pot for melting oils and fats in (can be reused for food)
Measuring cup for measuring water or goat鈥檚 milk (can be reused for food)
Container for making lye solution in (肠补苍鈥檛 be reused for food 鈥� we used an old bowl picked up at Goodwill for pennies)
Smaller container for measuring solid lye in (肠补苍鈥檛 be reused for food 鈥� we used another old bowl picked up at Goodwill for pennies)
Spoon for stirring soap (肠补苍鈥檛 be reused for food)
Bucket for mixing soap in (肠补苍鈥檛 be reused for food 鈥� we used our homemade laundry detergent bucket)
Thermometer (should read temperatures of around 100掳F) (肠补苍鈥檛 be reused for food 鈥� we have a general use garage thermometer)

Almost all of this stuff was simply around our house already, so we didn鈥檛 have to buy any of these items specifically for the soapmaking.

Soap Molds
Be creative in what you use for molds, and this doesn鈥檛 have to be expensive. As you can , we used yogurt containers, boxes lined with saran wrap, a couple drawer organizers found at a yard sale, and a bread-shaped plastic container that Sarah picked up at a dollar store for $0.50. Other items to consider using include the bottoms of pop bottles, which make nice flower-shaped soaps. If you don鈥檛 mind spending a little money, and if you plan on making soap again in the future, you might want to purchase actual soap molds that you can find online or in hobby shops.

Add-Ins
In order to make our homemade soap unique, add some color and texture to it, and make it gentler on the skin, we used a few additional ingredients that aren鈥檛 required:

Dried lavender (or possibly sage, peppermint, or other herbs)
Goat milk (we used fresh goat milk from a local farmer)
Oatmeal
Scented lotion

What We Did
Here are the exact amounts of the key ingredients we used in our soap. You absolutely need the oils, the sodium hydroxide, and some water or other liquid.

4.5 cups goat鈥檚 milk (or 4.5 cups cow milk, or 4.5 cups water) 鈥� partially frozen
2000 g olive oil (this is less than 3 liters)
460 g lard (a 1 lb. package)
382 g coconut oil (a 14 oz. jar)
398 g of sodium hydroxide (this is your lye or drain cleaner)

If you鈥檇 like to make this recipe less expensive, leave out the coconut oil and/or the lard. If you do, that will need to change the amount of sodium hydroxide you use. 2,000 g of olive oil needs 255 g of sodium hydroxide, 460 g of lard needs 60 g of sodium hydroxide, and 382 g of coconut oil needs 83 g of sodium hydroxide. (Add all three numbers up to get my total of 398 g.) You should also use only 4 cups of goat鈥檚 milk or water instead of 4.5 cups.

Sarah largely wrote the following procedural pieces, with just a bit of detail editing from me.

The night before making the soap, we put the goat鈥檚 milk in an old Tupperware container with a lid and froze it in the deep freeze. The next morning, I took it out and let it thaw until I was ready to use it. You would want to do the same with cow鈥檚 milk or water. The goal with the frozen liquid is to get it to a slushy consistency.

Once the milk was slushy, I measured out my three oils (olive oil, coconut oil, and lard) and on the stove. I heated them on low heat until the solids were melted and the temperature was around 100掳F. Be very careful not to overheat the fats! It won鈥檛 ruin anything, but it will take the temperature a long time to drop back down to 100掳F.

While the oils were heating, I prepared the lavender and the oatmeal. I put a handful of the oatmeal and set it for the finest grind I could. This made a very fine oatmeal powder, which I then dumped into the oils. You do not have to grind the oatmeal 鈥� we chose to do it for a smoother texture, but the texture of oats in the soap may also be appealing.

Next, I put about half of my lavender (also about a handful) in the coffee grinder on the coarsest grind setting. I put that into the oils, along with a handful of unground lavender buds (for texture).

I would recommend adding any herbs or oatmeal to the oil before adding the sodium hydroxide. If you have any essential oils, lotions, or colors to add, I would wait until the soap 鈥渢races鈥�, which happens after the sodium hydroxide is added, which is the next step.

Put on goggles and gloves now!! Sodium hydroxide (lye) is incredibly caustic and dangerous!! Do not do this while children are anywhere nearby!!

After adding the lavender and oatmeal, the sodium hydroxide. I would recommend doing anything involving the sodium hydroxide outside, on a surface lined with garbage bags. I took the kitchen scale outside and put the sodium hydroxide into a container with a lid, so that I could seal it up if I got interrupted while measuring.

Once the sodium hydroxide is measured, I slowly and carefully added it to the goat鈥檚 milk slurry. As I mixed, the solution got very hot, which is why I got the liquid so cold to begin with. If you use goat鈥檚 milk, you鈥檒l notice that it turns yellow, which I鈥檝e read is a result of the sugars in the milk being caramelized by the heat. (Starting with cold milk lessens this effect.)

At the start of the sodium hydroxide addition, the goat鈥檚 milk is 鈥�

鈥� and after adding the sodium hydroxide, the goat鈥檚 milk mixture is :

After mixing, I took the temperature of the sodium hydroxide/milk mixture, and found that it was about 140掳F. I had to let it cool down to about 100掳F, while keeping the oils at 100掳F as well. Once the two liquids reached close to 100掳F, it was time to mix.

I poured the oils into the bucket first, and then slowly poured the sodium hydroxide/milk mixture into them. For safety reasons, don鈥檛 pour the oils in last. Once everything is mixed, we started stirring. We took turns stirring and kept it up for about an hour and a half before it was ready to pour into the molds. That happens when the soap 鈥渢races鈥�, which means that if you run the spoon through it you鈥檒l be able to see an indentation for a few seconds before it disappears. When I teach others how to make soap, I tell my students to wait for the soap to reach a consistency of mayonnaise.

Once the soap traced and before pouring it into the soap molds, I added a few squirts of some scented lotion that I have leftover from a couple of Christmases ago. I鈥檓 not sure how much of a difference it will make in the final product, but it might add a little more moisturizing.

We then poured the soap , put them in the garage, cleaned up, and went to pick up the kids from preschool.

One thing to note is that the color of the soap when you pour it into the molds will be different than the final soap color after it ages. Our soap this time was almost orange in color when we poured it (as you can ), but after aging, it has mellowed to a .

The next day I put on gloves again and unmolded the soaps that needed to be cut (mostly a matter of tapping on the bottom and sometimes cutting around the edge of the soap with a knife), since they were still pretty soft.

We sliced the large bars (the ones from the old drawer organizers) into .

As you can , the bars have a 鈥渞ough hewn鈥� look. For some, that鈥檚 a big plus as it gives a clear 鈥渉omemade鈥� effect to the bars. If it鈥檚 a negative for you, wait until the bars have aged for a month or so, then sand them down until they鈥檙e smooth.

I waited an extra day to unmold the soaps , which gave them a chance to get a little bit harder.

We particularly liked the 鈥淯nion Jack鈥� effect on the bars from some of the yogurt containers, as you can above.

Finally, I covered the table in the garage with cardboard and set out the new soap to age for a few weeks. This allows time for the soap to finish reacting and for the excess water to evaporate, hardening the soap. I would recommend not using the soap until it has had time to age, a minimum of three weeks.

Giving As Gifts
There are a lot of ways to package soaps as gifts. Once the soap is dry, we are going to try out two different packaging ideas 鈥� wrapping them in tissue paper, or wrapping them with a strip of brown paper while leaving the edges of the soap exposed. In either case, we鈥檙e also going to put a cute homemade sticker on each bar.

Again, if you鈥檙e considering doing this, read up on soapmaking, understand what you鈥檙e doing, and use proper safety equipment without children around.

If you鈥檙e surprised by the 鈥渉arshness,鈥� remember that this is how soap is made. Whenever you buy soap in a store, some process similar to this is used, often with oils that you鈥檇 rather not think about instead of olive oil and coconut oil.

For next week鈥檚 homemade gift, we鈥檙e going to kick out the jams.

------------------------------

海角大神 has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link above.