The most basic ingredients of cold process soap making are distilled water, lye and some type of fat. Years ago, it was common to use animal fats in cold process soap making, but the use of vegetable oils in the process is far more common now. No one wants to cart a smelly animal carcass at home to make soap!
There are elements of both art and science to the cold process soap making process. Safety is paramount to the process, as lye is a caustic chemical that can cause severe chemical burns if the user is careless. At the heart of cold process soap making is a chemical reaction between the lye and the fats called saponification. If you would like to learn all about the scientific reasons behind this reaction, which we are not going to go into too heavily here, please click here for details about this chemical reaction.
If you want to create cold process soaps, you will need some equipment first.
Here is a list of equipment that you will need. If you don't have every one of these items available, DO NOT attempt cold process soapmaking.
- Safety glasses
- Rubber gloves
- Long-sleeved shirt
- A 2-3 quart heat-resistant plastic or stainless steel pitcher with lid for mixing up your lye solution
- Another 2-3 quart plastic or glass bowl or pitcher for mixing and measuring oils together before they are added to the cooking pot with the lye solution (the larger Pyrex measuring cups work great)
- Large stainless steel or plastic spoon
- Scale that is accurate to 1/10th of an ounce
- A stainless steel 8-12 quart pot
- Glass measuring cups or ramekins for additives such as fragrance and color
- Mold (see the above video for an idea for a unique and inexpensive mold)
- Accurate, quick-reading thermometer
- Stainless steel measuring spoons
- Stainless steel whisks
- Stick (hand) blender
- Ladle
- Rubber spatulas
- Plastic wrap or bags to protect your work area
As you can see, cold process soap making takes a lot of equipment, and you will also need a lot of attention to detail in the process. Ingredients must be weighed out very accurately to ensure soap making success.
Safety warning! When you are dissolving lye in distilled water, always add the lye very slowly to the distilled water, not the other way around. If you start pouring water into lye, it will fizz and pop and could burn you badly. Always wear safety glasses, long sleeves and rubber gloves when working with lye. When heating the lye solution, it will emit a toxic steam, so be very careful not to inhale it.
Here is a basic soap recipe from the From Nature With Love website:
Good Bar Recipe
Submitted By:
Brian of Carson City, NV
Summary:
Inexpensive oils can make a luxurious bar of soap
Ingredients:
Oils:
2.4 oz Sweet Almond Oil
4.0 oz Coconut Oil
3.4 oz Grapeseed Oil
2.4 oz Olive Oil
2.4 oz Palm Oil
2.4 oz Sunflower Oil
Lye/Water:
2.4 oz NaOH/Lye
5.7 oz Water
Instructions:
Combine oils, heat gently. Once the fats and oils are melted and the temperature is 100-125 degrees, the oils are ready. Temporarily set oils aside. Combine the lye and the water. Add the lye slowly and stir constantly, never let a bunch of granules become caked on the bottom of the container.
Once the temperature has cooled to 100-125 degrees, the lye solution is ready. Combine the melted oils and lye solution together. Stir until tracing occurs. Add fragrance (note: the creator of the recipe did not include the amount of fragrance you need with his recipe. Consult the packaging on your soap fragrance for the correct amount.)
Pour into prepared molds. Allow 1 to 2 days to set-up. Remove from mold and cut into bars. Allow to cure. When the bars are cured, the pH reading should be between 7.5 and 9.0.
Note: Remember that all ingredients in cold process soapmaking are measured by weight, not by volume, so don't just pour your ingredients into a measuring cup and expect that you will be successful in your soap making endeavor.
Vocabulary: Trace is the point of no-return in soap-making. After your soap "reaches trace," the lye mixture and fats won't separate back into their original forms. How do you know when your mixture has reached trace? It should be the consistency of runny pudding, and if you put a spoon into the mixture and pull it out, you will be able to see "traces" of where the spoon was.
Intrigued by the cold process soap making process, but still a little too intimidated to try it? There is a comprehensive video series available that will walk you through the process step-by-step:
Soap Making Fun
