Soap making basics

So, its that time of the year to come up with resolutions for the upcoming year. Have you come up with a list yet? Well I have and I would like to share one with you. Are you ready? 

In 2016 I want to make more soap. 

I have been forever planning to experiment more with soap making and up until now I have failed terribly. I hate to admit it, but it's true. 

Somewhere in November I made a lovely oat & honey soap from 100% coconut oil to wash my face (I will blog about it soon) and I have been so happy with the outcome that I decided to spend more time on soap making. This is one of my goals for 2016. 

Because of this New Year's resolution in mind I have spend quite a bit of time researching new soap recipes and ideas. It got me thinking that perhaps it would be a good idea to come up with a basic guide of soap making for those who follow my blog and would also like to try the new soap recipes I will be testing and posting in 2016. 

So here it goes. I hope you will find it interesting to read and useful whether you are a beginner soap maker or a more experienced one. 

WHEN MAKING SOAP ALWAYS REMEMBER ABOUT SAFETY!

Lye (sodium hydroxide) which is a basic ingredient necessary to make soap is a dangerous chemical that needs to be handled in an appropriate way. If lye it is not handled properly it can cause burns to the skin or even blindness if splashed in the eye. As a chemist I know these are real dangerous and I ask anyone reading this post and planning to make soap to be careful when working with lye. 

Following safety rules when working with lye are very important. 

Safety rules

Always....

- wear rubber gloves, safety googles and a long sleeve and pants when handling lye

- store lye in a properly labelled, air-tight container 

- keep lye out of reach of children and animals

- work in a well ventilated area to prevent inhalling fumes  

- remember to add lye to water and not the other way around (the chemical reaction can cause the lye to spill on you if added in the wrong order)

- slowly add the lye to the water while gently stirring the liquid

- be careful with the lye solution, once the lye is added to the water the solution heats up drastically and you can easily burn yourself

If despite these safety rules you spill some of the lye solution on your skin immediately wash it off with a large amount of cold water. Keep a spray bottle with vinegar in it. After washing the splashed area with water spray it with vinegar to neutralise the lye. 

Although it might sound like soap making is dangerous there is nothing to be scared of as long as you follow the safety rules so please don't be discouraged. 

What you will need to make soap:

- rubber gloves and safety google

- digital scale

- a thermometer

- stainless steal pots 

- stainless steal utensils (plastic can melt when in contact with lye and wood will splinter over time)

Remember that the pots, pans, utensils and blenders used for soap making should be used for soap making only.

- soap moulds of your choice (my personal favourite are silicone as they come in a variety of shapes and the soap is easy to take out of the mould)

Getting started: 

When making a soap always run the recipe through a lye calculator. Lye calculators can be found here (just two examples):

http://www.brambleberry.com/pages/Lye-Calculator.aspx

http://soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp

If you change anything in a recipe like substituting one oil for another always recalculate the amount of lye, which needs to be used. 

Decide how "supperfatted" you want your soap to be. "Supperfatting" is a process of adding excess fat, which will not become soap when mixing with lye. It will make your soap more moisturising. 

There are different ways in which soap can be make. Here I want to outline the so called cold-process, which is probably the easiest way to make soap and the best to get started with if you are new to the topic. 

- weigh off all ingredients on a digital scale, make sure you are accurate and that you tare the weight of the containers

- dissolve the lye in cold water (or other liquid such as milk, which is suggested in the recipe) and leave it to cool down in a well ventilated area

- melt the weight off butters and oils

- wait till both the lye solution and oil/butter mixture have reached more or less the same temperature then slowly add the lye solution to the oils while mixing

- mix the lye-oil/butter mixture with a spoon until the texture it smooth

- next carefully mix it with a blender until a thick custard-like structure is obtained (this is called trace in soap making language)

- at this point you should add any fragrances, colorants or other additives (clays, titanium dioxide, dried flowers, etc)

- pour the soap into prepared moulds

- leave the soap to stand in the moulds for around 24 h (depending on the type of soap this might vary)

- gently remove the soaps from the moulds and leave them to dry in a well ventilated area for several weeks (usually about 5-6 weeks are needed)

- during the weeks that the soaps are drying turn them every few days so that they can dry from all sides equally

- do not be tempted to try using the soap too soon, until it has properly cured it can be harsh for the skin 

Before I end this post there is still a few blogs I would like to tell you about, which I have found highly interesting and useful in the process of learning about soap making.

The blog Curious Soapmaker by Evik is definitely one of my favourites: http://curious-soapmaker.com/soapmaking
Here you can find helpful tutorials, recipes and a lot of very fun and useful experiments with soap making.

For some nice recipes I like to have a look at either http://www.soapqueen.com or http://www.humblebeeandme.com/how-to-make-soap/
These are great places to start your soap making adventure or to improve your skills.

Enjoy more soap making in 2016!