Soap Advice?

[Nitefalle]

A friend of mine and myself are thinking of trying our hand at cold-process soaps. Any tips / tricks to pass along? Any heads up on equipment or sources? Any favorite recipes you think we should try? I appreciate anything, positive or negative.

[vikinggoddess]

search google for soap calculator.

[halfwaynowhere]

this site (http://waltonfeed.com/old/soap/soap.html) seems to have a lot of good information... i bookmarked it when i was researching soap making because i wanted to try... i never got around to it, though...

[Darbla]

You can find just about anything you need to know about soap at www.thesoapdishforum.com

The crockpot soap looks like it might be easy. Also I've read there that the castille II and III recipes at www.millersoap.com are good for beginners. Search the forum for words like 'beginner' and 'easy'.

Darbla

[Darbla]

I don't know if you're still thinking about soap-making, but I just came across this super easy recipe and remembered your thread. There's a link to it from this site: http://millersoap.com/


Edited to add the tools you'll need:
First and foremost, arm yourself with safety glasses and thin rubber gloves. Next you'll need:
• A 4-quart stainless-steel pot to heat the oils. Do not use aluminum, as it reacts with the lye.
• A heatproof 32-ounce measuring cup to mix the lye and water.
• Two rubber spatulas, one for the lye and the other for the lye/fat mixture.
• Plastic measuring cups and spoons.
• A soap mold, such as a greased plastic food-storage container (place freezer paper over two sides like wings for easy soap  removal) or a small cardboard box lined with freezer paper.
• An old blanket to insulate the soap.

Fats and oils. You won't find coconut and palm oils, the mainstays of most soap recipes, at the grocery store. So we'll use olive oil (the less expensive, the better) and vegetable shortening.

Distilled water. Tap or well water can cause problems.

Red Devil lye. It's at the grocery, next to the Drano. Do not use Drano, which is not pure sodium hydroxide. Shake Red Devil cans until you find one that sounds "smooth," not crunchy. Read the precautions on the label. (see note at bottom of this post)

Scent. Use essential oils (the distillation of herbs and flowers used in aromatherapy and found at natural food stores) or synthetic fragrance oils (but only ones that have been tested for soapmaking). You'll need about half an ounce (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) to scent a pound of soap. Or make unscented soap. Just don't dump vanilla extract or your bottle of Chanel No. 5 into the soap pot: Alcohol and soap don't mix.

Color. Soaps can be colored with herbs, clay, spices and powdered pigments, to name a few. In a perfect world, blueberries would make blue soap. Alas, they do not. Food coloring also won't work.

Extras. Oatmeal and poppy seeds make excellent exfoliants. Herbs such as comfrey and calendula heal and soothe. Small amounts of expensive oils such as avocado, jojoba and hemp seed will make your soap even better.



A beginner's recipe to stir the imagination
There are endless combinations in soapmaking, limited only by your ingenuity, budget and natural law. Keep your first batch simple.

Very simple soap

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons Crisco
1 1/3 cups olive oil
1/4 cup Red Devil lye
6 fluid ounces cool distilled water

Arrange for two hours without interruptions. Wear long sleeves. Put on safety glasses and gloves. Keep vinegar at hand for lye splashes.

Measure the cool water in the heatproof cup. Place it in the sink, where it can't be knocked over. Working in a well-ventilated area, measure the lye. Hold your breath (not because of the danger, but because there will be fumes) and pour the lye slowly into the water, stirring until dissolved. The lye solution will top 175 degrees.

Place the Crisco in the stainless-steel pot over low heat until it melts (about 20 minutes). Add the olive oil. After another 15 minutes, take the soap pot off the heat.

Within five minutes, both the pot and the heatproof cup should feel toasty (about 115 degrees if you have a glass candy thermometer) but not hot. Slowly pour the lye solution into the fats, stirring steadily. The mixture will lighten and start to thicken.

Looking for trace. Stir diligently for 15 minutes, or until the soap traces. Trace occurs when a bit of raw soap, dribbled from the spatula across the surface, leaves "traces" for a few seconds before sinking back in. If you don't get trace after 15 minutes, take a 10-minute break. Stir another 15 minutes. Repeat. Your soap should eventually trace. (If it doesn't, recheck your measurements. You may have to start over.)

At trace, stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons scent and pour the soap immediately into the mold. Insulate. Scrape the leftover soap in the pot onto a paper towel and toss it.
Wash the utensils in hot water.

The cure. Leave the soap undisturbed for 24 hours. It will heat up as it goes through its chemical reaction, then cool. When the soap is firm, cut into four to six bars and put them in a dry, well-ventilated place, away from kids and pets.

Vegetable-based soap needs at least two weeks to tie up loose ends, while soaps made with animal fat seem to take twice that long to lose their "bite." Be patient.
Otherwise, you'll arouse unnecessary suspicion if you offer your creation with the words: "Here is your mild and moisturizing bar of homemade soap, but don't use it for two weeks, OK?"

(((end of instructions)))

Note about lye: If you have a Lowe's near you, look for the Roebic brand of lye in the plumbing dept. You want the crystals, and the container has a lot of yellow on the label and says 100% lye or sodium hydroxide. Red Devil brand used to be commonly available until it started being used by meth-heads to neutralize their illegal concoctions, but I don't know why the Roebic brand hasn't also been yanked off the shelves.

Any of the utensils and tools that come in contact with the lye: do not use these for anything else but soap-making. Don't use the spatulas and measuring tools and bowls and whatnot in food preparation after they've had lye on them!

Darbla

[banondraig]

how did this go?

[alwaysfallingup]

I recommend buying one of those stick blenders...you know, the handheld ones made for making smoothies in the glass? They're great for getting trace WAY faster than hand stirring and mean less time standing over the pot. Just stir a few times around before you turn it on, and make sure the end is completely submerged when you turn it on so you don't get any splashing.

[banondraig]

I recommend buying one of those stick blenders...you know, the handheld ones made for making smoothies in the glass? They're great for getting trace WAY faster than hand stirring and mean less time standing over the pot. Just stir a few times around before you turn it on, and make sure the end is completely submerged when you turn it on so you don't get any splashing.

This is a good suggestion, but I suggest investing a few extra $$$ in a fancy one. I got one from Wal-Mart, and the casing melted somewhat after only one use.

[Darbla]

I don't know about the original poster, but I made a couple different batches of the recipe I posted and it turned out great. Just do some research into the best FOs that work in cold process soap, as some fade to nothing. Mine from From Nature With Love didn't work in it, and I read after the fact that other people had trouble with their FOs in CP soap. If I were to make another batch, I'd do some research and pick some known successful ones and try that first. As a matter of fact, there is a thread in the soap forum at www.candletech.com/forums about FOs that rock in CP.

Darbla

[Lorrie]

Miller soap is excellent. Here are a few of the links I used. I am addicted to making CP soap.

http://www.the-sage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php ALWAYS run recipes through a calculator!

http://www.soapcalc.com/calc/soapcalcWP.asp

http://waltonfeed.com/old/soap/soapchem.html

http://www.latheringsforum.com/bb/index.php

This is my favorite fragrance oil supplier: http://www.tonysfragranceoils.com/
They are great, and test all scents in soaps, candles, and list what it can be used in, Their service is excellent, the scents are out of this world. One of the local health food stores is using this place now and has invited me to go in together on orders to split shipping costs.

I have several links, lots of advice. Feel free.

[Lorrie]

Oh, and lye is next to impossible to find in stores now. Millers link has some places to look, otherwise internet is the way to get it, but many places you have to have a signed paper on file with the place to have it sent to you. This is all due to the meth labs.
I was able to find it at a store locally, Tractor Supply. The inline supplier I found to be good is this:
https://www.saltcitysoapworks.com/newshop/index.php?cPath=25&osCsid=1d8b556c943686b4f7bffa629c401cd4

[banondraig]

I found some lye at Ace Hardware, but it is only about 85% pure, so I haven't ventured to actually use it yet.