Soap Tutorial

Julia asked me to post about soap making and I couldn't resist. Julia lives in Italy, the home of the finest olive oil on the planet.I use lots of olive oil in soap making, I'm sure Julia could make some drool worthy castile soap!

First things first. You need to purchase a good scale. No, not some el cheapo kitchen scale from Wal Mart. The more accurate and expensive, the better. I would purchase a scale that measures to the hundredth of an ounce. If you can't weight the oils or lye properly, you will have major soap problems. Soap making is a chemical type of science.

Once, my oldest sister was visiting from out of state and she was dying to make soap. I melted all the oils and when it was time to add the lye to the goat's milk, we realized I didn't have enough lye. I was short only about one ounce per each batch. I went ahead and mixed everything up minus the ounce or so of lye.

All three of the batches were ruined when I checked them the next day. The soap was separated and a layer of oil was floating on top. The oils and lye failed to saponify. Ruining three batches of soap cost a pretty penny too. Just a warning, we can get by with a great dinner if we are short 1/2 cup of onion but missing one ounce of lye is a soap making disaster!

We'll start with a very basic recipe.

Olive Oil 40 ounces
Coconut Oil 20 ounces
Palm Oil 20 ounces

Lye needed: 11.26 ounces
Water or Milk: 27.08 ounces

Get out a stainless steel pot and measure out hard oils at room temperature. In this recipe, it would be the coconut oil. Melt it carefully on the stove top.

In this recipe, pictured above, I'm using some luxury hard oils like cocoa butter and mowrah butter. I wouldn't recommend using expensive ingredients your first soap making adventure. Most luxury oils and butter are shipped in adding to cost. A failed batch would equal mucho money lost.

While the hard oils are melting, line your soap mold with plastic wrap.


Remove the melted hard oils from the stove top. It heats up fast!


Now, add your liquid oil to the melted hard oil. This would be the olive and palm oil in the above recipe. This will help cool off the hot melted oil too. I like my oils to be around 90 to 100 degrees when I add the lye mixture.


Put on some gloves and eye protection and weigh out the lye. I could go on and on about the dangers of lye. Please be extremely careful when using lye. I make soap in a building outside of my house. My pets are not allowed in the soap shack! I have read horror stories about small children pulling lye water off the kitchen counter and getting severe chemical burns. It really is dangerous, I have been burned and it's not fun.

I would measure and mix the lye in a pyrex, glass measuring cup.


Goat's milk soap is tricky. I started off using spring water. The problem with goat's milk is when you add the lye. If the milk gets too hot, you'll have a noxious orange burnt mixture. I have found freezing the milk and adding the lye prevents the burnt milk problem. Slowly pour a little lye over the frozen milk and stir, stir, stir with a stainless steel spoon.



Add a bit more lye and stir. The process of melting the milk with lye takes about 15 minutes. This technique is forcing the lye to stay cool and preventing damage to the milk. The milk temperature is about 110 degrees when all the lye is added. If you choose not to use milk, just use cold spring water. (It doesn't have to be ice)


I am ready to blend my milk/lye when it comes down to 110 degrees and oil 100 degrees together. I like to use a stick blender because it forces the lye/milk and oils to join together and saponify into a smooth soap. Be aware that the stick blender will speed up the trace. You want to pour the liquid soap into the mold when thickens up and coats the spoon or blender.


To be continued.....