Soapmaking for Beginners
There are several reasons people may want to learn how to make soap. While some may choose to do so simply because it’s a fun and satisfying hobby, many people start making their own soaps so they can avoid undesired ingredients like fragrances and synthetic detergents. Most commercial “soaps” are not 100% soap- they are detergent based and have their natural glycerin removed and may be called beauty bars, cleansing bars, face bar, etc. Glycerin is a skin-loving ingredient, but it is removed from commercial soaps to increase shelf life and to sell separately commercially for lotion and skin care products. If you make your own soap, not only do you get to use the ingredients of your choice, but the glycerin in your soap remains. Some hobby soapmakers may decide to make soap so that they may use homegrown ingredients like lard or tallow, aloe vera gel, herbs, and liquids like goat’s or cow’s milk. Some will make their own soap to use all organic ingredients, or perhaps make vegan soaps. Making your own soap allows YOU to choose the ingredients that suit you and your lifestyle.
While everyone seems to know what soap is, it does have a scientific definition. In short, soap is the salt of a fatty acid. From a chemical standpoint, “salt” is not the substance you sprinkle on your food (although sodium chloride IS a salt). A salt is the substance formed by the interaction of an acid and a base. In soapmaking, the acid is a fatty acid (the oils chosen, like olive oil) combined with lye (usually sodium hydroxide). The reaction between them is called saponification. Saponification can be defined as the process taking place that converts those oils/fats by the lye dissolved in water to soap. While lye can be dangerous to use, and precautions must be taken to make soap safely, lye is needed for this process. If someone tells you that you can make soap without lye, that is not true. What IS true is that if the soap is made properly, there is no lye remaining in the soap at all due to this chemical reaction between the lye and oils. There is an entirely new substance created- soap!
Preparation (Collect all of your supplies)
- Nonreactive vessel to melt your oils on stove or microwave (HDPE #2 or PP #5 plastic or stainless steel).
- Nonreactive pitcher or container to mix lye into water (NOT PYREX OR GLASS!!!!)
- Nonreactive utensils like stainless spoons or silicone spoons to stir
- Protective gear like safety glasses, apron, rubber gloves, long sleeves
- Mold for your soap, (lined if needed with either freezer paper lining, quilter's mylar, plastic cutting mats or silicone fondant mats) or silicone molds. Silicone and other molds sold for soapmaking generally do not need to be lined. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions if using a commercial soap mold.
- Consider an immersion blender for stirring/mixing the soap batter as a time and labor saving device
- Soapmaking software. Because of the need for precise measurements for both the oils and lye, always run any recipe you find through a soap calculator. Each oil has a different saponification value and requires a different amount of lye; and especially if you are substituting one oil for another, you will always want to double check the lye amount. We recommend the simple, easy to use calculator at SoapmakingFriend.com.
Safety notes
Soapmaking really is a simple process. The details needs more attention.
- All ingredients, including liquids are always measured by weight. This ensures precision.
- Lye is a caustic, and should be handled with care. Safety googles and protective clothing should be used throughout the process. Also, lye mixed in water gets HOT fast. So always mix cold water or whatever liquid your using with the lye-never use hot or warm liquids. In general, you will use about 2 times the amount of water as lye, but can err on the side of caution with a 2.5:1 ratio- that is, use 2.5 times as much water, by weight, as lye.
- Even though this soapmaking technique is called ‘cold process’, the soap batter is hot. Have hot pads at the ready, and protection for your counters.
- Mixing the lye into the water is crucial. Always add lye to water, in a taller vessel than you think you need. Never, but ever, add water to lye- it will volcano on your and be dangerous. “Add lye to water, just like you oughter” will help you remember this.
- Measuring is critical. You need to measure carefully as to ensure you have the proper amount of fats and lye so that you don’t have a lye-heavy soap. The old “grandma’s lye soaps” that you’ve heard will “take the hide off of you” should remind you of this. Your scale should go to the hundredth of an ounce if using imperial measurements, and to the tenth of a gram if using metric. Measuring lye in grams is a great idea, as it is more precise but ounces will work if you have an accurate scale for small amounts.
- Use only fragrances or colors designed for soapmaking. Anything with alcohol (like perfume) will cause the soap to seize right away. Some fragrances, like those with vanilla scents, will turn the soap brown. Consult the manufacturer’s directions if you are using a fragrance or essential oil new to you.
- As was mentioned earlier, make sure you run ANY recipe through a soapmaking calculator, even one you may have made before. This avoids any possibility of a lye-heavy soap, or not using enough lye and having a ruined batch. This takes just a few minutes, less than 2 minutes usually, and is important for the safety of your batch.
Basic Steps
- Step 1: Gather equipment and ingredients
- Step 2: Measure lye and add to the measured (weighed) water
- Step 3: Weigh the oils, and melt the hard oils first. Add soft or liquid oils so all of your oils are combined
- Step 4: Add the lye water to the oils gradually, stirring.
- Step 5: Stir until you reach trace, when lifting your spoon across the soap batter leaves a line or a ‘trace’ behind.
- Step 6: Pour into prepared mold(s)
- Step 7: When cooled and firm, cut into bars and set on a rack to cure for 4-6 weeks.
Get Started!
Now that you have your equipment, a knowledge of the safety rules, and the basics, we need our recipe and ingredients. Our recipe comes from the ‘sample recipes’ on
SoapmakingFriend.com.
We’ll be using ingredients that you can find at your local grocery or drug store, except for the lye. Lye is found online, or in hardware stores with the drain cleaners. Just make sure you have 100% sodium hydroxide, lye, with no other ingredients.
Each oil you use brings something different to the soap. Coconut oil is cleansing, and helps create great bubbles in the soap, but too much can be drying for those with a dry and/or sensitive skin-type. Olive oil is conditioning to the skin, but can make a soft soap that can feel a little slimy in too- large amounts. Lard is inexpensive and helps give the soap stable lather, conditioning to the skin, gentle, and helps make the soap hard. If you are wanting a vegetable oil only soap, you may use palm oil instead of lard, but run it through a
soap calculator to double check the lye!
A typical soap recipe looks like this:
The recipe looks like this after you enter those amounts:
View attachment 67590
You will notice that the recipe page gives you a lot of information about the make up of the oils, and the qualities including cleansing, hardness, bubbles, lather, etc. For now, seeing that your recipe is in the general recommended percentages of each of those properties is great. Once you get more experience, you can vary this by your preference as you learn to formulate your own recipes.
You can see that the amounts of the oils are calculated for us by entering our percentages. The recipe also calculates the lye amounts and water amounts as well, so we are ready to go!
The printed page gives us all we need:
View attachment 67591
There are check boxes to help you check off the ingredients as you use them, so be sure to do that as you don’t want to leave out any ingredients. You can measure in grams and/or ounces by looking at the amounts in the columns.
Steps to making your first batch
- Step 1 - Find your recipe, and run it through a soap calculator. Ensure you have all your ingredients handy, as once you start it goes pretty fast! Grab a pen so you can check off the ingredients as you go.
- Step 2- Put on your goggles and gloves, and carefully weigh the lye in a small plastic container. Set aside, and weigh your water in a large non-reactive, non-glass container (plastic is good for these items). Add the lye to the water, stirring well and avoid breathing the fumes. Try to do this in a well-ventilated area. It gets HOT fast. Use caution. Let sit to cool.
- Step 3- Weigh your fats/oils, and melt the hard ones over low heat. Once melted, add the rest of your oils. Do this in a heat-proof vessel- stainless is great, and plastic works too. Do NOT use aluminum!
- Step 4: Once both your lye solution and your oils are 120 degrees or less, add the lye water slowly to the oils, and stir well. You will want to fully mix the ingredients, and this takes quite a bit of time with hand stirring. The batter will begin to change, from oils with liquid to a smooth soap batter that will become opaque and look like a thin pudding. An immersion blender, with burst off and on as to not burn out the motor, will make this job much faster and easier. Keep the immersion blender under the surface of the soap, as to not whip air into it. Then stir with the blender off, to keep checking to see when you are at “trace”
- Step 5: When the soap batter reaches a trace (when you can move the spoon through the batter and see a line, or a ‘trace’ left behind), the batter is ready to pour. Trace can be a thin trace or medium trace, but pour before the soap batter gets too thick. Add your “add at trace” ingredients if using them (like color or fragrance) and pour into your prepared mold. Cover with a towel to maintain the temperature without allowing it to overheat. At this point, you can remove your safety gear. Wash your items before the soap sets up on them. Some people will use old rags or newspaper to wipe off the thickened soap batter and discard so it doesn’t go down the drain. Some don't wash out their soap-pot and soaping utensils until the next day when the soap batter in them/on them has turned to soap overnight and they are super easier to clean then.
- Step 6: Allow to sit until firm, usually about 24 hours but some will harden faster than others. You will want to cut your soap with a sharp knife when the soap feels like cheddar cheese when you press on it. If it’s too hard, it may crumble. If it’s too soft, you won’t be able to unmold it. Check it several times if necessary. Because this is a ‘cold process’ soap, that is, not cooked or heat applied, the saponification process is not finished when the soap is poured into the mold. The chemical reaction will continue while the soap is in the mold and will finish as the soap heats up a bit more, and cools. The soap may go through a ‘gel’ stage as well, and you may see that if you check the soap during that time. It will look clear in the middle, and go out to the ends as it finishes. Don’t worry- this is a normal process!
- Step 7: Once you cut the soap, place on a rack in a dry place and allow it to cure for 4-6 weeks. It will become milder and sudsier with curing.
That’s all there is to it! You’ve made soap.
As you gain experience, you may want to try different ingredients, fragrances, colors, and recipes. You are only limited by the ingredients available and your imagination.