A Pictorial Guide to Soap Making

[Eric_Methven]

It's also worth mentioning why it's necessary to cover it during the curing process. The soap will react with air if you don't cover it. After four weeks and while it will still be perfectly usable, it will be covered in a fine white ash like powder. Covering it just makes it look cosmetically more appealing. I find wrapping each bar in old newspaper works just as well.

Also when testing it, a good method is to touch it to the tip of your tongue. If it tastes 'sharp' it's not cured yet. Re-wrap and leave another week.

For those of you who fancy having a go, and want to progress a little bit beyond the recipe used in this excellent tutorial, here's an Excel worksheet for you to download. Right click and select 'Save Link As' and save it to your hard drive. If you just click on it normally, it will probably open Excel in your browser window (not recommended).
What the worksheet shows on the left is all the various fats and oils you could use, along with the saponification value for that fat. All you need to do is input the number of ounces of each oil or fat you want to include in the batch and the spreadsheet will work out exactly how much lye (caustic soda) and water you will need.

Eric

 

[EdS]

they used to extract the wool grease from Bradford's sewage for use in soap making amongst othher things.

 

[gorilla]

excellent tutorial Red - the women in my family are addicted to hand made soaps and stuff (the liverpool branch of 'Lush' gets too much of my wages!)
i sense huge crimbo savings on the horizon!!

 

[clcuckow]

Hi Red,

Just making my first ever batch (rosemary and tea tree with dried rosemary), my catnip oil is probably somewhere across the atlantic and at the price of it I thought that I would try something cheaper. But I was wondering, do you test with litmus papper after it has cured? If so where do you get it?

Thanks,

Christopher

 

[British Red]

Christopher,

I do have litmus (well PH) paper - try

www.thesoapkitchen.co.uk for small quantities

Red

 

[clcuckow]

Thanks Red

 

[fishy1]

Just to emphasive, if you use an aluminium pan, extremely flammable gases (hydrogen) will be given off. Stainless steel advice is bang on.

Is touching the soap to your tongue the best idea given that the soap may still be corrosive with traces of NaOH?

And one last thing. Waste vegetable oil (free from a chippie) would be ideal if on a budget, but you'd need to filter it several times, and it's probably best to avoid oil that has had garlic in it.

 

[Mirius]

Used oil from a chinese is generally considered the best for bio diesel, not sure if that would also apply here.

 

[fishy1]

Mirius, I don't consider it to be the best for biodiesil (I also make it) but it's free.

 

[British Red]

To be honest every fat base produces a different type of soap and lathers differently. The guys who are trying out some of mine have noticed that the pure veg oil soaps (especially the olive oil based ones) make almost a cream rather than a bubbly lather. The ones based on harder veg fats (veg suet and coconut oil) produce large bubbles. Both get you clean but personal taste varies as to what you consider to be ideal. I also blend different fat bases to get the properties I want. If economics is a factor though, you won't go far wrong with veg suet and cheap veg oil

Red

 

[robin wood]

great tutorial Red been buying hand made soap for years at high prices, i will have to give it a go. Thanks
Any ideas on how to make shower gell?

 

[British Red]

I have never managed a good shampoo or shower gel without using a commercial "base". If anyone did know how to make one from scratch I'd be delighted to learn myself.

 

[match]

the following is one way to turn solid soap into liquid soap - the vodka and glycerin helps keep the soap in gel-form:

2 cups of grated soap
1 tsp vodka
2 tsp glycerin
1 or 2 tsp essential oils (optional)
3 cups water

Simmer the soap, glycerin and water in a double boiler til melted, add the vodka and leave to cool. If too thick, add more water and whisk well. Pour into bottles.

Of course, you can always use a solid bar of soap as a shampoo, if it isn't too acidic a soap, which can dry the hair out. Or just not use any shampoo at all - I've been using just water for over a year now and not lost any friends

 

[British Red]

Thanks match - glycerin I have! Vodka I can buy - may need to give that a go. Have you tried it yourself?

Red

 

[John Fenna]

Ah! That good old Edinburgh frugality!
Saving money on shampoo.....I find that having a #2 crop means I gat away with using a fraction of the shampoo I used to when I wore it to my collar - going bald helps as well...
Actually using shampoo increases the greasyness of hair and if you only use water the hair only produces enough oil to stay healthy...soap makes you dirty!
As long as you are not in a smelly/smoky environment using water on your hair is all it should need (I have been reliably informed) although the scalp will need a bit of help if you get realy grimy - I would think.
Not all societies use soap on a day to day basis, let alone shampoo, and still stay clean and dont smell too bad!

 

[match]

Thanks match - glycerin I have! Vodka I can buy - may need to give that a go. Have you tried it yourself?

Red

I've not done it myself, but have used liquid soap that a friend made (hence the recipe above). Seemed to be quite good, and didn't look lumpy or anything. He did say that sometimes once liquid you do get lumps forming, but you can just sieve/throw away any bits that refuse to stay in gel form. Be interesting to see whether the amount of water depends on the type of soap used, might vary with the fat base?

I'll dig out some of my home-made soap and try this tonight - will give it a go without glycerin as I think I'm out and see if its an important ingredient

And no, not frugality - I have had bad dermatitis on my scalp for anumber of years with varying shampoos (medicated and otherwise) - thought I'd see if the shampoo was the cause of it, and it seems to have helped a lot now I'm not using it! (spose it does save some money though )

 

[John Fenna]

And no, not frugality - I have had bad dermatitis on my scalp for anumber of years with varying shampoos (medicated and otherwise) - thought I'd see if the shampoo was the cause of it, and it seems to have helped a lot now I'm not using it! (spose it does save some money though )[/QUOTE]

Aye - right..thats your story and you will be sticking to it.....
I am actually not suprised that shampoo seems to agravate your problem - have you read the contents list if most commercial shampoos?
Deodourents have been linked to cancers - why not shampoos with chemical contents that read like WMDs with skin probs?
I hope that vodka on the outside and malt on the inside sorts your probs!
John

 

[sallyinwales]

I would also advise always running any recipe through a lye calculator (the one here is very good http://www.the-sage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php) even if you think you know what the NaOH to fat ratio is. Rough rule of thumb, the runnier the oil at room temperature, the softer the soap, which is why a blend of solid fats and runny oils is often good. Personally for solid veg fat I find that solid pura stuff better than veg suet- it works as 'veg shortening' in the lye calculator, and finally, always remember to check any scents, essential oils etc for skin sensitivity suitability before starting.

Hot processing soap is a good method if you havent got time or inclination to let a cold processed batch cook out, but always worth learning cold process as above first

A good way also to play with scents/fillers, is to make your soap plain, then rebatch it later with scrubby or smelly additions, that way you can play with more delicate fragrances that teh curing process would destroy in a cold process batch. Endless fun soapmaking

 

[Nagual]

Read this a while ago, and thanks to the recent pine tar soap thread, brought me back. I have a question for you Red, if you don't mind. What do you know about the like of nettle soap? I'm going to guess and say the nettles are maybe boiled or something, and the strained water used to mix with the caustic soda? Any experience or advice on this at all?

Cheers,

 

[British Red]

Can't imagine it would be too hard - not tried it but I have done similar with both herbal infusions and spices. In general terms perfumes, essences etc. should be aadded after reaching "trace" otherwise the saponification process can remove scent. This is mainly true however of essential oils.

The one warning I have is in using goats milk in place of water.....full Hazmat gear required - I ******* kid you not!

Red