Easy recipe for clear soap

[Jennfromoz]

I have been surfing the net like crazy trying to find a good basic recipe for clear, see-through soap. Could you professionals please show me the best way to make it from scratch, with obtainable ingredients (some ingredients and additives are hard to hey here.
I've also heard that sugar and water are good to make it clear. Is that true? Thanks.

 

[KiwiMoose]

You need to use alcohol to make clear soap and it is a lot more difficult than making regular hot process or cold process soap. I'd probably try making regular soap first before you go down that road.
Have a look here: How to Make Clear Transparent Soap From Scratch - Making Transparent Soap Guide

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Making transparent soap (aka glycerin soap, aka melt&pour base) is certainly doable, but results on a hobbyist scale are, more often than not, less than stellar.
Neither sugar nor alcohol (ethanol) are strictly necessary, but they are often part of the “solvent” blend of which you'll need about as much as you make actual soap, and you have to account for this “dead weight” in the recipe (increased hardness number).

In case you relax the condition of bar soap (that I guess you implied), there are tons of clear, see-through liquid soap recipes out there.

 

[Jennfromoz]

I will definitely get familiar with regular soap first, but my dream is making soaps like the one attached, basically with regular soap for the sand, moulded soap for the shells and clear soap tinted blue for the water. I have lots of ideas with similar ideas. I know this is ambitious for a beginner like me but I'll start with pretty coloured regular soap.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

You could do better than that, lol! I swear that their “sand” is M&P too, just opaque coloured. At least M&P + confetti (ground CP soap) is well within reach when you decide to get your fingers dirty with lye-based soap.

For prototypes, you can always buy M&P base and try it out for yourself.

But FWIW, you're indeed best off starting to understand how regular lye-based soap works. So many satisfying things possible that it might well be that your desire for representational M&P gets overshadowed by the infinity of possibilities with abstract swirl designs sooner than you think. So it was for me.

 

[KiwiMoose]

You could try something along these lines with cold processed:

 

[Catscankim]

you can purchase Soap Challenge Clubs recipe for clear soap this month. I made it...I am going to make it again because I did something outrageous and it didn't come out as planned when I poured cp and this homemade melt and pour in the same mold lol.

But the clarity was pretty good. I will post them when I clean it up and take some pictures of them. I also used it for embeds, which came out great.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

my dream is making soaps like the one attached, basically with regular soap for the sand, moulded soap for the shells and clear soap tinted blue for the water.

As it happens, some of the first soaps (2005) I ever made were transparent (i.e., NOT "translucent") soaps. You could clearly read 12 pt. font through them. The technique involves making CP (cold process) soap then adding a "polyol" mix of 150-190 proof grain alcohol (NOT isopropyl alcohol) aka, "Everclear", glycerin & simple sugar syrup to clarify. Beautiful soaps but cost twice as much to make from scratch than basic CP soap. I do not make them any more for that reason.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures. They were taken 16 years ago.

To duplicate the soap in the pictures, I would learn to make clear M&P (Melt & Pour) for the top, opaque M&P for the bottom and the shell embeds. You should be able to find molds online for the embeds and rectangle single cavity molds for the soaps. All for far less expense than making all 3 from scratch.

There aren't many M&P soapers on this forum, but you'll need an expert instructor to help you to create your dream soap. Hopefully, if you have a local crafters shop like Hobby Lobby in AU, they can refer you to someone. They can also supply you with a starter kit, although eventually you will want to purchase the best M&P available. For basic instructions, both Bramble Berry and WSP (Wholesale Supplies Plus) here in the States have tutorials for making M&P.

ETA: Free Beginner's Guide to Melt & Pour Soap

Seascape M&P Soap

GOOD LUCK & HAPPY SOAPING!