Step By Step Cold Process Soap

Step By Step Making Cold Process  Soap

Written in 2002, when I made my very first batch.

My Very First Attempt At Making Soap - in 2001

Please do not try to make soap based on my pictures and descriptions alone!  Get a book, read up on what to do, and how to do it, and be careful!  It is much easier then I ever thought, but not something you should be trying based on this quick synopsis of my experience.  I have a list of soap making resources, and supplies, here: https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2011/03/some-soap-making-resources.html

Getting Started 

It took me forever to build up the nerve to try this...  I read tons of websites, articles, and the Soap Book by Sandy Maine I think I have memorized now.  :-) I had to look for the supplies too  - I have not yet found a local soap making supply store, coconut oil especially was hard to track down. (coconut oil can now be found practically everywhere, but this was not the case in 2002)

 The expense to get started was a lot higher then I anticipated - first the scales, then the oils, the thermometer, gloves, lye...  all together were a bit costly.  Well worth it though!  

Approximate costs for me (in 2002)

• Scales - $31 with shipping, on ebay (On Amazon in 2020)
• Stick blender - $9 wal-mart (On Amazon in 2020)
• Meat Thermometer - $3 at wal-mart (On Amazon in 2020)
• Lye - $3.50 at grocery store (On Amazon in 2020)
• Olive Oil - $2 at grocery store (make sure it is 100% olive oil)
• Crisco - $3 at grocery store
• Coconut Oil - $7 at health food store

A 2020 Note About Crisco - 

The formula for Crisco has changed since the early 2000s. It now incorporates a fair amount of hydrogenated palm oil, which is good for making soap. If you're using Crisco, be sure to know what kind you are using and and adjust your lye calculator accordingly. Most lye calculators have a setting for "old Crisco" and "new Crisco." If your label lists "hydrogenated palm oil" as one of the ingredients, use the "new Crisco" setting.

I bought a Rubbermaid container for a second mold - my mom gave me an old wooden one that I like best though!

Finally, with everything assembled, and Dan home to keep and eye on the kids, I made soap!!  

It was a nice fall day, so I set the lye up on the side porch table -I didn't mix it, just set the proper amounts out and ready. 

Next I mixed my oils...

In this pan I have the olive oil, which I should not have - I took it back out and melted down the Crisco and coconut oils, THEN added the olive oil.

I didn't turn the stove on yet - instead measured out the oatmeal, ran it through the blender, and made sure my thermometer and stick blender where ready to go, and my mold was ready. I soaked a piece of muslin in water, rung it out, and lined my wooden box with it.

With everything ready, I went out and mixed the lye and water.  I used a gallon jar, the fumes were much less then I expected!  But I was outside too.  The water turned cloudy white, and got VERY hot - much hotter then I was expecting!

I left the lye to cool, and started melting the oils...  once they were melted, and olive oil added, I worked on getting both the oil and the lye to the right range of temperature - this part took me the longest.  Once they were the right temp, I mixed the lye into the oils, slowly, while stirring.  Then I used my stick blender to mix until it was "trace" - this went much faster then I expected!!

I took a little of this mixture, dumped it into a bowl with he blenderized oatmeal, and mixed it together.

then I mixed the oatmeal mixture into the rest of the soap, and mixed it thoroughly, before pouring into my mold.

I covered it with a sheet of wax paper, then layered with blankets, for the required 24 hours.

Here is the soap, 2 and a half hours after being poured into the mold:

I cut it into bars after 24 hours (picture at the top of the page) , and let it cure two weeks.  I love the soap! 

(I've made hundreds of bars of soap since this batch, but this is still one of my favorite recipes.  Oatmeal soap is always a favorite!)

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Find an Index Of My Soapmaking Posts here:
https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/making-soap.html

Step By Step Home Made Peppermint Soap

Step By Step Cold Process Rustic Peppermint Soap
(This is a "How I did It" post, but to make soap, you really need to read up on it before making it yourself, and be very, very careful with the lye.  I never have a problem with it, but it can be dangerous.  My favorite book is the simple, pretty, Soap Book by Sandy Maine)

Find a Full List Of Soap Making Supplies & Resources here

You can make pretty white soaps with dyes swirled through, etc, but that's not really my style, and mostly exceeds my attention span.  (Most things do...)  I like rustic looking soaps.  I use herbs and essential oils mostly.  Not because I'm opposed to the fancier soap fragrance oils, but mostly because they have to be ordered online and I don't often plan ahead well enough when it's time to make soap.  Perhaps one year when I'm not knee deep in football season during soap making season.. or maybe some time I'll make soap at a different time of year.  But for now, I usually make soap in September or October.  Which means I intend to make it in September, to give it 3 months to dry before Christmas, but I rarely get to it until October.  :-)

Traditionally I'm in sync.  Soap used to be made from the lard, after fall butchering.  So this is the time of year my ancestors were most likely to be making soap too.  I've tried making soap with lard, but  I can't get past the smell. It is a very, very strong smell.   Crisco works fine.  It's a little more expensive, but I gag just thinking about heating lard to make soap.

The Oils

Note - 

The formula for Crisco has changed since the early 2000s. It now incorporates a fair amount of hydrogenated palm oil, which is good for making soap. If you're using Crisco, be sure to know what kind you are using and and adjust your lye calculator accordingly. Most lye calculators have a setting for "old Crisco" and "new Crisco." If your label lists "hydrogenated palm oil" as one of the ingredients, use the "new Crisco" setting.

I used it here with no problems.

Soap making is a science.  You can not just substitute one thing for another.  You cannot be casual about your measurements.  You need to use the exact measurements of the exact items.  No guessing.   No substituting.  As casual as I am about cooking, I never approach soap making that way.  This is not a cheap hobby, you do not want to waste all of your ingredients by not following the instructions exactly. A postal scale works great for measuring.

This recipe is from the book by Sandy Maine,  Soap Book.  I highly recommend it.  It's a little book, and other than the scents and additives, it's mostly the same recipe over and over, but the instructions at the front are what you should read and understand before making soap.  She explains all the whys, as well as the hows, of soap making, in simple, easy, terms, with photos.

So for this recipe, I'm using these oils:

24 ounces Coconut Oil

38 ounces Crisco (MUST be 100% vegetable oil)

24 Olive Oil (Be sure it is 100% olive oil!)

All of these can now be found at Sam's club.  SO much easier than when I first started making soap!  I bought this olive oil at Wengers, because I was there when I thought of making soap, but I've bought olive oil at Sams' and the prices are comparable.

Cost Breakdown: (From 2014)

Crisco $7.98 for 96 ounces

Coconut Oil $15.98 for 56 ounces

Olive Oil $13.98 for 3 liters, roughly 101 ounces

Although I'm specific in my measurements of the oils, I'm going with loose math for the costs, knowing the prices change regularly anyway.  This is just a rough idea - 

Half a bottle of Coconut Oil $8

Half a can of Crisco $4 (it's not really half, like I said, rough idea here)

1/4 of a bottle of olive oil  $3.50

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Roughly $16 in oils

Some of the other oils I use in soap making are even more costly.  I often use palm oil & shea butter, in different recipes.

The Lye

Do not mess around with lye.  It will burn you severely.  This is not something to work with with small children around.  Notice that I use all pyrex when making soap - it handles the heat very well.  When you add lye to water it heats up VERY fast, and to a very dangerous temperature.  My pyrex bowls have always handled that well.  You cannot use aluminum when making soap - it will mess it up.  Plastic spoons are best, although I've always used wooden or bamboo.

Where to buy Lye:

Lowes or Home Depot - Look in the drain cleaner aisle.  Just be VERY, VERY sure it is 100% lye, and not just a drain cleaner.  I bought a roebic brand there a couple of years back, if you look at the back of the bottle it should say "100% sodium hydroxide".

Amazon

Cost:

$9.95 for 4lbs (64 ounces)

Roughly $2 for this batch of soap

Notes on the Water:

Hard water does not make good soap.  If your water is hard, it's worth it to buy a bottle of spring water.

Mix The Lye & Water

I put some ice water in my sink, set the bowl of carefully weighed water in the sink, then carefully, very carefully, add the lye to the water.  Stir.  Make sure the water in the bowl was very cold - do not use hot water for this.  Then I let this sit in the sink, stirring occasionally, while I mix the oils.

Mixing the Oils

I thought I would dry melting the oils in the microwave, but I didn't have a bowl large enough - so on the stove it is.  :-)  Heat the oils just enough to melt them all and mix them all thoroughly.  

Then I remove the lye water from the ice water in my sink, add more ice, and place this pan in.

The goal is now to get both the lye and the oils to the same temp, between 95 and 100 degrees.  Use precise thermometer.

Making Soap

Once the oils and the lye are the same temp, mix them together.  Then use a stick blender (you can make soap without a stick blender, but it takes a LOT of stirring..  a stick blender will do the same work in a much more reasonable amount of time)

Once the soap reaches "trace", add your scents and colors.  Trace is, essentially, when you can pull the stick blender out, move it back and forth over the top so that the mixture on the blender drops down and it lays on top of the mixture in lines rather than dropping in and disappearing. There should be a "trace" when the liquid from the stick blender fell.

I put the peppermint leaves in my ninja and pulverized them, before I started mixing oils and lye.  This mixture, and a 2 ounce bottle of peppermint essential oil, went in once the soap hit trace.  I used half the amount of essential oil the recipe called for.  

Cost:

Dried Peppermint (On hand, I don't know what it would cost now)

Peppermint Essential Oil $6.50

In The Mold

I'm fortunate to have a variety of nice wooden molds made by my husband and my mom.  You can use rubbermaid containers though - these aren't necessary.  But they are nice.  The ends screw off of these, so the soap can be removed easily.  Sometimes I line them with wet muslin, sometimes I just coat them in crisco.  This time I used crisco.

Check out this silicone lined mold on amazon

https://amzn.to/37vMQ4U

Silicone molds are wonderful for soap making, the soap pops right out

This is the color when I poured it into the mold

A few hours later, you can get a better idea of the final color, around the edges of the mold here.  It usually gets really dark a few hours after it's in the mold, then it starts to lighten as it dries.

Always let soap in the mold 24 hours.  Longer is ok.  I left this one in about 36 hours.  The white here is from the crisco I lined the mold with - it wipes right off.  (This is after I unscrewed the ends from the mold)

I huge bar of soap, ready to be cut.

When I cut soap, any of the rough edges that I cut off, I roll into balls, like on the far left here.

This will sit for weeks - preferably 3 months, but in this case, until a few weeks before Christmas, when I label it and wrap it for gifts.  You could use it right now, but it's soft and the bars would disintegrate fast.  Letting it sit will allow it to fully harden, so that the bars last.

Final Rough Cost:

$6.50 Essential Oil

$2 Lye

$16 Oils

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$24.50 for this batch of soap

That's not including the basic items that you'll need to get started - like a postal scale, a good thermometer, molds, etc..  but once you have those items, that's a good rough idea of the costs for making it right now.  A lot depends on the additives you use - those essential oils and fragrances are a big part of the cost of soap making.

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An Index Of My Soapmaking Posts

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/making-soap.html

Home Made Laundry Detergent Recipe

• Ivory or Fels Naptha Soap
• Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
• Borax

This is the laundry detergent I used for about 18 years.  We raised three boys, on a farm, and one was a football player.  And this got our clothes clean.  Now that the kids are grown I admit to being lazy and using Purex...  but for the last year or two that the kids were here, I had switched to a homemade powdered laundry detergent, because the recipe above can be a bit slimy, and powdered detergent was generally easier, and very cheap to make.  

• Ivory or Fels Naptha Soap
• Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
• Borax
• Purex Crystals (Optional) Or Downy Unstoppables
• Oxi Clean (Optional)

The Purex crystals are purely optional!  I like the smell.  They are a "laundry booster", but I am pretty sure you can skip them and not really notice any difference in how clean your clothes are.  :-)  I like to purchase these ingredients at Dollar General on Saturdays - when there is almost always a $5 off $25 coupon.  

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And for stains - especially soda, or oil stains like salad dressing, this is literally the best.  It's usually in the aisle with the pine sol, not the laundry detergents.

https://amzn.to/2XnwA1d

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https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/diary-of-housewife.html

An Index Of  My Soapmaking Posts
https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/making-soap.html

A Few Of My Favorite Soap Making Resources

A Few Of My Favorite Soapmaking Resources & Supplies

Disclaimer - You should never, ever make soap until you have researched it and know what you are doing.  As much as I love to "wing it" - soap making it not a wing it activity.  

Basic Resources:

• Lye Calculator (for making your own soap recipes)
• Essential Oil Blending Calculator
• How To Calculate How Much Oil Is Needed For Your Soap Mold
• A Beginners Guide To Making Cold Process Soap

The formula for Crisco has changed since the early 2000s. It now incorporates a fair amount of hydrogenated palm oil, which is good for making soap. If you're using Crisco, be sure to know what kind you are using and and adjust your lye calculator accordingly. Most lye calculators have a setting for "old Crisco" and "new Crisco." If your label lists "hydrogenated palm oil" as one of the ingredients, use the "new Crisco" setting.

Soap Making Recipes:

• Step By Step How I Make Home Made Soap
• Step By Step Homemade Peppermint Soap
• Basic Slow Cooker Soap (Make soap in your crock pot!) 

The Soap Book, by Sandy Maine 

This is the soap making book I started with.
Great, simple, recipes, with lots of herb additives.
It has a great format, and is easy to follow.

Simple & Natural Soap Making by Jan Berry is my current favorite soap making book.

My favorite book does change frequently - but this is a nice balance between the simple book above, and the very complex book below.  And it's pretty.  :-)

https://amzn.to/3t8Wrih

The other soap making book on my shelves.
This one is not as pretty as the Sandy Maine Book, it's more, well, like a BOOK than a magazine.  But it is SO full of great information, my copy  is marked with bunches of sticky notes. https://amzn.to/2QLfybp

Bramble Berry Project Ideas (Formerly The Soap Queen)
Bramble Berry is a supply site, and to inspire you to purchase their products, they offer great projects!
https://www.brambleberry.com/

Soap Making Supplies:

Soap Mold & Cutter
https://amzn.to/37vMQ4U
I have a lot of wooden molds, which I either grease with crisco or line with wax paper before using.  But silicone really is sooooo nice when making soap!
And these cutters are great!

You can make soap without an immersion blender.  If you do not mind stirring really hard for HOURS.  :-)
Seriously, this makes it so much faster and easier!
https://amzn.to/2FhEX7i

An accurate scale is an absolute essential.
Make sure it can measure in both ounces and grams
This is not the one I use, mine is a 20 year old postal scale - but this one looks nice, and is reasonably priced.
https://amzn.to/2QCwjFA

Lye is getting harder and harder to find - our grocery stores no longer carry it.
I can still find it at lowes, by the drain cleaners
Just be sure it is 100% lye - and nothing else added.
Thankfully, there is also Amazon Prime.
https://amzn.to/2FbwnXE

A nice selection of colors to start with - 
https://amzn.to/39B6jTx

I used to buy dried lavender at the health food store, to add to my soaps - but it's cheaper to buy it online now.  Here's an assortment of additives - 
https://amzn.to/2ZMmwku



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