SOAPMAKING BOOK
3RD EDITION

Dear Reader,

I love soap. I love to use soap. I especially love to make soap. Making soap gives me a feeling of gentle, subtle power. Using the soap I’ve made is an extremely satisfying experience. Not to mention that I’m very clean, as are my friends and family.

I’ve been making soap since 1995, and even after the creation of innumerable batches and bars, I still get a thrill when I get out the soap pot. Each new project presents an opportunity for creativity. Even though I have been doing this for years, the very act of making soap remains profoundly creative.

Preparing this third edition has provided me with the opportunity to update the techniques I wrote about in the first and second editions. My own soapmaking techniques have evolved in exciting ways, and I’m very happy to share what I’ve learned with you.

I know you will experience great pleasure in making soap.

Welcome to the Series!

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To the Real Annabella—my tether and my rock.

SOAPMAKING
BOOK
3RD EDITION

Learn how to make soap at home with recipes, techniques, and step-by-step instructions
• Purchase the right equipment and safety gear
• Master recipes for bar, facial, and liquid soaps
• Package and sell your creations

Alicia Grosso

       Contents

Top 10 Events in the Process of Becoming a Soapmaker

Introduction

1     The Renaissance of Handmade Soapmaking

Why Make Soap?

The Origins of Soapmaking

Getting Back to Nature

Finding Community

Soapmaking Research

2     Soapmaking Equipment

Safety Gear

Scale

Pots and Pans

Utensils

Measuring Equipment

Stick Blender

Soap Molds

Cutting Tools

3     The Basic Techniques and Ingredients

What Is Lye?

Making Soap with Lye

Choosing a Liquid

Half-and-Half Vanilla Deluxe

Mommy and Me

Using Infusions

Soapmaking Safety

Evaporation During Curing

Soap Ash

Making Soap Without Lye

4     Fragrance Oils

What Are Fragrance Oils?

Choosing Fragrance Oils

Storing Fragrance Oils

Understanding Fragrance Oil Families

Fragrance Trends

5     Color

Understanding Color Theory

Writing Color Stories

Using Color in Soap

Food and Cosmetic Dyes

Mica and Glitter

6     The Cold-Process Technique

Curing

Storing Cold-Process Soaps

Soapmaking Terms

Getting Started

Basic Cold-Process Soap, 1-Pound Batch

Taking the Next Step

Tips for New Soapmakers

Suzanne Buckles’s Favorite 1-Pound Recipe

Varying the Cold-Process

Cleaning Up

7     Cold-Process Recipes

Creating the Perfect Basic Bar

Base Recipes

Soybean Shortening

Olive Oil

Olive Oil and Coconut Oil

Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, and Lard

Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, and Palm Oil

Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, and Palm Kernel Oil

Soy Oil, Coconut Oil, and Palm Kernel Oil

Standard Recipes

Oatmeal

Lavender

Luxury Recipes

Shea Butter Combo

Avocado/Mango Combo

Layering Soaps

Swirling Techniques

Lavender Geranium Ribbon In-the-Pot Swirl

Cloudy Skies In-the-Pot Swirl

Gold and Blue Dolphins

White and Pink Roses

Chunking Soaps

Ginger-Papaya

Melon Salad

Salt Bars

Sea Salt Soap

Textured Tops

Mocha Latte with Mounded, Textured Top

Cold-Process/Soap Casting Combinations

Green Grass Cold-Process with Casting Soap Embeds

Pink Cold-Process Bon Bons with Casting Soap Embeds

Embossing with Stamps

8     The Hot-Process Technique

Understanding Hot-Process

Hot-Process Equipment

Basic Hot-Process Soap

Coffee Kitchen Soap

Lemon/Baking Soda Kitchen Soap

Super-Clean Kitchen Soap

Peppermint Bath Soap

Lavender Bath Soap

Eucalyptus Bath Soap

Rosemary Bath Soap

Soap for Dry Skin

Soap for Skin That’s Not Too Oily nor Too Dry

Soap for Oily Skin

Soap for Acne-Prone Skin

Creating Color Variation

Sculpting with Hot-Process Soap

Cleaning Up

9     Liquid, Transparent, and Cream Hot-Process Soap Recipes

You Can Do It!

Making Liquid Soap

Liquid Soap in Slow Cooker

Using Foaming Bases

Coloring and Scenting Unscented Bases

Making Transparent Soap

Transparent Soap/Frost Soap

Making Cream Soap

Cream Soap in the Slow Cooker

Ocean Fresh Cream Soap

Chocolate-Vanilla Parfait Cream Soap

Rose-Clay Shaving Soap

Vanilla-Lavender Foaming Face Scrub

10     The Soap-Casting Technique

More Than Just Melting and Pouring

Choosing a Base

Soap-Casting Equipment

Molds for Soap Casting

Using Tube Molds

Sample Projects

Basic Block Mold

Bar Mold

11     Soap-Casting Projects

Single Pour in Blocks

Lavender Oat Float

A Bit of the Sea

Seaweed Salt Scrub

Block Overpours

Bar Overpours

Spring

Fall

Embeds

Embedded Toy Soaps

Embedded Flower Soap

Multistage Pours

Geodes

Geode Soap

12     The Hand-Milling Technique

Type of Soap to Use

Advantages of Hand Milling

Hand-Milling Equipment

Sample Hand-Milling Recipes

Basic Hand-Milling Recipe, Double Boiler Method

Basic Hand-Milling Recipe, Slow Cooker Method

Basic Hand-Milling Recipe, Microwave Method

13     Natural and Organic Soapmaking

Selling “Natural”

Using Herbs in Natural Soapmaking

Common Soapmaking Herbs

Experimenting with Natural Color Sources

Annatto Seed Infusion

Alkanet Root Infusion

Other Natural Additives

Essential Oils for Natural Fragrance

What Are Essential Oils?

A Bit of Chemistry

Methods of Essential Oil Extraction

Storing Essential Oils

Using Common Essential Oils

Natural and Organic Projects

Organic Lavender and Oatmeal

Calendula Sunshine

14     Your First Batches

Patience Is a Virtue

The Learning Curve

Write Down Everything

Single-Oil Soap, Basic Recipe

Experimenting with Color

Experimenting with Mineral Pigments

Experimenting with Micas

Experimenting with Herbs, Spices, and Food Colorants

Experimenting with Food Colors

15     Making Your Own Recipes

Your Inner Chemist

Animal or Vegetable?

Oil Forms

Exotic Oils

Fatty Acids

Saponification Values

Making Worksheets

16     Presenting Your Soap

Reasons to Give Your Soap Away

Making Simple Gifts

Designing a Gift Suite

Gift Collection Ideas

Packaging Elements

Shelf Life

Storing Soap

17     Deciding to Sell

The Impulse to Sell Your Soap

Forming a Business

Doing Your Research

Learning to Sell

Soap Selling Smarts

18     Bringing Soap to the World

Planning for Sales Events

Before the Event

At the Event

After the Event

Moving Forward

Creating a Website

Online Marketplaces

Appendix A: Glossary

Appendix B: Troubleshooting

Appendix C: Making Molds, Cutters, and Planers

Appendix D: Resources

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Lauren Ruth for support and guidance through the process of creating this edition.

My amazing family has pitched in and allowed me space to make lots of soap and write about it. They are my guinea pigs, helpers, and biggest fans.

Deepest thanks to Marc Studer for illuminating the soap and making the images.

Many thanks to my communities of soap and fiber friends who have provided support and encouragement.

The SOA remains a steady and Sovereign force for good in my world.

Top 10 Events in the Process of Becoming a Soapmaker

You become intrigued by the idea of making soap.

You observe your first signs of trace.

You actually use your soap for the first time.

You make your first soapmaking friend on an Internet forum.

For the first time, you turn a disaster into something unexpectedly wonderful.

You fill up a soapmaking notebook for the first time.

You have your first dream about soap.

Your family complains for the first time about all the soap stuff taking over the house.

For the first time, someone asks if they can buy some of your wonderful soap.

You make soap so perfect, you can’t believe how far you’ve come.

Introduction

IN KITCHENS, GARAGES, BASEMENTS, and other homey spaces, people all over the country are making their own soap. For some, it is a hobby; for others, it is a microbusiness venture. For others still, it is a way of life and livelihood, employing a full staff of artisans.

If you talk to people who make soap, you find a number of common threads. The most marked is what is called “the addiction.” It appears that once a person has made soap, there is no turning back. Soapmaking becomes a focus, a goal, even an obsession.

Soapmaking is fun. You get back to the basics of color, chemistry, and cooking, and at the end, you wind up in the tub or shower! Soapmaking, more than many other great crafts, employs a broad set of skills, recombining them in ways you may never have imagined. You already have a number of the skills you need to make soap; you just need to start thinking like a soapmaker.

Holding a bar of soap that you created in your hands, no matter which method you used, is a great feeling. You will find you can’t stop looking at it, sniffing it, and washing with it. Everyone in your house will become very familiar with each new bar. They may scoff at first, but once they’ve actually used your soap, you’re going to get lots of requests for “more soap, please!”

Your learning curve will be on a nearly vertical trajectory as you find yourself back in the kitchen again and again, with another recipe and a bunch of new ingredients. You’ll find yourself combing the Internet for ingredients and information and sharing ideas with other soapmakers in the many online soapmakers’ communities. Learning has never been so fun and exciting.

As you make more and more batches of soap, you will develop your own preferences, style, and methods, and your family will be the cleanest for miles around. Requests for your soap will extend beyond your family to your friends and coworkers. It’s an excellent excuse to make as much soap as you can, learning more with each batch.

Quick projects are a great way to start, and you may find that you don’t want to do anything else. You can make beautiful soap quite easily. It is, however, more likely that you’ll want to challenge yourself more. You’ll try one technique, and it will lead to another, and another, and another. The next thing you know, you'll amaze yourself with the complicated projects you’ve completed.

One major thing to remember when learning to make soap is safety. You will be working with heat sources, hot liquids, and caustic substances. Thousands and thousands of people safely make soap every day because they’ve taken basic, common sense precautions. We’ll go into much more detail about safety later, but in general, always wear eye protection and gloves when working with heat and caustics and always tell your family and other people in your soapmaking area what you are doing and what not to touch.

Welcome to the wonderful world of soapmaking. You are about to join the thousands of soapmaking friends who call each other “soap buds.” Have fun, be safe, and get creative.

CHAPTER 1

The Renaissance of Handmade Soapmaking

Once a chore, making soap at home has become a creative pleasure—not only a personal pleasure, but also an international crafting boom. You are embarking on a journey to become part of this renaissance by making your own beautiful handcrafted soap at home.

Why Make Soap?

Why on earth would anyone go to all that trouble to make something you can buy for less than a dollar at the store? One of the ways to answer this question is to imagine using a bar of your wonderful handmade soap. Once you’ve used soap you made by hand with contemporary techniques, there is no going back to store-bought. There is enormous satisfaction in saying, “I made this.” And perhaps that is the main reason to make your own soap.

To Control What’s in the Soap

Besides the hands-on experience of using handmade soap, there are many other reasons to make it yourself. One of the most significant is that you can control exactly what you use to make your soap and thus decide what you and your family use to bathe. For example, many soapmakers began out of a desire to alleviate a child’s adverse reaction to commercial soap.

Many people who have never been able to use most commercial soaps comfortably find they can use handmade soap. They may be sensitive to the non-soap parts of commercial soap, rather than to the soap itself. Encourage friends and family with such sensitivities to give handmade soaps a try.

When you make your own soap, you can control the kind of fragrance you want. For example, if you love handmade soap and also love the smell of a certain striped green commercial soap, you can find that fragrance at soap-supply websites. You can also add only natural essences, or you can add no fragrance at all if you like.

To Create Beautiful, Useful Things

Another reason why people make soap is a desire to create beautiful, useful things. Motivation can range from wanting to capture the essence of a favorite flower to wanting to have a perfect color match for a newly painted bathroom. The beauty of herbs and flowers, the harmony of well-orchestrated color, and the tactile satisfaction of varied textures are all artistic elements that can be incorporated into a simple bar of soap.

Along with being beautiful, handmade soap is also, of course, useful. What could be more useful than a bar of soap? No matter how fancy and fabulous you make it, it still does one basic, essential thing: It cleans. Soap not only cleans skin; you can make soap to clean hair, clothes, dishes, pets, carpets, and more. Almost anything that can be washed can be washed with handmade soap.

The Origins of Soapmaking

The creation of soap, like so many other wonderful discoveries, was likely accidental. The prevailing story holds that on Mount Sapo, animals were burned as offerings to the gods. After the ceremonies, the fire pits were full of ashes and animal fats. When it rained, water ran through the ashes and fats, washing them down to the river. When the women took their washing to the river, they found clumps of a pale, waxy substance floating in the water. The women washed their clothes by pounding them with rocks. When the waxy substance was beaten with the clothes, it made a lather, and the clothing got cleaner. Eventually, this was puzzled out, and the process of making soap on purpose began.

When lye (then a strong alkaline solution leached from wood ashes that turns fats into soap) became available commercially, soapmaking became a routine task. Women saved fat drippings and later made soap with them. This great soapmaking event was frequently a once-a-year project, often with many housewives contributing to the effort. The soap was sometimes rough and harsh, and it was used to clean everything. The phrase “grandma’s lye soap” still strikes fear into many a person born early in the past century. Never fear; today’s handmade lye soaps, made in carefully controlled batches, bear little resemblance to what your grandma may have used to wash out your father’s mouth when he was a little boy.

Like any labor-intensive chore, soapmaking was a drain on the scarce time and energy of the busy housewife. The industrial revolution, which changed the Western world on a grand scale, also directly affected the daily lives of women who cared for homes and families. Laundry devices, advanced cooking stoves, vacuum cleaners, and running water provided enormous relief. Goods once made solely at home—such as thread, yarn, fabric, and clothing—became mass-produced and could be purchased at stores for relatively reasonable prices. Technological advances were also applied to making soap. Inexpensive toilet and house-cleaning soaps became readily available and reasonably priced. Similarly, inexpensive all-purpose soaps and expensive toilette soap, and everything in between, were available at an attractive cost-benefit ratio.

Because it was, and still is, difficult to control the strength of lye made from wood ash, home soapmaking was a labor of some trial and error. Therefore, many relied on town chandlers, or candlemakers, who also made soap. Chandlers collected cooking and butchering fats from housewives, made soap, and sold it back to the housewives. However, this soap was expensive, and thrifty housekeepers continued making soap at home.

As with so many other things, automation and convenience in soapmaking meant a sacrifice in other areas. Although mass-produced soap is very long-lasting and of consistent quality, scent, form, and color, it has lost something. Any connection to the craft of making soap is removed from commercial soap, right along with the glycerin.

Getting Back to Nature

At various times throughout American history, there have been “back to nature” movements. For example, reaction against urbanization led nineteenth-century authors such as Henry David Thoreau to write about and seek utopian alternatives.

Flower Children

In the 1970s, on communes, former urban dwellers milked goats and slaughtered hogs. Suburban housewives gave up phosphate-loaded laundry detergents for those with the phrase “biodegradable” on the box. A growing awareness of environmental damage created a desire in many people to seek out nonpolluting alternatives to commercial cleaning products. And a few people asked their grandmothers how to make soap at home.

Soap made from kitchen drippings became a not-unheard-of household item again. Not many people were doing it, but there were some. An upsurge in vegetarianism led to experiments with all–vegetable oil soaps. Soon, olive oil soap scented with patchouli oil could be found in “hippie” shops on Telegraph Avenue near San Francisco and in New York’s Greenwich Village.

Finding Community

After you’ve begun making soap, thinking about soap, and dreaming about soap, you will of course want to talk about it. You may find that your beloved family can take only so much discussion of a new and wonderful swirling technique or smell only so many fragrance oil samples, and that they have declining interest as you compare the finer points of brands of stick blenders.

You must talk to someone! You have so many questions, and you will have so much to share! A small group of soapmakers that gets together once a month is a great outlet. However, many soapers have no soapers close by. And since soapmakers tend to be busy and creative in all aspects of their lives, finding time for even an occasional get-together can be difficult.

Resources

Pioneers in the renaissance of handmade soap like Ann Bramson, Sandy Maine, and Barbara Bobo wrote books, founded soap companies, and started organizations to share their wisdom and to promote handmade soap. Starting in the early 1970s with Bramson’s Soap: Making It, Enjoying It, soapmaking books have found eager learners wanting more and more information. In the mid-1990s, the Internet had taken hold, and mailing lists and groups dedicated to learning about soapmaking formed and grew. More books, teaching websites, and the Handcrafted Soapmaker’s Guild—founded by Barbara Bobo—have been helping a new generation of soapmakers refine their craft and find like-minded people.

Friends Online

The Internet is host to a huge, growing, vibrant community of soapmakers. Getting together for chats, instant messaging questions, and participating in ongoing mailing list forums have saved many a soapmaker from the frustration of having no one to talk to. The Internet has been described as vast and cold, but it has become the virtual water cooler of soapmakers around the world. A major benefit of participating in an online soapmakers’ community is the feeling of belonging. Many soapmakers have found long-lasting, close friendships with other soapers they have never met in person. Exchange of ideas, support when a batch didn’t work out right, and help with a recipe can all be found in that “cold” world of cyberspace.

If you plan to meet a soaper you’ve met online in person, follow the safety guidelines for any meeting with an Internet acquaintance. Meet in a public space and don’t go alone. Most often, people are who they say they are, but it is good sense to be cautious.

There are some specific guidelines to follow when joining an online community. Each online community has its own set of rules, ranging from whether or not you may advertise your goods to the group, when and how you may do so, whether you may refer to other businesses in your posts, and what constitutes on- and off-topic discussions. Please read the terms of service for the host your group uses. It is good Internet manners to “lurk” for a time before joining in the ongoing discussion. Read and search the archives of the group before posting a question. Start out with a question or a “hello” to the group, saying who you are and what kind of soap you make.

Friends in Your Neighborhood

Meeting other soapers can be difficult at first. A good way to do it is to go to farmers’ markets where handmade soap is sold. There are likely to be other soapers there doing the same thing you are—looking for someone to talk soap with!

You can also find other soapers in the craft store while you shop for supplies. Striking up a conversation at the soap-casting display has been the beginning of many a firm and soapy friendship. The handmade soap section of a health food store is good, too.

If you are fortunate to live near other soapers, make getting together once in a while a priority. It’s fun to pool ideas and even supplies. Going out to dinner with other soapers can get you all talked out. Try it if for no other reason than to give your family a break from hearing about soap.

The Value of Soaping Together

Soapmaking partnerships can be as simple as an afternoon together now and then. They can also lead to jointly run business ventures. Working together and sharing creative expression creates a strong bond that can go anywhere.

Soaping together is a way to share supplies, skills, and space. The burden on one’s own house and kitchen can become overwhelming to soaper and family. Getting together at a soap bud’s house can centralize projects and make the work more fun. Some soap friends consolidate both their families in one house for a weekend while the soapers take over the other house.

At-home moms find that soaping at home can be a worrisome activity with young children, especially at the toddler stage. Hot temperatures, potentially dangerous caustics, and the need for lengths of time of undivided attention are all reasons to be careful soaping around kids. Getting your kids organized for a play date with the kids of another soaper and reciprocating in kind may give you the help you need. Or perhaps a friend who loves your soap would take charge of a play date in exchange for a wonderful batch of soap made just for her.

You may, of course, find that soaping alone suits you just fine. There is something soothing about creating in solitude. If you live alone, you are free to spread out your soapmaking activities as much as you like. Although you may be sorely tempted to work all night on a new project, to be safe, don’t soap when you are tired.

Soapmaking Research

As you begin making your own soap and chatting with other soapmakers, you’ll discover one important fact: Soapmakers spend great amounts of time in the tub or shower. Relaxing? Certainly, but there is work to be done! Each soap must be tried, mental notes made, and future plans outlined. You’ll enjoy placing your soaps around the tub or shower. If you have more than one bathroom, even better. Don’t forget the kitchen. Just be sure to use that soap.

Another form of research is to buy soaps made by other soapers. Shop at craft fairs, farmers’ markets, and over the Internet. You’ll educate yourself, and you’ll also support a fellow soapmaker. It is amazing how much you can learn by using another person’s soap.

Be sure to let yourself simply enjoy the fruits of your and others’ labors. Like an actor cringing at a bad play or a chef eating at a bad restaurant, your heightened senses will always be ready to analyze any soap you find. Try to turn off your internal soapmaker and simply enjoy. If you come across a soap you don’t like while bathing, put it aside and save the critical assessment for later. Enjoy the wonderful community of soap buds!

CHAPTER 2

Soapmaking Equipment

In any new crafting endeavor, taking the time to obtain the proper equipment will make everything else go smoothly. Soapmaking has the added caveat that your safety depends on the proper equipment. With careful research and shopping, you can outfit yourself for soapmaking for far less money than you might think. Use recommended equipment at first, then create your own system variations as you gain experience. You’ll need safety equipment, a scale, pots and pans, a thermometer, utensils, measuring equipment, a stick blender, soap molds, and cutting tools.

Safety Gear

Soapmaking at home can be hazardous. Heat and caustics are the primary potential dangers. If you fear that you cannot sufficiently control your surroundings to keep and use soapmaking materials safely, do not make soap at home. However, soap is made without incident every day by thousands of home soapmakers. The basic safety gear you’ll need is eye protection, rubber gloves, long sleeves, oven mitts, a painter’s paper dust mask or filter mask, and for applications using a stove, a fire extinguisher.

Eye Protection

Internet soapmaking supply companies and hardware stores stock a variety of eye protection. Make sure that the eye protection you use is resistant to impact, caustics, and heat. If you wear glasses, get goggles that are large enough to wear over them. Be particular as you shop for eye protection. Never take chances with the health and safety of your eyes.

The danger to your eyes comes from the potential of lye particles, lye solution, raw soap, hot oils, and other liquids splashing you in the face. In methods that do not use caustics to create soap, the potential hazards are hot melted soap and steam. As long as you work mindfully, you will experience very few—if any—splashing events. However, you do not want to be caught unprotected in the event that one should occur. Many soapmakers use a full-face shield that can be flipped up or down as they work.

It’s always a good idea to post the phone numbers of your physician, emergency room, and poison control center where they are easily seen. If you were to have an accident, you would be able to get the help you need more quickly.

At the very least, caustics will cause surface irritation to the skin on your face. At the worst, you can be blinded if you splash lye solution in your eyes. Be sure to have an emergency plan just in case something horrible should happen.

Gloves

Regular rubber kitchen gloves provide appropriate protection for your hands and lower arms. Make sure the gloves you buy have textured fingers so that you can keep a firm grip on your equipment. Some soapmakers prefer heavy-duty gloves. Just be sure you can use your fingers freely.

Thin “examination” gloves are sufficient for handling partly cured soap. You can find these in the pharmacy section of a mass-market store and at drugstores. If you are sensitive to latex, you can buy gloves made from thin vinyl or neoprene. Check your gloves regularly for holes and splits. Replace them before you need to.

When you are finished with your soapmaking project for the day, clean your gloves well with soap and water. If you clean them and dry them, they’ll last quite some time. Turn them inside-out to dry, and store them only after they’re completely dry.

Be sure to protect your arms above the gloves with a long-sleeved shirt. An oversized button-up shirt with sleeves you can roll up is ideal.

These safety precautions are not meant to scare you; however, it is always of primary importance to put safety first, fun second. Once you are sure you have the safety measures in place, you can relax and enjoy the fun of soapmaking!

Remember that you’re not going to go around carelessly splashing lye. You will have everything prepared so you won’t be running here and there, dripping caustics and hot soap around. Just use common sense and be sure you protect yourself and household surfaces.

Painter’s Paper Dust Mask or Filter Mask

If you’re making soap with lye, caustic steam will rise when you combine the lye and water. Usually it is enough just to stand back and not breathe the steam, but if you are concerned about sensitivity, take the extra precaution of wearing a painter’s paper dust mask or filter mask over your mouth and nose.

Fire Extinguisher

Whenever you are working with a stove, hotplate, or other heat source, you need to have a fire extinguisher within easy reach. Make sure your fire extinguisher is charged and ready to go. The time you need the fire extinguisher is not the time to wonder where it is or if it’s charged. Read the instructions so that you know how to use it. Also be sure to review basic kitchen safety procedures. For example, you would never throw water on an oil fire, and you would always use protective mitts when handling hot pans and utensils.

Water, Not Vinegar

Vinegar has traditionally been thought of as a neutralizer for lye and raw soap spills. However, you should not pour vinegar onto an alkaline spill on skin. It would be a good idea to let your doctor know you are making soap, and ask about the best way to handle skin contact with caustics. If you come in contact with lye or raw soap batter, gently wipe the spill from your skin. Then flush with water and finally wash with soap and water. Don’t wait to finish stirring your batch before removing and rinsing a smear of raw soap from your skin. Do it as soon as it gets on you.

Scale

The best way to measure ingredients for making soap is by weight, so you need a good scale. Measuring by volume is not consistent or accurate. Inaccuracies in measuring become amplified when you are working with small batches. One ounce of oil more or less won’t make a big difference in a batch that has a total weight of 12 pounds. But in a batch of 1 pound, 1 ounce short or extra is a huge difference and can make a batch far too alkaline or too oily.

When you shop for scales, economy shouldn’t be your primary concern. You need accuracy, ease of use, and the ability to handle the amount of the ingredients in the batch size you are making. Look for a scale with a “tare” feature—meaning it is able to reset to zero as you add ingredients. Also look for scales that measure in grams as well as ounces.

You can scrimp on many of your soapmaking supplies, but put that money into a good scale. It will repay you with confidence, security, and peace of mind over and over. For less than $100, you can buy an excellent scale that you’ll have for years. It’s a good idea to protect your digital scale under plastic wrap or in a plastic bag with a zip closure to keep the keypad from getting damaged.

Pots and Pans

When buying your soapmaking pots and pans, stainless steel is the way to go. You can find stainless steel pots and pans at extremely reasonable prices at restaurant supply, warehouse, discount, and thrift stores.

Why stainless steel? Because you absolutely must not use nonstick, aluminum, cast iron, or tin—they will react with the soaps, ruining both soap and pan. Do not even try “just to see.” They will react badly—even violently and toxically—with the lye used in the soapmaking process.

What about enameled pans? It’s true that many soapmakers use enameled pots with no trouble at all, but you must check them for pits and chips that will expose your soap to the reactive metal underneath.

Now-expert soapmaker Lori Kimball, owner of Symphony Scents, had hands-on experience with the wrong kind of pot. “I stumbled on a recipe for soapmaking in 1994. It sounded intriguing to me, and I assembled all the ingredients. Well, the directions stated to be careful of lye fumes, but they failed to mention not to use an aluminum pot. My pot happened to be aluminum and after adding the lye solution, black smoke started pouring out of the pot! I thought these must be the lye fumes! An hour later, I had a black ball of soap with a wooden spoon stuck in it and a ruined pot! Somehow, I knew this couldn’t be right.”

Stock Pot

Stainless steel stock pots are perfect for the 4- and 8-pound cold-process recipes in this book. An 8-quart will hold 4-pound recipes, and a 12-quart stock pot will hold 8-pound recipes, with room to stir. It is helpful if the stock pots have gradation marks that indicate the volume, although it isn’t necessary.

Double Boiler

Double boilers are also used in many kinds of soapmaking. The basic 2-quart, two-part stainless steel double boiler is perfect for the soap-casting recipes in this book. You can improvise a double boiler using a saucepan and a stainless steel mixing bowl that rests securely, but not tightly, on the pan. (Always be sure when using any kind of double boiler not to let it boil dry.)

Along with all the pots and pans, you will need an instant-read thermometer. There are many instances in soapmaking where accurate measure of temperature is essential. Get two, as you may need to measure the temperatures of two containers at the same time.

Slow Cooker

All the hot-process recipes in this book call for the use of a slow cooker. You’ll need a 3-quart slow cooker with a removable crock portion and heat settings of high and low. Do not use a slow cooker for food once it’s been used for soaping.

It is essential in hot-process recipes that the slow cooker be just the right size for the batch you are making. If it’s too small or too large, the soap won’t process properly. It can overheat, overflow, or scorch. Check the recipe for size requirements.

Utensils

There are many types of utensils to choose from: stainless steel, silicone, and wood.

Stainless Steel Utensils

Stainless steel stirring spoons, slotted spoons, potato mashers, and ladles are all very useful. You probably already have these in your kitchen, and it is safe to use them for your first few batches. As long as you clean them thoroughly, there is no danger in using them afterward because the metal does not readily absorb or react with the soap.

Some stainless steel tools are held together with reactive metal screws, bolts, or brads. You probably won’t be able to tell what type of metal the fasteners are, so choose utensils that are all one piece or have “all stainless construction” printed on the package. If you’re in doubt, pass it by.

If you find yourself making a great deal of soap, invest the time and money in stainless steel tools just for soaping. Mass-market, thrift, and restaurant supply stores sell many grades of tools. While you don’t need the super fancy “chef’s choice” utensils, choose products that offer sound construction and ease of handling.

Silicone Utensils

Silicone rubber scrapers, or what many people call “spatulas,” are indispensable tools. Choose a one-piece model so you will never lose the scraper part in a batch of soap. In food preparation it doesn’t matter as much, since you can fish the scraper out of a batch of brownie batter with nothing but a messy treat on your fingers. But you don’t want to stick your gloved fingers into a batch of raw soap, fishing around for a slippery piece of rubber.

Wooden Utensils

There is a certain romance to stirring your soap with a wooden spoon. If you want to do this, you need to be sure it is splinter-free and sturdy enough to stir thickening soap batter. In making lye-based soaps, the lye will eventually “eat” the wood, rendering it useless.

You can purchase beautifully crafted hardwood soap-stirring spoons, and although you can certainly use them to stir soap, they are, perhaps, best displayed in your soapmaking area as decoration. Many soapmakers like the feel of getting the saponification process going with wood. Then they switch to silicone scrapers, whisks, hand-blenders, or a combination of these.

If you decide to add wooden utensils to your collection, be sure that you never use wooden spoons for food once they’ve been used for soap. The wood absorbs the caustics and finished soap.

You will also find chopsticks, bamboo skewers, and plastic picnic-type utensils very useful. Be sure to clean them well after using and never use them for food after using them for soap. Discard wooden utensils when they show signs of wear. You don’t want the splintered remains of a bamboo skewer or a random picnic fork tine showing up in a bar of soap.

Measuring Equipment

Don’t spend a fortune on fancy measuring cups and spoons from gourmet shops; inexpensive measuring tools will do just fine. You can find perfect heatproof plastic mixing containers in a variety of sizes at restaurant supply stores.

The small-batch cold-process recipes in this book call for two 4-cup heatproof plastic measuring containers: one for mixing the lye solution and the other for mixing the oils and stirring the soap. The containers are also used in some liquid, melt-and-pour, and hand-milling techniques. Sets of stainless steel measuring cups and spoons are used in nearly all techniques. It’s best to steer clear of plastic measuring cups and spoons. While they can be good for some things, they may be corroded by essential oils and fragrance oils or marred by heat.

Stick Blender

The stick blender, or immersion blender, is an indispensable tool for soapmakers who make soap with lye. The blender shortens the stirring time to minutes rather than hours. There are many varieties of stick blenders, ranging in price from about $10 to more than $100. Look for an inexpensive blender that has an all-plastic housing, stainless steel blade, and two speeds.

If you find yourself making a great deal of soap, be sure to have an extra stick blender around. You will not be a happy soapmaker if in the middle of a batch your trusty blender gives up. You can find perfectly suitable blenders for around $15. The extra security will pay off.

The stick blender you choose for making soap needs to have a shaft long enough to reach to the bottom of your soap pan without being immersed above the immersion limit line. If you immerse your hand blender too deeply, you will ruin the motor. Keep this in mind when you’re cleaning it, too.

Using a stick blender can speed up the soaping process, but you need to use it correctly. Hand stir a number of batches before you use the stick blender so you have a slow, close-up look at the saponification process. Stick-blending speeds up the process so much that you may find yourself with a heavily traced batch before you’ve made any additions. (Trace refers to the stages of thickening you will observe as you stir the soap batter.)

Here are a few blending tips:

When you immerse the blender in the oils and lye mixture, tip it to the side to release the air bubble beneath it. You don’t want to incorporate air bubbles into your soap.

Make sure the stick blender is near the bottom of the mixing pan before you turn it on.

Use the low speed in short bursts to get an idea of how fast the batch is going to trace.

If you are making a number of batches in a row, you don’t need to completely clean the stick blender. Unplug it and wipe it well. The tiny amount of soap clinging to the hand blender will help start the saponification of the next batch.

Use your spatula to continually scrape the sides of the pan as you blend, keeping the entire mass in motion. You can use the stick blender to move the mass around in the pan when you’ve let up on the power button.

Be sure the blade has stopped moving before you take the blender out of the pan so that you don’t splatter raw soap.

When you are done for the day, unplug the stick blender and clean it well. As with other electric appliances, don’t immerse it in water. Wipe it down to remove most of the soap residue. Then use a soapy sponge to clean it without immersing it.

Soap Molds

As at-home soapmaking started taking off, the variety of soap molds was pretty dismal. Soapmakers made do with molds intended for gelatin desserts and candles, and improvised with cardboard boxes, plastic storage ware, and ice cube trays.

Today there is an inspiring array of molds created just for soapmaking! From a clever and simple slab mold to the most delicate fancy design, the variety and quality has increased exponentially.

You can find both simple and elaborate molds online and from online soap suppliers. You can spend a lot or a little. Using simple household items can save you a lot of money when it comes to choosing molds for soaping. Be creative, as this is one of the areas in which you can save some cash!

Creating Your Own Molds

Your first batches of soap will very probably be poured into “found” molds. Shoeboxes lined with plastic bags, baby wipe containers, inexpensive plastic storage containers, and more have all been pressed into service as soap molds. You can use tubes from paper towels or toilet paper rolls. Empty plastic wrap and aluminum foil boxes make small, lidded molds. Beginning soapmakers do not need the latest advance in soap-mold technology. Your mold needs and desires will grow as you gain experience.

If you’re using something plastic for a mold, such as a baby wipe container, be sure to test it for heat resistance. Because of the high temperatures involved in soapmaking, you need plastics that will not collapse when exposed to hot soap. The easiest way to check a mold for heat safety is to place it in the sink and fill it with boiling water. If it melts, it is obviously not going to be useful. If it warps and distorts, it is not a good choice either.

You can make a basic mold from a cardboard box lined with a plastic garbage bag. To be sure the box will hold the soap batch, measure an equivalent amount of water and pour it into the lined mold. If it doesn’t fit, keep testing until you get just the size box you want.

Commercial Molds

Instead of improvising, you might decide sooner rather than later to purchase a mold. You can buy single-bar molds in just about any design you can imagine. Some manufacturers make them in trays of three, four, or more. Others make single-cavity molds. Your best bet is to look in a large craft store or an online soap supplier.

Molds that are made especially for soapmaking will have information regarding the method of soapmaking—cold-process, hot-process, etc.—for which they are best suited. If you have questions, ask your supplier. Always test a new plastic mold for heat resistance before using for the first time. Pouring time is too late. When in doubt of the suitability of a potential mold, skip it and go for the sure thing.

You may need some additional supplies to make it easier to get your soap out of its molds. Soapmakers struggle with unmolding all the time. A simple way to ensure ease of release is to line the bottom and sides of the mold. You could brush vegetable oil lightly on the inside of the mold. Then cut plastic sheeting, plastic-backed freezer paper, overhead projector transparency, or other similar materials to size and press onto the oiled surface. Smooth out bumps and creases in the liner to ensure smooth surfaces on your soap. When the soap is ready to unmold, if all has gone as it should, all you’ll have to do is turn the mold over, and the beautiful soap will just pop out onto the table. Remove the liner and clean it up for reuse.

Help! My soap won’t come out of the mold. What can I do?

If after a few days the soap won’t release from the mold, put it in the freezer for ¹⁄₂ an hour and try again. If you’ve repeatedly frozen the soap and it still won’t come out, just pry it out and form it into soap balls.

Silicone Molds

Although they can be expensive, soap molds made from silicone are a huge boon to soapmakers. Silicone molds come in a number of forms, including single-bar molds, loaf molds, and silicone-lined wood molds. Silicone molds are capable of showing intricate details in single-bar molds. There is a surge in the creation of silicone molds for soap and candles, with designs ranging from cute little bears to elegant floral designs. Wood molds with silicone liners make for smooth, unblemished surfaces, as well as perfect edges and corners. Stand-alone silicone log molds made especially for soapmaking have been improving in design stability, with reinforced sides to keep the mold from bowing out in the center.

You can find silicone ice cube trays, baking pans, and other molds intended for food that you can try for soap. Things to watch for include deeply colored, inexpensive molds that may transfer dye to your soap, and molds that tear or crack. It is almost always worth it to buy one to see if it works, then buy more if you like it or keep looking if you don’t.

You must find out from your supplier how to care for your silicone molds. Used, cleaned, and stored appropriately, your silicone molds will last a long time. There are a few manufacturers of silicone-lined wood molds, and you can usually buy a replacement for a torn liner.

Making Polymer Clay Molds

You can make your own small molds for casting soap using flexible polymer clay. This type of mold-making is best suited for small soaps to either use as-is or as embeds. You make an impression of an object you’d like to replicate as a soap, bake the clay, then use the still-flexible form as a mold. It will become brittle over time, but it is a wonderful way to make something utterly, uniquely yours.

There is a kind of polymer clay that is specifically made to be used in mold-making, so be sure to get the right thing. “Regular” polymer clay bakes hard and will not flex.

Choose a small object that is wider at the bottom than it is at the top so that the hardened soap will come out easily. You can achieve quite a lot of detail with this medium, so it works beautifully with shells, pendants, small statues, and even rubber stamps.

Follow these simple instructions:

Work the flexible polymer clay with your hands to make it pliable.

Make a tablet shape—flat on the bottom and on the top with a large enough surface area for the design and deep enough to take the full impression.

Lightly spritz the surface of the object with water and wipe off drips. The fine coating of water will help release the object from the clay.

Push the object into the clay and remove it quickly. If the impression is good, use it. If the impression is unclear, re-form the tablet and try again.

Bake the flexible mold clay as directed on the package. Generally, the temperature is 275°F and the time is 10 minutes per ¹⁄₄ inch of thickness.

When the clay is baked, remove to a heatproof surface to cool.

Keep in mind that the clay will get softer and warmer the more you work it with your hands, so let it cool between shapings for better results. You can use one tablet for a few small impressions if you like. When using multiple items on one tablet, be sure to allow room for the clay to move and spread between images without distortion.

You can use your new mold as soon as it is cool. Be sure to store it in a dry place where it won’t be exposed to light or heat. It will decay over time, but with gentle use you should be able to use it over and over.

Cutting Tools

The simplest soap cutter is a stainless steel table knife. Most soapers prefer nonserrated-edged knives since they make a clean cut.

Soapmakers have adapted all kinds of tools into soap cutters. Dough scrapers borrowed from baking and putty knives and drywall tape spreaders borrowed from home improvement work very well. Even a wire cheese cutter can be put to good use for smaller bars. There are many commercial options available, ranging from tools to split logs from blocks of soap to pull-down cutters that make short work of cutting bars from logs.

CHAPTER 3

The Basic Techniques and Ingredients

The transformation of oils into soap, called saponification, can only happen through the interaction of a lye solution with oils. Used carelessly, lye can cause severe burns and serious injury. Even when extreme care is taken, there is a potential for injury. It is impossible to overemphasize the necessity of smart safety practices when handling lye, lye solutions, raw soap, and “young” soap. The following describes how to make lye soap safely at home.

What Is Lye?

All soap is made with a caustic called lye. Home soapmakers use two kinds of lye: sodium hydroxide, which is used to make solid soap, and potassium hydroxide, which is used to make liquid soap. In this section you will learn about each.

Sodium Hydroxide

Sodium hydroxide (chemical formula NaOH) is what most people mean when they say “lye.” Sodium hydroxide has been getting more and more difficult to find locally, but it can sometimes be found at the hardware store stocked alongside the drain cleaners. Do not buy anything other than pure sodium hydroxide. There are other drain cleaners available, but they include substances that are not at all suitable for soapmaking.

You may also purchase sodium hydroxide from soapmaking suppliers. It is considered a hazardous material, and there are restrictions to the amount you can order through the mail. Check with the supplier for the regulations in your area. If you plan to make a great deal of soap, it is a good idea to find a local supplier where you can buy lye in bulk.

Because it is an ingredient in the manufacture of the dangerous illegal drug methamphetamine, also known as “meth” or “crank,” sodium hydroxide is controlled in some states. People who manufacture large amounts of soap, and therefore need to keep large amounts of lye on hand, must often register it with local agencies.

The nature of the safety precautions you take depends on many things. The safety of children and pets is a primary concern. If you live with an adult with special needs, you must also take that situation into consideration. Educate them not to touch the lye safe (see below) and to stay away from cooling lye solutions while you are making soap.

Store your sodium hydroxide in a safe, dry place. The space under the kitchen sink is not a good idea, especially if you have kids. Many home soapers have a “lye safe” just for lye storage. Lye safes can range from a box in the garage clearly marked “Lye! Do Not Touch!” to a metal cabinet with locking doors.

You can make a practical and easy-to-create lye safe from a plastic storage box with a tightly fitting lid. Label it clearly and store it where you think is safest in your home. Storing your lye safe on a high shelf isn’t necessarily recommended, since you can easily drop it, especially if you keep over a few pounds at home. Keeping it on the floor of a closet can work, as can the floor of the garage. If you find yourself worrying a great deal over the safe storage of your soapmaking caustics, perhaps you should employ one or more of the soapmaking techniques that do not use lye. Pay attention to your intuition.

In your lye safe, keep the plastic cans of lye in plastic bags. Label three bags: one for unopened containers, one for partially used containers, and one for empties. Take care how you dispose of empty containers. If you have a hazardous material drop-off day in your community, take your empty lye containers to the collection point.

Potassium Hydroxide

Potassium hydroxide (chemical formula KOH) is a type of caustic used to make liquid soap. It is important to note that potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide are not interchangeable in soap recipes. Different amounts of each are needed to saponify the same amount of fats. If you make both liquid and solid soaps, be sure to keep your instructions and saponification charts for each clearly marked.

Potassium hydroxide is more difficult to find than sodium hydroxide. You can order it from soap supply houses and buy it at chemical supply stores. As usual with soapmaking, the Internet is your best resource. Store potassium hydroxide as you would sodium hydroxide, in a safe spot and clearly labeled.

Making Soap with Lye

In simplest terms, you combine lye, oils, and a liquid to make soap. The liquid may be water, milk, herbal infusions, or any liquid with a relatively neutral pH. Each liquid requires specific soapmaking techniques.

The purpose of liquid in lye soapmaking is to get the lye and the oils together. In solution with water, lye molecules are more easily able to reach the molecules of oil. When they come in contact, the lye and oil molecules all rearrange themselves and become soap and glycerin. If you were to simply add lye to oil, without the liquid, the transformation process would be different, and you’d end up with a big, caustic mess.

In this book, the amount of lye used in a recipe depends on how much of each oil you use. Each oil has a saponification value. This is the amount of lye it takes to turn 1 ounce of oil into soap. Soap recipes are calculated to make sure they have the proper balance of oils, water, and lye.

Combining Lye with Water

An important step in soapmaking is combining lye with water. This creates an extremely violent, volatile chemical reaction. It is essential that you add the lye to the water rather than the water to the lye. It releases a great deal of energy in the form of heat immediately upon contact. If you pour cold water on top of lye, you could end up with a volcanic-like eruption that would be extremely dangerous. When you add water to lye, the chemical reaction causes the water and lye solution to heat almost immediately to nearly boiling. If water is poured onto the lye, it forms a crust over the top of the lye, which seals in the reaction below. The reaction of the lye and water proceeds normally but in a confined space, causing a buildup of heat energy that eventually bursts open like a bomb, showering the area with dangerously caustic material.

Always add lye to cold liquid. The reaction is so violent and rapid that if you add lye to hot liquid, you’ll be dangerously close to or over the boiling point in no time. Never add lye to hot liquid.

But even when you correctly add lye to water, do so with care. When you add the lye to the liquid, the solution will heat up very fast and will steam. Do not breathe the steam. Usually it is enough just to stand back and not breathe the steam, but if you are concerned about sensitivity to lye steam, wear a painter’s paper dust mask or filter mask over your mouth and nose. If you are very sensitive to chemicals, lye soapmaking may not be for you. Consider one of the methods of making soap at home in which you don’t have to use lye.

Lye Solution Temperature

The lye-and-water solution will heat up to about 180°F. In the classic method of lye soapmaking called cold-process, you let the solution cool before combining it with the prepared oils. Soapmaking temperatures can range from room temperature (as long as the room is warm enough to keep the oils liquid) to as high as 120°F.

You can take the steaming lye solution outside to let it cool. Just be sure it is in a safe place where no one can get to it and it won’t get knocked over. It is also a good idea to cover the container so no leaves or other debris fall into it.

There are some soapmakers who insist that the temperatures of the lye solution and the oil combination must be exactly the same. There are some soapmakers who never even check the temperature. You should start learning your soapmaking techniques by following the temperature guides given in the recipe you are using. After a lot of experience with variations in temperature, and how those variations affect the process and the product, you can then make your own decisions about how to manage temperature.

Choosing a Liquid

Water is the most commonly used liquid in soapmaking. You can make perfectly usable soap with tap water, but it is usually suggested that you use purified water. You can use water that has been filtered by an on-the-tap filter or a pour-through filter, which will remove some of the undesirable material from your water. Or you can purchase distilled, purified, or drinking water at the grocery store. Distilled is preferred by many soapmakers as it is as “pure” as you can get. Try a few different kinds to see which one you like. You may even find you don’t notice a difference at all, so you can save some money using tap water.

Different Types of Water

Another type of water you could use is seawater, which adds natural salt and other minerals to your soap. Don’t collect your seawater in a polluted area, or you’ll be adding all kinds of things to your soap that you don’t want. Through history, people have venerated wells by dedicating them to goddesses, saints, and other religious figures. Waters from some wells are thought to have healing properties. Regardless of whether or not the water you collect has healing properties, a pilgrimage to such a place is a memory to cherish. Make soap from the well water, perhaps leaving it unscented and uncolored to focus on the water itself, or add botanicals, sand, and even soil from the site as well. Be respectful, of course, and don’t strip the area of flowers and stones.

Soapmaking can help you create a lasting souvenir of a vacation or pilgrimage. At the ocean, collect some water and some sand in an empty plastic drink bottle. You can make a 1-pound soap batch using just 5 ounces of water. At the family cabin on the lake, collect some lake water and dry some plant matter from the lakeside.

If you live in an unpolluted area, you can use collected rainwater in soapmaking. Many soapers find that rainwater is soft and useful for soapmaking. If you leave out containers to collect rainwater, tip them over during mosquito egg-laying season, or you will find yourself with a homegrown herd of buzzing biters.

Scented waters—such as those often used in cooking—make excellent liquids for soapmaking. Rosewater and orange flower water can be found in the Middle Eastern food sections of large groceries and at specialty food stores. They are used to flavor sweets in cooking, and they retain a certain amount of their fragrance in soapmaking.

Making Soap with Milk

Milk soaps have been used for years for their skin-softening properties. The combination of butterfat and lactic acid makes for a very skin-smoothing soap. There are some special requirements to using milk as your liquid. Follow some simple procedures, and you’ll be very happy with your milk soaps.

Cows’ milk makes excellent soap. Determine the butterfat percentage you want depending on the result you want. If you want the exfoliating properties of lactic acid without the moisturizing properties of butterfat, use nonfat milk. At the other extreme, use half-and-half or even cream for extremely creamy, rich soap. Other milk products that are popular with soapmakers are goats’ milk, buttermilk, evaporated milk (not condensed milk!), powdered milk, and coconut, soy, and rice milk (although they’re not really “milk”).

Controlling the Temperature

The main thing about making soap with milk is that you must control the temperature of the milk-lye solution. The answer to the potential problem is simple: Freeze the milk! Weigh the amount of milk you want to use and place it in a freezer-safe container. The wider and shallower the container is, the faster it will freeze. When the milk is nearly solid, take it out of the freezer and stir. It is ready to use if it is firmly slushy.

Goats’ milk soap is extremely popular for use in soapmaking. It may surprise you that keeping a small herd of goats for milk is not uncommon in rural areas. If you do this, or know someone who does, get some milk and make soap! You can, of course, also purchase goats’ milk at the grocery.

Adding the Lye

Place the slushy milk in a large heatproof plastic mixing container. The bowl needs to be big enough to hold the milk when it thaws plus the volume of the lye. There should also be some headroom to contain sloshing.

With your goggles and gloves on, weigh the lye. Sprinkle the lye, little by little, onto the milk. Incorporate it as you go with a big whisk. Don’t go too fast, or you’ll build up too much heat in one area. Don’t go too slowly, or the slush will melt before you get all the lye in. Stir constantly and carefully. The milk will turn pale to bright yellow depending on the kind of milk. If it gets curdled and brown, it has overheated. Although some soapers would just soldier on, you probably want to rinse it down the drain. If you get a brown mess, it will smell hideous, so work quickly to take care of it and open up the windows!

If you’ve been careful with the additions and the temperatures, you will have a lovely yellow solution ready to add to the oils. Keep the temperature of the oils low, about 85°F–90°F, to avoid overheating the milk-lye solution.

Half-and-Half Vanilla Deluxe

This rich, creamy soap is a luxurious delight. Vanilla fragrance oil not only makes the soap smell delicious, it also colors the soap a warm, vanilla-bean brown. Depending on the temperature of your work area, the coconut oil may be solid if it is cool, or liquid when hot.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS APPROXIMATELY 24 OUNCES

5 ounces half-and-half, frozen

10 ounces olive oil

6 ounces coconut oil

0.5 ounce castor oil

2¹⁄₄ ounces lye

0.5 ounce vanilla fragrance oil

Place the half-and-half in a plastic mixing container that fits in your freezer and is big enough so that the depth of the milk is shallow. Break up the frozen chunks so the half-and-half is slushy but not melted.

Combine the olive oil, coconut oil, and castor oil in a heatproof, 4-cup plastic mixing container. Heat in microwave until the coconut oil is just melted. Do not overheat.

Sprinkle the lye very slowly and carefully over the slushy half-and-half, stirring constantly. As you stir, the mixture will become pale yellow. If you add the lye too fast or don’t stir as you go, you could end up with an overheated brown curdled mess.

Check the temperature of the half-and-half and lye solution. Let the oils cool to that same temperature. When the temperatures match, pour the lye solution in a thin stream into the oils. Stir constantly until the mixture traces—about 10–20 minutes. (If you use an immersion blender, take care not to whip air into the mixture.)

When the soap batter traces, add the vanilla fragrance oil. (It will not turn the soap brown immediately.) Pour the batter into the mold, taking care to scrape all the traced soap out of the container. Cover the mold with plastic wrap.

Place the mold on a towel and fold the extra over the mold to keep it warm. (Cover this recipe very lightly, or not at all if the weather is warm. You want it to go through the gel phase, but you don’t want it to get too hot.)

Let sit for 2 days, and then unmold. Using a stainless steel knife, cut the soap log into bars. Place them on a brown paper bag to dry. Turn them daily to be sure they dry evenly. With milk soap, be sure to check for the smell of ammonia. It is normal to have a little bit of an ammonia smell, but if it doesn’t go away in a week, it probably isn’t going to.

Mommy and Me

If you are nursing, you can make an incredible soap for your baby’s skin. The lactic acid helps clear up rashes and helps keep skin soft. Making this soap for a nursing friend is a beautiful gift to her and her baby. Mommy and Daddy can use it too, of course.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS APPROXIMATELY 24 OUNCES

10 ounces olive oil

6 ounces coconut oil

6.5 ounces breastmilk, frozen

2.5 ounces lye

¹⁄₄ teaspoon lavender essential oil (optional)

¹⁄₄ teaspoon Roman chamomile essential oil (optional)

1 tablespoon castor oil

Combine the olive oil and coconut oil in a glass, heatproof, 4-cup container. Melt in microwave or over boiling water. (Do not overheat, as it takes oils longer to cool than the lye solution. You will be combining the lye and oils at a very low temperature.)

Place the breastmilk in a wide, deep tempered glass or stainless steel mixing bowl. (The idea is to keep the mixture shallow.) Break up the frozen chunks so the breastmilk is slushy but not melted.

Sprinkle the lye very slowly and carefully over the slushy breastmilk, stirring constantly. (As you stir, the mixture will become very pale yellow. If you add the lye too fast or don’t stir as you go, you could end up with an overheated brown curdled mess.)

Check the temperature of the breastmilk and lye solution. Let the oils cool to the same temperature. When the temperatures match, pour the lye solution in a thin stream into the oils. Stir constantly until the mixture traces—about 10–20 minutes. (If you use an immersion blender, take care not to whip air into the mixture.)

When the soap batter traces, add the lavender essential oil and Roman chamomile essential oil, if you have decided to use them. Add the castor oil and stir well. Pour into the mold, taking care to scrape all the traced soap out of the container.

Cover the mold with plastic wrap. Place the mold on a towel and fold the extra over the mold to keep it warm. (Cover this recipe very lightly, or not at all if the weather is warm. You want it to go through the gel phase, but you don’t want it to get too hot.) Let sit for 2 days and then unmold.

Using a stainless steel knife, cut the soap log into bars. Place them on a brown paper bag to dry. Turn them daily to be sure they dry evenly. With milk soap, be sure to check for the smell of ammonia. It is normal to have a little bit of an ammonia smell, but if it doesn’t go away in a week, it probably isn’t going to.

In 3 weeks, your soap will be mild, quite firm, and ready to use.

Using Infusions

Sometimes you’ll want to add a little extra something to make your soap a bit fancier. Any element added to the liquid—such as plant material, clays, or mineral pigments used as colorants—will show up in the finished soap in a variety of ways. For example, some plant matter acts as a natural colorant.

If you’re using ultramarines or oxides to create a solid color, you can add it right from the start. These mineral pigments stand up perfectly well to the lye, and by making a tinted lye solution, you don’t have to worry about specks of undissolved pigment in the soap.

Herbal Infusions

To get the properties of herbs into your soap, infuse them into water or oil. What does that mean? You simply place the herbs in heated water or oil and allow them to steep—like you’re making hot tea. The scents, colors, and beneficial properties of some herbs are strong enough to survive the soapmaking process, but those from other herbs are not. This is something you’ll have to discover for yourself. Many natural soapmakers rely on herbal infusions to create color and to texture their soaps.

Certain spices release a great amount of color into the solution. Sometimes the lye infusions smell pretty bad, but the scent goes away in the finished soap. Use finely powdered herbs or soft-leaved flakes in this application, as they will be in the final soap and large hard pieces will scratch.

How to Handle Infusions

Use the infused water just as you would regular water. If you want the texture of the plant material in your soap, don’t strain out the herbs before using it. However, there are some herbs that are scratchy on the skin, so be sure to strain these well before using.

Since you’ll need to heat the water to make the infusion, be sure you allow time for the infusion to cool before mixing it with the lye. Remember to use room temperature or colder water to make the lye solution. Depending on the strength of the infusion, adding the lye to it may make it a strange color with an equally strange odor.

Soapmaking Safety

It is impossible to overstate the importance of safety when handling caustics. Many soapmakers have made soap for years and years without ever being burned. However, there are stories of family members drinking lye solutions, pets eating raw soap batter, and soapers not wearing goggles just once … all resulting in serious injury.

Lye soap is made at home all the time in complete safety. But your safety depends on the use of common sense. If you plan well, everything will go smoothly. The more soap you make, the more you will tailor your safety practices to your situation. Safety essentials are goggles and rubber gloves.

As mentioned earlier, lye is extremely caustic. When you first add the lye to the liquid, the resulting solution is also extremely caustic. After this lye solution is mixed with the soapmaking oils, however, the soap begins to saponify and becomes safe to touch after it has cured. Always wear goggles and rubber gloves when handling lye, lye solutions, raw soap, and fresh soap. If you are in doubt about how neutralized your soap is, err on the side of wearing goggles and gloves when they’re not needed.

Testing for Neutrality

You can test for neutrality of soap in a number of ways. Using phenolphthalein or litmus papers are the most popular methods. Phenolphthalein is very reliable, inexpensive, and easy to use. You simply place a couple of drops of the solution on the soap you are testing. If the solution turns pink, it is alkaline. If it stays clear, it is neutral.

Although not always easy to find, it is worth the search for phenolphthalein. It is extremely easy to use and economical.

You can purchase litmus kits online and at your garden center. Follow the directions on the kit. Often it involves a color comparison chart on the box. You can also purchase an electronic pH meter. Soap is “safe” when it registers between 7 and 10 on the pH scale.

Caustic Messes

While your soap is curing, test it every so often for neutrality. If your soap is more than two weeks old and is still highly caustic, something went wrong in the measurements. The soap should not be used. Find out from your city or county what the proper disposal method is for caustic materials.

Keep a caustic mess contained until you can dispose of it properly. Line a heavy cardboard box with two heavy plastic garbage bags, one inside the other. Fill the box with clay kitty litter deep enough to absorb the mass. Wearing goggles and gloves, pour or scrape the caustic mass into the bags. Add an equal measure of vinegar. If the mass is soupy, add more litter. Label the box and store it in a safe place until you dispose of it.

Evaporation During Curing

Part of the curing process involves the evaporation of extra water from the bars. Ideally, there should be just enough liquid in the batch to ensure success of the reaction of lye with oils. The bar will shrink a little from its original dimensions, but it will stay essentially the same.

When you make opaque hot-process soap, you will notice that the soap is soft when you cut it compared to neutral cold-process soap. The hot-process soap is neutral at the end of the cook, but it can use some time to let some of the water evaporate and harden up.

If you decide to wrap your soaps, let enough time pass for most of the evaporation to happen. If you wrap your bars long before then, you will notice that the wrapping will loosen. This is because of the shrinkage that occurs as the water continues to evaporate after wrapping.

Soap Ash

It is very common to find a thin layer of white powder on the top of your batch of soap. This is called “ash,” and it is harmless. If you have a thick, sparkly crust on the surface of your soap, you probably have a caustic, lye-heavy batch. But a thin film of white powder isn’t a problem.

Using purified water is a way to limit the formation of ash. But even soap made with distilled water will sometimes have a layer of ash. It can be because of the composition of the lye, the way the ingredients work together—sometimes there is simply no identifiable reason. Another way to prevent ash is to spray the surface of the poured soap liberally with rubbing alcohol.

If your soap has a crust of lye crystals, you must handle it wearing goggles and gloves as it is caustic. You may have added too much lye, stirred improperly, or the lye crystals may be the result of any number of other factors. The soap is probably lye-heavy and will never cure properly.

Placing plastic wrap on the surface of your poured soap is one way to eliminate the ash layer. Try to let the wrap cling to the surface on its own, rather than pressing, as you can add lumps and bumps to the surface if you push down too far. Peel it away when you are ready to unmold.

You can also remove the ash layer by hand. When you cut your bars, you can use a cheese planer to cut away the ash. Some soapers set up their cutters to take off the layer during the cutting process. Or you can just leave it. It isn’t harmful, and it is an indication that the soap was made by hand. It is ultimately an aesthetic choice.

Making Soap Without Lye

If all this talk about caustics and lye concerns you—for example, if you have small children at home—before you toss this book aside and pick up another hobby, hold on. It’s true that all soap is made with lye. However, you can avoid the lye challenge altogether by using home soapmaking techniques that use premade soap. For example, you could try the soap-casting technique, in which meltable premade glycerin soap is melted, scented, tinted, and shaped.

It is crucial that you always protect yourself and those around you when you’re working with caustics. Be sure to let your family know what you’re doing and what not to touch. Always wear your goggles and gloves.

Soapmaking techniques that do not require the use of lye are wonderful, creative ways to make soap at home. If you have young children, you may feel freer to make soap without the presence of potentially hazardous caustic substances. However, there are multitudes of home soapmakers who do make lye soap and also have small children at home.

CHAPTER 4

Fragrance Oils

When you pick up a bar of soap, the first thing you probably do is hold it to your nose and sniff. The packaging, color, and other visuals may attract you, but it’s likely the scent that captures you. Some people choose unscented products all or some of the time. More, however, choose soap because they like the scent. You can scent your soaps in many ways. Two of the easiest, however, are to add essential oils or fragrance oils. Here’s what you need to know about fragrance oils.

What Are Fragrance Oils?

When shopping for fragrance oils to use in your soap creations, you’ll be astounded by the vast array of scents available. From copies of famous perfumes to bubble gum; from ocean to wasabi; from rose to blackberry sage—the choice is spectacular.

Perfumery

When creating a scent, the perfumer draws upon talent, experience, intuition, and a vast knowledge of scent materials. Sometimes known as “a nose,” a perfumer has an exceptional ability to combine chemistry with knowledge of the subtleties of scent to create a fabulous fragrance. Scent is the sense most closely linked to memory, and some of our most poignant memories are linked to the work of a perfumer.

The perfumer’s palette consists of “notes.” The primary notes are the top, middle, and base. The top note is the first impression. The middle is the scent you experience after the top note has dissipated, and the base note ties everything together, fixing it and leaving the most lingering scent. Of course these notes all work in concert to make the heart of the scent, but it is helpful to understand the note structure when talking about fragrance.

Description of Notes

Top notes are bright, light, and catchy. Florals, sweet fruit, and ozone are common top notes. They also tend to be fleeting, evaporating first, making way for the more complex middle and base notes. The top note doesn’t leave completely but can be thought of as stepping back from center stage to take its place within the entire blend.

When you shop for fragrance oils, you may find it frustrating to have nothing but words to go on. Once you learn perfumery vocabulary, you can translate the written descriptions in a catalog or on a website. You can educate yourself by going to a perfume counter. The salespeople can help you identify and name what you are smelling.

Middle notes mellow and enhance the brightness of the top note. They round it, fill it out, and support it. The middle note can support a top note by blending with it or by contrasting with it. If you layer a deeper floral under a lighter one, you have a middle note that blends. To support the top note through contrast, a sweet floral top note can be contrasted with a tangy middle note.

Base notes are frequently in the category of “fixatives.” A fixative is a scent material that has an ability to linger and “stick” to the skin. Resins, moss, sticky grasses, and animal scents are fixative base notes.

Choosing Fragrance Oils

There are many sources of fragrance oils. For the purpose of soapmaking, a fragrance must be “soap safe.” A soap-safe fragrance oil is formulated to react well with the various soapmaking processes. A fragrance that isn’t soap safe for lye soapmaking can cause a soap batch to seize—become clumpy and hard as soon as it is added. It can also make soap separate, curdle, discolor, or streak. The scents may fade or mutate, making them unsuitable for soapmaking.

Since there are so many fragrances that are known to be safe for soapmaking, there isn’t really any reason to experiment with other kinds. For example, fragrances that are just for candles are not suitable to be used in soap. Some fragrances that are “multiuse” can be used for soap as well as candles and even toiletries.

There are some soapmaking fragrances that are safe for hot-process or soap-casting applications only. Other fragrances cause visual problems with the finished soap. The most common cosmetic problem is discoloration. Responsible soapmaking suppliers will make this type of information clear in their catalog materials.

Storing Fragrance Oils

Because fragrance oils contain little, if any, natural plant matter, they may be safely stored at room temperature. Keep your oils in well-sealed glass bottles, carefully labeled. Put little labels on the tops of caps so you can easily find the one you want.

If a label looks like it’s going to come off, it will, and it is better to replace it sooner than later. It is no good hunting through unlabeled fragrance bottles looking for what you need. Fragrance oils can smear even high-quality printing, so be sure to replace labels before they become unreadable.

Even though there is a dizzying selection of fragrance oils available to you, you may still want to experiment with blending your own scents. Get a good book on fragrance and perfume making and see what you can learn. Also, just follow your instincts, your intuition, and your nose.

You can organize your scent cabinet to make it easy to find what you’re looking for. If you have a few fragrances that you use all the time, keep them where they are easy to reach. You can organize your fragrances alphabetically, by scent family, by manufacturer, or by any method you find useful. If you have fragrances that are useful for only one kind of soapmaking—soap casting, for example—be sure those are in a special location. You don’t want to grab the melt-and-pour-only version of a fragrance when you need the one that is safe for cold-process.

Scents are enticing, so keep your fragrances away from children, pets, and others who may be attracted to them. Never create the possibility of confusing vanilla fragrance with vanilla extract in the kitchen. Fragrance oils will damage or remove the finish from just about everything, so be sure to cover and protect your surfaces appropriately. Work with fragrances in a ventilated place, especially if you are sensitive to them.

Understanding Fragrance Oil Families

Over the ages, fragrances have been classified into groups. There are so many possibilities that the categories are constantly reinvented. Take some time to educate your nose, and you’ll be able to classify fragrances in no time.

Floral

Some flowers have such well-known scents that mere mention of the name conjures an immediate picture. Perhaps you have special memories connected to the scent of a certain flower. Although many of these scents are available as essential oils, they are usually quite costly. Some popular florals include carnation, frangipani, freesia, gardenia, honeysuckle, hyacinth, jasmine, lavender, lilac, magnolia, lily of the valley (muguet), pikaki, plumeria, rose, tuberose, and violet.

Fantasy Floral

Scents inspired by the idea of a flower rather than the actual scent are referred to as “fantasy florals.” Although these flowers may possess unique, sometimes fleeting, scents, they are frequently prized more for their visual rather than fragrant beauty. Fantasy floral fragrances include apple blossom, daffodil, daisy, heather, hibiscus, marigold, nasturtium, orchid, pear blossom, snapdragon, sunflower, and tulip.

Fruit

Except for the citrus family, very few fruits are available in essential oils, so it has been the task of perfumers to create impressions of the wonderful fragrances of fruits in fragrance oils. Some perfumers have taken great flights of fancy, combining fruits with flowers, spices, and other treats.

Some examples include apple, apricot, apricot freesia, apricot quince, blackberry, black cherry, blood orange, blueberry, blueberry honeysuckle, cantaloupe, coconut, cranberry spice, cucumber melon, grapefruit, ginger fig, ginger lime, ginger papaya, guava, honeydew, huckleberry, kiwi, lemon, lemon fig, lime, mango, orange, peach, pear, pineapple, plum spice, pomegranate, pumpkin, raspberry cream, strawberry, strawberry kiwi, tangerine, watermelon, and yuzu (Japanese grapefruit).

Sweets and Beverages

Another luscious category of fragrance oils is sweets and beverages. There are many different kinds of some of these fragrances. You need to try a few vanillas, for example, to find your favorites.

Vanilla fragrance oil will turn most soap applications a shade of brown; in cold-process soap, the color can get very dark brown. It is the natural vanillin that causes the brown color. If the brown color bothers you, use the “non-discoloring” vanilla fragrance oils on the market.

You might try almond, brown sugar, cappuccino, chocolate, coconut, coffee, Dutch chocolate, gingerbread, green tea, hazelnut, red clover tea, or vanilla. But be careful! Unsuspecting friends and family have been known to unwittingly taste these yummy-smelling confections!

Other Fragrances

Some fragrances all but defy categorization. They often reflect the current fashion, with some becoming favorites. Such a favorite is “rain” and the related scents that became popular in the early 1990s. In the late 1990s, scents based on formerly overlooked botanicals, like tomato leaf, also began to turn up. Still others that have gained popularity again, such as amber, have long been at the heart of perfumery. Amber, fresh grass, oakmoss, ocean rain, rain, sweetgrass, sage, tomato leaf, and sandalwood are some current favorites.

Fragrance Trends

Fashion shifts in fragrance do not come at regular intervals. A family of fragrances may be “in” for a long time before anything significant happens. There will always be the same general categories including flowers, herbs, fruits, and food, but sometimes one will take the forefront.

Cotton candy from the county fair, banana bread with whipped cream, all manner of sweet and creamy coffee drinks, and various shades of sugar from pink to brown have people smelling like sweet foods. Sweet, milky, spicy aromas reflective of chai blends emerged as the drinks they are based on gained popularity.

Collaborating with friends in your soap community is a way to ease the potential financial sting of trying new fragrances. Get together with some soap buds and make a group order of the smallest sizes. Send the box of samples around, sharing notes and preferences. And don’t forget the small suppliers who still provide a special price for small sizes of a lot of fragrances.

CHAPTER 5

Color

The study of color is a discipline in itself. Color is used in soap primarily for an aesthetic effect. Of course, any soap is beautiful, but when you add color, you get the added bonus of making soap decorative, and visually pleasing, soothing, or exciting. Often, working color into your formula makes everything come together.

Understanding Color Theory

Theories of color are mostly concerned with color in light and color in pigment. Computer screens, cameras, video equipment, and theatrical lighting work with the colors in light. Painting, fabric arts, and many other crafts work with the colors in pigment. Some crafts work with both, including glasswork.

The colors you see on painted and other pigmented surfaces are transmissions of spectrum. What you understand as color are light waves that transmit information to the retinas at the back of your eyes. The idea of the spectrum is easily visualized by thinking of a rainbow. Starting at the low end moving to the high end, you get the following colors: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. If you hold a prism up to a beam of light, it refracts the photons, or light particles, to make the familiar rainbow.

If you live with someone, say a teenager, who for some reason has an orange bulb in his bathroom, the blue soap you make for him will look black. Which, depending on your point of view, could be a wonderful thing.

When “white” light is directed at a painted surface, you see the color of the pigment on that surface. When a tinted light hits the same surface, the color you see is changed by the way the color of the light and the color of the pigment interact. Because you will usually be seeing your soap creations in light that is intended to be close to “natural” light, you won’t have to worry much—if at all—about how they would look in colored light.

The Color Wheel

A very useful way of thinking about color requires the use of a color wheel. You can purchase one at an art supply store. Or, you can make one with some heavy white paper and a medium-sized box of crayons. A simple color wheel can help you a great deal when working on color for your soap projects.

To make your own color wheel, draw a circle with a black crayon. Divide the circle into three even pie shapes. With the clock as a model, put yellow at 12:00, red at 4:00, and blue at 8:00. These are the primary colors that cannot be created by mixing other colors. Next come the secondary colors, which are mixtures of two primaries. Yellow and red make orange; red and blue make purple; blue and yellow make green. Select those colors from your crayon box and draw lines with each between the corresponding positions on the wheel.

Then you have the tertiaries. Remember wondering what the difference was between blue-green and green-blue? Well, that’s what you’re working with now: colors with two names. Think of the first word in a two-name color as an adjective; it describes the second word. So, find the orange-yellow crayon. It is yellow with orange in it. Then comes yellow-orange, which is orange with yellow in it. It can seem like an inside-out way of thinking about it until you lay it out on the color wheel. Work your way around your color wheel, making a line or wedge of color to go with each name. When you’re done, it will look like a circular rainbow.

Complementary Colors

Once you’ve completed your color wheel, take some time to make observations. You will discover that things about color you may have taken for granted and understood intuitively are explainable through the relationships on the color wheel.

For your first observation, look to see what colors are opposite each other. Start with the primaries. Yellow is opposite secondary purple; red is opposite secondary green; and blue is opposite secondary orange. You can see a pattern: In pairs of opposites, called complementary colors, secondaries are the complements of primaries.

Graying Out

If you were working with true pigments, complementary colors mixed together would make black. True pigments are not usually used in soapmaking, so you would likely get a shade of brown. Adding a little of a color’s complement, called “complementary mixing,” is an extremely useful way to make a vibrant color less so. It is often called “graying out.”

The gray-out factor presents a challenge when you want to create soap in shades of purple. There will normally be a yellow to yellow-green cast to your base oils. This will usually lighten with time to a creamy yellow or just cream color. Think of the complementary pair of yellow and purple. When you add violet oxide, for instance, you will achieve a grayed-out yellow, then a grayed-out purple before achieving a clear purple. It will take a lot of purple pigment to compensate for the complementary mix.

When experimenting with the gray-out factor, you need to remember that the yellowness of the soap will decrease as the soap cures, so you need to be sure not to overdo your compensatory mixing.

Writing Color Stories

It is very possible that if you’ve followed along with this color-theory lesson, your head is spinning a bit. Please remember that you already understand color in an important way: You know what you like. Having an organized way of thinking about color can help you in your soap designs.

Understanding Color Stories

The next part of the color-theory lesson is all about stories—color stories. Think of an advertising campaign for makeup, clothing, craft supplies, or home décor. There will be an identifiable unifying idea behind the campaign. For example, the “New Fall Colors” may consist of colors that make you think of turning leaves, harvest, and cooler weather. Such colors may be “Harvest Gold,” “Fading Yellow,” “Rusty Brown,” and “Deep Wine.” This is called a color story.

The color stories you create for your soaps can be as straightforward as traditional color combinations—for example, pink and blue soaps made for a baby shower. You may want to tell a story in color about the herbs that you’ve used in your soap. Or you may want just the perfect shade to pull your towels, tile, and paint together in your bathroom.

Creating a Color Story

As an exercise, go into your bathroom and look at the color details. List the colors of the paint, fixtures, tile, wallpaper, and decorative accents. This list of color forms the foundation of your color story. For example, let’s create the color story of a hypothetical bathroom. The paint is very pale pink; the tile is white with a thin, pale green-blue accent border. The fixtures are white, and the towels are light sage green.

Using the color wheel, look at the nature of this color story. The light pink and the light sage green are unsaturated versions of the complementary colors red and green. Blue-green is next to green on the color wheel, on the way to blue. So, you’ve got a pastel complementary scheme with a tertiary accent.

Try to keep the amount of colorant in your soaps to a level that will not make a mess on washcloths, in the shower, or in the tub. Very rarely will a soap colorant color your skin, but it can happen. Follow usage guidelines and common sense. Luckily, since the pigment is delivered to the surface by soap, it will usually wash out. But not always!

You’ll be setting the soap on the white sink or tub. It will probably be seen with the pink paint and a light sage green washcloth in the background. Since the color scheme is low contrast, you will probably want to keep the soap low contrast as well. A pale pink soap in the same color range as the paint with a sage green swirl would be soft, pretty, and feminine. A light sage green soap with a thin, light green-blue swirl would add a touch more color and tie the blue and green together. Try this exercise in your own bathroom. It will be very interesting to see what you come up with. It’s fun to tell a color story.

Using Color in Soap

The way you incorporate color into your soap depends on the kind of soap and the kind of colorant you’re using. You can color the soap directly by adding the colorant to the soap mixture. You can also add pieces of colored soap as in the “chunking” and confetti techniques. Here we’ll talk about how to use color in each of the soapmaking techniques.

Coloring Cold-Process Soap

When you’re working with cold-process soap, there are a number of colorants that will fade, change, or disappear altogether due to their reaction to active lye. Natural plant dyes will be obliterated except for a few tenacious examples. Certain food colorants will change color entirely.

Fortunately, there are also many kinds of colors that will hold up through the rigors of the cold-process method. A few plant dyes, including some spices, produce colors ranging from subtle to bright. Ultramarines and oxides hold up very well, as do many micas.

Coloring Hot-Process Soap

In the hot-process techniques, you can add color after the soap is neutral, so you have more choices available than in cold-process. You can often use less colorant, with more predictable results.

Getting colorants distributed evenly in hot-process soap is difficult. When you add color at the end of the cooking period, you are trying to add it to a very thick, sticky mixture. Some of the soap has cooled into tiny lumps, while some of it is fluid enough to accept the colorants.

Experiment with different ways of incorporating color into hot-process. One thing to try is to remove a small portion of the mass you want to color, mix the colorant into that, and then mix the colored portion back into the rest. Give it, and yourself, a good workout trying to get the color evenly distributed.

In hot-processing, and in fact, in all lye soapmaking techniques, you can add some color elements from the beginning of the process. You may use an infusion of an herb to mix with the lye, or you may use an oil that has been colored with herbs. These herbal infusions will usually take quite a beating in the process, but there are herbal colorants that transmit well this way.

With hot-process, if the soap is still slightly alkaline, colorants that fade in alkaline soap will do the same here. Chances are about fifty-fifty that a colorant said not to be stable in cold-process will be stable in hot-process.

You can also add mineral pigments to the early stages of making lye soap. Ultramarines and oxides perform beautifully when added with the lye to the water, making a tinted lye solution. Keep in mind that the entire batch will be that color. You can make two separate batches simultaneously using color in this way, and swirl them together, avoiding the complication of adding colorant later. You can also vary the color at the end with more colorant, or pieces of differently colored soap. Planning ahead pays off.

Coloring Casting Soap

Soap casting is where color really takes center stage. The premade soap base will accept just about any pigment. Herbs will eventually turn brown in any soap, but in soap casting, they can keep their color for a little while.

You can use different kinds of coloring together in the same projects. Combining liquid soap dye with a little mica makes a very simple and beautiful soap-casting project. Ultramarines and plant materials can be used together to great effect. Again, imagination is the key.

It doesn’t take much pigment for transparent soap to go from clear to opaque, or so saturated with color that little light goes through. Often, less is more. Take advantage of the beauty of the way light passes through the soap, especially with mica.

Food and Cosmetic Dyes

You can use liquid food coloring from the grocery to color your soap. Most food colors will fade with even a little exposure to sunlight, so just know that your soaps will fade. Since the colorings are liquid, you need to allow for the extra liquid you’ll be adding to the recipe.

You can also buy food and cosmetic dyes in very concentrated powder form. They produce brilliant colors, and one tiny package of powder goes a long, long way. Take care when using them that you don’t get them on anything you don’t want dyed. In general, you add a tiny amount of dye powder to a teaspoon of warm water. You add the concentrated color in small amounts until you get the color you want. It is easy to go overboard, so watch carefully how much you add.

LabColors

LabColors are super-concentrated food and cosmetic dyes with exacting directions about how to use them. They come in small portions, which are diluted in hot water and stored in bottles to use as needed. There are many colors including a “basic twelve” that can be used to blend a wide variety of colors. The colorants come with a usage booklet and a color-blending chart, showing color blends for high and low pH products. So, the trouble with food and cosmetic colors being unpredictable is eliminated as the colors were particularly formulated for use with high pH cold-process soap.

Working with LabColors can take some getting used to, but when you have facility with them, you’ll wonder how you ever did without them. If there are color blends you frequently use, premix them into smaller containers to make things simple. For people who want to spend less time experimenting with color and more time actually working with color, this is a great system.

Mineral Pigments

You can get incredible color by using mineral pigments, such as ultramarines and oxides. These are the basic pigments used in cosmetics and by artists who blend their own paint. Be sure the mineral pigments you use are designated for soap and cosmetic application. Don’t buy them at an art supply store, since you don’t know if they are safe to use on the skin. Responsible soap supply houses will sell only the kinds of pigments that are safe to use in soap.

If you are going to make soap of all one color, you can add the mineral pigment with the lye to the water to make a colored lye solution. This way, the color will not be affected negatively by the lye and the color will be dispersed throughout the soap.

You may also add the mineral pigment at the end of the stir. Mix the amount of pigment you want to use and blend it with a teaspoon of hot water. Blend it well. Strain it if there are stubborn clumps that won’t dissolve. Remove a portion of the soap to be colored and mix the pigment mixture into it. Add it back to the main mass and stir well to evenly incorporate. Do this for as many colors as you want to use in a batch.

Mica and Glitter

In addition to adding color to soap, you can also add special features, such as mica and glitter. Mica is, quite simply, beautiful. It is sparkly, shimmery, and even pearly, and comes in a dazzling array of colors. It is put to best effect when used in a transparent or translucent application. You can use it to color opaque soaps, but the shimmer shows up best when it has light hitting it from more than one side.

Adding Mica

Remove a small amount of soap, stir the amount of mica colorant you want to use into it, then incorporate it back into the main mass. Some micas lose their color completely in the high alkalinity of lye soap, especially cold-process. Your mica supplier will have this information for you.

When using mica in casting soap, add it a little at a time, as you can easily add more. If you find you have more than you want, dilute the over-colored soap with more plain soap. Unless you’ve gone really overboard with the color, this will help you get back to the depth of color you want.

Adding Cosmetic Glitter

Cosmetic glitter is very beautiful in transparent soaps and looks beautiful on top of opaque soaps. Use a small amount for a delicate twinkle. Use a lot for an outrageous sparkle. Make sure that if you give soap with glitter to someone, they know not to use it as a facial soap, as it is easy to get soap in your eyes when you wash your face. It would be very easy to get a tiny piece of glitter in your eye that could then scratch your cornea as you blink.

Glitter is generally made from polyester and will melt like plastic if exposed to high heat. You need to take this into consideration when adding it to hot soap mixtures. Add glitter to casting soap that is about 130°F. If you add it as an accent in cold-process, sprinkle it on the top after spraying with alcohol to prevent ash.

CHAPTER 6

The Cold-Process Technique

Cold-process soapmaking is the basic form of handmade, from-scratch soapmaking. It is called “cold” process because there is no cooking involved. Beyond heating the oils enough to liquefy them, there is no heat applied during the creation of the soap. You will make luscious, gorgeous, gentle, bubbly soap with a fine texture with this process. The cold-process soapmaking technique is relatively simple and gets easier with practice. A blend of oils is mixed with a simple solution of lye and water, stirred until thickened, then poured into a mold.

Curing

Curing refers to the period after cutting during which the soap becomes milder and harder. Milder as saponification finishes and harder as water evaporates. You can extend the life of your soap through careful formulation and storage. Over time, exposure to heat and humidity can degrade the quality of your soaps. Soap that sits in water or is allowed to be in the stream of the shower will melt away rapidly, so let bars dry between uses.

Solid handmade soaps will melt readily if they sit in water because the high level of naturally occurring glycerin keeps the bar softer than mass-produced commercial soap, from which the glycerin has been removed. Your soap will become longer-lasting as it is allowed to dry and cure, but may never be as long-lasting as the commercial variety.

After cutting and while curing, cold-process soap needs to be kept at a relatively constant temperature and have air circulation. Depending on the amount of soap you make, you can dry your soap on a paper-covered cookie sheet or a small shelf, or create an entire curing and drying rack system.

Colorant Limitations

The outcome of colorants in making cold-process soap is limited in a couple of ways. Lye is not kind to natural colorants. For example, the brilliant ruby-red color that you can infuse into oil with madder root will fade to a light pink. The same goes for the bright orange you can get from annatto: It will fade to a color ranging from buttery yellow to subtle orange.

You can, however, get beautiful colors from mineral pigments, food and cosmetic colorants, and micas. Be certain to use colorants that are safe for cosmetic use and stable in cold-process soap.

Scenting Options

For scent materials, the general usage rate is approximately 0.5 ounce of fragrance material per 1 pound of base oils. Fragrance oils that are designed for use in cold-process soap hold up beautifully through the soapmaking process. It is important that you use “soap safe” fragrance oils. These oils have been tested and selected by suppliers.

As a starting point, for each pound of oils used in a batch, you can start with 1 tablespoon of fragrance material. Once you’ve made a number of batches, you will find the level of fragrance you like. For spice oils such as clove, start with 1 teaspoon per pound of oils. Additionally, clove and other spice oils will accelerate trace. When you create blends using both essential oils and fragrance oils, you need to be sure you use the proper measurements for each. Not all fragrance oils are the same, so be sure you get the manufacturer’s or distributor’s suggested rate of use for each oil you use.

Unmolding

In cold-process soapmaking, you need a recipe that creates a hard, releasable soap. In the recipe section, you will find recipes with additives such as beeswax to help a bar release from a single mold. Some complicated designs need a very hard bar to release at all.

In cold-process soapmaking, the soap goes through a “gel” phase during its insulation time. In a block mold, the heat generated by the soap mass inside the towel-wrapped, insulated mold will be enough for the soap to get through that phase.

When you pour the soap into a series of single bars, it is more difficult for the soap to generate enough heat to gel. Help the soap get hot enough by stacking the multicavity molds in a large plastic storage container. Stack them so the soaps above don’t sit directly on the open molds below. Put on the lid and wrap the container with towels. If the weather is warm, you can put an insulated box of molds outside in the sun to help it get up to temperature. In some cases—milk soaps, formulas containing honey, some floral fragrance oils, or spice essential oils, for example—you may want to avoid the gel phase and prevent overheating by not insulating.

A Word of Caution

The following materials should never be used in soapmaking: aluminum, cast iron, nonstick finishes, weak plastic, and glass. The soap batter will react with these pans and ruin them. Essential oils and extreme heat will melt less resilient plastics, and thin or delicate glass may be easily broken during the bustle of soapmaking activity. Even formerly reliable heatproof glass measuring containers can shatter during soapmaking and are not recommended.

Storing Cold-Process Soaps

After the soap is fully cured, you have a number of storage options. Soap continues to lose water, which will make it harder and longer-lasting. It is important to keep the cured soap where air will circulate around it. Try an open cardboard box with a piece of netting over the top to keep the dust out. Be sure the soaps are not crowded too closely. Close crowding can cause pockets of moisture or oil to build up, which will contribute to spoilage. Additionally, crowding will facilitate scent transfer. If you store differently scented bars together, they will take on each other’s smell.

You can make cold-process soap from a large variety of oils—from a single-oil soap such as 100 percent olive oil, to a complicated blend of exotic oils. With a little research you can get exactly the texture, hardness, lather quality, cleansing, and moisture benefit you want. You can leave the base recipe plain, or you can enrich it with color, scent, and texture.

Eventually, most soap will spoil. The higher the percentage of extra oil in the recipe, the sooner this will happen. There are some preservatives you can use, including grapefruit seed extract, that are thought to retard spoilage. Your best insurance against spoilage is a correctly formulated recipe that doesn’t have a large percentage of excess oil. This, paired with proper curing and storage, will make the soap stay fresh longer. If you plan to sell your soap, it is a good idea to know how long a bar from each recipe will maintain freshness. You can learn this by saving a new batch for at least six months. Keep records of how it ages.

Soapmaking Terms

Before you get started, there are some specialized soapmaking terms you need to understand. Most of these terms will apply to the other techniques in this book. You’ll find that soapmakers often use these terms, but there is some variation from location to location and process to process.

Trace

The term trace refers to the presence of traces of the soap mixture on the surface of the mass when some is taken up on your stirrer and dribbled back in. If the dribble makes no mark, your soap has not traced. When it leaves a little lump on the surface that sinks in quickly, it’s beginning to trace.

A trace state is described from “light” to “heavy.” A soap is said to have reached “full” trace when it is at the state desired to do what you need it to do next. When a soap mixture “traces,” it has reached a certain level of saponification, and you will add color, scent, and other materials at varying levels of trace. As you gain experience, you’ll be able to recognize the signs of trace with no problem at all.

Oils and lye just combined. Note transparency.

When the oils and lye solution are first mixed, the solution will be transparent, and as you stir, it will become less so. Opacity and a slight graininess let you know that your soap is tracing. There is also a subtle “soap smell” that comes at the same time. It isn’t possible to describe it, but you’ll come to recognize and be reassured by it.

What exactly is cold-process soapmaking?

The cold-process soapmaking technique is relatively simple and gets easier with practice. A blend of oils is mixed with a simple solution of lye and water, stirred until thickened, and poured into a mold. It’s as simple as that.

If you’ve made gravy or pancake batter, you’ve experienced the textures that many soapers compare to trace. A light trace may be like a thin pancake batter, a medium trace like a medium-thick gravy. If your soap gets gloppy, you’ve got a heavily traced batch, and you need to get it into its mold as soon as possible.

Showing a medium trace

Trace issues will cease to be issues at all as you make more and more soap. You must stir your soap to trace before pouring. If your soap hasn’t traced, it will likely separate and remain unsaponified in layers of oils and lye solution. There are some techniques that have special trace needs, and they are indicated in the recipe instructions.

Saponification

Saponification is another essential term of soapmaking vocabulary. It means “to turn into soap.” The reaction between the lye solution and the oils is called saponification. Saponification starts as soon as the lye solution and oils come into contact. The liquid, such as water or milk, for example, facilitates the reaction by making sure all the various molecules get together.

The saponification process continues until all the alkali and acid (the lye and the oils) have reacted. As the soap ages, the reaction slows down considerably, and eventually no unreacted alkali remains. “Young” soap will still have some alkalinity, and this level decreases as the soap ages.

Alkalinity, and acidity as well, is measured on the pH scale. This scale is divided into a range of pH measures from 0 to 14. Substances with high pH factors, such as lye, are “alkalis” or “bases,” while those with low pH factors, like vinegar, are “acids.” Neutrals are found in the middle, around pH 7. Your soap should have a pH between 6 and 10.

A soap is said to be “fully saponified” when there is exactly enough oil and lye to fully react. Since you usually want a little extra oil in your soap, for gentleness and moisturizing benefit, most soaps are formulated with slightly more oil than will completely saponify. A soap doesn’t actually moisturize; the extra oil just makes it less stripping.

Lye Discounting and Superfatting

Formulating with extra oil is called taking a “lye discount” or “superfatting.” A lye discount is a reduction from the total amount of lye needed to saponify the oils. Superfatting is the same thing, but thinking of it as extra oil rather than less lye. It amounts to the same thing. Overly lye-discounted or superfatted soap is softer and prone to rapid spoilage. Lye-heavy soap is a worse problem, as it makes harsh, caustic, and unusable soap.

The lye soap recipes in this book are created with a 5–7 percent lye discount.

It is a good idea to clean up as you go. With lye soaps, use the kitchen sink to corral the lye-touched objects as you finish with them. Rinse the lye-pouring pitcher with water, then fill it partway with water so you can place the other lye-touched things in it.

Mise en Place

Mise en place is a term borrowed from French cooking. It refers to the practice of measuring out all the ingredients ahead of time and putting away everything except what you’ll be using in your recipe. This is a good habit to get into as a soapmaker. It helps you to get organized and stay focused while you work. Make a checklist and go over it before you begin to help you make soaping less stressful.

Getting Started

Use the recipe that follows (Basic Cold-Process Soap, 1-Pound Batch) to become familiar with the procedures and techniques of cold-process soapmaking. The recipe is an excellent blend of basic soapmaking oils. This is an unscented, uncolored soap recipe. You should become familiar with this process before moving on to the scented and colored soaps presented later in this book. You will notice that the total weight comes to about 23 ounces. It is called a 1-pound batch because you are using 1 pound of oils. Additives such as color, scent, and herbs are calculated depending on the amount of oils.

For this batch, use two 4-cup plastic measuring containers to make the lye solution, heat the oils, and blend the soap. Note that even when you’re using measuring containers for mixing, you must always weigh your ingredients. You’ll use the first for the lye solution and the second for the oil mixture.

Soapmakers usually talk in terms of the weight of the oils because the amounts of additives are determined by the quantity of oils, not the total weight of the batch. A 4-pound batch will actually weigh about 6 pounds with the lye and water. An 8-pound batch will weigh about 12 pounds.

Remember this very important note: In soapmaking, all of the liquids are weighed on a scale, not measured in a liquid measuring container!

This is your first batch of cold-processed lye soap! Congratulations! When you take it to the tub or shower, observe the smell, texture, lather, and rinsability. Although every bath with your own soap is a learning experience, be sure to take time to delight in what you’ve created!

Basic Cold-Process Soap, 1-Pound Batch

This basic soap formula is a great place to start as you learn what you like and develop your technique.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS APPROXIMATELY 23 OUNCES

5 ounces water

2.2 ounces lye

11 ounces olive oil

5 ounces coconut oil

0.5 ounce castor oil

Put on all protective gear, including goggles, gloves, and long sleeves.

Place the water in a heatproof plastic mixing container. Sprinkle the lye slowly and carefully into the water. Stir until dissolved. Set the lye solution aside to cool.

Combine the olive oil, coconut oil, and castor oil in a second heatproof mixing container. Melt in microwave or over boiling water. Coconut oil has a low melting point, so it will melt quickly from an opaque white solid to a clear liquid. As each set of conditions is different, be sure to watch your microwave or double boiler closely, and make note of how long it takes. (Do not overheat, as oils take longer to cool than the lye solution.) Set the oils aside to cool.

When both mixtures are at 110°F, pour the lye solution in a thin stream into the oils. Stir constantly by hand until the mixture traces, about 10–20 minutes, or use a stick blender to make it go faster. When using a stick blender, take care not to whip air into the mixture.

When the soap batter traces, pour it into the mold, taking care to scrape all the traced soap out of the container.

Cover the mold with plastic wrap, then wrap the mold in a towel for warmth and let it sit for 2 days.

Wearing your goggles and gloves, try unmolding the soap by pulling out the sides and turning the mold upside down on a brown paper bag or paper towel on the work surface. Push on the bottom of the mold. If the soap does not release readily, place the mold in the freezer for 1 hour. Try again to remove it. It should release easily this time.

Using a stainless steel knife, cut the soap log into bars. Place them on a brown paper bag to dry. Turn them daily to be sure they dry evenly.

In 2 weeks, your soap will be mild, firm, and ready to use.

Store soap in a ventilated container.

Make sure to add your observations to your soapmaking journal. The more notes you take, the more your learning process will be reinforced. Be sure to write your notes right away so you don’t forget!

It is very likely that you’ll want to make more soap as soon as possible. Continue making the 1-pound batches from this book to start out with. It is tempting to dive right in and go for larger batches, but resist that temptation. Try your mettle on a few smaller batches, and then bask in happiness when they’re all cured and ready to use.

Just combined in small container

Taking the Next Step

When you are ready to make a larger batch, try one of the 4-pound recipes. There are some procedural differences from the 1-pound method, so try a plain or at least very simple batch before committing yourself to enough additives for a batch at the bigger size.

When you make a large batch of plain soap, you can use it as usual of course. And what’s even more fun is that you can use it for the hand-milling recipes in this book. It is much easier and more economical to make your own soap shreds for hand milling than to buy them.

Cold-process soap is prized for its fine, solid texture. Although it takes up to two weeks for cold-process soap to cure from the pouring to the ready-to-use stage, it is well worth the wait. The firm bar will have a silky texture and lovely lather, and it will thoroughly and gently clean your skin.

Cooling the Lye

The primary difference between small and larger batches is the amount of time it takes for the lye to cool. Many soapers make their lye solution in the morning, go about their day, and then make soap later in the day. Cooling time is affected by the size and shape of your lye container and the relative heat of the day.

The more surface area your lye container has, the faster it will cool. It’s better to have an oversized pitcher than one that will be so full that it will take ages to cool. Leaving the lid off the pitcher will help with cooling as well. You need to be patient and monitor how long it takes so you can plan for the future.

It is essential that you clearly mark the pitcher of cooling lye. This is important even if you think no one will find it. Better to make a sign no one will read than not to tell the surprise visitor.

If you cool your lye outside, be sure the pitcher is covered with either its lid or a piece of paper towel, paper, or a cardboard square. All kinds of things fall from the sky, such as dust or leaves, and don’t forget about those birds flying overhead!

If you live where there is a lot of animal activity outside, it’s better to cool the lye inside where you know exactly who has access to it. It is extremely unlikely that squirrels, birds, possums, and other residential wildlife will go after the lye solution, but it is better to avoid the possibility completely.

The 4-Pound Batch

Don’t be intimidated by a bigger batch. A bigger batch just means bigger fun and rewards. You can stir the soap to light trace, divide it into smaller amounts, and then make different varieties from one big batch. You will of course have the same base, but you can get very creative with your additives and have very different soaps from one large batch!

Tips for New Soapmakers

Suzanne Buckles has been experimenting with soap recipes for sixteen years. Her generous online advice has helped innumerable soapmakers, novice and expert alike. Here are Buckles’s five tips for new soapmakers.

Educate yourself first. Read soapmaking books and peruse soapmaking websites. Every conceivable question you have is likely already addressed in a book and on the Internet, as gracious soapmakers have given of their experience and knowledge there.

Start with small batches when trying new recipes and untested fragrances to save yourself time, money, and supplies.

Write it down! Don’t depend on your brain to remember everything. If you’ve taken the time to jot down your recipe and record everything from start to finish, you can easily duplicate a success, or possibly find the reason for a failure.

Keep it simple. Start with a basic recipe and forgo colorants and fragrance oils on your first few tries. Essential oils, for the most part, are easier to work with in soap than are fragrance oils.

Always wear protective eye gear. Also, have everything ready prior to mixing your soap, as sometimes things progress quickly and you’ll be scrambling for something you need. If it’s already on the counter, all the better.

Suzanne Buckles’s Favorite 1-Pound Recipe

Suzanne is a great experimenter. Get some inspiration for your budding soap fascination from her.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS APPROXIMATELY 20 OUNCES

5 ounces water

1.9 ounces lye

4.5 ounces palm kernel oil

4.5 ounces coconut oil

4 ounces olive oil

0.5 ounce essential oil or fragrance oil

Put on all protective gear, including goggles, gloves, and long sleeves.

Place the water in a heatproof plastic 4-cup mixing container. Sprinkle the lye slowly and carefully into the water. Stir until dissolved. Set the lye solution aside to cool.

Combine the palm kernel oil, coconut oil, and olive oil in a second heatproof plastic 4-cup mixing container. Melt in microwave or over boiling water. (Do not overheat, as oils take longer to cool than the lye solution.) Set the oils aside to cool.

When both mixtures are at 110°F, pour the lye solution in a thin stream into the oils. Stir constantly until the mixture traces, about 10–20 minutes. If using an immersion blender, it will take about a minute. With an immersion blender, take care not to whip air into the mixture. Add the essential oil or fragrance oil and blend thoroughly.

When the soap batter traces, pour it into the mold, taking care to scrape all the traced soap out of the container.

Cover the mold with plastic wrap, then wrap the mold in a towel for warmth and let it sit for 2 days.

Wearing your goggles and gloves, try unmolding the soap by pulling out the sides and turning the mold upside down on a brown paper bag or paper towel on the work surface. Push on the bottom of the mold. If the soap does not release readily, place the mold in the freezer for 1 hour. Try again to remove it. It should release easily this time.

Using a stainless steel knife, cut the soap log into bars. Place them on a brown paper bag to dry. Turn them daily to be sure they dry evenly.

In 4 weeks, your soap will be mild, quite firm, and ready to use.

Store soap in a ventilated container.

Varying the Cold-Process

Experienced soapmakers are always looking for ways to not only make better soap, but also make soap better. The “rules” of soapmaking are different for each soapmaker. As a soapmaker gains experience with materials, processes, and procedures, he will find ways to customize the basics to suit his own style. The variations on process discussed in this section are best saved for a time when you have gained considerable experience with more customary materials and processes.

Energy Exchange Method

Also called room temperature cold-process, this method uses the heat generated by the lye and water reaction to heat and melt the oils. One of the patience-trying parts of learning to make cold-process soap is waiting for the lye to cool to the suggested working temperature and then getting the oils warmed and melted to the same temperature. Rather than waiting for the heat—energy—to dispel, it makes sense to use the idea of an energy exchange—to use the heat of the lye and water reaction to melt and warm the oils. This procedure is called room temperature cold-process.

The success of this alternative cold-process technique depends on many factors. The temperature of the working area has an impact on how the energy exchange occurs, as does the consistency of oils that are sensitive to temperature. It takes a lot more energy to melt and warm oils in a cold room. Coconut oil and shea and other butters take more energy to melt and become ready to incorporate into the mixture. If your workspace is very cold and you are making small amounts of soap with a large percentage of solid oils, there may not be enough heat energy generated to melt them.

Conversely, if your working area is quite warm, you may end up with more energy than is needed and have a soap mixture that is too warm. When the soap mixture is too warm, it can trace too quickly, or even seize completely. A worst-case scenario, which is thankfully very unusual, would be for the soap mixture to “volcano” up and out of the soap pot.

Scent materials that at lower temperatures don’t accelerate trace may do so under these conditions. The only way to know what is going to happen is to try it and be prepared to get the soap into the molds quickly.

Reduced Water Cold-Process

After you’ve been making cold-process soap for a while, you’ll notice that you can safely touch and use the soap just a few days after making it. It will be more drying than older soap, but you’ll observe that what the weeks-long waiting periods mostly deal with is hardening the soap through evaporation of extra water.

In an effort to shorten the “cure” time, soapmakers began experimenting with using less water at the beginning, leaving less to evaporate from the drying bars.

Safely using lye should be at the top of your soapmaking priorities. When you use less water, you’re still using the same amount of lye. You’ll be creating a stronger lye solution, which poses the danger of being less forgiving than the customary dilution. You can get a more serious lye burn faster when the solution is stronger.

You will find that when using less water, the soap behaves differently. Fragrances can mutate; seizure and ricing are more common; and the soap batter traces rapidly. As long as you plan ahead for these possibilities—understanding the nature of your scent materials, using an immersion blender to smooth soap batter with a curdled look, having your molds prepared, and using a spatula to scrape and scoop thick soap—you will have success. Try experimenting with 4.5 ounces of water per pound of oils. Be sure to keep notes on your process.

It bears repeating that the stronger caustic solution must be approached with extra care. Arrogance and disrespect for the nature of the materials has led many an artist to, at best, failed batches and at worst, injury and disaster.

Cleaning Up

One of the many wonderful things about soapmaking is that in many instances, it is a self-cleaning endeavor. After all, it’s soap!

Be sure you don’t rinse large blobs of soap batter or gooey fresh soap down your drains. They will clog up your drains almost immediately and take a lot to clean out once clogged. Your best bet is to use smart cleanup techniques.

Cold-process soapmaking requires more care with cleanup than the other techniques. Since the soap is caustic all the way through the process and for a few weeks after, always wear goggles and gloves while handling it. Keep track of all the utensils and equipment that you’ve used with the lye.

After you’re finished with a lye-touched tool, place it in the sink. If you add water, be sure not to hit it with a hard stream that will splatter. Keep adding the utensils as you finish with them.

After you’ve scraped the last of the beautiful soap batter into the mold, wipe the inside of the pan and any other tools you’ve used. You can use paper towels, but you’ll go through a lot of them. A better idea is to get towels out of the rag bag and tear them into paper towel–sized soap cleanup towels.

You can use your soap cleanup towels over and over, saving money and resources. Place the towels in a plastic bag for a day or two, and then add them to the wash. The soap will have saponified enough for laundry use and will contribute to the cleansing.

CHAPTER 7

Cold-Process Recipes

Once you’ve mastered the basics of cold-process soapmaking, you are ready to experiment and expand your repertoire. From the perfection of an exquisite base recipe to the intricate stripes of a highly contrasted multiple pour, you’ll have lots of fun creating and learning!

Creating the Perfect Basic Bar

Coming up with your personal “basic recipe” is a goal for the novice soapmaker. Once you’ve mastered the basic techniques, you can begin to manipulate the ratios of oils to create exactly the properties you desire. Increasing one oil, eliminating another, replacing one for another—all these experiments will lead you to your perfect basic bar.

The following recipes offer a variety of bases. Differences in kinds and ratios of oils make different sorts of soaps. Remember that these recipes have been formulated with the purpose of inspiring you to create your own formulas. If you don’t want to make your own formulas, these will provide you with enough variety to keep you busy!

Test a plastic pitcher before you mix lye solution in it by placing it in the sink and filling it with boiling water. If it melts, it is obviously not a good choice. Heatproof glass measuring cups have traditionally been used in small-batch soapmaking, but there have been problems with shattering, so it is wise to work with heatproof plastic. Professional kitchen plastic and laboratory Nalgene are excellent choices.

Recipe Sizing

The recipes that follow are given in four manageable sizes. The amounts used to describe them refer, as always, to the number of pounds of oils, not the size of the whole batch. Additives are, for the most part, measured according to pounds of oils in a batch, so it’s easier and clearer in that way to refer to a batch by how many pounds of oils are in it.

There will be a slight variation from “exactly” 1-pound, 2-pound, 4-pound, and 8-pound batches. Some 1-pound batches will have, for example, 17 ounces of oils.

Equipment

The equipment you use for your soap pot and lye solution container will change depending upon the size batch you are making. For the 1-pound batches, heatproof 4-cup plastic mixing containers work perfectly for mixing the lye, warming the oils, and mixing them together. You’ll pour the lye solution into the container already holding the oils, and mix and pour from it as well.

For the 2-, 4-, and 8-pound batches, an 8-quart stainless steel stock pot works great for warming the oils and mixing. For the lye solution for those batches, you’ll need a larger pitcher. Be sure the pitcher is heat-safe! It must be able to withstand nearly boiling temperatures.

Your lye pitcher should hold 4 quarts. It must have a secure lid and a sturdy handle. A plastic pitcher with a handle is easy to lift and doesn’t get as hot. Also, it won’t shatter if you drop it.

For each of the recipes that follow, choose the size batch you want to make. That will tell you how much of each ingredient you need. Then follow the instructions for making Basic Cold-Process Soap, 1-Pound Batch, in Chapter 6.

Base Recipes

Choose a base recipe that contains oils you can get easily. You can make serviceable soap with vegetable shortening, lard, soy oil, olive oil, and other easy-to-obtain oils. It is worth it, though, to go to the extra trouble to find other oils, especially coconut oil and castor oil. You can make an excellent bar with olive oil, coconut oil, and castor oil. Start with 1-pound batches to help you conserve materials and increase your familiarity with the procedures.

Soybean Shortening

Check the label to be sure it is 100 percent soy. This soap will be soft and have a low lather. However, it works well and is extremely inexpensive.

Olive Oil

Olive oil soap is also known as Castile soap. Authentic Castile is made from olive oil from the Castile area of Spain.

Olive Oil and Coconut Oil

This is the ratio used by some of the best soapers around. It is hard and has great lather.

Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, and Lard

Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, and Palm Oil

Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, and Palm Kernel Oil

Soy Oil, Coconut Oil, and Palm Kernel Oil

Soy oil is inexpensive and readily available as “vegetable oil.”

Standard Recipes

Using the following standard—or classic—recipes, you’ll select scent and color additives to make two all-time soap favorites: oatmeal and lavender. These soap recipes use fragrance oils (FO) or essential oils (EO) or combinations of both. They have basic additives and simple coloring techniques. Use the suggested amounts of additives as a guide to making your own simple recipes.

Oatmeal

Lavender

Luxury Recipes

The following recipes venture from the perfectly wonderful world of soaps made from “common” oils into the more costly world of exotic oils. These exotic oils can be more expensive, so be sure you know what you’re doing. And if you experiment, use a 1-pound batch.

Shea Butter Combo

Avocado/Mango Combo

Layering Soaps

You can achieve several effects through layering. Layering might entail any of the following: two color layers, fused together; two separate textures joined with a third, contrasting layer; and fancy slanted patterning. Layering is done in at least two steps. In a half-and-half layer pattern, you make and pour one half of the volume of the mold. Let the first half sit long enough so that the second layer will sit on top of it. Then, make and pour the second layer, which is the other half of the volume. The layers bond and fuse through the heat of the insulation period.

You can tilt the mold one way for the first layer, and then another way for the following layers for an angled effect in the cut bars. Be sure you don’t tip the mold so far that the soap pours out. Also, make sure that before you tilt for the next layer, the first one is totally firm.

When you’re working with three or more layers, you’ll need to make and pour the layers at higher temperatures to be sure that the soap will go through the gel phase. Also be sure to insulate well so you get a complete gel. It may take some experimenting with times to find what works best for your climate and ambient temperature.

Swirling Techniques

The creation of beautiful designs through swirling, sometimes called marbling, is an art in itself. Getting the soap to just the right texture, stage of trace, and temperature takes practice. Learning how much to stir (not too little, not too much), understanding the relationship between the direction of the swirl and the way you cut the soap, and endless variation, chance, and willingness to embrace the unexpected are hallmarks of a successful application of these techniques.

You can control the swirls and marbling effects by the heaviness of the trace at which you pour the colors together. You’ll get a more fluid, thinner swirl if you pour at a thin-to-medium trace. If you pour when the soap batter is more heavily traced, you’ll get bigger areas of single color.

Swirling Essentials

Prepare all colorants ahead of time and stir them before using in case they’ve settled while you’ve been setting up. If you’re using liquid colorants in squeeze bottles, be sure to loosen the tops ahead of time so you won’t struggle with them when your hands are gloved.

Be sure you know if the scent material you use will accelerate trace. If it does at one temperature and doesn’t at another, use the temperature that won’t contribute to the acceleration.

If you want to work with a thin soap batter to get tiny details in the swirls, you must be sure it is actually traced. Experience is the only way to be able to make this determination. The line between not traced and lightly traced is fine, and it’s not easy to recognize until you’ve had some experience. Refinement of technique comes through experience. When you are working on something challenging, try to go through with it and don’t fear “failure.” The worst thing that will happen is that you’ll lose a batch of soap. Keeping batches small can help you maintain perspective.

The energy exchange method coupled with using reduced water is a recipe for swirling disaster. Soap with low, matching temperatures and less-concentrated lye solution is ideal when you need time to make multiple manipulations such as a many-color swirl.

Using shallow molds—one or two bars thick, for example—helps ensure that the swirling pattern goes all the way through the soap. These are called slab molds. Be sure to cut the soap so that the design shows on the long, broad sides of the bars.

When making swirls, working in a set pattern makes them more specific. Look at the way a napoleon pastry is frosted, for example—parallel lines dragged through with a toothpick in all the same or alternating directions. Depending on the thickness of the soap batter, use a chopstick, flexible plastic spoon, narrow spatula, or other tool you find useful. Drag the tool back and forth lengthwise through the soap, making sure to get to the bottom of the mold. Then do the same thing widthwise. This should do it. There is a temptation to continue to work the pattern, but it may just over-blend the soap colors, creating a muddy effect.

Swirling Projects to Get You Started

Because you have to divide the batter into smaller portions for scenting and coloring, you’ll need to blend the lye and oils at about 110°F. Higher temperatures can help to delay trace.

Lavender Geranium Ribbon In-the-Pot Swirl

The less you stir, the more solid areas of color you’ll have.

INGREDIENTS

1-pound batch of your favorite cold-process recipe

0.5 ounce lavender essential oil

0.5 ounce rose geranium essential oil

¹⁄₂ teaspoon ultramarine violet blended with water

¹⁄₂ teaspoon ultramarine pink blended with water

Make a batch of your favorite cold-process recipe using whichever technique gives you the most time to swirl. Add the essential oils.

When it is still at a light trace, pour half the batch into a separate container, add the violet colorant, and blend well. Color the other half with the ultramarine pink. Stir both batches to medium trace and pour the pink into the violet.

Without stirring, pour into the mold. Insulate well and let sit for 2 days. Unmold as usual and cut into bars.

Cloudy Skies In-the-Pot Swirl

For this recipe, scent the entire batch and then color half with the blue colorant.

INGREDIENTS

1-pound batch of your favorite cold-process recipe

0.5 ounce ocean rain fragrance oil

¹⁄₂ teaspoon ultramarine blue blended with water

¹⁄₂ teaspoon titanium dioxide blended with water

Make a batch of your favorite cold-process recipe. Scent the entire batch and then pour half of it into a separate container, add the blue colorant, and blend well. Color the other half with the titanium dioxide and blend well. Pour the blue portion back into your soap pot.

Do not stir. Pour in a circular motion into a block mold. The pouring action will cause the soap to marble.

Swirling in Bar Molds

As you’ve seen, swirling in block molds creates soaps you can cut into bars or even form into spheres if you cut the soap when it’s soft enough. The results are unpredictable, and cutting the bars is always like opening a surprise present.

You can also make swirls and marble effects in individual bar molds. Finding just the right combination of mold, color, and intensity of swirl can create a magnificent bar! It can take some time, and trial and error, but even an “ugly” bar is still a treasure.

In order to help your soap release from the molds, you may need to tweak your recipe a little. It’s very easy! Adding 1 teaspoon of melted beeswax per pound of oils to the warmed/melted oils will take care of possible release problems.

You need to have enough molds on hand to hold the batch. Always have an extra mold on hand to pour any extra soap into. Don’t let good soap batter go to waste! Even if the color gets muddy by the end, you can still use it for hand milling and “kitchen sink” chunking batches.

Gold and Blue Dolphins

This soap calls for the two-dolphin mold from Milky Way Molds (www.milkywaymolds.com). You can, of course, use any sea-themed mold you like.

INGREDIENTS

1-pound batch of your favorite cold-process recipe

0.5 ounce beeswax melted with the oils

0.5 ounce ocean fragrance oil

1 teaspoon gold mica

¹⁄₂ teaspoon blue ultramarine or your favorite blue coloring

Make a batch of your desired recipe in a size to fit the bar molds you have. Add the beeswax to the oils when you melt them. (This will ensure ease of release from the molds.) Add the fragrance oil.

Pour half the soap into a separate container and color it with the gold mica. Color the other half with the ultramarine blue.

Simultaneously pour both colors into each cavity of the mold. With these dolphins, you can try some where you pour the surface of each dolphin a different color.

White and Pink Roses

Milky Way Molds (www.milkywaymolds.com) has many floral molds, including rose molds.

INGREDIENTS

1-pound batch of your favorite cold-process recipe

0.5 ounce beeswax melted with the oils

Non-bleeding red colorant, amount as needed to get the color you like

Make the recipe of your choice, adding 1 teaspoon of beeswax per pound of oils to ensure the bars will release from the molds without too much of a struggle.

Remove one half of the batter and tint it with the red colorant.

Simultaneously pour both colors into the molds. The trick for seeing both colors on the surface of the soap is to have both colors hit the mold at the same time and keep the streams moving.

Other Swirling Techniques

As more and more people make soap, more and more variations in technique emerge. Some of the most exciting innovations are the creation and sharing of advanced color work. You can find countless video tutorials on YouTube (www.youtube.com) demonstrating all kinds of swirling techniques. As always, remember that there is nothing like direct experience as a teacher, so get out your colorants and get swirling!

Concentric Circle Swirl—Pour two or more colors on top of each other in the center of the mold to create rings of color. Work quickly and carefully to get the soap poured before it gets too thick to flow outward. When you cut the bars, you’ll see stripes of color in patterns that look like wide tree rings. Try different mold shapes and depths, and cutting in different directions to get the effect you like best. You may also want to drag a bamboo skewer out from the center and into the center from the edge to make a spider web effect.

Column Swirl—Place a small, square column of wood that is taller than the mold is deep in the center of a slab mold. Pour at least two colors on top of the column while the soap is very fluid. The soap will run down the sides of the column and spread out into fans of stripes, getting deeper and closer to the edges of the mold as you pour. Remove the column carefully, with a little twist to blend the center. As with the concentric circle pour, try different molds and cutting patterns to see what you like best. You can also drag a bamboo skewer into and out of the center to make a spider web effect.

Hanger Swirl—One of the challenges of swirling is getting the pulls to show all the way through the bar in deep molds. You usually pull across the top and from side to side, but these pulls don’t necessarily show when the soap is cut into bars. You can use a rubber- or plastic- coated wire hanger to pull the color from the bottom to the top and from top to bottom. Bend the hanger to fit the length or width of the mold. When the colors are poured, insert the hanger from top to bottom, drag along the floor of the mold for about an inch, pull the hanger up, move it another inch, and then reinsert it to the bottom of the mold. Repeat this for the length of the mold.

It’s not possible to cover all variables as they vary from soapmaker to soapmaker, recipe to recipe, mold to mold, and more. But here are some observations from experience, research, and practice:

The more fluid the soap, the finer and more detailed the swirls.

The thicker the soap, the thicker the swirls.

Thickly traced colored soap will sink through a less-traced base, allowing for mold-deep pattern, but it can be much harder to shape into a pattern.

The deeper the mold, the more difficult it is to get the pattern all the way through the soap.

Surface ash that will obscure the pattern can be avoided by covering the surface of the poured soap with plastic film. Place the film on the surface and press carefully to ensure a smooth top. You may also spray the surface liberally with rubbing alcohol to prevent ash.

Be sure to stir each color thoroughly just before pouring or you may end up with unevenly saponified ribbons that fall away from the rest of the soap.

Insulate swirled batches carefully to ensure a complete gel that will keep all the swirls together.

Getting precise, repeatable results depends on controlling your process. Variations in amount and type of fluids, temperatures at which you blend the lye solution with the oils, and the ambient temperature of the workspace all contribute to the way you create the patterns. Use the mise en place technique to help you keep track of all the variables simultaneously by keeping your work area under control.

Selecting a Mold

To make a swirled design go all the way through the bars, select a mold and recipe size that will give you a depth of about 2 to 3 inches. An easy way to find out how much soap to make is to select a wide, shallow mold and fill it with water to the desired depth. Weigh that water to determine the approximate weight of the soap batter you’ll need to get the depth you want.

Making a Trial Run Shallow Mold

Needing a specifically sized mold is a good time to try out mold sizes that are uniquely yours. You can make or have made wooden molds that you’ll use for years. They can be expensive in time and money, so making a trial version of the shape you think you want is a great idea. Measure and weigh a bar of soap that you want to use as a model for the bars you’ll get from your mold. For example, a 4-ounce bar that measures 1 inch deep, 3 inches long, and 2 inches wide. Use a sheet of foam-core to make your trial mold. You’re basically making a box with no top. Draw a rectangle in the center of the board, leaving room for the side flaps.

When you have the lines drawn, use a craft knife and a metal straight edge to cut through the top layer of paper and the foam, stopping short of cutting through the other side. (You’re not actually cutting the rectangle out, just scoring the paper and foam to make it easier to fold up the sides.) You’ll have a big rectangle with four flaps. Fold up the sides and secure the corners with packing tape. Line the mold with freezer paper to make it easy to lift out the block without destroying your trial mold, in case you want to keep using it.

As a general rule, combining the lye and oils between 105°F and 110°F will help keep your soap fluid longer. This is not always the case; it depends on your formula and additives.

Make up a batch of your favorite cold-process formula. You don’t have to limit the batch to your target mold, you can use part of it in that mold and part of it in another. This freedom from worry over getting it exactly right can be very empowering and give you a chance to try other ingredients out of the same big batch.

Chunking Soaps

Chunked soaps are made in at least two stages. The first stage is to make soap in one or more colors and let it harden for a few days. Then you cut that soap into chunks and place it in the mold. Next, you make more soap and pour it over the chunks. When you cut the soap, the cross-section of the chunks and the overpour makes a pretty and unique design in each bar.

By adding texture and color variety to the chunk batch, you add even more excitement to your creation. You can make the chunks in single colors, swirls, or layers. The addition of spices, seeds, or herbs adds even more visual interest.

Starting Out

These projects take some time and planning. You need to make the chunk soap two or three days ahead. This is long enough for it to set so that it can be cut into pieces and short enough so it will still bind to the soap poured over it with ease.

Since you’ll be working with small amounts of soap for the contrasts, you need to be doubly sure of your measurements. The following recipes are for 4-pound batches. You’ll make 1 or 2 pounds first for contrasts, then the remaining 3 or 2 pounds for the overpour.

You will then cut the first part of the batch in the desired shapes. When you cut the chunked soap into pieces, you can get extra-creative and cut them with a wavy cutter or roll pieces into spheres.

Add the chunks to the overpour, stir carefully and well, then pour the whole thing into the mold. Use a chopstick to be sure that there are no hidden air pockets and that the chunks are placed in the mold where you want them to be.

Chunking Recipes

These recipes are done in stages. They are based on a 4-pound oil-based recipe because that size is easy to handle. You can, of course, make the batches smaller or larger. Use any base recipe you want. It is a good idea to use the same base recipe for all stages of the multiphase recipe.

Ginger-Papaya

INGREDIENTS

4 pounds of your favorite cold-process recipe

1 ounce ginger-papaya fragrance oil (divided)

Bright orange colorant

Bright green colorant

2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Make 2 pounds of soap; scent with 0.5 ounce fragrance oil. Divide evenly into two separate mixing containers at trace. Color one half bright papaya orange and the other a leafy green.

Pour, insulate, and cure for 1–2 days. Cut the orange batch into cubes and the green batch into thinner pieces.

Make 2 more pounds of soap; scent with 0.5 ounce fragrance oil. Add the poppy seeds. Add the chunks to the soap pot and stir carefully to coat all the pieces. Pour at thick trace into mold.

Melon Salad

Cubes of green, pink, and pale orange soap scented with a triple-melon fragrance oil blend, with an off-white overpour.

INGREDIENTS

Part One: Chunks in Three Colors

2 pounds of your favorite cold-process recipe, such as Basic Cold-Process Soap, 1-Pound Batch (see Chapter 6)

Watermelon fragrance oil

Cantaloupe fragrance oil

Honeydew fragrance oil

1 teaspoon titanium dioxide

Pinch of red oxide

¹⁄₈ teaspoon ultramarine pink

¹⁄₈ teaspoon chromium green

Make a 2-pound batch, add watermelon fragrance oil, cantaloupe fragrance oil, honeydew fragrance oil, and titanium dioxide, and divide it equally into three mixing containers.

Mix 1 tablespoon of batter with each colorant and stir back into the rest of the portion. Color one part with red oxide, one with ultramarine pink, and one with chromium green.

Pour into small block molds. Insulate well for 2 days. Unmold and cut into cubes. Let cure for 3 days.

Part Two: Overpour

2 pounds of your favorite cold-process recipe, such as Basic Cold-Process Soap, 1-Pound Batch (see Chapter 6)

Watermelon fragrance oil

Cantaloupe fragrance oil

Honeydew fragrance oil

Make a 2-pound batch of soap and scent with the watermelon fragrance oil, cantaloupe fragrance oil, and honeydew fragrance oil.

Add the colored chunks from Part One to the pan and stir well, coating all the surfaces.

Pour into mold. Use a chopstick to get rid of any air bubbles and arrange the chunks the way you want them.

Insulate well and let sit for 48 hours. Unmold and cut into bars as desired.

Confetti Soap

An easy and visually appealing version of chunking is called confetti. Instead of cutting the contrasting colors into big pieces, shred them with a cheese grater, using the side with the largest holes. Fold the shreds into the base color rather than pouring the base color on top. The look of the cut bars is reminiscent of pointillism.

Salt Bars

Salt bars are a hybrid between soap and bath salts, and are both easy to make and very popular. They are not scrubby, except perhaps at first, but smooth with use as the initially sharp edges begin to resemble smooth stone. They have a silky, lotion-like lather and leave you feeling clean and refreshed.

To create salt bars, you can make up a batch of soap as usual, and then stir the salt of your choice into the lightly traced soap batter after adding fragrance and color. The soap will begin to solidify and heat up as soon as the salt is added. You’ll have to get the soap batter into the mold quickly or it will solidify in the mixing container. The soap will reach a high temperature quickly, so you don’t need to insulate it. Cut the batch into bars as soon as it is cool, or it may get too hard to cut.

Sea Salt Soap

You’ll have to use a mold that will hold the pound of cold-process plus the pound of coarse sea salt. Be prepared to move quickly and don’t insulate. Cut the soap into bars as soon as it is firm, as it will be hard to cut if you wait too long.

INGREDIENTS

1-pound batch of your favorite cold-process recipe

1 tablespoon glacial clay

1 tablespoon ocean rain fragrance oil

1 pound of coarse sea salt

Make the batch of cold-process as usual, adding colorant, fragrance, and clay.

Thoroughly and quickly stir the sea salt into the soap batter.

Get the blended soap batter into the mold as quickly as possible as it will start to harden right away. Do not insulate as it will produce a lot of heat on its own.

When the soap is hard, even it if is still warm, slice it into bars with a heavy knife.

Let bars sit for about a week before using. Store them in a cool, dry place as the salt will attract water in a humid environment.

Textured Tops

Swirls, chunks, and textured ingredients create visual movement within the confines of the customary rectangular bar of soap. You can break out of the rectangle by creating peaks and swirls on the tops of your bars. When creating textured tops, getting your soap to a thick trace is essential so that the soap holds its shape. You must also build a layer on top of the soap in the mold, and use a tool to scoop the top into swirls and peaks. You can do a textured top as a flat layer near the top of the mold, or you can break out of the rectangle by carefully mounding the thick soap so that it sticks up out of the mold, and then use the tool to create texture.

Mocha Latte with Mounded, Textured Top

You’ll make two 1-pound batches. One is for the base layer and one is for the contrasting mounded, textured top. You’ll have extra soap from the second batch, so have a small mold ready to hold it.

INGREDIENTS

1-pound batch of your favorite cold-process recipe, using cold coffee in place of the water

1-pound batch of your favorite cold-process recipe

0.5 ounce cappuccino fragrance oil

2 tablespoons of fresh, finely ground coffee

Heaping tablespoon of sparkle white mica

Make the first batch of your favorite cold-process recipe with coffee instead of water using the heat exchange method. Add the fragrance oils and ground coffee. Stir to a heavy trace and pour into the mold. Smooth the top.

Make the second batch of soap, adding only the sparkle white mica. Stir to very thick trace.

Using a plastic or stainless steel spoon, place heaping spoonfuls of the topping soap over the surface of the coffee layer. Add more layers toward the center so you’re making a mound.

When you’ve mounded the soap, texture it with a narrow tool like the back end of a stainless steel table knife or a ¹⁄₂-inch offset spatula. Scoop into the surface of the white soap about a quarter of an inch down and pull the soap up into a little peak.

Do this all over the surface, making sure that the silhouette is even and that the peaks and swirls are evenly distributed. Sprinkle a little ground coffee on the top of the mound. Put the remainder of the topping into a small mold for a little bar.

Insulate the soap, taking care not to mar the textured surface, and let sit for 2 days. Unmold carefully and slice into bars. Cure and dry as usual.

Cold-Process/Soap Casting Combinations

You can add visual interest to your cold-process bars by adding pieces of translucent casting soap. You can make little windows that go all the way through the bars, clear speckles, and even pieces that extend above the top of the soap to create independent spikes and other forms emerging from the surface of the soap.

You’ll make the casting soap first and cut it into the desired shapes to have them ready to go when you make the cold-process. You can also try swirling hot, fluid casting soap into cold-process batter. This is more unpredictable, and can produce some wonderful marbling effects.

Green Grass Cold-Process with Casting Soap Embeds

You’ll have to have a mold that will hold the pound of cold-process plus the pieces of casting soap. Insulate well to ensure fusion between the two kinds of soap.

INGREDIENTS

8 ounces casting soap

1-pound batch of your favorite cold-process recipe

Grass-green colorant

Fresh cut grass fragrance oil

Melt, color, scent, and pour the casting soap into a shallow mold. Use 1¹⁄₂ teaspoons of fragrance.

When the casting soap has cooled and hardened, cut it into small spears that are tall enough to stick up out of the mold.

Make the batch of cold-process as usual. Use 1 tablespoon of fragrance and enough colorant to match the prepared spears.

When the cold-process soap is at a thick trace, pour it into the mold.

Stick the spears of casting soap into the thick cold-process batter to resemble blades of grass emerging from the surface.

Insulate well, taking care not to bend the pieces that are sticking out. Let sit for 2 days, then remove from mold and cut into bars.

Pink Cold-Process Bon Bons with Casting Soap Embeds

You will need 18–23 small portion cups, like those that hold condiments. You can find them at restaurant supply stores. You can spoon the thickened cold-process soap into them, or pipe the soap through a pastry bag with a medium-sized stainless steel star tip. To make sure the bonbons heat up enough to fuse the two kinds of soap, place them on a small towel inside a lidded plastic storage box that is large enough to hold your batch of little cups in a single layer. Wrap the closed box in another towel to ensure gel.

INGREDIENTS

8 ounces casting soap

1-pound batch of your favorite cold-process recipe

Non-bleeding tomato red colorant

Lavender and rose geranium essential oils

Fine iridescent cosmetic glitter

Melt, color, scent, and pour the casting soap into a shallow mold to make a block that is about ³⁄₄-inch thick. Use 1¹⁄₂ teaspoons of the essential oil blend.

When the casting soap has cooled and hardened, use a vegetable peeler to slice off long curls. Roll them into loose spirals that are a little smaller than the top of a portion cup.

Make the batch of cold-process as usual. Use 1 tablespoon of fragrance and enough colorant to match the prepared spears.

When the cold-process soap is at a thick trace, spoon or pipe it into the little cups.

Carefully place and press the curls of casting soap into the surface deep enough so they will stay in.

Sprinkle the glitter on the tops of the bonbons.

Insulate as directed above. Let sit for 2 days and then remove from the portion cups. If you have trouble getting them out of the cups, put them in the freezer for an hour and try again.

Embossing with Stamps

Want to easily add an extra touch to your soap? Try embossing your soap with a stamp. Right after the bars are cut, the smooth, even surfaces are perfect for adding simple and beautiful embellishments to your creations.

Embossing

Even though you use tools called stamps when you leave an impression on a bar of soap, you are embossing it. To stamp would be to simply use the stamp to apply color.

You can add a design element with specially designed soap stamps, certain rubber stamps, and leather stamps, or you can easily make your own, personalized stamp using polymer clays. You need to do this step soon after cutting, depending on the hardness of the bar.

Besides the stamp impression—the embossing—itself, you can further embellish your soap design by dipping the stamp in mica before placing it on the surface of the soap. You can also use stamps to enhance your soap-casting creations, making them even more beautiful. Trial and error is your best teacher, like with so much of soapmaking.

Soap Stamps

Soapmaking pioneer Catherine Failor designs outstanding tools for the soapmaker. Accompanying her range of molds are her soap stamps—small designs affixed to a wooden block handle. As with her molds, Failor sculpts the original design. Designs include botanicals, shells, and symbols. Depending on the firmness of your soap, you can press the stamps in by hand or use a mallet to put the design into the surface of the soap.

It is very possible to find rubber stamps and leather stamps that will work for embossing soap. You want to look for designs that are simple and have bold lines. The depth of the stamp is important, too. It needs to be able to penetrate the surface of the soap enough to leave an impression. When using metal stamps, the soap must be neutral of course, and as with all stamps, you need to clean the stamp of soap residue as it may eventually decay the stamp and shorten its useful life.

You can get customized stamps in a number of ways. Soap Impressions is a small company that will create a soap stamp from your own art. They also have premade letter sets and designs.

It is a violation of copyright to use another artist‘s work without permission. If you have a beautiful ring or pendant from an artist, it is illegal and unkind to reproduce it for sale.

Making Stamps with Polymer Clay

Making your own custom stamp is easier than you probably think. You make a “negative” mold and use that to make the stamp from hard-baking polymer clay. You can create a built-in handle or glue the stamp shape onto a wooden handle. You take that shape and use it to stamp your soap. Making the negative is essentially the same as making the soap mold from polymer clay. The main difference between making a mold for soap and making a mold to make a stamp is that with a stamp you want the impression to be shallow, whereas for a mold you want the impression to be deep. For your stamp, choose an object that is shallow and of a size that will fit well on the surface of your soap bars. Here’s what you need to make the stamp:

Flexible mold-making polymer clay

Water spray

Small decorative object to make into a mold, such as an earring, pendant, shell, or stone

Foil

Baking sheet

Polymer clay

Rubber stamps

Medium grit sandpaper

Epoxy

Small block of wood

There are many specialty tools for working with polymer clay, and some are specifically oriented for the appearance of the final object. As you are making a tool rather than a decorative object, you don’t need to be concerned with the aesthetics of your finished stamp in the same way you would be if the final project were jewelry. Each brand of polymer clay is different. Where these directions differ between those that come with the clay, follow the directions for the variety of polymer clay you choose.

Decide on the image you want to stamp onto your soap. As with so many things in soapmaking, your choices are virtually endless. For a place to start, think in terms of themes. Seasons, events, holidays, and hobbies hold many ideas for images.

Objects with a shallow depth—approximately ¹⁄₈ inch—are ideal. If you use objects that make too deep an imprint, the stamp will displace too much soap and distort the bar and the image.

Before you start, prepare your workspace, gather all materials, and preheat the oven to the temperature designated in the instructions for the clay you are using.

Work the flexible polymer clay with your hands to make it pliable. Make a tablet shape: flat on the bottom and on the top, with a large enough surface area for the design and deep enough to take the full impression.

Lightly spritz the surface of the object with water and wipe off drips. (The fine coating of water will help release the object from the clay.)

Push the object into the clay and remove it quickly. If the impression is good, use it. If the impression is unclear, re-form the tablet and try again. The clay will get softer and warmer the more you work it with your hands, so let it cool for better results. You can use one tablet for a few small impressions if you like. When using multiple items on one tablet, be sure to allow room for the clay to move and spread between images without distortion.

Place the foil on the baking sheet, and then put the mold on the foil. Bake the flexible mold clay as directed on the package (generally, at 275°F for 10 minutes per ¹⁄₄ inch of thickness). When baked, cool on a heatproof surface.

Once the master mold is cool, you can make your stamp. Work the regular polymer clay to condition it. Spray the mold with a fine mist of water—the film of water and the flexible nature of the polymer clay will make it quite easy to remove the shape. Push the clay into the mold, making sure to get the clay into each detail. You can make a handle for the stamp by pushing more clay into the mold than is needed to fill it. Work the extra into a little handle shape.

Flex the mold and gently work the clay out of the shape.

Bake the shapes as directed (generally, at 275°F for 10 minutes per ¹⁄₄ inch of thickness).

After baking, remove the shapes and let cool. If needed, smooth rough edges, and smooth the flat back with medium grit sandpaper if you’re going to attach it to a wooden handle. You may have better success in stamping soft soap if you make a handle as part of the shape.

Use epoxy to affix the stamp shape to a small piece of wood to use as a handle. If you stamp soap when it’s hard, you may need to be able to hit it with a mallet, so make sure the handle you choose will stand up to it.

For a beautiful decorative touch, before you use the stamp on your soap, dip the stamp in mica, tap off any excess, and then press the stamp into the soap. It will leave both the impression and a sparkle.

Polymer clay stamps will adhere to or release from your soap depending on the formula, the age of the soap, and other factors including humidity and temperature in the workspace. If your stamp isn’t releasing easily, you may need to brush the stamp with oil, nonstick cooking spray, or a silicone release agent such as cyclomethicone.

Be sure to clean your stamps after use. And don’t be shy about displaying them; they are beautiful works of art.

CHAPTER 8

The Hot-Process Technique

Hot-process is basically an extension of the cold-process technique. The still-caustic soap batter is cooked for several hours, forcing it to neutralize. One major benefit is that the soap is ready to use right away!

Understanding Hot-Process

The primary reason for making hot-process soap is that you can use it immediately. Unlike cold-process soap, you don’t have to wait for hot-process soap to cure. The “hot” part of the processing is cooking the soap over low heat until it neutralizes. This is a timesaver over cold-process soapmaking because in cold-process you have to wait for the soap to neutralize on its own.

Is It Neutral Yet?

You can usually use hot-process soap as soon as it cools. Have phenolphthalein or litmus strips on hand to check the soap’s pH. If you use litmus paper, follow the directions on the package. Know that litmus paper is not the best method for testing soap. The results are not always accurate, and it is difficult to read, but if you use phenolphthalein, the pH test is very simple: Put a few drops on the soap. If it turns pink, the soap is still alkaline. If the soap is neutral, the drops will stay clear. Test the soap when it is still in the slow cooker. If it is alkaline, cook it longer.

Molding and Unmolding

You can use individual bar molds for hot-process soap. Since the soap at time of pour is very thick, you need to be sure to cram the soap into the details of intricate molds. You will have better luck with individual molds if you use oils that produce harder bars, just as in cold-process. Don’t forget beeswax when making a recipe for individual molds!

You unmold and cut it the same way you do in cold-process. You will usually have to trim the top surface, since it is nearly impossible to get the top smooth due to the clumpy nature of hot-process soap at time of pour. The longer you wait for the water to evaporate from the bars, the harder the soap will be.

Color and Scent Additives

Color and scent materials are added after “the cook.” Stirring in the additives can be difficult at this stage because the soap is very thick and gloppy, but it can be done without an enormous amount of energy.

You’ll stir in fragrance and other things that need complete dispersion first. Then, if you’re going to swirl or marble, you’ll need to separate out the amounts of soap you’re going to color. You’ll tint each part individually, then mix them together. The effect will be different from the fluid swirls of cold-process, but the effects are beautiful.

Make sure you read the information about the colorant and suggested uses. Responsible suppliers will provide this information. You can also read the archives of the soapmaking message boards for experiences of other soapmakers. Record your findings, keeping detailed records of how each colorant behaved in each technique.

If you’re going to color the batch all the same color, you can do it at the beginning; if you’re using colorants that are not affected by lye, such as ultramarines, you can add them at an earlier stage. With any lye soap batch, you can add ultramarines to the lye solution to ensure complete blending of color.

Remember when using any kind of colorant that the best way to know how to get exactly the color you want is by experience. In hot-process soapmaking, you can add colors that didn’t perform well with cold-process and usually get a better result. Know that there is no way to know exactly how it will look until you try.

Cooking to Neutrality

There are many ways to cook the soap to neutrality. The easiest way is to cook the caustic batter in a slow cooker. The major drawback for many soapmakers is that there are more size limits on slow cookers than on stock pots. Some soapers take a big, stainless steel pot of traced soap and put it in the oven to do the cook.

There are soapmaking message boards dedicated to advanced techniques in hot-process soapmaking. You can find soapers who place their molds in the sun, on hot driveways, and in plastic bags inside the double boiler. Once you’ve gained experience with the basic methods, find a group of soapers who’ve come up with further specialized techniques, and experiment.

Before you experiment with any kind of caustic-based soapmaking, you must have experience with more conventional methods. There are so many variables that can cause accidents, great and small, that you must know exactly what you’re doing. Always respect the potential danger of hot, caustic raw soap.

Hot-Process Equipment

In addition to the equipment needed for cold-process soapmaking, the hot-process technique requires either a slow cooker or a double boiler.

Slow Cooker

The recipes in this book call for a slow cooker. They are easy to use, self-contained, and convenient. You can purchase slow cookers at mass market, outlet, overstock, and thrift stores. The recipes in the book call for a 3.5-quart slow cooker. If you want to increase the size of your recipe, get a bigger slow cooker. Just make sure you have enough headroom to accommodate the puffing up that will often happen. An overflowing mass of caustic soap is a surprise you don’t want.

Slow cooker at a half hour

There are mini–slow cookers and great big 8-quart slow cookers. Just be absolutely sure your slow cooker has enough room for your soap. Calculate the volume of your batch—oils plus water plus lye—and fill the crock with that much water. There should be at least two inches of free space left from the top of the slow cooker to the surface.

Slow cooker at “applesauce” stage

Double Boiler

Instead of a slow cooker, you can cook your hot-process soap in a double boiler made from two large pots, one placed inside the other. Depending on the size of your recipe, you can use something as large as a canning kettle with a 12-quart stock pot inside, down to one small saucepan placed inside another.

Learning to make opaque hot-process soap is a gateway to making transparent, liquid, and cream soaps. These methods can be seen as an extension of hot processing and are better attempted after gaining some facility with hot processing solid, opaque soap.

Note that the type of commercial “sit on top” double boiler you buy in stores is not the ideal pan for small batches of hot-process cooking. It’s better to have the soap pot partially submerged in the boiling water of the bigger pan.

Kitchen supply stores usually carry a trivet-like object for “making” a double boiler. You place it in the bottom of the larger pot and sit the smaller pot on top of it.

Getting Started

You can use just about any cold-process recipe to make an opaque hot-process batch. (This is not true, though, for liquid and transparent hot-process recipes, which require different ingredients.) It is a good idea to make the recipe as a cold-process batch first to know what to expect.

Although cold-process takes time to neutralize, waiting can be less stressful for beginners than cooking the soap to neutrality. Know that, like any new recipe and technique, hot-process soapmaking will become routine for you. It is a happy soapmaker who has many techniques and processes at her disposal.

This basic recipe is the same as the basic cold-process recipe. However, the convenience that you find with a 1-pound batch in cold-process soapmaking isn’t that convenient with hot-process. It’s easier to get the cook going with a bigger batch. Additionally, too large a batch can be quite unwieldy. The recipes here are a compromise—not too small, not too large.

Basic Hot-Process Soap

This recipe makes a basic kitchen soap. A good kitchen soap should do a number of things. First, it should clean your hands gently. Second, it should be able to remove grease and food residue. Third, is should have some deodorizing properties. Additionally, it can be colored and scented to go with your kitchen.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS 3 POUNDS

1 pound, 3 ounces olive oil

3 ounces palm kernel oil

10 ounces coconut oil

1.5 ounces castor oil

10 ounces water

4.5 ounces lye

Your choice of scent materials

Your choice of color

Your choice of other additives

Combine and melt the olive oil, palm kernel oil, coconut oil, and castor oil in the slow cooker.

Measure the water into a heatproof mixing container. Slowly add the lye to prepare the lye solution. Pour the hot lye solution into the oils, slowly and carefully. Stir to trace.

Cook in slow cooker, 3 hours on low setting. Check for consistency every 30 minutes. Check pH. Add scent materials, color, and other additives when neutral.

Fill molds, let cool, and set. Unmold, cut into bars, and store as usual.

Coffee Kitchen Soap

It is common soapmaking lore that ground coffee has a deodorizing effect on the skin. Coffee is said to be able to remove the odors of garlic and onions from your hands. You’ll have to see for yourself. But there is definitely a useful scrubbing action from the ground coffee.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS 3 POUNDS

2-pound batch recipe of your choice, substituting strong brewed coffee for the water

2 tablespoons finely ground coffee

Make a 2-pound batch, substituting strong brewed coffee for the water. Stir to a good medium trace.

Cook as usual. Check pH. If it’s still caustic, continue cooking until the soap is neutral.

Stir the finely ground coffee into the neutral soap.

Pack into molds, let cool, and set. Unmold, cut into bars, and store as usual.

Lemon/Baking Soda Kitchen Soap

Lemons have long been prized for their ability to reduce kitchen odors, as has baking soda. Baking soda is also a gentle abrasive. Lemon zest helps cut grease and adds a fresh lemon scent.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS 3 POUNDS

2-pound batch recipe of your choice

2 tablespoons lemon zest

3 tablespoons baking soda

Make up the batch as usual and stir to a good medium trace.

Cook as usual until the soap is neutral. Check pH. Continue cooking if it’s still caustic, and check again.

Stir the lemon zest and baking soda into the neutral soap.

Pack into molds, let cool, and set. Unmold, cut into bars, and store as usual.

Super-Clean Kitchen Soap

The cleaning power of this soap starts with the blend of essential oils. Orange, eucalyptus, and lavender essential oils are great grease cutters. These essential oils are also known for their reported antibacterial properties. Cornmeal adds brisk abrasive action.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS 3 POUNDS

2-pound batch recipe of your choice

2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal

1 teaspoon orange essential oil

1 teaspoon eucalyptus essential oil

1 teaspoon lavender essential oil

Make up the batch as usual and stir to a good medium trace.

Cook as usual until the soap is neutral. Check pH. Continue cooking if it’s still caustic, and check again.

Stir the yellow cornmeal into the neutral soap. Add the orange essential oil, eucalyptus essential oil, and lavender essential oil. Stir well.

Pack into molds, let cool, and set. Unmold, cut into bars, and store as usual.

Peppermint Bath Soap

Every tub should have at least one good bath soap. Single essential oils can make for an easy choice in the morning. Choose peppermint for a brisk awakening.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS 3 POUNDS

2-pound batch recipe of your choice, substituting strong mint tea—made from fresh peppermint, mint tea bags, or loose tea, strained well and cooled—for the water

1 tablespoon mint, dried and ground (you can use the contents of a mint tea bag)

¹⁄₂ teaspoon peppermint essential oil

Make up the batch as usual and stir to a good medium trace.

Cook as usual until the soap is neutral. Check pH. Continue cooking if it’s still caustic.

Stir the mint into the neutral soap. Just before you pack the soap into the molds, add the peppermint essential oil. (Wait as long as possible to stir in the essential oil. It is extremely volatile—readily vaporized—and your house will smell like an explosion in a toothpaste factory.)

Pack into molds, let cool, and set. Unmold, cut into bars, and store as usual.

Lavender Bath Soap

To make the lavender infusion called for in this recipe, use 2 tablespoons of lavender for each cup of water in the recipe. Heat the water and pour it over the lavender. Let cool completely, then strain out the lavender. Remeasure. Add more water to compensate for any volume that may have been lost due to evaporation.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS 3 POUNDS

2-pound batch recipe of your choice, substituting a lavender infusion for the water

1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers

1 teaspoon lavender essential oil

Make up the batch as usual and stir to a good medium trace.

Cook as usual until the soap is neutral. Check pH. Continue cooking if it’s still caustic.

Stir the lavender flowers into the neutral soap. Add the lavender essential oil and stir completely.

Pack into molds, let cool, and set. Unmold, cut into bars, and store as usual.

Eucalyptus Bath Soap

Eucalyptus soap is a great choice for when you’re feeling under the weather. To make the yarrow infusion called for in this recipe, use 2 tablespoons of yarrow for each cup of water in the recipe. Heat the water and pour it over the yarrow. Let cool completely, then strain out the yarrow. Remeasure. Add more water to compensate for any volume that may have been lost due to evaporation.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS 3 POUNDS

2-pound batch recipe of your choice, substituting a yarrow infusion for the water

1 tablespoon dried yarrow (remove stems and stiff parts)

1 teaspoon eucalyptus essential oil

Make up the batch as usual and stir to a good medium trace.

Cook as usual until the soap is neutral. Check pH. Continue cooking if it’s still caustic.

Stir the yarrow into the neutral soap. Add the eucalyptus essential oil and stir completely.

Pack into molds, let cool, and set. Unmold, cut into bars, and store as usual.

Rosemary Bath Soap

Rosemary is great for mental focus. To make the rosemary infusion called for in this recipe, use 2 tablespoons of rosemary for each cup of water in the recipe. Heat the water and pour it over the rosemary. Let cool, then strain out the rosemary. Remeasure. Add more water to compensate for any volume that may have been lost due to evaporation.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS 3 POUNDS

2-pound batch recipe of your choice, substituting a rosemary infusion for the water

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves

1 teaspoon rosemary essential oil

Make up the batch as usual and stir to a good medium trace.

Cook as usual until the soap is neutral. Check pH. Continue cooking if it’s still caustic.

Stir the rosemary leaves into the neutral soap. Add the rosemary essential oil and stir completely.

Pack into molds, let cool, and set. Unmold, cut into bars, and store as usual.

Perfect Facial Soap

Contrary to common understanding, soap and water are good for almost any face. It just has to be the right soap. Properly formulated handmade soap makes a great facial soap. Whether your skin is dry, average, oily, or prone to breakouts, there is a good chance handmade facial soap will work for you.

The following recipes make small batches, as you’ll be using more costly ingredients. Cool the soap as much as you can before stirring in the essential oils. This way you’ll have less evaporation of the precious oils.

Soap for Dry Skin

INGREDIENTS

5 ounces olive oil

5 ounces coconut oil

3 ounces shea butter

3 ounces avocado oil

0.5 ounce castor oil

5.5 ounces water

1 tablespoon dried chamomile

2.25 ounces lye

10 drops German chamomile essential oil

5 drops rose otto essential oil

2 drops jasmine essential oil

5 drops palmarosa essential oil

Combine and melt the olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter, castor oil, and avocado oil in the slow cooker.

Make a chamomile infusion by heating the water and pouring it over the dried chamomile. Let cool, then strain out the chamomile. Remeasure. Add more water to make 5.5 ounces, to compensate for any volume that may have been lost due to evaporation.

Place the chamomile infusion in a heatproof mixing container. Slowly add the lye to prepare the lye solution. Heat the oils and cool the lye solution to 110°F. Pour the lye solution into the oils, slowly and carefully. Stir to trace.

Cook in slow cooker, 3 hours on low setting. Check for consistency every 30 minutes. Check pH after 3 hours is up.

When the soap is neutral, add the essential oils and stir thoroughly.

Pack into molds, let cool, and set. Unmold, cut into bars, and store as usual.

Soap for Skin That’s Not Too Oily nor Too Dry

INGREDIENTS

8 ounces olive oil

4 ounces coconut oil

4 ounces macadamia nut oil

0.5 ounce castor oil

5.5 ounces water

1 tablespoon dried lavender

2.25 ounces lye

5 drops German chamomile essential oil

2 drops rose otto essential oil

¹⁄₈ teaspoon lavender essential oil

Combine and melt the olive oil, coconut oil, macadamia nut oil, and castor oil in the slow cooker.

Make a lavender infusion by heating the water and pouring it over the dried lavender. Let cool completely, then strain out the lavender. Remeasure. Add more water to make 5.5 ounces, to compensate for any volume that may have been lost due to evaporation.

Place the lavender infusion in a heatproof mixing container. Slowly add the lye to prepare the lye solution, and stir until clear. Pour the lye solution into the oils, slowly and carefully. Stir to trace.

Cook in slow cooker, 3 hours on low setting. Check for consistency every 30 minutes. Check pH.

When the soap is neutral, add the essential oils and stir thoroughly.

Pack into molds, let cool, and set. Unmold, cut into bars, and store as usual.

Soap for Oily Skin

INGREDIENTS

6 ounces olive oil

4 ounces coconut oil

6 ounces grapeseed oil

0.5 ounce castor oil

5.5 ounces strong black tea

2.25 ounces lye

¹⁄₄ teaspoon lavender essential oil

5 drops cedarwood essential oil

5 drops lemongrass essential oil

5 drops rosemary essential oil

Combine and melt the olive oil, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, and castor oil in the slow cooker.

Place the tea in a heatproof container. Slowly add the lye to prepare the lye solution. Heat the oils and cool the lye solution to 110°F. Pour the lye solution into the oils, slowly and carefully. Stir to trace.

Cook in slow cooker, 3 hours on low setting. Check for consistency every 30 minutes. Check pH.

When the soap is neutral, add the essential oils and stir thoroughly.

Pack into molds, let cool, and set. Unmold, cut into bars, and store as usual.

Soap for Acne-Prone Skin

INGREDIENTS

11 ounces olive oil

5 ounces coconut oil

0.5 ounce castor oil

5.5 ounces water

1 tablespoon hibiscus tea blend

2.25 ounces lye

1 tablespoon bentonite or kaolin clay

6 drops tea tree essential oil

6 drops lavender essential oil

6 drops rosemary essential oil

Combine and melt the olive oil, coconut oil, and castor oil in the slow cooker.

Make a hibiscus tea by heating the water and pouring it over the hibiscus tea blend. Let cool completely, then strain out the hibiscus. Remeasure. Add more water to make 5.5 ounces, to compensate for any volume that may have been lost due to evaporation

Place the tea in a heatproof container. Slowly add the lye and the clay to prepare the lye solution. Pour the lye solution into the oils, slowly and carefully. Stir to trace.

Cook in slow cooker, 3 hours on low setting. Check for consistency every 30 minutes. Check pH.

When the soap is neutral, add the essential oils and stir thoroughly.

Pack into molds, let cool, and set. Unmold, cut into bars, and store as usual.

Unmolding

Getting hot-process soaps out of their molds can be a challenge. You’ll have to use trial and error. Some batches are just stickier than others. Some may release with no trouble at all, and others may take extended time in the molds before they’ll release.

Creating Color Variation

Creating color variation in hot-process soap is tough, but it can be done. It takes a bit of planning and coordination, but you can do it easily once you’ve got the knack. Think of each color as a “sub-batch,” each with its own mixing vessel. Your most useful tools are a stainless steel slotted spoon, a small whisk, and a scoop-shaped silicone spatula. Use small heat-resistant plastic containers and measures to blend the individual colors. You will also find stainless steel soupspoons and wooden chopsticks helpful.

Experiment with Patterns

Make up the batch and cook to neutrality. While it is cooking, set up the colorants, fragrances, and mixing cups. If the colors and scents vary widely, have separate stirring spoons for each sub-batch.

You can add liquid glycerin to hot-process soap to get it to flow more easily from the mold. Use 1 tablespoon for each pound of oils in the batch.

Plan out the pattern you want to attempt. If you want large hunks of color, you’ll place blobs of colored soap in the mold in the color pattern you like and leave it. If you want to swirl, you can push a chopstick through those blobs in various directions, depending on the effect you want.

Glopping and Swirling

Although it sounds inelegant, glop is an apt verb for describing the way you make color variations in hot-process. The hot-process soap is thick, so you won’t be able to get the subtle swirls you get with the fluidity of cold-process swirling. You can, however, create great-looking soap.

Divide the hot, neutralized soap into as many containers as you have colors. You must work quickly: The cooler the soap gets, the more difficult it will be to incorporate the color evenly. As with other coloring techniques, removing a bit of soap, coloring it, then stirring that back into the rest works best. Once you’ve incorporated the colors, you’re going to glop them into the mold. You will place each portion in a certain way to get the effect you want. The soap will be solid enough to support the portion you place on top of it.

You can make an orderly pattern with the portions of colored soap. Try stripes of one color one way across the mold, and another set of stripes of a different color going the other way.

To make swirls, run a chopstick, spoon, or narrow spatula through the layers. Go randomly or in a pattern, whatever you think will look good. Be sure to make the swirls evenly from bottom to top of the mold. It’s easy to miss the bottom of the mold.

Sculpting with Hot-Process Soap

This is another technique that is to be undertaken only by an experienced soapmaker. You must have command of the hot-process and be confident that you know for certain when it is neutral. If you have any doubts, then do not use this technique. And although there is a major element of play involved, this is not a technique for beginners.

One of the challenges of hot-process soap is how to form it. You glop it into molds and smash it down to eliminate air pockets and smooth the tops. Finding just the right temperature and consistency to achieve the shape and texture you want may lead you to work with still-warm soap, right from the slow cooker. When the soap is cool enough to handle, knead it and work it until it is smooth, then roll it into soap balls. Play around with other shapes; the soap will be pliable for quite some time before becoming too firm to work. Ovals, little cubes, then figures will emerge as you realize that warm, neutral, fresh hot-processed soap is an apt material for sculpture.

Test fresh hot-process soap for neutrality with phenolphthalein. When the soap is still caustic, a drip of phenolphthalein will turn pink, indicating that you need to cook it longer. Do not attempt sculpting with hot-process soap until there is absolutely no pink when you test with phenolphthalein. Your soap must be completely neutral before attempting this technique!

As the warm, even hot, soap is worked by hand, it takes on a lovely smoothness that looks and feels good in simple shapes, for example spheres, cubes, and eggs. You can work more complicated shapes—human and animal forms, logs you can make into knots, abstracts—anything that emerges as you work.

At the end of your sculpting session, you’ll have an array of shapes, objects, and figures. And the feeling in your hands is incredible—the deep heat combined with the kneading is the most amazing hand massage you’ve ever had. Your hands may be dry after working with soap for such an extended time, so be sure to apply a rich hand lotion or cream after you’ve enjoyed the lather of your new soap.

Sculpting Project

Make the batch of hot-process of your choice. When the soap is almost done, gather the following tools:

1 batch hot-process soap

Kraft paper or cardboard

Plastic-backed freezer paper

Large serving spoon

Scale (optional)

Bowl of ice water to quickly cool your hands if needed

Bamboo skewers, stainless steel or plastic spoons, forks, and knives

Some additions and decorations, such as dried herbs and flower petals, coffee beans, dried white beans, large tapioca, or smooth stones to put in the center of the soap to find like treasure as the soap washes away. (Remember that this list is just the beginning of what you can use—feel free to get creative!)

Test the hot-process for neutrality. (You must not skip this step. You must be absolutely certain the soap is completely neutral.) Turn off the heat of the slow cooker.

Cover your work surface with the newspaper, Kraft paper, or cardboard.

Cut about 10 placemat-sized pieces of freezer paper. (You’ll use these as a direct work surface, and they wear out, so cut more than you think you’ll need.)

Scoop out a portion of soap onto a piece of freezer paper. If you want to be precise about the size of the soaps, place the waxed paper on the scale and weigh out the amount of soap you want. Four ounces is a good starting place. If you don’t want to weigh it, you can judge by eye a scoop about as big as a stick of butter.

To facilitate cooling, smash and spread the scoop of hot soap until it’s about ¹⁄₄-inch thick. The soap will stay molten inside even when the outside looks dry and cool, so keep smashing it with the spoon until it’s warm, but not too hot.

Carefully test the soap for temperature by touching it. You need to be sure it’s cool enough not to burn you, yet warm enough to work. If you’re uncertain, start with an ounce or so, and familiarize yourself with how it cools.

When you have a mass of soap that is cool enough to work, flatten it with your hands. Roll it, knead it, and shape it. You’ll observe that it goes from coarse texture to smooth as you work it. When it starts to get too cool to work, it will become almost waxy feeling, and sometimes crumble if you continue to work it. If you’re adding herbs, for example, sprinkle crushed dried herbs onto the flattened mass, then knead them into it by smashing and rolling, pushing and squishing. If at any time it feels uncomfortably hot, put it down and smash it with the spoon to thin it out so it can cool more.

When the soap is smooth, shape it the way you want it, using bamboo skewers, stainless steel or plastic spoons, forks, and knives. Blocks, spheres, and pyramids are great starter shapes and will be able to take an imprint from a soap stamp, rubber stamp, or other embossing tool.

As you gain facility with simple shapes, others will emerge. If you find yourself getting frustrated, try to stop thinking and just let your mind and hands work together. The sculpted shapes may look rough at first, but they will smooth when you wash with them. As with all handmade soap, be sure to set your soap sculptures on a soap dish or other well-drained place to keep it from dissolving.

Cleaning Up

Whatever you do, don’t rinse large blobs of gooey soap, either finished or unsaponified, down your drains. They will clog up your drains almost immediately and take a lot to clean out once clogged.

When making hot-process soap, do your cleanup in stages. While the soap is cooking, clean up the tools and equipment that were touched by lye and raw soap. Always wear gloves and goggles when cleaning up after working with lye.

Lemons can be a great help in cleaning up after a round of oily soaping. If you have halved lemon peel left over from making lemonade, for example, add them to your cleanup water. Lemon essential oil is a great degreaser, and it will release from the peel into the hot water.

Wipe excess soap off the tools, and then put them in the sink with a generous amount of hot water. Add detergent and wash well, followed with another rinse of hot water. If the tools and equipment still feel oily, wash again with detergent and hot water.

After your hot-process soap is done, it is neutral, so you may continue your cleanup without so many safety precautions. Still take care. Don’t rinse chunks down the drain, and make sure there is no greasy residue.

CHAPTER 9

Liquid, Transparent, and Cream Hot-Process Soap Recipes

By extending the hot-process, you can make liquid, transparent, and cream soaps. They can be very difficult to make, but it’s well worth the effort because you get homemade soap in beautiful liquid, transparent, and creamy forms. Making these soaps from scratch is sure to elicit compliments from your friends.

You Can Do It!

You may have thought of grating and dissolving solid soap to make liquid soap. You may have even tried it and found yourself with a slimy, sticky mess that separates almost immediately, and then dries to a crust. Obviously, this method doesn’t work. But by using the hot-process soap method with potassium hydroxide as the caustic, you can make beautifully transparent, non-separating liquid soap from scratch.

It is a good idea to make cold-process soap first, then do some hot-process projects before you tackle liquid soap. It’s not that it’s terribly difficult, but there are more variables, and the more secure you are in basic soapmaking, the easier it will be.

Again, we look to innovator Catherine Failor for guidance. Her book Making Liquid Soap is a complete study in the form. The techniques you will learn here are adapted from her methods. Please check out her book to increase your knowledge of this fascinating way of soaping. Here are Catherine Failor’s top five tips to new soapmakers:

Measure, measure, measure.

Don’t assume that what’s in soapmaking books is gospel. Many of my problems with soapmaking came because of the 90°F pour temperature, which seemed to be written in stone in most soap books. Most problems people have come from too low a pour temperature and the consequential poor saponification.

I pour my cold-process soaps between 120°F and 130°F, especially in winter.

Just remember that most soap throughout history has been boiled, not cold-processed.

Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Making Liquid Soap

To make liquid soaps, you take the hot-process soapmaking techniques, make a few ingredient adjustments, and then go a few steps further. You make the caustic solution with water and potassium hydroxide, add it to warmed oils, and then you cook it until it is neutral. The mass of neutralized soap is the concentrate from which you will make the liquid soap.

You will measure out this neutral soap gel and melt it into water. You can keep the extra gel-like base in a sealed plastic container in the refrigerator (well labeled!) and make up more liquid soap as needed. This works well, because like any soap, liquid soap has a shelf life. It’s better to mix up more as you need it than have an entire batch sitting around resolidifying or getting rancid.

One benefit of making small batches of liquid soap from the stored base is the ability to create variety. For instance, you can make some in sage green for the kitchen, light blue for the powder room, and soft rose for the master bath.

Instead of sodium hydroxide, you will use potassium hydroxide to make liquid soap. The molecular structure of potassium hydroxide creates long strands rather than crystalline structures, so the soap remains fluid rather than solidifying. The soap paste with which you are left at the end of the first cook will have a texture like gummy jelly. Melting the paste into water makes the liquid soap.

If you’ve used sodium hydroxide to make solid soap, you’ll notice that this stir to trace is different. It is very opaque and milky right away, yet very thin. You have to use the stick blender for action to get it to start tracing. When it does, it happens all of a sudden. Big bubbles will start to kick up when it’s about to firm up.

You can divide the finished soap into small amounts and experiment with color and scent. Some fragrance oils and essential oils have color of their own, so add them before you add the colorant. Liquid food colors work perfectly well and look best when used in small amounts. The liquid soap will be somewhat yellow, so remember this when working out your color plan.

Liquid Soap in Slow Cooker

For this recipe, use a 3.5-quart slow cooker. If you use too small a slow cooker for the batch, you will increase the chances of overheating, overflowing, and the “volcano” action of the cooking soap.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS ABOUT 3 POUNDS OF PASTE, WHICH WILL DILUTE TO ABOUT 6 POUNDS OF LIQUID SOAP

22 ounces coconut oil

4 ounces castor oil

1 ounce jojoba oil

16 ounces water

6.25 ounces potassium hydroxide

Rubbing alcohol in small spray bottle to control bubbles

Set slow cooker to high. Place the coconut oil, castor oil, and jojoba oil into the slow cooker. Cover to hold in heat. Melt the oils.

Place the water in a heatproof container and sprinkle the potassium hydroxide into the water. Stir until all the potassium hydroxide is dissolved. (This mixture won’t get as hot as the lye solutions for solid soap since you’re using more water.) Without waiting for it to cool, add the potassium hydroxide–water solution to the oils by pouring it in a thin stream, stirring constantly and carefully to fully combine the mixture.

Using an immersion blender, blend the mixture to trace. Keep the head of the blender fully immersed to avoid blending air into the soap batter.

When the mass starts to thicken, the mixture will thicken fast—it may just become nearly solid! Remember that this will happen all of a sudden, so watch that you don’t burn out the blender by not paying attention.

Let the paste cook until it’s translucent. (This will take about 3 hours.) Stir the neutralizing soap every 30 minutes by folding the soap with a firm yet careful hand, incorporating the puffy areas into the center.

After 3 hours, test to see if the soap is neutral. Scrape a small portion onto a folded-up paper towel. Drip a couple of drops of phenolphthalein onto the soap. If it turns bright pink, it needs more cooking. If it is clear with just a little pink, you’re ready to move on.

If you’re going to make finished liquid soap right away, measure out the amount you want to dilute and store the rest. Take the finished paste out of the slow cooker and let it cool in a plastic or stainless steel container. When it’s cool, put the amount you wish to store into a heavy ziplock bag.

Place the paste that you wish to make into liquid soap in a stainless steel pan over direct heat on your stove to melt the paste into the water. Use equal parts paste and water. Although it will produce some foam, boiling is the best way to get it started. Be sure the pan is an appropriate size for the batch you are making (1 pound of paste and 1 pound of water will fit perfectly in a standard 4-quart saucepan).

Bring the paste and water to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 15–30 minutes. You need to stay with it, making absolutely sure it doesn’t boil dry. It may be tempting to put a lid on, but it is better to leave the lid off, because the boil-over potential is very great, even if you keep the heat the same.

When the soap paste has dissolved, remove the pan from the stove and stir to incorporate as much foam as you can.

Spritz the surface with rubbing alcohol to clear any bubbles that remain. (Do not do this near a gas range!) Add color and fragrance if you like.

Pour your finished soap into bottles and admire your hard work! Your soap is slightly superfatted and will get rancid over time. Just use it all the time and make more when you need it. Taking a pretty plastic dispenser of your own soap to work will be a treat for you and your coworkers.

Homemade liquid hand and body soap is really quite similar to the kind you buy at the store. You can pump or squeeze it in a similar way, and it foams nicely on the skin, especially if you use a sponge or a loofa. Where most liquid soaps made at home fall short is if you try to use them for shampoo, shower gel, or bubble bath.

An amazingly fun and fabulous way to dispense your liquid soap is with a “foamer” bottle. This kind of bottle dispenses foam instead of liquid by forcing the liquid soap through a mesh, mixing it with air to make bubbles. Your liquid soap needs to be quite thin for it to work properly. Experiment with dilutions to find which works best for you.

Of course, you can use the recipe as shampoo to see how you like it. Many people prefer the feeling they get from a detergent shampoo to the feel of handmade liquid soap shampoo. You may find, though, that you love it! Handmade liquid shampoo leaves a different kind of residue than commercial shampoo, and it can leave some people’s hair feeling oily, stiff, dry, or just strange. You can use a vinegar rinse to counteract some of this feeling.

All shampoo will eventually leave a buildup on your hair, and homemade soap will do this faster. It is a good idea to use a vinegar rinse at least once a week to take care of this. You can make wonderful herbal vinegars that you’ll use highly diluted in water. Infuse 2 cups of white or apple cider vinegar with 1 cup dried lavender, rosemary, or other herb of your choice. Let infuse for a week. Use 1 tablespoon of strained, infused vinegar for each 8 ounces of water. You can put this in a big squeeze bottle when you know you’re going to need it and keep it in the shower. Use up the diluted solution within a few days.

You can try making bubble bath with the liquid soap, too. To get better bubbles, try adding 1–3 teaspoons of glycerin per pound of diluted soap. Depending on the water in your area, this may or may not produce big bubbles.

Using Foaming Bases

If you want to make your own shampoo, shower gel, and bubble bath, there are other options. You can buy clear, unscented shampoo, shower gel, and bubble bath. These premade bases are technically not soap, but they are used for cleansing; they bubble; and they present opportunities for creativity. You warm them and make additions, but instead of pouring them into molds like you would with casting soap, you pour them into plastic bottles. A line-up of beautifully colored and scented shampoo, shower gel, and bubble bath can look like shiny jewels on the edge of the tub. Think about how you can create coordinating looks for your bathrooms, with coded colors for each type of product or even each family member.

Many soap supply houses carry these unscented foaming bases. For example, Brambleberry carries a liquid soap concentrate base to which you add one ingredient or another to make it more specifically shampoo, shower gel, or bubble bath. If you want to choose one base to use universally, choose a shampoo base, as you can certainly use that as a body wash and often as a bubble bath, although you have to try each one as they differ in how well they hold up in the bath.

Choosing a Container

Transparent, squeezable plastic bottles that are made of PET plastic are ideal. The kind of plastic is important, because there are many kinds of plastic that will not stand up to fragrance oils or essential oils. Look for the initials PET on the bottom of the bottles if you reuse bottles you already have or buy them at the drug store. If you order from an online soapmaking supplier, look in the product descriptions to be sure you get PET. Get PET bottles even if you don’t intend to use scent material, because chances are, you will eventually.

Two- and 4-ounce bottles are excellent choices, especially when you are first starting, because you aren’t committed to a large amount of any one experiment. For most foaming bases, flip-tops are perfect. You can also get pumps, but they are usually more useful for 8- and 16-ounce bottles (they can topple the smaller bottles). Most packaging suppliers sell bottles and caps separately, so be sure to order both. Two favorite bottle shapes are called Boston Round and Cosmo Oval. It is partly a matter of aesthetic preference, but the Cosmo Ovals are easier to squeeze.

Foaming bases are primarily water, detergents, surfactants, and skin or hair conditioners. Detergents are commonly derived from coconut, palm, and olive oils or the separated fatty acids of those oils. You’ll often find fatty acids, such as sodium lauryl sulfate, at the top of the list of ingredients in shampoo, bubble bath, and dishwashing liquid.

Adding Colors and Scents

Like so much of soapmaking, your options with foaming bases are virtually unlimited. You can add color, fragrance, and other additives. You can choose sheer colors; shimmery, pearly micas; and even glitter. The crystal-clear appearance of unscented liquid bases can be accented beautifully with just about any kind of cosmetic colorant. Gel color, LabColors, mica, mineral pigment, and food coloring from the grocery store are all great choices. Start with a small amount of color and work your way up. Keeping it relatively sheer takes advantage of the way light passes through the liquid.

Aromas from fragrance oils are widely varied, and you can decide how strong or how light you want the scent to be. Using essential oils and other natural aromas, you can create truly aromatherapeutic products to use daily and as the need arises. Most bases will take any cosmetic fragrance material: fragrance oils, essential oils, or blends of both. Some suppliers suggest the use of a solubilizer to hold the scent material in suspension and keep it from making the base cloudy or runny. Whether you need it or not depends on the kind of base and the kind and quantity of fragrance material. Get a small bottle when you order your base and scents; that way you’ll have it if you need it and if you don’t, you won’t have a large amount of something you don’t need.

Other things you could add to your foaming base include scrubs like bamboo granules and powdered loofa, jojoba spheres, and clays that add color, scent, and texture. Additionally, you can add the foaming bases to basic handmade beauty formulas such as sugar scrubs to add foam and rinsability.

This kind of crafting is moving away from soapmaking and into handmade toiletries. If you’ve been wondering about lotions and other potions, this is a good jumping-off place. For a quick project, make a room spray with 8 ounces of water and 1 teaspoon each of scent material and solubilizer. Put in a spray bottle and shake well before using.

Coloring and Scenting Unscented Bases

Try the products and make notes on what you like, what looks too bright, what smells too strong, what foams, and what doesn’t.

INGREDIENTS

Customized Liquid Bases

Bottles and closures

Funnel

Heatproof measuring cup

Chopsticks and spatulas

Thermometer (optional)

Cosmetic-grade colorants

Essential oils

Fragrance oils

Solubilizer

Rubbing alcohol in a small spritzer bottle

Other additives as desired

Measure out the amount of base you’re going to need into the measuring cup. You can do a quick one-off batch to start, or maybe try a variety of color and scent combinations. Whichever you choose, employ the mise en place technique to minimize clutter and keep you focused on creating.

Warm the base in the microwave in 10-second intervals, stirring well after each heating. You don’t want the base to be hot and totally liquid. You’re just warming it to make it easier to incorporate additives and pour into bottles.

When the base is warmed enough to be easy to pour, add your color, scent, solubilizer, and other additives. Stir well. Use the funnel to help you fill the bottles. If you want to make a variety of scents and colors and additives, you can pour plain warmed base into the bottles, and then make the additions. Close the cap and shake well to incorporate the ingredients.

Set the bottles, with caps open, out to cool. Any cloudiness should have subsided in a few hours, if not right when cooled.

If you find the base is runny after settling, try adding the solubilizer at the supplier’s recommended amount, usually the same amount as the fragrance material.

Making Transparent Soap

A great number of people who want to make their own soap are drawn to transparent soap because of its beauty. With some alterations in ingredients, you can use the hot-process technique you’ve already learned to make incredible transparent soap. This from-scratch soap cannot be easily melted and molded, but it is beautiful in its own right.

The addition of sugar and alcohol are the best ways to make transparent or at least translucent soap at home. Commercially, the process involves pressure and extreme temperatures. At home, it is an extension of the cold- and hot-process techniques.

If you are tempted to make transparent lye soap your first project, resist the temptation, or at least have an experienced soaper help you. Lye soapmaking from scratch is daunting enough the first time without the added variables introduced with this technique.

Before you make transparent soap, be sure you have made a number of batches of both cold-process and hot-process soap. Familiarize yourself with basic lye soapmaking and the additional procedures taken to make hot-process. You’ll be more ready to tackle this method if you’ve gained facility with the others.

The addition of the sugar and alcohol alters the way the molecules crystallize, creating a clear appearance. You may not always get clear soap—it may often be cloudy or translucent—but it will always be unique and beautiful. The soap is perfectly good to use even if it is cloudy.

Although you cannot easily melt and pour this kind of soap, you can cut it into pieces and use it as chunks and other fancy shape details in cold-process soaping. You can do this kind of fancy work with glycerin soap base, but if you make your own lye-based translucent soap, you may have better luck with the chunks staying in place due to the similarity of the makeup of the soap.

Transparent soap made through the hot-process method lets you control the ingredients, just as you do with opaque soap. It can be a tricky process, with a lot of trial and error, but the benefits are great, not the least of which is the pride you feel when you say, “Yes, I did make that!”

Transparent Soap Equipment

You will need the usual lye soap equipment, plus hot-process equipment, plus a few things especially for transparent soap. You can use the same molds you’ve been using. Of course, the safety precautions apply.

If you don’t already have a fire extinguisher in your soapmaking area, you must get one before making transparent soap with alcohol. Make sure it is charged and within reach. You shouldn’t have to find out where it is when you desperately need it.

If you have a gas range, don’t use it. Get a two-burner buffet range. It is not worth the potential danger and worry to use alcohol over an open flame.

Transparent Soap Ingredients

To make transparent soap, you’ll make a simple syrup of water and sugar and add it with the alcohol. To help ensure the transparency of the finished product, the base oils need to maintain clarity. Highly saturated oils that look opaque, for example, if used in high amounts will make the soap less transparent. Excess fats, so desirable in other lye soap, will make this soap cloudy, so you cannot superfat the way you do with other methods.

For this reason, transparent soap recipes use a high level of lubricating castor oil and limit the coconut oil. Castor oil is a major component in transparent soapmaking. It is transparent, provides lather, and is lubricating to the skin. You need some coconut oil for cleansing and lather. Palm oil is for the production of stearin, which makes the bar hard.

It is harder to keep the temperatures at the right place with a batch under 4 pounds, so there is no 1-pound recipe given for transparent soap. The amounts of ingredients must be precise, and that is more difficult to do in such a small recipe. If you decide to increase the following recipe, you must use a proportionately larger slow cooker.

Transparent Soap/Frost Soap

This recipe is made in a 3.5-quart slow cooker. Don’t use this amount in a smaller pot, as it needs headroom. Don’t use a larger pot, or it will dry out too much, and you won’t be able to use the hand blender.

INGREDIENTS | YIELDS APPROXIMATELY 4–8 OUNCES OF FROST SOAP AND 16–20 OUNCES OF TRANSPARENT SOAP

6.5 ounces coconut oil

6.5 ounces palm oil

6.5 ounces castor oil

6.25 ounces water

3 ounces lye

10 ounces (plus 2 ounces more if needed for clarity) 90 percent ethanol (190 proof vodka)

2 ounces water

5 ounces sugar

Color, fragrances, and other additives as desired

Place the coconut oil, palm oil, and castor oil in a 3.5-quart slow cooker, turn on high, and put on the cover. If you have a stainless steel easy-read thermometer, you can place it in the pot and lift it out of the melted, warmed oils to check temperature.

When oils are up to 135°F–140°F, turn the slow cooker down to low. Keep the oils at 130°F–140°F.

Place 6.25 ounces of water in a heatproof container. Sprinkle the lye into the water and stir until lye is dissolved.

When the lye solution cools to about 135°F–140°F, pour it slowly into the oils. Stir with a silicone spatula to blend completely.

Wearing an oven mitt over your rubber glove, tilt the slow cooker enough so the head of your hand blender is completely submerged. (This prevents air from getting whipped into the mixture.)

Blend in short pulses, alternately stirring and scraping the sides with the spatula, until the mix has come to medium trace. (This will happen quite quickly.)

Put the lid on the slow cooker. (It is important not to open the lid unless you have to. You want to prevent evaporation.)

Let the traced soap batter sit in the slow cooker on low with the cover on for 2 hours or until it is neutral. Stir it once every 30 minutes while it neutralizes to keep the soap batter cooking evenly. The mass may get puffy, but the stirring releases the built-up air.

It will get gel-like around the edges after the first 30 minutes. Using the silicone spatula, blend the soap together completely. After another 30 minutes, stir well again, being sure to incorporate any bits that are getting dry on the edges. These need to be incorporated back into the mass so that they don’t show up as flecks later.

Cook for another 30 minutes. Stir well, incorporating the dry bits as before.

After another 30 minutes, stir well and remove a very small sample of soap with the spatula. Scrape the sample onto a double thickness of paper towel or a paper plate. This will provide you with a disposable testing site. Drip a drop of the phenolphthalein on the sample. If it turns vibrant pink, the soap needs more cooking. If it is barely pink to clear, proceed to the next step.

When you’ve determined the soap is neutral, give it another good stir, scraping the sides of the slow cooker and incorporating all the soap into a homogeneous mass.

Pour the alcohol into the soap in a medium stream. Stir well with a wooden spoon to break up as many lumps as you can. (The alcohol will evaporate and the fumes are strong, so stand back! You need to be sure that there are no open flames when doing this. Alcohol fumes are highly flammable.)

The room-temperature alcohol will harden the soap quite a bit. Break it up with a wooden spoon or a potato masher. Drizzle the alcohol and soap mixture on the sides of the slow cooker to help dissolve any dried soap that is sticking to the sides.

Use the hand blender to further break down the chunks. The slow cooker will still be hot, so be sure to wear an oven mitt as you tip the crock to the side to make a deep enough amount of soap to submerge the head of the blender. You don’t need to completely dissolve all the tiny pieces as they’ll dissolve while the alcohol-and-soap mixture cooks.

After working it with the hand blender, the soap will look opaque and a little foamy. As the soap cooks, it will liquefy into a clear yellow-to-amber liquid. Try to work quickly so that as little alcohol evaporates as possible.

Turn the slow cooker to high, put on the cover, and heat it until it foams up. It will happen quickly, and as long as the lid fits well and is heavy, the boiling mixture will stay inside. You can place a large, folded bath towel on top to help weigh down the lid and absorb any escaping mixture.

Check the contents after 15 minutes. There will be some foam and chunky bits on the top. Move the foam aside and spoon some of the clear liquid into a small glass. If there are still little chunks of soap, hand blend again until they’re all gone.

Turn off the heat and let the soap sit with the cover off for about 10 minutes. This will cause some of the foam to reincorporate into the clear soap without foaming back up.

Don’t try to incorporate all the foam, as it may cloud the soap. You’ll use the foam to make pretty soap with a frosty appearance. Just knock down as much as you can with a good spritz of alcohol.

Prepare the sugar solution by boiling 2 ounces of water in a saucepan on the stove, then adding the sugar. (It will become a very thick syrup.) Stir well, bring back up to a boil and boil for about 30 seconds. Add the hot sugar syrup to the soap mix in the slow cooker, pouring it right from the pan and stirring well the entire time.

There will be a considerable layer of bubbles, similar to “scum” when you make jam and jelly. Let this sit on the surface, gently stirring it in. It will dissolve. Scoop out the stubborn bits.

Scoop the foam off the surface of the clear soap. This is the “frost soap” part. Put it in a mixing cup, and work it well with a wooden spoon to get out as much of the air as you can before putting it in the molds. Add color, fragrance, and other additives as desired. Pack into molds or form into spheres and set aside.

There will be clear, golden fluid soap under the layer of foam. Remove some of this and place it on a clear plastic lid, like one from a margarine tub. Tip the lid to the side to make a little puddle at the edge of the lid. Put the soap-testing lid in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Put the lid on the pot while you’re waiting to minimize the layer of hardened soap that forms at the surface. You can gently submerge this “skin” to keep re-melting it back into the mass.

If the soap sample is clear when you take it from the freezer, proceed to the next step. If the soap sample isn’t clear at this time, add another 0.5 ounce of alcohol. Test again. If it still isn’t clear, add another 0.5 ounce. Test again. Even if it still isn’t clear, proceed anyway—you’ll have pretty soap with a degree of translucency.

After the soap is as clear as it is going to get, pour the soap through a strainer into a 4-cup heatproof plastic measuring container. Let the soap cool to 140°F. (This temperature is relatively kind to essential oils, if you’re using them, and it will not cause most fragrance oils to cloud the soap.)

You can color and fragrance the entire amount the same and pour into a mold or molds. Or you can pour into individual mixing cups and color and fragrance each one differently.

As soon as the soap is poured, get it into the freezer. (Make room in the freezer before you get this far. The more quickly the soap cools, the better, for rapid cooling helps with transparency.) When the soap is firm and cool but not frozen, remove it from the freezer.

Sometimes no matter what you do, your attempt at transparent soap turns out cloudy or opaque. Although disappointing—since the entire idea of going through all this is to have beautifully transparent soap—don’t be discouraged. If your soap isn’t transparent, it is still beautiful and extremely useful.

Making Cream Soap

Cream soapmaking takes a lot of time and a lot of patience. You cook the soap in the slow cooker, let it cool overnight, and then whip in extra water with a heavy-duty mixer. You can use your cream soap once it is whipped, but it will improve in texture when aged at least a week. Old-time soapmakers called this “rotting.” Essential oils, clay, herbs, and other enhancements can be added before or after rotting.

Close-up of cream soap showing elasticity

Making cream soap is the most experimental procedure in this book. There are so many factors that affect the outcome that it will take many batches and long waiting periods before you really get a grip on it. Think of this recipe and procedure as a starting place for much continued experimentation. Look online for lively discussion of cream soapmaking.

When you decide your soap is ready, make additions and package it. Jars, tubes, and airless pumps are ideal for cream soap. The drawback with a jar is that you have to put your hand in it to scoop out the soap, which can increase the chances of spoilage. Look for “tottles,” which are tube/bottle hybrids.

Getting the cream soap into containers can be tricky, particularly those with small openings. Counterintuitively, cream soap just gets thicker and more stubborn when heated, so that won’t work like it does for other semi-solids. A pastry tube or a heavy-duty zipper bag with one corner cut off will help you get the cream soap through small openings.

Because of the high water content in cream soap even after fully “rotting,” it may be susceptible to spoilage due to bacteria present in even the cleanest water. Consider using a cosmetic preservative such as Germaben II or Germall. You can find them in the lotion supply section of your soapmaking supplier’s website.

Because the amount of air whipped into your cream soap drastically alters the weight, you’ll fill by volume, not weight. The more “whipped” the soap, the less it will weigh. So instead of weighing the amount determined by your container, size up how much to prepare by eye.

Eleven ounces of this cream soap recipe with up to 4 ounces of additional water will fit perfectly in the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer.

There are so many ways to use cream soap, and these are just a few recipes to get you started. Store the rotted cream soap in a covered plastic container in the refrigerator and remove the amount you need to create each project.

Cream Soap in the Slow Cooker

This formula makes approximately 38 ounces of soap paste that you will transform into cream soap. It will fit nicely in the 3.5-quart slow cooker you’ve been using.

INGREDIENTS

4 ounces palm stearic acid

5 ounces coconut oil

2 ounces soy oil

3 ounces olive oil

2 ounces castor oil

1 ounce vegetable glycerin

25 ounces water

0.25 ounce sodium hydroxide (NaOH)

3 ounces potassium hydroxide (KOH)

2–6 ounces of additional water, added during beating

Preheat slow cooker on high.

Measure the stearic acid and all oils into the slow cooker. Make the lye solution when the stearic acid and coconut oil are melted.

Measure the vegetable glycerin and 25 ounces of water into a heatproof container.

Sprinkle the sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide into the water and stir carefully until dissolved. Don’t wait for the solution to cool.

Pour the lye solution in a thin stream into the oils, stirring while pouring. (The solution will get white, milky, and possibly grainy.)

Blend with a stick blender until smooth. Wait 5 minutes. If it separates, blend until smooth. Wait 5 minutes and check again. Keep blending and waiting until it stays together.

Once it stays smooth, put the cover on the slow cooker.

Check every 20 minutes, stirring to make sure it cooks evenly. The texture will change from liquid to lumpy as the cook progresses.

After 2¹⁄₂ hours, check for neutrality. Smear a bit of soap on a paper towel. Place a drop of phenolphthalein on the soap. If it turns pink, it’s not neutral and needs to cook more. Cook for another 15 minutes and check again. Repeat until test indicates neutrality.

Turn off the cooker and let it sit, covered, overnight.

Next day, scoop the lumps into the bowl of an electric stand mixer. (A heavy-duty mixer with a paddle or heavy beater is best because it’s less likely to whip extra air into the cream soap than thinner blades will do.) Add 2 ounces of water.

With the mixer on the slowest setting, mix the mass until it is smooth. Increase the speed of the mixer and beat the cream soap until it is fluffy like meringue. If the soap doesn’t get as light as you want, add more water, 2 ounces at a time.

Place the whipped cream soap in a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid. You can either make additions to it now, or let the soap rot before making additions. Plan on stirring the soap once a day for a week. A lot of the air whipped into the soap will escape as the air bubbles collapse. If the soap is too runny, leave the lid off so that the extra water will evaporate.

Ocean Fresh Cream Soap

Yields enough to fill one airless pump, jar, or “tottle.”

INGREDIENTS

Plain cream soap to fit container

Aqua Flora fragrance oil

Blue food coloring

Place the plain cream soap in a small mixing bowl.

Add the fragrance oil material and stir well. (Try approximately ¹⁄₄ teaspoon per 1 ounce of whipped cream soap to start, and then adjust after you’ve used it and made notes.)

Add the colorant, drop by drop, incorporating well until you get the desired color. (Add the colorant after the scent material because many fragrance and essential oils have color of their own.)

Spoon or squeeze the cream soap into the container.

Chocolate-Vanilla Parfait Cream Soap

Yields enough to fill one airless pump, jar, or tube.

INGREDIENTS

4 ounces by weight plain cream soap

Dutch Chocolate fragrance oil

Vanilla fragrance oil

Cocoa powder

Ground vanilla bean powder

Divide the plain cream soap between two small mixing bowls.

Add the chocolate fragrance oil to one bowl and the vanilla fragrance oil to the other and stir well. (Try approximately ¹⁄₄ teaspoon per 1 ounce by weight of whipped cream soap to start, and then adjust after you’ve used it and made notes.)

Stir the cocoa powder into the chocolate-scented soap and the vanilla bean powder into the vanilla-scented half. Start with ¹⁄₄ teaspoon of each.

In alternating layers, spoon or squeeze the cream soap into the container.

Rose-Clay Shaving Soap

Yields enough to fill one airless pump, jar, or tube.

INGREDIENTS

4 ounces by weight plain cream soap

¹⁄₈ teaspoon lavender essential oil

¹⁄₁₆ teaspoon rosewood essential oil

¹⁄₁₆ teaspoon rose geranium essential oil

1 teaspoon rose clay

Place the plain cream soap in a small mixing bowl.

Add the lavender essential oil, rosewood essential oil, and rose geranium essential oil and stir well.

Add the clay, incorporating well.

Spoon or squeeze the cream soap into the container. (If you have more than you can fit into the container and don’t have another container, put the extra cream soap in a plastic ziplock bag and store in the refrigerator.)

Vanilla-Lavender Foaming Face Scrub

Yields enough to fill one airless pump, jar, or tube.

INGREDIENTS

4 ounces by weight plain cream soap

1 teaspoon lavender essential oil

1 teaspoon bamboo sap grains

1 teaspoon ground vanilla bean powder

Place the plain cream soap in a small mixing bowl.

Add the lavender essential oil and stir well.

Add the bamboo sap grains and vanilla bean powder, incorporating well after each addition.

Spoon or squeeze the cream soap into the container. (If you have more than you can fit into the container and don’t have another container, put the extra cream soap in a plastic ziplock bag and store in the refrigerator.)

CHAPTER 10

The Soap-Casting Technique

Also known as “melt and pour” or “melt and mold,” soap casting is a wonderfully accessible method of making soap at home. A simple meltable soap base, commonly called glycerin soap base, is recreated in a dazzling array of forms. From the simple single pour to the most complicated multipour slices, soap casting is an excellent creative outlet.

More Than Just Melting and Pouring

You can buy a bar of glycerin soap at the grocery, bring it home, cut it up, melt it in the microwave, pour it into a little plastic storage container, cool it, pop it out, and have a bar of soap. That is soap casting at its simplest. But it is just the beginning. The soapmaker can manipulate the plain soap base in an incredible variety of ways. Making additions and altering the shape of the soap are the bare bones of the procedures.

Before you begin your soap-casting endeavor, you’ll need to estimate the number of ounces of soap needed. To do this, fill the molds with water and pour it off into a graduated plastic measuring container. If you have 2 cups of water, you’ll need approximately 1 pound of soap. It is better to overestimate than not have enough. Have an extra container handy in which to pour the overflow. You can always use it for another project.

Choosing a Base

For many beginning soapmakers, soap casting is a desirable technique because there is no need to use caustics. The soap has been premade with a commercial version of the lye-and-oil method soapmakers use at home. The lye part has already been done for you. Once difficult to find, glycerin soap base is now readily available. Online soapmaking suppliers carry many varieties of casting soap base. Extra clear, organic, shea butter, and opaque white are just a few of the available varieties. You can find basic bases and supplies at chain craft and fabric stores. Clear glycerin soap from the bar soap bins in the grocery store works well, too. You need to experiment with bases until you find the kind you like.

What to Look For

When shopping for a base, you need to have some hands-on experience so you can compare. Get some transparent bars at the grocery or 1 pound of each kind offered at the craft store and do some testing. You’re looking for soap that melts easily, has no strong odor, isn’t sticky when hardened, doesn’t change color under normal conditions, and doesn’t “sweat” excessively. Discoloration, stickiness, and odors can happen to good-quality soap base if it is old, has been remelted a number of times, or is exposed to excessively high temperatures. Lower-quality soap base will have these properties right out of the package or after normal use.

What is sweating?

Sweating happens as the glycerin in the soap attracts moisture from the air. Even the best bases will sweat in high humidity. Low-quality bases will sweat all the time. To prevent sweating in general, wrap your hardened casting soap projects right away and store out of high humidity.

Soap-Casting Equipment

In some cases, convenience is the most important thing in choosing soapmaking supplies. An easy-read thermometer from the grocery store is going to be the same easy-read thermometer from the soap supply specialist. A lot of the equipment you will need for soap casting can be found in your average big-box department store or even the supermarket.

Double Boiler

The casting soap artisan’s best friend is a stainless steel double boiler with a lid. You can improvise a double boiler by using a metal bowl over a saucepan. However, a good double boiler set will make your life much easier and your soap much better. You will also find the microwave works very well for melting soap. Just be sure to keep a close watch on the temperature. Learn how your soap base melts by starting with 30-second bursts at a time.

You will need an instant-read thermometer. There are many instances in soap casting where accurate measure of temperature is essential. Get two, as you may need to measure the temperatures of two containers at the same time.

You can still use your double boiler for food after you’ve used it for soap casting. Just be sure it’s thoroughly clean. Even a minuscule bit of soap can make food taste funny. It’s not enough to make you sick; it’s just not very delicious.

Scale

As in lye soapmaking, you’ll need a scale. Since the chemistry is already done for you, you don’t need to have as accurate a scale as you do for lye soapmaking. You should, however, get the best scale you can afford, both for accuracy and because it is likely you will need it when you make cold- and hot-process soap.

Alcohol

Rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle is a simple and essential tool. A spritz of alcohol will eliminate the bubbles that rise to the surface of the soap after pouring. It will also help you prepare the surface of cooled soap and will help embeddable objects adhere during a second pour.

If you also make transparent soap using the hot-process method, you’ll have ethanol on hand, and that will work perfectly in all soap-casting applications in a pinch, but rubbing alcohol is much less expensive and it’s easy to get.

Molds for Soap Casting

One of the most exciting parts of soap casting is choosing your molds. Here are a few of the different options. (Tube molds are a special type of mold, with their own techniques, which will be described in the next section.)

Block Molds

Some techniques use block molds. The big block of soap that comes out of such a mold will be sliced into bars. You will also use block molds when making soap of contrasting colors to combine in other projects.

If the molded shape isn’t important to your project, you can use pretty much anything as a block mold. Most serving-ware containers do very well. Keep in mind that you will see all the details of the container in your end product, so you’ll have bumps, curves, mold marks, and lines in your bars. Those can be a pleasing part of the handmade soap experience. You can, of course, trim the odd bits with a dough scraper, paring knife, or cheese plane. You can also buy long, narrow molds created especially for soap-casting projects that are meant to be sliced like loaves.

Bar Molds

Bar molds can be simple rectangles or exquisite carvings transformed into vessels for creating beautiful soaps. You can find a vast array of suitable molds at online soapmaking supply companies. There are a number of websites that sell only molds.

Generally, your casting soap will readily release from a bar mold. If it’s a little stubborn, you can put it in the freezer for about five minutes. The soap will contract and pull away from the sides of the mold, making for easier release.

Improvised Molds

You can forage in your kitchen for all kinds of interesting molds, such as ice cube trays and plastic gelatin molds. Don’t forget the recycling bin. The bumpy bottoms of plastic soda bottles make very interesting shapes. Cut the molded shape away from the rest of the plastic with heavy kitchen shears. Be sure to protect your hands as the edges can be sharp.

If you’re going to use your molds only once in a while, the lighter gauge plastic of craft-store molds is perfectly fine. Be sure to treat them gently and wash them thoroughly in warm water and detergent. Dry them flat so they don’t warp.

Molds made from heavier gauge plastic will last considerably longer, but they still need to be well cared for. Any mold will eventually crack under repeated use, but if you take good care of them, your molds will help you make beautiful soap for a long time, batch after batch.

Tray Molds and Beyond

A tray mold is a single-cavity mold with score marks for guidance in cutting your soap into bars after unmolding. Some have designs, too, such as lavender stems and animal figures. These are a beautiful hybrid of bar and block molds.

Basic casting soap setup

There are many three-dimensional molds available, as well. You can use two-part molds that you fasten together, seal, and pour. When the soap is hard, you take off the clips and release the form. You’ll need to clean off the mold lines for a finished look. Look for soap ropes at your supplier to embed in the three-dimensional bar for soap on a rope. There are also flexible vinyl molds that you pull away from the sides and top, and silicone molds that you stretch and peel off the hardened soap.

Using Tube Molds

One of the most exciting ways to add detail to soap-casting projects is through embedding shapes from a tube mold. Tube molds are just that—long tubes—and they are available in a variety of shapes. You pour the tube full, let the soap inside harden, and then push it out. You now have a long piece of soap that you can embed whole or cut into pieces.

Use small pipe to make thin rods of soap, larger ones for bigger rods. These also work well for making round bars. You just push out the hard soap and slice! Freezing the soap in the tube makes removal easier.

Some of the simplest tube molds are made from PVC pipe. You can buy PVC at hardware stores and have it cut to length. Buy the caps that fit the ends so you won’t have to worry about how you’re going to seal the mold. Get the threaded, screw-on ones if you can, as they’re the easiest to remove.

You can find stainless steel tubes in animal and geometric shapes at cake decorating and gourmet stores. They are intended for baking bread into fancy shapes for canapés. You just pour the soap in instead, and you’ve got a star, a heart, a duck, or one of many other shapes.

More and more soap mold companies are making tube molds, which are sometimes called vertical molds. Some are in two pieces and clamped together. This is for ease of removal; you just unclamp and pull the two halves of the mold free. Other companies make simple one-piece tubes that you need to seal yourself.

Getting the soap out of a tube mold can be frustrating. You can create a plunger with a disk of wood and a stick, or you can just push with a broom handle. If you don’t use tubes often, you won’t mind the struggle, but if you do it a lot, you’ll need a reliable system.

You need to determine the number of ounces of soap you’ll need for the tube mold you’re using. For this first recipe, use a 1-inch diameter PVC pipe cut to 12 inches long. You should be able to buy an end cap where you buy the pipe, but if you can’t find one, use heavy plastic wrap and rubber bands to seal the end. Pieces cut from heavy freezer bags or heavy painting tarps work well, too. Be sure to keep the end of the mold in a container when you pour, in case the seal gives way.

Sample Projects

The following projects include simple pours in the various kinds of molds. You can, of course, use these soaps just as they are when they’re hardened. Make a trip to the craft store and choose some basics: a base, a color, a glittery mica, and a scent. Get a few different kinds of molds. Keep in mind that food coloring isn’t light-stable and will fade with exposure to light. For your first experiments, this shouldn’t be a problem. If lightfastness is an issue for you right away, get some lightfast colorants that are made especially for soap.

Basic Block Mold

INGREDIENTS

1 pound soap base, roughly chopped into 1-inch cubes

Liquid colorant

Mica

Scent material

Place the soap in the top of the double boiler. Add 3 drops of the colorant and a pinch of mica. If you’re using a fragrance oil, add it now. (Hold off if you’re using an essential oil.)

Fill the bottom of the double boiler with water, place the top part on, and put on the lid. Heat the water to boiling, then turn off the heat and let the soap sit for about 30 minutes. If you’re using an electric range, take the double boiler off the burner. Test the temperature of the soap. If you use the microwave, start with 30-second bursts to get the soap just melted and not too hot. You should never heat casting base above 160°F.

Stir the melted soap to evenly distribute the color, mica, and fragrance. (Stir gently so you don’t stir up bubbles.)

If you’re using essential oil to scent your soap, add it now, before your pour. Pour the soap when it cools to about 140°F. Some bubbles will form through pouring, but you will take care of them later. Don’t overfill the mold. Leave a little bit of room at the top so you’ll have some leverage when you press on the back to unmold.

Let the soap harden in the mold for about 1 hour. (Deeper molds will take longer to harden; shallow molds will harden more quickly.) When you are certain that the soap is hard all the way through, unmold it and slice it into bars. If you unmold the block and it feels warm, but looks like it isn’t in danger of falling apart and making a mess, let it finish cooling out of the mold. Don’t cut it through, or the runny center will come out, leaving you with a puddle on the counter and a hollow soap.

Line up the bars on plain paper on a cookie sheet and let sit for 1 day. Wrap them in plastic wrap for storage.

Bar Mold

This is a simple recipe for a basic single pour in a three-cavity bar mold (about 4 ounces per cavity). Adjust the amounts depending on the total number and size of cavities.

INGREDIENTS

12 ounces clear soap base

2–3 drops liquid soap colorant

Pinch of mica

1¹⁄₂ teaspoons soap fragrance

Rubbing alcohol

Fill the bottom pan of the double boiler with water, put on the top pan, and turn the heat on high.

Cut the soap base into approximately 1-inch cubes. Place in the top pan. Add 2–3 drops of the colorant, the mica, and the fragrance. Put on the lid.

When the water in the bottom pan comes to a boil, turn off the heat and remove the pan from the heat. Let sit for about 15–20 minutes.

Take off the lid; the soap should all be melted. Gently stir to combine the mica and colorant. Check for color. If you want deeper color, add more colorant a drop at a time. (Add color conservatively. It is easy to add more, but you can’t take color out. You can, however, add more clear soap to dilute the color.) Take the top pan off and wipe the condensation off the bottom.

Pour each mold to almost full. Spritz the surface with alcohol to eliminate any bubbles that formed during the pour. Let the soap cool.

After about an hour, release the soap from the mold by turning it over and pushing from the back. It should release easily. If not, let it cool awhile longer. If you still have trouble, you may have a stubborn mold. Put the mold in the freezer for 5 minutes. The soap will most likely contract enough to be pushed easily out of the mold. For storage, let the soap sit out for a day, and then wrap with plastic wrap.

CHAPTER 11

Soap-Casting Projects

Now it’s time to explore the fullness of the creativity you can express through the medium of casting soap. From a simple swirl of sparkle encased in transparent soap to elaborate, hand-formed geodes and gems, you will find endless expressions for your ideas. Practice the basics, and then build on them to create the soap of your dreams.

Single Pour in Blocks

This is the basic technique you’ll use to expand your repertoire. It doesn’t get any simpler than this. But that doesn’t mean it has to be boring!

These recipes are formulated using 1 pound of soap as the basic unit. You can, of course, make more, but 1-pound batches are a good place to start. You can slice them into bars or cut them into shapes you’ll use in other projects.

For single pours, you need to find a block mold that will hold the amount of soap you’re working with. Your best bet is plastic storage ware. It needs to be heat-resistant, flexible, and of a dimension that will make it easy to cut bars into the size you want.

Longer, deeper molds can be used as “loaf” molds. Square, shallow molds create a squared shape that you can cut into bars as you’d cut brownies. If you are pouring soap to be used as strips, chunks, or other pieces to be embedded in another pour, you need to be sure the mass you create will provide you with the shapes and sizes you need.

To check the volume of a mold, fill it with water. Then pour the water into a measuring cup to see how much there is. Adjust your recipe to fit your mold, or use another mold.

Single pour pouring

Single pour spritzing

Lavender Oat Float

Add the oats and lavender and stir well while the soap is hot. The oats and lavender will float on the surface of the soap, making a scrubby layer.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound casting soap

1 teaspoon lavender essential oil

2 tablespoons rolled oats, gently pulsed in a coffee grinder, but not powdered

1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers

A Bit of the Sea

Start with a pinch of each colorant, add more if desired. The shimmery mica blend conjures up an image of breaking waves.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound casting soap cut into small pieces.

Pinch sea blue mica

Pinch sea green mica

1 teaspoon ocean fragrance oil

Seaweed Salt Scrub

Nori is dried seaweed, used, among other things, in making sushi. You can break up solid sheets, which may be easier to find. You can get a variety of nori products in Asian food stores or the Asian foods section of your grocery store.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound casting soap cut into small pieces

4 drops blue food coloring

1 teaspoon spa fragrance oil

Coarse sea salt, or regular coarse salt

Nori shreds or flakes

Place the soap in the top of a double boiler and place water in the bottom. Heat the water and melt the soap. Add the food coloring and fragrance oil.

Pour mixture into the mold, and immediately sprinkle the salt evenly over the surface of the soap. (It will sink, forming a layer at the bottom of the mold.)

When the soap has cooled a little, sprinkle the nori flakes on top in an even layer. Let cool and slice into chunks for a great home-spa salt scrub!

Block Overpours

In the 1990s, an exciting trend in soap began appearing in shops in Southern California: fanciful bars of transparent soap containing pieces of contrasting soap. Beautiful compositions of color, shape, and scent brought handcrafted soap to a new height of popularity.

Of course, these pay homage to Catherine Failor and her early experiments with placing colorful transparent soap inside opaque cold-process soap. When you combine your imagination, tastes, and personal style, you will create highly original designs.

To get you started, here are some projects organized around general thematic material. You can make one or all of them, or just use these ideas as inspiration for your own creations.

Serenity: Wavy lines, a monochromatic color scheme, and a soft, oceany scent blend together to create serenity in a bar of soap.

Natural girls: Pink kid-silhouettes, oatmeal, and lavender combine to make a scrubby soap fit for your best friend.

Shining star: A silvery star embedded in a glittery deep blue background, scented with a dreamy fragrance.

Bath duck: White soap with a yellow ducky in the middle.

Mosaic window: Silver soap poured around “panes” of jewel-toned soap creates an image of glowing beauty.

Bar Overpours

If an intricate mold can be enhanced with a simple pour, so can a simple mold be enhanced with an overpour. And for a soap with extra visual excitement, do overpours in a fancy mold! To create these effects, you pour a lightly tinted base over pieces in one or more colors.

Leaf Domes for All Seasons

For the following projects, you will need two different molds: a three-cavity dome mold and a small leaf tray mold in assorted shapes.

Spring

INGREDIENTS

12 ounces casting soap cut into small pieces

Medium green colorant

Scent of your choice

Light green colorant

Pale green colorant

Light green mica

Rubbing alcohol

Ahead of time, prepare 3 ounces of casting soap, tinted medium green and scented, and 3 ounces of casting soap, tinted light green and scented. Pour these into leaf molds, allowing at least two leaves for each dome mold. Let harden and unmold.

Place two green casting soap leaves into each dome mold.

Melt 6 ounces casting soap; scent and tint with 1 drop pale green colorant and 1 pinch light green mica for overpour. Spritz leaves with alcohol.

Cool overpour to 125°F and pour over leaves. Adjust with chopstick as needed.

Let harden and unmold. Wrap in plastic film.

Fall

INGREDIENTS

12 ounces casting soap cut into small pieces

Medium orange colorant

Fall foliage fragrance

Golden yellow colorant

Pale orange colorant

Gold mica

Rubbing alcohol

Ahead of time, prepare 3 ounces of casting soap, tinted medium orange and scented, and 3 ounces of casting soap, tinted golden yellow and scented. Pour these into leaf molds, allowing at least two leaves for each dome mold. Let harden and unmold.

Place two leaves in each dome mold.

Melt 6 ounces casting soap; scent and tint with 1 drop pale orange colorant and 1 pinch gold mica for overpour. Spritz leaves with alcohol.

Cool overpour to 125°F and pour over leaves. Adjust with chopstick as needed.

Let harden and unmold. Wrap in plastic film.

Embeds

You can embed nearly anything in a bar of soap. Plastic bugs and goldfish, silk flowers, semiprecious stones, and rubber ducks can all be completely or partially encased in soap for an effect that ranges from the silly to the sublime. Just be sure the embedded object is something you’d actually enjoy finding in your soap!

Have a child who hates to take baths? He will soon be begging to stay in the tub once he gets a hold of these soap bars! Soaps embedded with plastic toys add whimsy and fun to everyday bathing.

Embedded Toy Soaps

Make sure the toys you use are made of a softer plastic or vinyl. Hard toys can scrape delicate skin! Squeak toys, rubber balls, erasers, and soft plastic insects are great choices.

INGREDIENTS

Casting soap cut into small pieces

Small toy

Rubbing alcohol

Pour melted soap into your mold, about half of the way down. Allow this to cool slightly, forming a thin skin.

Spritz the selected toy bottom with rubbing alcohol. Place the toy into the soap, breaking the thin skin. Allow this layer to set. (This bottom layer is what keeps the toy from floating to the top!)

Generously spritz the toy and bottom layer with rubbing alcohol. Pour the rest of the melted soap in to fill the mold. Let the soap set completely before popping it out of the mold.

Embedded Flower Soap

The hardest part of this project is keeping the air bubbles on the flowers to a minimum. The alcohol will help with this, but if there are air bubbles remaining, don’t worry. They will look like dewdrops on the petals. You need a mold deep enough and big enough to hold the head of the silk flower. These projects look best with soap that is either uncolored or very slightly tinted. The color of the flower will reflect and be magnified in the soap, so you don’t need any additional color.

INGREDIENTS

Flat silk flowers, such as daisies

Casting soap cut into small pieces

Rubbing alcohol

Pull off the head of the flower and cut off any sharp plastic part on the back. Rinse the flower in very warm water to release any dyes that are not colorfast. Let the flower head dry.

Place the prepared flower into the mold, face down.

Melt the soap. When the soap reaches 140°F, carefully pour it around the flower—do not pour directly onto the flower. As you pour, gently agitate the mold to release air bubbles. Use a chopstick or bamboo skewer to poke and prod air pockets from between the petals. As the bubbles rise, spritz with alcohol to get rid of them. Allow the soap to cool and unmold.

Multistage Pours

With a bit of patience and practice, you can create amazingly complex, yet beautifully simple, layered melt-and-pour soaps. You can layer in a block mold or in a bar mold, or combine both. Try embedding pieces of casting soap in cold-process soap for a beautiful contrast in texture and light transmission. You are limited only by your patience.

Soothing Spiral

A mold with a spiral inscribed in it can conjure serenity if created in silver and blue mica with a relaxing ocean scent. This bar will give you a feeling of serenity and calm through colors and scent.

Melt a tiny amount of soap, color with a sparkly silver colorant and pour into the spiral only. Wipe up extra soap. When the spiral has set, melt enough soap to fill the mold. Tint it transparent blue with blue soap colorant. Scent with an oceany scent. Fill the mold with the transparent blue.

Sassy Spiral

That same mold shape can take on an entirely different attitude crafted with a neon pink spiral on an electric blue base. Using the same mold as above, this soap will give you a burst of energy from the neon color and the fun, fruity scent.

Summer Sun

You’ll use the Milky Way Molds “Sun Face” mold for a two-stage layered pour. Melt 9 ounces of casting soap and color it with orange mica; add 1¹⁄₂ teaspoons of orange essential oil. Pour into the face part of the mold and let cool until there is a skin on the surface. Melt 8 ounces of casting soap, color with sparkly gold mica, and add 1 teaspoon of orange essential oil. Liberally spray the surface of the first pour with rubbing alcohol to help the second layer adhere. Pour the gold soap on top of the first layer to fill the rays of the sun mold. Let sit until hard and then remove from mold.

Cameo Technique

To achieve an old-fashioned, cameo-like effect, coat the inside of a shallow relief design with a thin layer of white soap. The relief part of the design is the part that will look raised or inset on the surface of the finished soap. Let this accent cool completely, then pour the second layer with the appropriate background color. Since the first layer is so thin, you may find it helpful to chill it before the second pour.

Geodes

This is a great project to use up all those casting soap scraps you’ve been accumulating. Or you can, of course, make soap especially for this project. To form the geodes, you will chop casting soap into two sizes. You’ll tint the little chunks and form them into spheres of two layers. Then you’ll dip-coat them with darkly colored soap. This is a very messy project, so you may want to wear close-fitting latex or vinyl gloves.

Soap Gems

One of the most exciting artists working in melt-and-pour soap is RuthAnn Wachsmuth of Mermaid’s Bath. She is a stay-at-home mother of two, talented artist, and visionary in microbusiness bath and body. Her soap gems are much sought-after, and she agreed to share some of her specialized techniques for creating incredibly beautiful “stones” from casting soap. First, here are RuthAnn’s top ten tips for new soapmakers:

Do your research before jumping in. Just because it’s the “latest thing” doesn’t mean you can sell it to your client base.

Make the best product you can.

Think about your packaging. You could make the best soap in the world, but if the label doesn’t catch the customer’s eye, they’ll never know.

Charge fairly for it. There will always be cheaper soap. Make sure your clients appreciate how special yours is.

Get the best ingredients you can afford. Inferior ingredients produce inferior products.

Keep careful notes on each batch. An un-noted tweak might turn out something exquisite that you won’t be able to reproduce.

Don’t do it for the money. If you are just looking to make a quick buck, it’s not in soap.

Educate yourself. Don’t expect others to instantly share all their secrets. They worked hard for that knowledge; you should, too.

Be willing to share what you learn with others.

Enjoy it. If soapmaking becomes drudgery, your product will suffer.

Gemstone Soap: A Brief Tutorial

RuthAnn Wachsmuth has the following advice for gemstone soapmakers; this is RuthAnn’s basic gem technique:

The first step is to choose a gemstone to recreate in soap. Study the stone—its colors, patterns, how it catches the light. Decide how you want to produce it—just a single soap? In that case, I’d use a large disposable cup. Since I make the stones in quantity, I use a large silicone loaf mold. On fragrance: Obviously, you can scent however you choose. I use a blend of essential oils and scent all batches the same. That way, I can use the trimming from one batch for the next.

I’ll use amethyst for my example, since it’s one of the first I tried, and a bestseller.

The first thing to make is the base color that will be used for the major chunks of color. In this case, it’s a deep purple. After melting the glycerin soap base, add your fragrance and color. I typically use micas to color my soaps, as dyes tend to bleed. Pour into whatever container you have handy. I use small Rubbermaid-type containers.

Once the dark shade has cooled and solidified completely, remove from mold and chop in haphazard chunks. I usually bang them around a bit to soften the edges. Place three-quarters of the chunks into your mold and melt down the rest. Spritz alcohol on the soap chunks in the mold. Pour melted soap over the chunks and toss around to get them all coated and make sure they are uneven—not lying in a perfect, smooth layer. You want pieces poking up. I often hit them with a little mica to create inclusions. Metallic gold or copper is nice. I have an awesome iridescent blue I’ll throw in generously at this point. Give the chunks a poke, allowing the still fluid soap to flow around a bit. Sometimes I prop up the mold at an angle; you want to avoid having a straight line of demarcation between your colors. While I’m poking things around, I melt the next overpour, which is typically a light version of the first shade.

Spritz your first layer with alcohol, and then pour your second color. Poke around some more. Let it form a skin, dig around, throw in more mica, some fine shards of clear soap, and then let set while you melt the next pour. I use clear with just a little yellow added. Spritz with alcohol, pour the clear. Really dig around. The previous layer should still be soft at this point, and you can get some nice color blends and swirls this way. That’s about it for the amethyst. For some stones (aquamarine, citrines, opals), I often do a final pour of white to simulate the matrix the stones form in. I often add some bronze mica to the white matrix after it’s set for a while and become thickened. The goal there is to create pockets of color, not to tint the entire layer.

Let cool and solidify completely—usually overnight for me.

Unmold and get a big knife. Cut off any curved edges, and if using a large mold, cut into large (palm-sized) chunks for big stones, smaller for more petite stones. Now, begin cutting to create a look like a roughly mined gemstone. I cut at various angles and bevel edges to create a faceted look. The appearance of the stone will help guide you.

Geode Soap

Beware of unintentional visual effects. For example, a geode with a yellow core and sparkly white second layer might sound pretty, but upon opening it you may discover you have created something that looks like a hard-boiled egg!

INGREDIENTS

7 ounces casting soap

15 drops fragrance oil or essential oil

Mica colorants

Dark colorants

Very warm water

Melted, untinted soap (optional)

Divide 4 ounces of the casting soap in half. Chop 2 ounces very finely, about the size of diced onions. Then chop the other 2 ounces into larger chunks of about ¹⁄₄ inch to ¹⁄₃ inch square.

Drop about 5 drops of fragrance oil or essential oil onto the first pile of smaller chunks. (This is the crystal center of the geode.) Work the fragrance in with your fingers and start packing the pieces into a ball. Press it firmly together, compacting it as much as you can.

Sprinkle the second pile, the larger chunks, with the mica color of your choice. Gently toss the chunks to coat them with the mica. Add about 10 drops of fragrance oil or essential oil and work it into the pieces; then pack these pieces around the crystal center. (A good way to do this is to put about one-third of the pile on one hand, pressing it tightly with the other hand.) Repeat until you have pressed all of the larger chunks very tightly around the firmly packed center. Set this tightly packed core aside.

Melt 3 ounces casting soap in a small heatproof plastic measuring container and add enough dark colorant to make it nearly black or dark brown. Let it cool to about 120°F.

Place the core in the cup of melted dark soap and turn it to coat it completely. Using a stainless steel serving spoon, remove the ball and place it on a piece of aluminum foil. Let the surface harden, then dip and cool in the same way. Repeat until there is a complete, thin layer of dark soap coating the entire surface. Let cool completely.

Fill a tall water glass with very warm water. Dip a nonserrated table knife in the water to warm it. Grasp the soap sphere firmly with one hand and carefully, and very quickly, slice through it with the knife.

Gently separate the two halves. Wow! What a beautiful geode! If you wish, you can coat the cut surface with untinted melted soap. Wrap them in clear plastic. They may crumble in use, but that won’t matter because they’re so beautiful!

Coarsely and finely chopped soap for geode

Ready to dip

First dunk

Pressing second layer around the core

CHAPTER 12

The Hand-Milling Technique

In this process, you take finished cold- or hot-process soap, grate it, heat it, mix in chosen additives, scoop the mixture into molds, and let it set. Some people call it “rebatching,” but that term usually describes the rescue of an otherwise failed batch. Soap projects that start out with the intent to use this technique are most often called hand-milled.

Type of Soap to Use

With the hand-milling technique, you can use either cold-process or hot-process soap. Thanks to the innovators at soap supply companies, you can purchase readymade cold-process soap and craft beautiful hand-milling projects without using the lye yourself. You can buy the soap in blocks or bars and shred it yourself. You can also buy preshredded soap from a number of companies. This differs from buying meltable soap for casting soap projects in that the soap is opaque cold-process soap. You may also use hot-process soap.

You can, of course, make your own cold- and hot-process soaps and finish them in this way. You can use completely plain soap, or you can plan a hand-milling project around a batch of soap especially created for the particular project. Or you can use up all those soap scraps you’ve been saving!

Cleanup after hand milling is similar to cleaning up after casting soap, but you should have incorporated nearly every bit of soap into your recipe. Use the tiny bits of leftover hand-milled soap to wash up the equipment. If the soap is rich and leaves a little film, a good squirt of detergent and some more hot water will finish the cleanup in no time.

You can find soap in health food and grocery stores that is suitable for hand milling. If you decide to try regular commercial bar soap, look for bars that are actually soap. They will have ingredients like sodium tallowate, which is tallow soap, or sodium cocoate, which is coconut oil soap. If a bar says “cleansing bar” or “beauty bar,” it is probably not soap, and it won’t work at all in your hand-milling projects.

Advantages of Hand Milling

One of the advantages of this method is that you don’t subject your additives to the rigors of active lye. You can achieve more predictable color results. Botanicals will hold color longer, and you can use less fragrance material. And, of course, you don’t have to handle the lye.

You can get beautifully textured soaps by incorporating dried herbs right in with the soap as you heat it. If you make soap balls by moistening the shreds and packing them by hand rather than melting the soap, you will retain more color in herbs. Remember that the herbs will still turn brown before too long, but the change will not be as fast this way.

Use high-quality soap for hand milling to get high-quality hand-milled soap. It’s much the same principle as cooking only with water you’d actually drink. You can add anything you want to an inexpensive detergent or deodorant bar, but it will never be any better than what it is.

Since subjecting essential oils to the lye process can diminish their impact per ounce, combining them with the soap shreds can make them go farther. The rate of use in lye soapmaking is approximately 1 tablespoon per pound of fats. However, in hand milling, you can use only 1 teaspoon per pound of soap and get a great effect.

Hand-Milling Equipment

Much of the equipment you need to make hand-milled soap is the same as for other soapmaking techniques. But you’ll also need a few other items, including graters, a food processor, a double boiler, a slow cooker, a microwave oven, spoons, scrapers, bowls, molds, and scoops.

Graters

The first thing you need to do in hand milling is shred your soap. Of course, if you want, you can buy soap already shredded, which will save you a step. But this will limit your options. You need to look at what kinds of shredded soap are available. If you can’t find the kind of soap you want already shredded, you can probably find it in blocks, so you’ll need to shred it yourself.

To shred blocks of soap, you can use a simple cheese grater and elbow grease. Some soaps are harder to shred than others, so the amount of strength needed will vary. Be sure to take care you don’t grate your knuckles as you work.

Use a grating surface that has the larger, approximately ¹⁄₄-inch, holes. Using the tiny holes will take forever to shred the soap and produce soap powder, not shreds. (If you want to make soap powder, make shreds first, and when they’re very dry, pulverize them in a food processor or with a mortar and pestle.)

Here’s how to shred your soap. Hold the grater firmly over a container. Wear heavy-duty gloves or an oven mitt on your hand holding the soap. Draw the surface of the soap over the surface of the grater, using even pressure. The soap may start to collapse as the bar gets smaller. If this happens, just roll it into a ball and keep shredding until there is no more surface area. You can use any stainless steel tool for food again after you’ve used it for soap once you’ve thoroughly cleaned it. Consider, though, having some tools just for soaping if you use them a lot.

Food Processor

A much faster way to shred your soap is to run the bars through a food processor. You need to be sure your processor has a heavy-duty motor and enough room in the work bowl to accommodate the shreds without compacting them. Select the grating blade with the larger holes. Push the soap through the feed-tube as you would cheese.

You can often find used food processors in thrift stores and online auctions after the holidays. Always follow safety procedures when using any appliance. Some soaps may be too hard to process in a food processor. Take care not to learn this by burning out a motor! Refer to your food processor’s instructions and look at the directions for grating cheese. Use this as a comparison guide.

Double Boiler

You will need something in which to melt the soap shreds. Many soapers swear by slow cookers, but others wouldn’t think of hand milling without a microwave oven. However, the most common method is with a double boiler. To use the double boiler, you place the shreds and the liquid in the top of the boiler, place water in the bottom, heat the water to boiling, and then turn the heat down to simmer. As the soap melts, you add scent and texture materials. You must watch carefully so the boiler doesn’t boil dry!

Slow Cooker

With the slow cooker, the process is not unlike making a rich stew. You place the shreds, liquid, and color in the pot, turn it on, and wait for the low, steady heat to do the work. You can use the same slow cooker for hot-process and hand-milling techniques.

You need to watch the level of water. Soap can scorch if it gets too hot without enough water. If you find that your slow cooker dries out the soap mass, increase the amount of water in the recipe at the outset.

You can find inexpensive slow cookers at mass market and thrift stores. It’s best if you get one with variable temperature. If you buy a used one, be sure that the liner is free of cracks and strange odors.

Microwave Oven

Another way to work with soap shreds is with a microwave oven. This method can be faster than the others, but it can also result in extremely hot melted soap, froth, and hot steam. It is best for small recipes, 1 pound of shreds or less.

Each microwave oven is different, so you need to experiment. Use low to medium settings. If you blast your soap on the highest setting, the chances increase that it will scorch, “grow” out of the bowl, or reach an overly high temperature that will melt the molds.

If you decide to make larger batches in the microwave, be very careful. Even the sturdiest plastic can melt under the intensity of the heat. There are very few sheet molds that can stand up to the temperatures, so let it cool before risking your favorites.

Spoons, Scrapers, and Bowls

Whichever heating method you use, you will need other tools just as you have for the other soapmaking methods. As always, use only silicone; thick, heat-safe glass; and stainless steel. Although the soap will not be caustic when you get it for milling, it’s still best to use nonreactive tools.

One-piece silicone scrapers with heads that are curved like a scoop are perfect. Get a couple of sizes for big and small tasks. Be sure to watch how they age—as they eventually will—because you don’t want chunks of decaying scraper in the soap.

For mixing, a large stainless steel slotted spoon works perfectly. Be sure you have one that has a plastic or rubber covering on the handle rather than naked stainless steel all the way to the end.

Molds and Scoops

Make sure your plastic molds are heat-resistant. Test the molds with boiling water to see if they stand up to the heat. You can easily ruin a good plastic mold with too-hot hand-milled soap, especially if you’re melting it using the microwave method.

The texture of hand-milled soap will be slightly to very uneven. If you cut it into bars, you will probably get some warping on the sides and edges as the added water evaporates. This shouldn’t be seen as a flaw, but as yet another hallmark of having been made by hand.

Scoops are handy to make very pretty soap balls. Scrape the finished soap mass into a block mold. Then, when it’s cooled but not totally hard, use a stainless steel ice cream scoop to scoop out portions. Wear latex gloves to protect your hands and always be careful of the heat.

Sample Hand-Milling Recipes

Here are simple recipes you can use to practice, one for each of the melting techniques—double boiler, slow cooker, and microwave. Experiment with them and combine elements of different ones until you come up with the method that is right for you.

Basic Hand-Milling Recipe, Double Boiler Method

This method is good to use until you get a slow cooker. Keep a close eye on the double boiler so it does not boil dry.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound shredded plain cold- or hot-process soap or 1 pound premade soap shreds

4 ounces water

3–6 drops food coloring

1 teaspoon dried herb

1 teaspoon fragrance oil or essential oil

Place the shreds in the top of a double boiler. Add the water and the food coloring. Cover. Place water in the bottom of the double boiler. Heat the water to boiling, then turn down to simmer. Stir gently. (Avoid vigorous stirring to keep the foam level to a minimum.)

Cover and cook for about 10 minutes. Don’t let the boiler boil dry! Check the soap mass. It should have started to soften, and even become translucent, by now. If it hasn’t, just be patient; it will. Stir gently.

While the soap mass is heating, set out the rest of the ingredients. Check your soap every 10 minutes or so and keep adding water to the boiler. When the soap has taken on a translucent look and you can stir the water all the way through, you are ready to make the additions. Sprinkle the herbs over the mass and stir until evenly distributed.

Remove ¹⁄₃ cup of the soap mass and place it in a warmed glass bowl. Stir the fragrance material into this and then return it to the pan and stir it in thoroughly. If you want to alter the amounts of additives, make further additions and stir well.

Scrape the soap mass into heat-resistant molds. Pack well and smooth the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit until soap is cooled. Turn the soap out of the mold. Cut into bars if you haven’t used a bar mold. Let air-dry for a week or more, turning the bars so that they dry evenly.

Basic Hand-Milling Recipe, Slow Cooker Method

Keep checking your soap every ¹⁄₂ hour or so while the soap mass is heating. Depending on the slow cooker and the type of soap you are using, this method can take anywhere from an hour to overnight. You have to experiment to find out what’s going to happen.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound shredded plain cold- or hot-process soap or 1 pound premade soap shreds

4 ounces water

3–6 drops food coloring

1 teaspoon dried herb

1 teaspoon fragrance oil or essential oil

Place the shreds, water, and food coloring in a slow cooker. Cover. Turn the slow cooker to its lowest setting. Let the soap mass heat in the pot for about 15 minutes, or until the pot is up to temperature. Stir gently. (Avoid vigorous stirring to keep the foam level to a minimum.) Let it cook for 30 minutes.

Check the soap mass. It may have started to soften, and even become translucent, by now. If it hasn’t, just be patient; it will. Stir gently.

When the soap has taken on a translucent look and you can stir the water all the way through, you are ready to make the additions. Sprinkle the herb over the mass and stir until evenly distributed.

Remove ¹⁄₃ cup of the soap mass and place in a warmed glass bowl. Stir the fragrance material into this and then return it to the pan and stir it in thoroughly. If you want to alter the amounts of additives, make further additions and stir well.

Scrape the soap mass into heat-resistant molds. Pack well and smooth the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit until soap is cooled. Turn the soap out of the mold. Cut into bars if you haven’t used a bar mold. Let air-dry for a week or more, turning the bars so that they’ll dry evenly.

Basic Hand-Milling Recipe, Microwave Method

Check your soap every 3 minutes while it’s heating. Depending on the microwave and the type of soap you’re using, this could take 15–30 minutes or more. You must experiment to know exactly what will happen.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound shredded plain cold- or hot-process soap or 1 pound premade soap shreds

4 ounces water

3–6 drops food coloring

1 teaspoon dried herb

1 teaspoon fragrance oil or essential oil

Place the shreds in a microwave-safe glass bowl. Add the water and food coloring. Stir gently. (Avoid vigorous stirring to keep the foam level to a minimum.)

Cover with plastic wrap and place in the microwave oven. Set the microwave on medium temperature and set the cooking time to 3 minutes.

Using oven mitts, remove the bowl from the microwave. Check the soap mass. It should have started to soften, and even become translucent, by now. If it hasn’t, just be patient; it will. Stir gently. Continue to heat the soap mass in intervals of 3 minutes, removing each time to check on the status. Be very careful; the soap mass will be very hot!

When the soap has taken on a translucent look and you can stir the water all the way through, you are ready to make the additions. Be very careful of escaping steam; don’t stick your head over the bowl as you stir. Sprinkle the herb over the mass and stir until evenly distributed.

Remove ¹⁄₃ cup of the soap mass and place in a warmed glass bowl. Stir the fragrance material into this and then return it to the pan and stir it in thoroughly. If you want to alter the amounts of additives, make further additions and stir well.

Scrape the soap mass into heat-resistant molds. Pack well and smooth the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit until soap is cooled. Turn the soap out of the mold. Cut into bars if you haven’t used a bar mold. Let air-dry for a week or more, turning the bars so that they’ll dry evenly.

CHAPTER 13

Natural and Organic Soapmaking

Many people are attracted to soapmaking because they want to have control over what goes into the products they use. For some, this means that their soapmaking ingredients should be natural, even organic. Determining what the words natural and organic actually mean is a good place to start. You’ll find that with some discernment, you’ll be able to make natural and organic soaps that are fragrant and colorful.

Selling “Natural”

Using the phrase “all natural” is a common marketing tool that has come and gone with societal trends. Unfortunately, many products that are far from natural are often marketed as such, and the companies that produce these products rely on an uneducated consumer to make purchases based on label claims. With more people educating themselves by reading labels and asking questions, manufacturers are finding it more and more difficult to get away with passing off products as something they’re not.

It is extremely important to understand that “all natural” products aren’t intrinsically better than “non-natural” products. Some people think that one of the selling points of a natural product is that it only has things in it that you can pronounce, and they avoid products with chemical-sounding ingredients. However, everything has a chemical name. For example, salt is a chemical: sodium chloride, known by the formula NaCl. Soap, which is chemically a kind of salt, is “a sodium salt of a fatty acid.” Everything you eat and use on your body is made of chemicals.

Many natural substances are poisonous or otherwise hazardous, and many synthetic substances improve quality of life and even save lives. Do your homework; know what you are dealing with; and never assume that a product is better just because it is labeled “natural.”

What Do Organic and Natural Really Mean?

Unfortunately, the words organic and natural have become marketing buzzwords and are generally read without an understanding of what they actually mean. Instead, these words have become a kind of shorthand in marketing to imply that products carrying those labels are good for you and the environment.

Natural is an unregulated word. There is no such thing as a tree that grows soap bars, so in that sense, “all natural” soap isn’t possible. Often when people say they want natural, what they really mean is that they want a product made from ingredients that are botanical and close to nature, or ingredients that are plant-derived and minimally processed. When looking for colorants, soapmakers especially want natural mineral pigments that come as-is from the earth. There are clays that are mined and minimally processed that produce color in soap, but mineral pigments—the oxides, chromes, and ultramarines—are not mined from the earth; rather they are synthetically produced.

Unlike the word natural, the word organic is regulated and has definite meaning. Soap, either commercially produced or handmade, cannot officially be called 100 percent organic, as lye is not on the national organic list. Unfortunately, this does not deter soapmakers who are determined to use the word organic as a selling point, regardless of their ingredients. You won’t have far to go—your local farmers’ market and natural food stores included—to find erroneously labeled soap and other body and food products. If you see a banner that cries “All Natural, All Organic Soap,” even a cursory look at the soapmaker’s wares will tell you what is actually going on. A hot pink, strawberry-scented soap is colored and scented with synthetics. There is nothing wrong with using synthetics, but claiming it is organic and all natural is wrong.

You can, however, create handmade soaps that can be correctly labeled as “made with organic ingredients.” If you are making soap for your own use, it isn’t really an issue, but if you decide to sell, you absolutely must educate yourself so that you will be able to comply with the ethical and regulatory issues.

Other terms to research if you’re into organic include: sustainable, fair-trade, renewable, recycled, and tilth.

Organic soapmaking has to begin with ingredients that are produced in an organic way. Some soap ingredients cannot be organic—water and lye, for example. Look to plant substances for your organics. Organic vegetable oils, herbs, and essential oils are readily available. In those cases, the substance is considered organic if it is farmed and processed according to organic principles. One way of judging if something is organic is by certification from the Food and Drug Administration. There are, however, farmers who use organic methods but cannot or don’t want to get certification from the FDA or an other certification agency.

When you do soap casting, you can find melt-and-pour base that is made from organic ingredients if you shop around. Remember, though, that there are some things that are not, by their nature, going to be organic.

The FDA has some easy-to-understand guidelines for measuring and indicating “how organic” a product is. There are differing labels allowed depending on the percentage of organic ingredients.

100 percent organic: Must contain only organically produced substances.

Organic: Must contain 95 percent organically produced substances; other ingredients must be unavailable in organic form.

Made with more than 70 percent organic ingredients: May state that there are organic ingredients, but may not use the organic seal.

Made with less than 70 percent organic ingredients: Cannot call the product organic, but may identify that some of the ingredients are organic in the ingredient list.

These labels apply to soapmaking to a degree, but as soap is generally not considered a cosmetic, it remains unregulated by the FDA. If you find that you want to sell your soaps, you must comply with all appropriate regulations. If you make cosmetic claims about your soap, you must then follow the regulations for cosmetics.

You cannot make medical claims about your soap. Soap cannot cure eczema, eliminate cellulite, or even make you look twenty years younger. Many companies large and small have gotten into hot water by making unsubstantiated claims.

As a consumer, the more you know, the more discerning you can be. As a soapmaker, you’ll find that you have many choices when you want your soaps to be as organic as possible.

Many people want to make and use vegan soap. For a soap to be vegan, it must not contain animal fats, milk, honey, beeswax, or silk.

Shawn Donnille, co-owner of Mountain Rose herbs, is a wealth of information about the concept of natural and the realities of organic. Soapmakers can say that their soaps are made with organic ingredients, but they have to meet FDA requirements to use the regulatory body’s organic insignias. This, however, does not stop some people from using the FDA logos erroneously. There is a regulatory division of the National Organic Program where such violations can be reported. If you are interested in selling organic soap, it is imperative that you educate yourself about your ingredients and the regulations so that you are giving accurate information to your customers.

For those soapmakers who are interested in both organics and animal fats for soapmaking, according to Donnille, lard from organically raised hogs is considered an organic ingredient. Of course, soap made with even organically raised lard from a farm that uses sustainable practices is not vegetarian or vegan.

In regard to natural fruit aromas that are available as essential oils, Donnille notes that some natural and organic flavorings have strong aromas that may make it through soap processes. If this is important to you, give it a try in melt-and pour soap.

Using Herbs in Natural Soapmaking

In soapmaking, herbs are a natural source of color and texture. Many soapmakers also believe that the medicinal value of herbs can come through in soaps made with them. There are many sources for herbs, and you can easily find many soapmaking herbs that have been organically grown, sustainably grown, and even ethically wild-crafted.

The varying sensitivities of individual people to herbs is a major factor in whether or not the herbs have any therapeutic benefit to them. As with other natural substances, not all herbs are beneficial to humans. There are poisonous herbs that should always be avoided. There are some herbs that, while not toxic, are dermal irritants and should not be used on the skin. Take special care when using herbs with children, the elderly, and people with special health care needs. Make sure to do your research, and be responsible and informed when deciding what to use in your soaps.

Adding Herbs to Soap

The simplest way to add herbs to soap is to add them dried and crumbled or powdered to the soap batter before you pour it into the mold. It is best to use dried herbs, as the water in fresh herbs can cause mold to grow. An addition of a small amount of a dried herb creates a delicate visual texture. Adding a larger amount of a roughly chopped herb can lend a “scrubby” texture to the soap. If you want to avoid scratchiness, you can strain your colored oils through cheese cloth, and water-and-lye solutions can be poured through fine-mesh stainless steel strainers.

Adding Herbs to Water

Replacing the water in your soap recipe with an herbal infusion is another simple way to add herbs to soap. Make the infusion and strain out solid matter if you wish before making the lye solution. The infusion may take on a strange color and odor when the lye is added, but that will usually fade away completely in the finished soap.

Be sure that all herbs you use are nontoxic. If you are in doubt, put aside the questionable and use something you’re sure about. Also, if you are pregnant, nursing, or have diabetes or other health issues, be sure to consult your health care provider about the use of herbs. Herbs can contain active substances that may react with medical conditions or medications.

Another way to use herbs in water is to make a lye infusion. Add ground or crushed herbs to the water with the lye. The chemical reaction of lye and water can release more color from them than the relatively gentle method of making a regular herbal infusion.

Herbs in Oil

Infusing liquid oils with herbs is a great way to release the color of the herb. Making infused oils for soapmaking is easy. Warm the oil and plant matter on the stove or in the sun. Let the herbs steep in the heated oil for a number of hours or even days, depending on the herb and the strength of the infusion you desire. You may increase the potency by straining out the herbs, rewarming the oil, and adding more herbs.

Common Soapmaking Herbs

The following list is in no way intended to be an all-inclusive study of the use of herbs in soapmaking. Herbs are used for their dye properties, visual appeal, and as a scrub element. If there is something you want to try that isn’t on the list, go find out about it. The study of herbs often leads to making soap, and just as often making soap leads to herbal studies.

Alkanet Root (Alkanna tinctoria): The dry, shaved roots make a bright, deep pink when extracted into oil. The color will change in the presence of lye to a color ranging from blue to dusky purple.

Annatto Seeds (Bixa orellana): Annatto comes in pellets and makes a bright yellow to orange color that is most easily extracted into heated oil.

Borage (Borago officinalis): Dry flowers hold their blue color and are pretty when scattered on the top.

Calendula (Calendula officinalis): The dried flowers are particularly susceptible to insect infestation, so store in a tightly sealed plastic storage container. To make a bright yellow oil, macerate fresh flowers in vegetable oil. Replenish the petals daily to concentrate the color. Use infused oil for color and the dried petals in the soap as a decorative topping.

Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis, Matricaria recutita): Use ground flowers to add texture and scrubbiness. Use sparingly as a topping. As with calendula, be careful of insects.

Comfrey Leaf (Symphytum officinale): Infuse into olive oil for a green color. Color intensity can be built by reinfusing the oil to obtain a deep green.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale): Don’t use if the plants have been treated with weed killer. Dry and chop them to make a concentrated infusion of leaves in oil for color.

Dill (Anethum graveolens): Dried dill holds its color well in cold-process.

Lavender (Lavandula officinalis, Lavandin grosso, etc.): Use dried flowers in the body of the soap and as a topping.

Mint (Mentha piperita, Mentha spicata, etc.): Add ground or flaked leaves to finished soap for texture. Add ground, dry mint to mint essential oil or other essential oils for a release of green color that will hold up in lye soap.

Rose (Rosa damascena): Best used as dry petals and buds as a topping.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis): Add finely chopped, dried leaves to soap for a scrubby texture. They also look nice scattered on top.

Woad (Isatis tinctoria): Use powdered woad to infuse oil for a light-blue color. You can add the powder directly to the soap batter, but like any powdered herb, it may feel scratchy.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium): Dried and fresh flowers and leaves release a bright yellow dye into boiling water, lye infusion, and in oil.

Experimenting with Natural Color Sources

Nature provides us with beautiful color material that can be applied to coloring soap. You can add plant material directly to the soap mixture to create not only color but texture as well. Most plant material that starts out green will eventually turn brown. However, some botanicals—calendula petals, for example—retain their color when added at the end of the process. Be sure that when you’re adding herbal ingredients directly into the soap, you remove sticks, twigs, and other sharp parts of the plant.

To get the color from the plant matter into your soap, you can use a variety of methods. Infusing oil and water with a high concentration of the colored herb creates a usable dye. Be sure to record the amounts, temperatures, and length of infusion time so you can repeat what works.

Experiment with the alkanet oil and annatto water and oil. Keep track of the concentrations and the amounts you add to each application. Take notes on how they perform in each soap technique. Use this same experiment to expand your plant-based colorant vocabulary.

Annatto Seed Infusion

Annatto seeds produce a vibrant orange dye, which will fade to various shades of lighter gold and yellow in soap. Annatto is sold as “annatto seed” but isn’t really seeds. It is little beads made of the dried fruit. They are very hard and difficult to grind. To get color out of them, they need to be exposed to warmed oil.

INGREDIENTS

4 tablespoons annatto seed

1 cup distilled water, boiling

1 cup olive oil

Place 2 tablespoons of the annatto seed in each of the two heatproof containers.

Pour the water over the annatto in one container.

Add the oil to the annatto in the other container. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Check for color—if the annatto has released a lot of orange, you don’t need to continue heating. If necessary, microwave on high for 1 more minute. (Watch the oil carefully through the second minute. If it starts to bubble, take it out.)

Place the two containers of annatto infusion side by side and compare the colors. You’ll observe a clear golden color to the water infusion. The oil infusion will be a very deep orange.

Alkanet Root Infusion

Alkanet root produces a brilliant, deep magenta pink. The more alkaline the soap, the more blue the magenta will be tinted. It would be interesting for someone to come up with an alkalinity test based on the use of an alkanet root solution. You buy alkanet root as dried shavings. To get color out of them, they need to be exposed to warmed oil. It is interesting how little color you get when you add them to boiling water.

INGREDIENTS

4 tablespoons dried alkanet root

1 cup distilled water, boiling

1 cup olive oil

Place 2 tablespoons of the alkanet root in each of the two heatproof containers.

Pour the water over the alkanet in one container. Set aside.

Add the olive oil to the alkanet root in the other container. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Check to see if the alkanet has released a pink color into the oil. If it has released a lot, stop heating. If necessary, microwave on high for 1 more minute. (Watch the oil carefully through the second minute. If it starts to bubble, take it out.)

Place the two containers of alkanet infusion side by side and compare the colors. You’ll observe a very faint tint to the water infusion. However, the oil infusion will be a deep, gorgeous magenta.

Other Natural Additives

Once you’ve begun soapmaking, you will look at an amazing number of things in a new way. In addition to herbs, there are many other natural ingredients that you can add to your soaps to make them unique. Standing in the kitchen while making breakfast, you’ll see all kinds of things you want to try in soap. Oatmeal, honey, coffee, cocoa powder … the list goes on and on. Use your imagination and try out a few of these other additives—honey, grains, seeds, other exfoliators, and cosmetic clays.

Honey

In lye soap, forgo heavy insulation if you’ve used honey in your formula. Soapmakers have reported over and over the “honey volcano” effect, where the soap overheats and gets a big, oozing crack down the center. Soap made with honey has even “climbed” right out of the mold. Start with 1 tablespoon (0.5 ounce) of honey per pound of oils.

Grains

You can add various forms of grain to your soap for texture. Cornmeal makes a rough scrub. Tapioca on the surface of a bar of casting soap makes a smooth, bumpy massager. Oatmeal is the most popular grain used in soapmaking. Finely grind the oatmeal to release the skin-soothing properties for which oatmeal is so famous. If you want the look of the whole rolled-oat grain, use it sparingly since it can have sharp edges. Many soapmakers use baby oatmeal because it has a softer feel.

You can create “oat milk” by making an infusion with oatmeal and hot water. Strain the resulting cloudy liquid and use it in place of the water in lye soap formulas.

Seeds

Adding extremely finely ground coffee to the water with the lye makes a dark brown infusion and leaves tiny specks of brown in the finished bars. More coarsely ground coffee makes a good exfoliator. Use cold, strong-brewed or instant coffee as the liquid in your formula for a light to medium tan.

Poppy, cranberry, and raspberry seeds are great for a visual accent but can be rough, so use sparingly. Cocoa powder makes a beautiful brown. Don’t get too heavy-handed with it though, as in high concentrations it will produce brown lather.

Resins are used mainly in essential oil or liquid form. They act as scent fixatives and hardeners. Powdered benzoin resin acts as a binder for fleeting citrus oils. Use it with caution, as it can cause a skin reaction in some people. Rosin, like the kind used by ballet dancers, can be dissolved into the essential oils to add hardness and attractive speckles. Try 1 teaspoon of benzoin powder per 1 pound of oils.

Other Exfoliators

Other exfoliators include sand, pumice, vanilla bean powder, and bamboo sap powder. If you really want to exfoliate, sand and pumice are the way to go. Always remember that rough exfoliators like these are to be used on feet and very dirty hands only. Be sure to clean any sand you collect yourself. Only buy pumice that is intended for cosmetic use. Bamboo sap powder is a gentle and thorough exfoliator, but it is best to start with 1 teaspoon bamboo sap powder per pound of oils.

Cosmetic Clays

For natural soapmaking, look for clays that contain color when mined rather than those that have color added during processing. Cosmetic clays are useful as colorants, gentle exfoliators, and to provide slip that is especially nice in shaving soap. Adding a cosmetic clay to a soap formula can help create a good bar for oily skin. To prevent clumps, add the clay to the water with the lye.

Essential Oils for Natural Fragrance

In the study of soapmaking, one of the most interesting topics is essential oils. Unlike fragrance oils, which are mainly synthetic, essential oils are the natural oils from plants. Like fragrance oils, essential oils contribute fragrance to your soap formulas, but they may also have the benefit of aromatherapy, offering health benefits. The more you know about the properties of essential oils, the more you’ll be able to create soaps that soothe, relax, invigorate, and improve mood. Essential oils are considered natural in that they are derived from plant material. You can easily find organic versions of many essential oils, although they will be more costly than those that are conventionally produced.

What Are Essential Oils?

When you hear the words essential oils, you may think of aromatherapy. The term aromatherapy has become such a marketing buzzword that the actual meaning of the word has been obscured. Aromatherapy is more than just smelling something that makes you feel good. Essential oils—the volatile oils of plants—have physiological effects on humans and other animals. In many countries, aromatherapy is used with other healing techniques to treat a variety of illnesses.

Essential oils are the collected volatile oils of plants, while fragrance oils are synthetic fragrances. Essential oils are used for fragrance as well as their therapeutic properties. Fragrance oils often mimic the scents of plants, and although a synthetic fragrance oil might smell nice, it has no therapeutic benefit.

Whether or not soap is an effective aromatherapy delivery method is still up for debate in the soapmaking and aromatherapy communities. Some essential oils experts insist that the therapeutic benefits of essential oils are lost during the soapmaking process. Heat is considered the enemy of the therapeutic efficacy of essential oils, and all soapmaking methods involve heat. Other experts on essential oils think there is still aromatherapeutic value in the essences when they are used in a soap recipe.

Soap may or may not be an effective delivery method for aromatherapy, but essential oils can definitely contribute natural fragrance to handmade soap. Lavender soap, for example, has always been a favorite. The sweet, herbal, and lightly floral scent of lavender essential oil helps create a soothing bathing experience.

A Bit of Chemistry

Unlike other oils and fats used in soapmaking, essential oils are not fatty acids. They evaporate readily, leaving no mark on a piece of paper. If you buy an “essential oil” and wonder if it is pure or not, drip a drop onto a piece of white paper. If it leaves a greasy mark after it has evaporated, it may have been cut with vegetable or mineral oil.

Essential oils contain a number of chemical compounds with names that sound like something you wouldn’t want anywhere near you. Primarily, essential oils contain a kind of chemical called a “terpenoid.” There are many kinds of these, including ketones, aldehydes, and esters, all of which are variously arranged hydrocarbons.

If you decide to study the chemistry of essential oils, you’ll find that there are often similar scents and therapeutic properties to oils that have a similar chemical makeup. For example, Melissa, lemongrass, and lemon eucalyptus, although unrelated plants, all contain certain aldehydes that smell lemony. Roman chamomile, lavender, clary sage, and bergamot, some of the most commonly used essential oils, are all related through esters. Although they do not smell the same, these oils have similar effects on the body, and they blend well with each other.

Methods of Essential Oil Extraction

Essential oils are extracted from plant materials by methods that vary depending on the nature of the plant matter. Delicate blossoms are treated differently from woody stems and bark. Some of the most beautifully fragrant materials are too delicate to be captured, and others require processes so extensive that the cost becomes prohibitive.

Hydrosols and hydrolates, which are byproducts of distilled essential oils, are very useful in the manufacture of handmade toiletries. You can usually purchase them from the same supplier where you buy your essential oils. They have a low concentration of essential oils, but they have a delightful aroma and are thought to be beneficial in skin care.

There have been advances in essence-capture technology in recent decades that may yet bring us the unadulterated essences of heretofore uncapturable flowers and plants. Some of the most delicate essences are extracted using solvents, and since some of the solvent remains with the essence, these are considered to be useless in aromatherapy.

One of the earliest and most basic ways of extracting essential oils is through enfleurage. Using this method, the fragrant blossoms are spread on a base of animal or vegetable fat. When the fat has absorbed the essential oils, it is heated, and the fragrant materials are separated by evaporation, by solvent extraction, or both.

Distillation is an effective method of extraction, using a closed system of heat and evaporation. This method captures the essential oils and waters infused with them in low concentrations called hydrolates and hydrosols.

There are other methods, including extraction by solvents. Aromatherapists prefer oils that have been as purely derived as possible, and although solvent extraction is useful and can produce good essential oils, there will be some undesirable solvent residue. Refer to the information provided by the distributor for extraction information.

Storing Essential Oils

Essential oils are perishable and should be stored in dark glass containers in a cool place. As the bottle empties, transfer the oil to a smaller bottle so the oil won’t oxidize, causing decay. According to Marcel Lavabre’s Aromatherapy Workbook, oils properly prepared and stored “can be considered fresh for three years after their extraction.”

Some essential oils contain chemicals that are photosensitizers. These substances can cause hyperpigmentation (brown spots) if worn directly on the skin in the sun. This is not a problem with soapmaking in general because the oil is washed from the skin. One photosensitizer is a chemical called bergaterpene, present in bergamot essential oil. If you are concerned, there are bergaterpene-free bergamot oils available.

Essential oils, especially organic ones, can be very expensive, so it is important that you store them properly. If you find you’re making a lot of soap and using essential oils, it really pays to order in bulk from online suppliers. An essential oil that costs $8 for 1 ounce in the health food store may cost only $40 a pound through an Internet soap supplier.

There are many schools of thought regarding essential oils. If one aromatherapy specialist says that a certain oil does one thing, others will leap up to contradict her. The best way for anyone to learn about essential oils is through hands-on experience and the guidance of a reputable teacher.

Using Common Essential Oils

The following list includes readily available essential oils commonly used by soapmakers. It is by no means an exhaustive list, and you should not hesitate to experiment with others. The effects described are intended as guides, not as medical advice.

TABLE OF ESSENTIAL OILS

Common Name | Balsam of Peru
Latin Name | Myroxylon balsamum var. pereirae
Origin | El Salvador
Extraction Method | Steam distillation, solvent extraction
Appearance and Scent | Thick, dark brown. Vanilla-like, sometimes smoky.
Benefits | Itch relief, promotes cell growth, anti-inflammatory and antiseptic.
Uses in Soap | Used as a base note and to fix other scents, particularly citrus. To incorporate it into a soap mixture, it needs to be dissolved in other essential oils or in a little bit of vegetable oil so it will disperse throughout the soap mixture.
Common Name | Benzoin
Latin Name | Styrax benzoin
Origin | Tropical Asia
Extraction Method | Resin is collected from trees, then processed into powder or distilled into liquid resin.
Appearance and Scent | Thick, sticky fluid. Golden-brown. Warm, vanilla-like, resinous.
Benefits | Anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, astringent. Helps chapped skin. Is noted to have caused dermatitis in sensitive individuals. Warming, soothing, calming, reduces sadness.
Uses in Soap | Benzoin essential oil and powdered benzoin are added to soap to bind the scent of citrus essential oils.
Common Name | Bergamot
Latin Name | Citrus bergamia
Origin | Tropical Asia
Extraction Method | Expressed oil from peel of fruit
Appearance and Scent | Pale green. Sweet, floral-citrus scent with almost woody undertones.
Benefits | Antiseptic, antispasmodic, digestive, potent photosensitizer. Uplifting, relieves sadness and anxiety.
Uses in Soap | Use in citrus blends to round off top notes and help other citrus scents to “stick.” Does not appreciably accelerate trace.
Common Name | Black Pepper
Latin Name | Piper nigrum
Origin | India, China
Extraction Method | Distillation of the seeds
Appearance and Scent | Yellow-green. Sweet, peppery, woody.
Benefits | Stimulating, warming, analgesic. Grounding, encouraging.
Common Name | Cardamom
Latin Name | Elettaria cardamomum
Origin | India, Central America
Extraction Method | Steam distilled from seeds
Appearance and Scent | Colorless to pale yellow. Sweet, almost woody, spicy. In cooking, it’s used in curries and Scandinavian baking.
Benefits | Stimulant, cleanser, mature skin. Relieves nervous exhaustion.
Common Name | Cedarwood; Atlas Cedar; Virginia Cedar; Texas Cedarwood
Latin Name | Cedrus atlantica; Juniperus virginiana; Juniperus mexicana
Origin | Morocco, Virginia, Texas
Extraction Method | Virginia is distilled from sawdust; Atlas and Texas distilled from the needles and small branches.
Appearance and Scent | Atlas: gold color, smells deep, woody and sharp; Virginia and Texas: mellow. Virginia is a byproduct of pencil making and is the least expensive.
Benefits | Soothes irritated skin, antiseptic, helps control oiliness. Courage, clarity of thought.
Uses in Soap | Contributes a beautiful woody scent that combines well with citrus and with other woods and resins. Middle-to-bottom note.
Common Name | Chamomile; Roman Chamomile; “German” Chamomile
Latin Name | Anthemis nobilis; Matricaria recutita
Origin | France, Morocco, Spain
Extraction Method | Distillation of entire plant
Appearance and Scent | German chamomile is blue, due to the azulene content. Fragrance is lightly apple-like, fresh and grassy. Roman is more herbal, more grass-like, and is pale yellow.
Benefits | Antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, dermatitis, soothes itching. Soothing and calming, sedative.
Common Name | Clary Sage
Latin Name | Salvia sclarea
Origin | Russia, United States
Extraction Method | Steam distillation of stems and leaves
Appearance and Scent | Clear to light yellow. Slightly sweet and musky, lightly floral.
Benefits | Soothing and healing. Regulates sebum, is good for rashy, sensitized skin. Estrogen balancer, antidepressant, helps in decision making.
Common Name | Clove Bud
Latin Name | Eugenia caryophyllata
Origin | Madagascar, Zanzibar, Indonesia
Extraction Method | Distilled from dried buds
Appearance and Scent | Dark brown. Very spicy and sweet.
Benefits | Antiseptic, analgesic. Warming, uplifting.
Common Name | Coriander
Latin Name | Coriandrum sativum
Origin | Europe
Extraction Method | Distillation of seeds
Appearance and Scent | The plant is also known as cilantro. Clear to light yellow. Sweet, spicy, slightly fruity.
Benefits | Natural deodorant.
Uses in Soap | Used in soap as a bottom note.
Common Name | Elemi
Latin Name | Canarium luzonicum
Origin | Philippines, Central America, Brazil
Extraction Method | Distillation of ripe seeds
Appearance and Scent | Light to medium green. Sweet, balsamic fragrance, incense-like.
Benefits | Purifying, preserving. Soothing, spiritually uplifting. Calms the nerves.
Common Name | Eucalyptus; Lemon Eucalyptus
Latin Name | Eucalyptus globulus; Eucalyptus citriodora
Origin | Australia
Extraction Method | Distillation of leaves
Appearance and Scent | Clear to orange. Very recognizable due to extensive use in cold remedies, stimulating.
Benefits | Clearing, antiseptic, stimulant. Reduces excess oiliness. Grounding and uplifting.
Common Name | Fir
Latin Name | Abies balsamea
Origin | Northeast U.S., Canada, Siberia
Extraction Method | Distillation of branches
Appearance and Scent | Fresh and coniferous.
Benefits | Antiseptic. Invigorating.
Common Name | Frankincense
Latin Name | Boswellia carteri
Origin | Southeast Arabia, Northeast Africa
Extraction Method | Extraction and distillation of pitch
Appearance and Scent | Thick amber liquid. Sharp and resinous. Good binder for other fragrances.
Benefits | Healing, firming. Helps with prayer and meditation.
Common Name | Geranium
Latin Name | Pelargonium roseum
Origin | Egypt
Extraction Method | Steam distillation
Appearance and Scent | Clear liquid. Strong, sweet, herby and rose-like. Can be overpowering on its own. Holds up extremely well in soap.
Benefits | Astringent, anti-inflammatory. Good for alleviating tension and depression.
Common Name | Ginger
Latin Name | Zingiber officinale
Origin | China, India, Malaysia
Extraction Method | Distillation of the root
Appearance and Scent | Golden yellow. Spicy, sweet. Use small amounts in soap as it can be a dermal irritant in large amounts.
Benefits | Stimulating and toning. Enlivening, centering.
Common Name | Grapefruit
Latin Name | Citrus sinensis
Origin | California
Extraction Method | Expressed peel
Appearance and Scent | Yellow to pink, depending on variety.
Benefits | Toning, stimulating. Uplifting.
Uses in Soap | Use in blends with other citrus and to brighten up other blends.
Common Name | Jasmine
Latin Name | Jasminum officinale
Origin | France, Egypt, India
Extraction Method | Enfleurage
Appearance and Scent | Clear liquid. Smells deeply, sweetly floral.
Benefits | Heals irritated skin. Antidepressant, anti-anxiety.
Common Name | Juniper
Latin Name | Juniperus communis
Origin | Yugoslavia, Italy, France
Extraction Method | Distillation of the berries and small branches
Appearance and Scent | Clear to pale green. Crisp, resinous, sweet.
Benefits | Antiseptic, aids irritated skin. Relaxing.
Common Name | Lavender
Latin Name | Lavender angustifolia
Origin | France, Southern Europe
Extraction Method | Steam distillation of the flowers
Appearance and Scent | Clear to light green. Herbal, sweetly floral.
Benefits | Analgesic, antispasmodic, acne, dermatitis, insect repellent. Soothing, calming, antidepressant.
Common Name | Lemon
Latin Name | Citrus limonum
Origin | California, Florida
Extraction Method | Expressed peel
Appearance and Scent | Yellow liquid.
Benefits | Astringent, antiseptic. Good for oily skin. Uplifting, enlivening.
Uses in Soap | Needs a boost in cold-process from other citrus and citrus-like scents and a resin like benzoin.
Common Name | Lemongrass
Latin Name | Cymbopogon citratus
Origin | India, Central America, Brazil
Extraction Method | Distillation of the tall grass
Appearance and Scent | Tan, with a sweet, herby, lemony scent.
Benefits | Antiseptic, insect repellent, deodorant, disinfectant. Helps relieve stress.
Uses in Soap | In soap, it is used not only for its own scent and actions but as a booster for citrus.
Common Name | Lime
Latin Name | Citrus aurantifolia
Origin | Mexico, Florida
Extraction Method | Expressed peel
Appearance and Scent | Green, intensely tangy. Fills out a citrus blend and smells wonderful on its own.
Benefits | Astringent, antiseptic. Uplifting, anti-anxiety.
Common Name | Litsea Cubeba (May Chang)
Latin Name | Litsea cubeba
Origin | China
Extraction Method | Distillation of the grass
Appearance and Scent | Yellow. Heavily lemon, sweet rather than tangy.
Benefits | Antiseptic and deodorant. Uplifting.
Uses in Soap | In soap, it acts as a substitute and booster for citrus essential oils, which tend to be fleeting.
Common Name | Marjoram
Latin Name | Origanum marjorama
Origin | Spain, Hungary
Extraction Method | Distillation of the plant while it is flowering
Appearance and Scent | Clear to light yellow. Sweet, herbal, fresh.
Benefits | Relieves pain and tightness. Relieves nervous tension and anxiety.
Common Name | Peppermint; Spearmint
Latin Name | Mentha piperita; Mentha viridis
Origin | United States, England, France
Extraction Method | Distillation of entire above-ground plant
Appearance and Scent | Clear to medium green. Spearmint is more syrupy than peppermint, which has a sharper, clearer edge.
Benefits | Stimulating, antiseptic. Awakening, stimulating.
Uses in Soap | In soap, it makes the whole soaping area smell like a toothpaste factory! Use in moderation as it can remain actively tingly even after going through the rigors of lye soapmaking
Common Name | Myrrh
Latin Name | Commiphora myrrha
Origin | Libya, Iran, Southeast Arabia, Northeast Africa
Extraction Method | Distillation of collected resin
Appearance and Scent | Clear or yellow. Smells spicy, woody.
Benefits | Anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, astringent. Centering and grounding.
Common Name | Myrtle
Latin Name | Myrtus communis
Origin | Spain, Morocco
Extraction Method | Steam distillation
Appearance and Scent | Fresh, sweet, camphoraceous.
Benefits | Antiseptic, stimulant, expectorant. Balancing, releases envy.
Common Name | Neroli (Orange Blossom)
Latin Name | Citrus vulgaris
Origin | Egypt
Extraction Method | Enfleurage of orange blossom
Appearance and Scent | Yellow. Sweet, floral, citrusy, exquisite.
Benefits | Soothing, good for sensitive skin. Antidepressant, sedative, emotional relief.
Uses in Soap | Very costly, save for very special soap.
Common Name | Nutmeg
Latin Name | Myristica fragrans
Origin | Indonesia
Extraction Method | Distillation of the nuts
Appearance and Scent | Clear to tan, sweet-spicy, peppery fragrance.
Benefits | Stimulant, anesthetic, antibacterial. Gentle stimulant, uplifting, encouraging.
Uses in Soap | Use in small amounts to round out a scent blend as it can be a dermal irritant.
Common Name | Oakmoss
Latin Name | Evernia prunastri
Origin | Yugoslavia
Extraction Method | Distillation of lichen
Appearance and Scent | Dark brown, sticky, extremely viscous.
Benefits | Antiseptic. Grounding.
Common Name | Orange
Latin Name | Citrus aurantium
Origin | California, Spain
Extraction Method | Expressed peel
Appearance and Scent | Bright orange. Strong orange scent.
Benefits | Stimulating, cleansing. Uplifting, warming, encouraging.
Uses in Soap | Does not always last in cold-process soap. Benefits from blending with other citrus, lemon-scented grasses, and resins.
Common Name | Palmarosa
Latin Name | Cymbopogon martinii
Origin | India, Africa, Madagascar
Extraction Method | Distillation of grass
Appearance and Scent | Yellow. Woody, rose-like, thinner scent than geranium.
Benefits | Antiseptic, heals acne, smoothes wrinkles, helps rehydrate dry skin. Relieves stress.
Common Name | Patchouli
Latin Name | Pogostemon patchouli
Origin | India, Malaysia, Burma, Paraguay
Extraction Method | Distillation of leaves after drying and fermentation
Appearance and Scent | Thick, dark brown. Will color soap lightly tan. Strong, unmistakable scent, sweet and musty.
Benefits | Fungicide, stimulant, regenerating to the skin. Relieves anxiety and depression. Increases happiness.
Common Name | Petitgrain
Latin Name | Citrus aurantium var. amara
Origin | Spain
Extraction Method | Distillation of leaves
Appearance and Scent | Clear to yellow. Extremely tangy and slightly bitter.
Benefits | Clarifying, deodorant. Helps with stress-related insomnia.
Uses in Soap | Excellent foil for sweet florals. Great blender.
Common Name | Pine
Latin Name | Pinus sylvestris
Origin | Russia, Balkans, Germany
Extraction Method | Distillation of small branches
Appearance and Scent | Clear liquid, fresh forest aroma.
Benefits | Astringent, toning. Centering and uplifting.
Common Name | Rosemary
Latin Name | Rosmarinus officinalis
Origin | Mediterranean
Extraction Method | Distillation of leaves and stems
Appearance and Scent | Nearly colorless. Clear herbal with a bit of pine and sometimes eucalyptus.
Benefits | Healing of wounds and burns, dry scalp. Encouraging, memory enhancing.
Common Name | Rosewood
Latin Name | Aniba rosaeodora
Origin | Brazil
Extraction Method | Distillation of chopped wood
Appearance and Scent | Clear to tan. Woody, sweetly floral.
Benefits | Good for sensitive skin, mature skin. Releasing, grounding, calming.
Common Name | Sandalwood
Latin Name | Santalum album
Origin | India, Nepal
Extraction Method | Steam distillation of sawdust
Appearance and Scent | Thick, pale amber to brown liquid. Beautiful, woody, sweet fragrance.
Benefits | Healing, soothing, moisturizing. Helps center for meditation, helps relieve depression.
Uses in Soap | Very costly. One of the most popular synthetics due to cost and desire not to further endanger habitat.
Common Name | Tangerine
Latin Name | Citrus reticulata
Origin | Florida, California
Extraction Method | Expressed peel
Appearance and Scent | Yellow-orange liquid. Sweet and tangy, honey-like citrus.
Benefits | Helps heal acne, good as an astringent tonic. Helps relieve insomnia.
Uses in Soap | Brings a sweetness to citrus blends.
Common Name | Tea Tree
Latin Name | Melaleuca alternifolia
Origin | Australia
Extraction Method | Distillation of the leaves
Appearance and Scent | Light yellow to clear. Very strong antiseptic scent.
Benefits | Extremely useful antiseptic. Helps to clear headaches. Strengthening, uplifting.
Common Name | Vetiver
Latin Name | Andropogon muricatus
Origin | Caribbean, Haiti
Extraction Method | Distillation of the roots
Appearance and Scent | Thick, dark brown. Earthy, ashy, burned wood smell.
Benefits | Anti-inflammatory, especially for acne. Grounding, centering.
Common Name | Ylang Ylang
Latin Name | Cananga odorata genuina
Origin | Madagascar
Extraction Method | Steam distillation of flowers
Appearance and Scent | Yellow, viscous. Strong, intense fragrance. Floral, sweet, syrupy.
Benefits | Oily skin. Antidepressant, sedative, nervous tension, aphrodisiac.
Uses in Soap | Like geranium, it can hold its own in soapmaking. Makes a beautiful foil for tangy lime and herbaceous lavender.

Natural and Organic Projects

More and more, soapmakers are demanding organic and sustainable alternatives to conventionally produced oils.

Starting out with or even shifting toward natural and organic soapmaking isn’t difficult. All it takes is research, commitment to education, and money. Lots of money. Truly organic-based oils, fats, essential oils, colorants, and herbs are often considerably more costly than those that are conventionally produced. If you’re making soap just for you and your family, the cost is probably something you’re used to from purchasing organic food, for example. But if you’re making soap to sell, the cost of using organic ingredients must be passed on to your customers. You have to ask yourself if your customers are willing to pay more to get soap that is as organic as possible.

You can make direct substitutions of organic for conventional in your soapmaking oils, herbs, and essential oils. If you’re going strictly natural for color sources, you can’t use mineral pigments, food coloring—based pigments, titanium dioxide, or mica. You can, however, use colored clays, charcoal powder, and herbal colorants.

Once you’ve done your research and obtained the supplies, you’ll want to get started on making beautiful natural and organic projects.

You can make organic soap that is not vegetarian! Lard from organically raised pigs makes a great soap and is a good way to contribute to the use of the entire animal.

Organic Lavender and Oatmeal

Two of the most popular soaps stirred into one.

Weigh and measure the ingredients in the usual way.

Set up and make the soap using the process you prefer—traditional cold-process, heat exchange method, or hot-process. Start with approximately 1 tablespoon of dried lavender for each pound of oil. Add more if you like.

When the soap is in the mold, sprinkle a line of dried lavender flowers down the center of the surface of the soap.

Insulate, let sit for 2 days, and then cut into bars and cure.

Calendula Sunshine

Not only is calendula easy to grow, harvesting, drying, and using your own organically grown calendula will make this soap particularly satisfying. Infuse the olive oil with the calendula petals in the sun for three days or until the oil is as yellow as you want it to be. Use about 3 tablespoons of petals per pound of oil.

Weigh and measure the ingredients in the usual way.

Set up and make the soap using the process you prefer—traditional cold-process, heat exchange method, or hot-process. Start with approximately 1 tablespoon of dried petals for each pound of oil. Add more if you like.

When the soap is in the mold, scatter calendula petals all over the surface of the soap. Use more than you need to allow some to fall off when you unmold.

Insulate, let sit for 2 days, and then cut into bars and cure.

CHAPTER 14

Your First Batches

At the outset, all this soapmaking information has surely got you at least somewhat overwhelmed. Whether you’re just totally confused or you’re overloaded with creative impulses, it’s good to take a step back and make some plans. After a while, you will look back on your first batches fondly and swell with pride at the strides you’ve made.

Patience Is a Virtue

This is a good time to evaluate your level of patience. Are you content to wait it out, to go with the flow? Can you hold back for a while but then run out of patience before too long? Is instant gratification just too slow? Luckily, there are soapmaking techniques for every patience level.

The quickest is the soap-casting technique. You can create a pretty bar with great color and fragrance and use it within the hour. Cut, melt, add color and fragrance, pour into a mold, let harden, pop out, and head to the shower!

Next are the hot-process techniques. They can be labor-intensive, and some take the better part of a day. However, since you cook the soap until it is neutral, you can use it right away. This includes hot-process transparent and liquid soaps. There are benefits to waiting a bit longer with these techniques, and you can use them as soon as they’re cool.

Staggering your soapmaking projects according to creation time is a great way to keep yourself busy while you wait for the cold-process batch to cure. Many soapmakers have added other techniques to their repertoire out of sheer desperation to have something tangible to use and admire while waiting for other batches to cure.

The longest wait is for cold-process soap. It takes a while to cure and become neutral enough to use. Cold-process soap is ready between three and four weeks after pouring. During the time between pouring and use, it becomes milder as the saponification continues. It also becomes harder as the extra water evaporates.

The Learning Curve

For your first batch, choose something you can manage without an enormous expenditure of money and time. You may be one of the very few who make soap once and never think about it again. If so, you’ll be glad you took it easy on your budget.

There are some craft projects that you can do “right out of the box.” In soapmaking, you can probably do this with soap-casting projects. You can go to the craft store, buy some casting base and a mold, and there you go! You can have pretty soap within less than an hour of getting out of the car.

Making soap with lye takes considerable preparation. Even a small, plain batch requires a specific set of things, so if you tend to be impatient, discipline yourself to take your time. You can relieve some of the impatience by picking up soap-casting supplies and doing some simple projects to tide yourself over while you get your lye soap supplies together.

Read the instructions for the batch carefully a number of times. Take notes. Be aware that everyone learns a different way. Read the directions out loud; copy them out into your soap notebook; have a friend read them to you. Whatever it takes, make sure you fully understand the procedure.

When you do get all your lye soap ingredients and materials together, do a “dry run” of the procedure. Walk yourself through all the actions without the actual ingredients. You’ll know if you don’t have something you need, and you’ll be better prepared for the steps. Don’t worry that you may laugh at yourself later when you know how to do it. There are some things that can only be experienced—such as trace—so you can’t expect to learn that from the instructions, but you’ll have a good idea of what you’re looking for.

Write Down Everything

When you make even the simplest projects, keep records of what you do. It’s better to have the information and not need it later than to want to remember what you did and not be able to. It’s also helpful for when you pick up soaping again after a time away. Rereading the records you kept keeps you from having to reinvent the wheel.

You need a soap notebook as much as you need anything else on the supply list. You will refer to it again and again. It will be the record of your learning, the tangible steps on your road to mastery. A plastic three-ring binder works well. At first you just need some notebook paper, a pencil, a pen, and a dark marker. You can use the marker to write the recipe on a sheet of paper large enough for you to see it from anywhere in your work area. A good first addition is a plastic sheet protector. The plastic protector does just that—protects the paper from oily hands, soap blobs, and colorant.

If you make soap for quite a while and then stop, be sure to refresh your memory when you get out the soap pot again. Your first and best tool is your own set of notes. Additionally, use this book and the other soapmaking books you’ve collected. You’ll get the hang of it again in no time.

It is a nice extra to have a specially bound soap notebook. It can be a sketchbook in a gorgeous leather cover, a blank journal bound with pretty paper, or something you’ve made yourself that reflects your own style. Just be sure you don’t use this treasure in the thick of soapmaking. Stick with plastic-covered recipes and disposable paper copies while you’re working.

Keep a pencil and scratch paper within reach while you’re working to record last-minute changes, substitutions, or inspirations. If your soap batch behaves badly, write down everything so you can go back over it to figure out what happened. Transfer what you’ve written to your notebook later.

Don’t Be Afraid to Reread Directions

Even if you are a person who disdains directions, you need to read them when you’re learning to make lye soap. Perhaps this is especially true if you hate directions! You can never have too much information. If there is something you don’t understand, go over it again on paper, and then in a dry run.

Methods that don’t involve chemistry can be less instruction-intensive, but it still pays to read through your recipe. You may find that you’ve found a better way of making the soap than from the directions you read initially. It is always possible to learn more.

Be careful, though, that you don’t get so involved in reading about soap that you never make any. You can plan the most exquisite soap and get so bogged down in thinking about it that you never actually make it. Don’t be afraid to put down the book and make some soap!

Single-Oil Soaps

Learning what you like and don’t like is the first step toward discernment. You can read all the soap books you like, but until you’ve actually worked with an oil, you won’t know how you like it. It’s like trying to appreciate the latest hit movie without having seen it. You can read all the reviews and pay attention to the publicity, but until you’ve actually seen it, it’s just theory.

Think of single-oil batches as exercises in discernment. Use these to experience each oil in the process and how the soap made from them feels. Use the soaps side by side and make observations in your notebook. Observe the color and scent of each oil. If the oil is solid, make a note of its melting point. When mixed with the lye, how quickly does it begin to trace? How long did it take to get to a light, medium, and full trace? Once poured, how did it set up?

There is no requirement that you make these sample batches, of course. They are merely suggested if you want to fully educate yourself about the properties and behaviors of the oils. You can make batch after batch of excellent soap by following a recipe you like.

Keep some of the single-oil soaps as reference material. The recipes for single-oil soaps given here are nearly fully saponified and will have a long shelf life. They will, of course, decay over time. Make them again every so often to refresh your memory.

TABLE OF SINGLE-OIL SOAPS

Single-Oil Soap, Basic Recipe

Since it is easier to measure odd amounts of oils than odd amounts of lye, the recipes are all formulated on 0.5 ounce of lye. The amount of oil used is within 2–3 percent of total saponification, depending on the saponification value of each oil. These microbatches yield about 6 ounces of soap. A ¹⁄₂-pint milk container works very well as a mold. You can just tear the container off the hardened soap and recycle the paper.

INGREDIENTS

1.5 ounces water

0.5 ounce sodium hydroxide

Desired oil

Place the water in a small heatproof measuring cup.

Add the lye and stir until it’s dissolved.

Warm the oil over hot water or in the microwave.

When both the oil and lye solution reach 110°F, slowly and carefully pour the lye solution into the oil. (Since the amounts are small, they’ll cool to that temperature quite quickly. You’re combining them at this relatively high temperature since such small amounts need a little heat boost to get to the gel phase.)

Stir the small batch to trace and pour into a tiny mold.

After a two-week cure, set up a trial area. Make a chart listing each kind of soap down one side. Across the top, write down the observations you want to make. These will include nature of lather, how drying or moisturizing it is, how soft or hard it is, and what color it is. Add more categories, depending on what is important to you and what you’re looking for.

So many of the soaps will look exactly alike, and it will be impossible to tell them apart visually. Be sure to label each microbatch with the recipe, the date poured, and the estimated cure date. An easy way to do this is to thread a length of yarn or raffia through the bar and tie the label on that way.

Experimenting with Color

In order for you to predict with as much accuracy as possible the way a colorant will perform in a batch of soap, you must test it. You can, in general, assume that colorants created for soapmaking will behave the way the manufacturer and distributor say they will. However, in soapmaking, colorants will behave differently depending on the nature of the soapmaking technique. For example, casting soap has a different effect on color material than cold-process. Usually. Some colorants perform predictably no matter what technique you use.

Scent Materials Have Color, Too

There are also chemical changes that occur with some fragrance materials that will change the color of a soap mixture. Most notably, vanilla fragrances, even the “non-discoloring” ones, will make your soap brown. There is a lot of resistance to accepting a vanilla soap in this color, as most people are used to vanilla being white, as in vanilla ice cream. The vanillin in the fragrance is naturally brown and covers all soap shades of brown ranging from light tan to dark, “chocolate” brown.

Colorant Behavior

Food colors stay true in casting soap, but some behave differently in the presence of lye. Most food colorants are not lightfast, meaning they will fade when exposed to light, even indoor light. All colors will fade somewhat in light, especially sunlight, but some are more light-stable than others.

Mineral pigments tend to be the most lightfast. Micas, in general, are next in terms of lightfastness, followed by cosmetic dyes and food colorants. All these are variable, depending on the kind of soap and the conditions to which the finished soap is exposed.

A usually unwanted effect that happens mostly in soap projects made with food and cosmetic colors is “bleeding.” A color is said to bleed when it migrates from where it was put to surrounding locations. Red colorants are notorious for bleeding. Primary colors made with pure pigments tend to bleed more than others. However, you can use this as a design element by planning your soap around the migrating color.

Color Studies

Making a set of reference samples is a great way to help you when you’re determining which colors to use for a project. Test colors in all the different kinds of soap you’ll be making. Test them at various stages of the processes and as always, keep records of everything.

To do these color studies, you’ll divide the plain soap into as many portions as you have colors you want to try. Small disposable waxed paper cups are good molds for these tiny sample bars. When the soap is hard, you simply tear away the paper.

Mineral Pigments

You’ll find that these pigments go a long way. Some of them are very difficult to clean up, especially red oxide, which will get on everything if it spills. Make notes on how each color behaved, how easy or how difficult it was to incorporate, and the depth of the color created by the amount of pigment you used.

Micas

As with other types of color, it’s helpful to experiment with micas, too. Bear in mind that some micas are not suitable for use in cold-process soap because the lye causes the color to disappear. Responsible mica suppliers will let you know which micas don’t work in cold-process.

Herbs, Spices, and Food Colorants

There are many herbs, spices, and other food-related products you can use as natural colorants. The colors will be more subtle than mineral pigments, and the powders will show up as fine speckles.

Experimenting with Mineral Pigments

INGREDIENTS

1-pound batch of the recipe you wish to test

6 small containers to use as molds (waxed paper cups work well)

Ultramarine blue

Ultramarine pink

Chromium oxide green (yellow-green)

Hydrated chromium oxide (blue-green)

Yellow oxide

Red oxide

Water

Divide your test batch into the 6 waxed paper cups at light trace.

Add ¹⁄₁₆ teaspoon of pigment to 1 teaspoon of warm water. Stir it well and crush any lumps.

Add 2 tablespoons of traced soap to the colorant mixture and blend it until the color is completely incorporated.

Add it back into the rest of the portion and mix completely.

Move on to the next portion, repeating the procedure for each color. This will give you a set of reference colors for the mineral pigments.

Experimenting with Micas

Micas can add beautiful color to opaque soap, but they are at their best in transparent soap where light hits them from all sides.

INGREDIENTS

1-pound batch of the recipe you wish to test

6 small containers to use as molds (waxed paper cups work well)

6 colors of mica, ¹⁄₈ teaspoon of each

Water

Divide your test batch into 6 portions at light trace. Use a plastic measuring cup to scoop out the traced soap. You can, of course, make as many as you need.

Add the mica to 1 teaspoon warm water. Stir it well and crush any lumps.

Add 2 tablespoons of the traced soap to the colorant mixture and blend it until the color is completely incorporated.

Return it to the rest of the portion and mix completely.

Move on to the next portion, repeating the procedure for each color. This will give you a set of reference samples for your micas. Be sure to take good notes on what each mica does and how it holds up. You can do an easy test for lightfastness by covering half the soap with opaque paper and leaving them in the sun.

Experimenting with Herbs, Spices, and Food Colorants

INGREDIENTS

1-pound batch of the recipe you wish to test

6 small mixing containers (waxed paper cups work well)

Turmeric

Paprika

Finely ground coffee

Cocoa powder

Black tea leaves, finely ground

Green tea leaves, finely ground

Water

Divide your test batch into 6 portions at light trace.

Add 1 teaspoon colorant to 1 tablespoon of boiling water. Let it steep until the color develops.

Strain and reserve 1 teaspoon of the infusion in a small mixing container.

Add 2 tablespoons of the traced soap to the colorant infusion and blend it until the color is completely incorporated.

Return it to the rest of the portion and mix completely.

Move on to the next portion, repeating the procedure for each colorant.

Food Colors

Food colors are made in so many different ways, you have to test them in cold-process soap to know what’s going to happen. Some blues and greens tend to turn violet or other shades of purple. Food colors are not at all lightfast, so they will fade, especially if exposed to sunlight.

Experimenting with Food Colors

INGREDIENTS

1-pound batch of the recipe you wish to test

Blue food coloring

Red food coloring

Yellow food coloring

Green food coloring

Equal parts red and yellow to make orange

Equal parts red and blue to make purple

6 small containers (waxed paper cups work well)

Divide your test batch into 6 portions at light trace.

Add 5–10 drops of colorant to the traced soap portion and stir well, repeating the procedure for each color.

When your color experiments are ready, unmold them and lay them out to admire. Make notes about the way each colorant behaved in process, how it changed or didn’t change, how it looks, and what your favorites are.

CHAPTER 15

Making Your Own Recipes

Now that you have made many batches using various techniques, you’re ready to start formulating your own special recipe! It can seem daunting, but when it comes down to it, it’s just basic math. Feeling rusty? Many a soapmaker has revisited seventh grade in order to create unique and personal soap formulas.

Your Inner Chemist

By now, if you’ve been doing the soap projects in order, you’re already familiar with the basics of making soap with lye—fatty acids and caustics. You know that by the time the soap has completely saponified, the fatty acids and caustics have been transformed into soap and glycerin.

There are some very clear ways of predicting what an oil will do. You look at the chemical makeup of each oil and remember that, with some exceptions, oils that have similar ratios of chemical constituents will behave in similar ways. Combine the “paper” qualities of the oils with your hands-on experience for the best soaps you can imagine.

Now, it’s just a matter of research and a little number crunching, and you can make your ideal soap recipe. As you did at the beginning, start with small batches. Keep track of your experiments, progress, and results.

Refer to your single-oil batches and the batches you’ve made with different recipes. You may find the extremely clean feeling of coconut oil soap pleasing, whereas lots of people find it drying. You can alter coconut oil soap’s drying potential by taking a major lye discount—up to 20 percent!

Animal or Vegetable?

Deciding whether to use animal or vegetable oils or a combination of both is each soapmaker’s choice. Excellent soap can be made from either. Most soapmakers use both at some point. No matter what fats and oils you choose to use, research their properties, benefits, and uses in soapmaking. Finding an oil blend that suits you to perfection is one of the most gratifying experiences in soapmaking.

Animal Fats

Common animal fats come from cattle and pigs, but some exotic animal fats such as emu oil are popular. You can purchase animal fats clean and ready to use, or you can render the fats from meat yourself.

All animal fats, with the exception of butter fat and lanolin, come from slaughtered animals and are a way of using the entire animal. Hunters often find themselves with fat from deer, elk, and other game that can be rendered into useful soapmaking fat. People who raise small flocks of food animals generally like to put as much of the processed animals to use as possible, and rendering their fat and making it into soap can become another way to accomplish this.

Emu oil is a byproduct of processing the large flightless birds for meat. It is reported to have many therapeutic and healing properties. Emu ranching is popular in the United States because emus provide low-fat, high-protein meat.

Lard is the animal fat most accessible to home soapmakers. You can buy blocks of clean lard, ready for soapmaking, at the grocery store in the section with butter. Lard makes a very hard bar of soap and is favored by many soapmakers.

Lanolin is the fat from the wool of sheep, and it is processed out of the fleece after shearing. It is very emollient and is best used in small amounts as it has an odor that many find unpleasant.

Vegetable Fats

Contemporary soapmaking techniques have made the use of vegetable fats a viable alternative to animal fats. Combining various vegetable oils in specific combinations can produce hard, long-lasting bars. Vegetable oils are readily available, and many are very inexpensive.

Keep in mind that you should never use mineral oil or petroleum jelly in handmade soap, as they do not react with caustics in a way that creates soap.

There are many reasons some soapers prefer all-vegetable soaps. Vegetable fats tend to be less pore-clogging than animal fat. Some people find the smell of animal fats off-putting, although in a carefully formulated recipe there will be no unpleasant odor. Still others choose to use vegetable fats exclusively because they don’t care for the idea of killing animals for human consumption or cosmetic use.

Oil Forms

You can start with your oils in one of two forms—liquid or solid. Here’s the lowdown on each.

Liquid Oils

Some oils—such as avocado oil and olive oil—are sold as liquids. To be used in soap, oils must be in a liquid state when mixed with the caustic solution. Liquid oils are, of course, ready to go, and they usually require little if any heating to get them ready to mix. Pouring room-temperature liquid oils into the warmed and melted solid oils is an effective way of helping to lower the temperature of the warmed oils to the point necessary for combining the oils with the caustics. Some popular liquid oils include:

Almond oil: Lubricating, occlusive, rich, and moisturizing. It has a short shelf life, so use sparingly.

Avocado oil: A thick, rich oil. High in vitamins, goes rancid slowly, and is very lubricating.

Canola oil: Comes from rapeseed. Almost completely unsaturated. Can be used similarly to olive oil. Absorbs well on the skin. Needs to be blended with some saturated oils in order to saponify well.

Castor oil: An indispensable oil for soapmakers. It has a chemical makeup that provides an outstanding lather boost to lye soaps. It also helps to bind fragrance. Great in shampoos and transparent soap.

Emu oil: Very beneficial in many ways. Thought to be a very healing oil.

Grapeseed oil: An extremely light oil that lubricates well, but leaves little residue on the skin. It is very light green and has no taste and very little odor. Slightly astringent.

Jojoba oil: Actually a liquid wax that comes from the beans of the jojoba tree, native to the southwestern United States. Virtually never goes bad and is similar to the oil in human skin. It is humectant and contributes shelf life and a silky feel to soap. Costly but can be used as part of a formula for a luxury soap.

Macadamia nut oil: Light, rich, and adds lubrication and silkiness to soap formulas. It has a long shelf life. Like jojoba oil, it is costly so can be reserved as part of a blend of expensive oils for a luxurious soap.

Olive oil: It is the most overall useful soapmaking oil. True Castile soap is made of 100 percent olive oil from the Castile region of Spain. Lower-grade, less-expensive olive pomace oil is great for soap. Olive oils range from light gold to deep green and can affect the color of the finished soap.

Rice bran oil: Very similar to olive oil in fatty acid profile and saponification value. Rice bran oil can be a good substitute for olive oil when the price of olive oil increases.

Soybean oil: Light and readily available. Most salad oils sold as “vegetable oil” are made from soy. It absorbs readily, does not clog pores, and is inexpensive. It is best used in combination with richer oils, as on its own it tends to have a weak, unstable lather. It is also prone to oxidization, resulting in yellow-to-orange spots on your soap.

Solid Oils

Other oils—such as coconut oil and lard—are sold as solids. Solid oils must be melted before they can be mixed with the caustic solutions. Melting points vary from just above room temperature to quite a bit higher, so you’ll need to be sure to plan carefully to avoid getting the oil solution too hot. Never let oils come to a boil and never leave heating oils unattended. A good way to melt solid oils is to place them in heated liquid oils and let them liquefy as they bring down the temperature of the overall solution. Here is a selection of the solid oils available:

Coconut oil: Creates the billowy, stable lather prized in handmade soap. It should be used in combination with emollient oils to counteract coconut’s reported potential to create a drying soap. You can, however, make an all-coconut soap with a big lye discount that isn’t drying at all. Try making a 1-pound batch with just coconut oil at a 20 percent lye discount.

Lard: Fat that comes from the areas around the kidneys of pigs. Makes a very hard bar on its own, but without other oils it has a low, slippery lather. Best used in combination with vegetable oils that have properties it lacks.

Mango butter: Yellow and grainy. Adds rich silkiness to soaps. It has a long shelf life.

Palm oil: One of the primary soapmaking oils. It contributes hardness and body to soap formulas. You can use it at between 20 percent and 30 percent in soap formulas.

Palm kernel oil: Can be used in combination with coconut and olive to create a hard, long-lasting bar with lots of glycerin.

Shea butter: Made from the seeds of the karite tree of western Africa. Try using it as ⅓ of your total oils for a very luxurious soap.

Solid vegetable shortening: Made from mostly soy oil, sometimes with cottonseed oil added, depending on brand and season. You can make a serviceable and inexpensive soap from just this oil.

Tallow: Used to make soap for centuries. Tallow comes from cows and game animals such as deer, moose, and elk. You can render tallow on your own or buy it from a renderer. It is more difficult to find than lard.

Exotic Oils

With so many people making soap, many formerly “exotic” oils such as emu and mango butter have become relatively commonplace. There are still, however, many oils that, for various reasons, remain exotic. One of the factors in making this list is price. Another is how new the oil is on the soapmaking scene. Another factor is limited-use oils, such as those that have an unpleasant smell but are very useful for specific applications, for example. Some of these exotic oils include:

Babassu oil: A rich, penetrating oil that does not clog pores. Use as part of a luxury formula.

Evening primrose oil: Quite costly, but reputedly excellent for dry skin, eczema, and psoriasis. Supposedly has other healing properties including relieving the symptoms of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and arthritis.

Hemp seed oil: Has a reputation as a soothing, healing oil, particularly for dry skin. It does not contain the drug THC, so it doesn’t have any dangerous properties. Use in small amounts in your formula because it is prone to rancidity and in large amounts may contribute to spoilage.

Kukui nut oil: From Hawaii, an excellent skin conditioner and reported to have many healing properties. It lubricates without oiliness. Use as part of a luxury soap.

Kokum butter: Very moisturizing, yet good for dehydrated, acne-prone skin because it lubricates without clogging pores. It contributes hardness in a soap formula as well as non-greasy moisturizing.

Neem oil: Said to possess healing properties of such great usefulness that soapmakers are willing to overlook the fact that it smells horrible. Use as a base oil for problem skin or as part of a formula for a “healing” bar.

Sal butter: Has a long shelf life. It is lubricating but not greasy.

As you make more and more soap, you may find that one or more of these “exotics” becomes commonplace in your soapmaking. If you find an oil that is not listed here, go ahead and experiment with it and share your results in your soapmaking community. Eventually someone will want to know what you have learned!

Fatty Acids

The fatty acid profile of an oil or fat determines the way it behaves in a soap formula. Fatty acids are the individual components that make up the oil or fat. A fatty acid is comprised of a carboxylic acid group and a hydrocarbon chain. Saturated fatty acids are solid at room temperature; unsaturated fatty acids are fluid at room temperature. Studying the fatty acid components of soapmaking oils can help you determine which oils to use for the effect you want. These are the most important fatty acids in soapmaking:

Lauric acid: Extremely effective cleanser; can be harsh; good lather

Linoleic acid: Goes rancid easily; use in small amounts in combination with more stable oils; contributes mildness; conditioning; polyunsaturated (likely to oxidize)

Linolenic acid: Double bonds; prone to rancidity; not that prevalent in soapmaking oils

Myristic acid: Softest of the saturated; can be harsh; hard bar; good lather

Oleic acid: Long shelf life; conditioning; main component of olive oil; monounsaturated

Palmitic acid: Saturated; long shelf life; hard bar; stable lather

Palmitoleic acid: Long shelf life

Ricinoleic acid: Castor oil; has an alcohol component; conditioning; monounsaturated

Stearic acid: Saturated; hard bar; stable lather

Fatty acids are components of oils. Here are the primary fatty acids in some common soapmaking oils by percentage:

Almond oil: Mostly oleic

Apricot oil: 0.25 linoleic, mostly oleic

Avocado oil: Mostly oleic

Castor oil: Mostly linoleic

Cocoa butter: 0.33 oleic, 0.33 palmitic, 0.33 stearic

Coconut oil: Mostly lauric

Emu oil: 0.45–0.50 oleic, 0.22–0.25 palmitic, 0.08–0.10 stearic, 0.06–0.10 linoleic

Grapeseed oil: Linoleic

Hemp seed oil: Mostly linoleic

Kokum butter: 0.03 palmitic, 0.67 stearic, 0.28 oleic

Kukui nut oil: 0.48 linoleic

Lard: 0.22 palmitic, 0.15 stearic, 0.41 oleic, 0.12 linoleic

Macadamia nut oil: Mostly oleic

Mango butter: 0.33–0.5 linoleic, 0.25–0.5 stearic

Olive oil: Mostly oleic

Palm oil: Over 0.3 oleic, about 0.5 palmitic

Palm kernel oil: About 0.5 lauric

Sal butter: 0.04 palmitic, 0.47 stearic, 0.44 oleic

Shea butter: 0.5 oleic, 0.3–0.5 stearic

Soybean oil: Mostly linoleic

Tallow: 0.9 lauric, 0.03 myristic, 0.25 palmitic, 0.19 stearic, 0.36 oleic

Saponification Values

The saponification value of an oil indicates how much lye it takes to turn 1 ounce of that oil into soap. The saponification values for sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide lyes are different. If you use both types of caustics, be extra certain of what you’re working with when you make your calculations.

TABLE OF SAPONIFICATION VALUES

Oil | Sodium Hydroxide | Potassium Hydroxide
Almond oil | 0.136 | 0.1904
Apricot oil | 0.135 | 0.189
Avocado oil | 0.133 | 0.1862
Babassu | 0.175 | 0.2450
Beef tallow | 0.140 | 0.1967
Beeswax | 0.069 | 0.0966
Canola oil | 0.124 | 0.1736
Castor oil | 0.128 | 0.18
Cocoa butter | 0.137 | 0.1918
Coconut oil | 0.190 | 0.2660
Deer tallow | 0.138 | 0.193
Duck fat | 0.137 | 0.1916
Emu oil | 0.135 | 0.195
Evening primrose oil | 0.136 | 0.190
Grapeseed oil | 0.126 | 0.177
Hemp seed oil | 0.136 | 0.188
Jojoba oil | 0.069 | 0.0966
Kokum butter | 0.140 | 0.19
Kukui nut oil | 0.135 | 0.189
Lanolin | 0.074 | 0.1037
Lard | 0.138 | 0.1932
Macadamia nut oil | 0.139 | 0.1946
Mango butter | 0.140 | 0.190
Moose tallow | 0.139 | 0.193
Neem oil | 0.138 | 0.1941
Olive oil | 0.134 | 0.1876
Palm oil | 0.141 | 0.1974
Palm kernel oil | 0.156 | 0.2184
Rice bran | 0.129 | 0.181
Sal butter | 0.135 | 0.190
Shea butter | 0.128 | 0.1792
Sheep tallow | 0.138 | 0.1936
Solid vegetable shortening | 0.136 | 0.1904
Soy oil | 0.135 | 0.189

Making Worksheets

No matter how proficient you are at computer spreadsheets, make your first worksheets with good old-fashioned paper, pencil, and a calculator. Many new soapmakers get off track by spending valuable soaping time setting up the spreadsheet. Once you’ve mastered the paper-and-pencil method, set it up on a computer spreadsheet, if you like.

Even if you decide to use online lye calculators or a spreadsheet you’ve created, make sure you know what you’re doing without one. It’s not that the calculator will let you down; it’s just good practice to be able to rely on your own skills. When you make your first formulas, a lye calculator is a great way to check your work.

A pad of graph paper is a great tool. A pencil with a good eraser is another good one. You don’t need a fancy calculator, just one you can use with ease.

First Calculation

Multiply the SAP (saponification) value of a particular oil by the number of ounces of that oil. The resulting number indicates the amount of lye in ounces that is needed to achieve saponification.

For recipes that use a number of different oils, you calculate how much lye you need for each oil and add the lye amounts to get the 100 percent SAP rate. If you make soap with the exact SAP value, you will have no leftover oil in the batch. Because this leaves you no margin for error, there is a possibility that using the exact 100 percent SAP value could create a lye-heavy batch. It is smart soapmaking practice to use a lye discount to ensure a gentle soap.

Taking a Lye Discount

Here is an example of how to take a lye discount; that is, how to alter your lye ratios to make sure you have oils left in your soap after the saponification process. This is also called superfatting.

Coconut oil has a SAP value of 0.19 when using sodium hydroxide. A recipe that uses 10 ounces of coconut oil would require 10 × 0.19 ounces of lye—or 1.9 ounces—to saponify it 100 percent.

A lye discount is a reduction from the total amount of lye needed to saponify the oils, ensuring there is some oil left over in the soap. It’s always a good idea to plan for some extra oil to assure mildness. Too much extra oil, however, can lead to soft soap that spoils easily. A good discount to aim for is between 5 and 8 percent.

For a 10 percent lye reduction in the coconut oil example, multiply 1.9 (the amount of lye) by 0.1 (10 percent). You get 0.19 ounces. So, to take a 10 percent discount, you subtract 0.19 from 1.9 to get 1.71 ounces of lye. To take a smaller lye discount, follow the same formula using smaller multiples—0.02, 0.03, 0.04, 0.05, and so on.

Sample Oils Batch

Here’s an exercise in calculating a soap formula. You can use the formula hypothetically, or you can actually make soap with it. This is an example using what many beginning soapmakers find that they have on hand. Once you’ve done the math on this one, go ahead and recalculate it for what you actually have.

Let’s say you have accumulated small samples of exotic oils and you want to make soap with them for a mixed luxury batch. You have 2-ounce samples of macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, almond oil, jojoba oil, shea butter, and mango butter. You also have on hand your usual olive oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, coconut oil, and castor oil.

Using the “keep the coconut to a third of the formula” rule, see what you can come up with. You have 12 ounces of fancy oils. For those 12 ounces to equal two-thirds of your total, you will need 6 ounces of coconut oil. That comes to a total of 18 ounces of oils. So this is a “little over 1 pound” batch.

Use 5.5 ounces of water. Now you need to calculate the lye. You’ll multiply the SAP value of each special oil by 2 and the coconut by 6 (to reflect the number of ounces of each). Then, you’ll add up all the lye for the complete SAP value of the recipe.

Almond oil: 2 × 0.136 = 0.272

Avocado oil: 2 × 0.133 = 0.266

Coconut oil: 6 × 0.19 = 1.14

Jojoba oil: 2 × 0.069 = 0.138

Macadamia nut oil: 2 × 0.139 = 0.278

Mango butter: 2 × 0.14 = 0.28

Shea butter: 2 × 0.128 = 0.256

Raw lye calculation = 2.63.

Then, take your lye discount. For this recipe, make it 4 percent

2.6 × 0.04 = 0.1052064 ounce discount

2.6 × 0.064 = 1.536, rounded to 1.5 ounces lye

So! Do you feel like a soapmaker? If you’ve gone this far, it’s a good bet you are. If you aren’t yet, get busy! Make some soap already!

CHAPTER 16

Presenting Your Soap

Gracious and generous presentations of handmade soap make beautiful gifts. The variety of color, texture, shape, and fragrance in your handmade soaps provides the opportunity to create gift packs and baskets to delight the senses. No matter what the occasion, gifts of handmade soap are sure to be a hit.

Reasons to Give Your Soap Away

It isn’t completely clear exactly when the soapmaker will find his or her new hobby getting completely out of hand. Perhaps it’s when every horizontal surface area in your home is covered with curing soap. It could be when you go to prepare the guest room for a dear friend and find nowhere for her to sleep, let alone put down her suitcase. Instead of, “When’s dinner?” perhaps you’re hearing your family ask, “Is that soap or food?” Whatever the signal is, eventually it becomes clear that you must start giving your soap away. It can be difficult to be willing to find new homes for your creations. You’ve planned your soap, created it, tended it, and you may have become very attached to it. However, there are many reasons to give your soap away.

Releasing Your Creativity

Creativity can get bogged down when an artist holds on to too many past projects. Learning to let go can be extremely stimulating. Keeping favorites for reference isn’t the same as keeping an untouchable stock of projects. When an artist clears out old projects, the resulting sense of freedom can be quite inspiring.

Donating to Charity

Charity is good for everyone. Your soap is a useful donation to make to shelters. Many soapers regularly donate less-than-perfect but still perfectly useful creations to women and children’s shelters, for example. Not everyone realizes that along with food, toiletries including soap are greatly needed. Find a shelter in your area and make a donation of your wonderful handmade soap.

Don’t assume that people get tired of getting soap for presents. If you’ve been giving soap to everyone for the holidays and decide to give something else, they may not be delighted by the change. You don’t want your friends and family to say, “I love it, but where’s my soap?”

A good way to make soap for donation is to save up soap scraps in semi-disposable food storage containers. When the container is nearly full of scraps, make plain soap to pour over it to fill the mold. You can let this chunked soap cure in the containers and deliver it to the donation location. Put instructions on how to unmold and cut the soap into bars. It is easy to transport and store if you package it this way.

Giving a Gift

Giving gifts of your handmade soap to family and friends is satisfying for all involved. Whether you create a gift suite from start to finish, or you just grab a prettily wrapped bar on the way out the door to a party, a gift of soap will be appreciated.

These gifts of soap will very likely become requested, even not-so-gently demanded. The avid crafter can combine crafts to create exquisite gifts. The beginning crafter can be inspired to create elegant, simple presentations.

Making Simple Gifts

There are several easy ways to transform your soaps from simple bars to lovely packages. Here are a few ideas, but really, the sky’s the limit.

Cigar Band Wrapper

A simple “cigar band” wrapper is an elegant and easy way to wrap a bar of soap. The name of this style of wrap comes from the practice of placing a small ring of paper around a cigar to indicate the type and maker. You create a band of paper on a larger scale to fit around your bar of soap.

To decide the size to cut the paper, measure around the bar with a tape measure or wrap a piece of paper or string around the bar and measure that. You will have an easier time fastening the ends of the paper if they overlap by about 1 inch. Sometimes you will want to cover the bar end-to-end with a wide band, and other times you’ll want a narrower band that doesn’t conceal the soap.

The easiest way to fix the ends once you’ve wrapped the soap is with a small piece of clear tape. For a more finished look, used double-sided tape. Place the small piece of tape under one end of the band and press it down firmly to fix it to the other side. You can also use a glue stick to fasten the bands. Wrap the paper around the bar, and apply a small amount of glue to the inside of the overlapping edge. Press the glued side to the other side and press firmly.

Wrapping Paper

Plain paper and pretty ribbon is a good combination. Simple cord and extravagant paper is another. Choose a “signature” paper in which you present all your soap, or choose a style of paper that you vary in color to coordinate with the soap.

You can find beautiful mulberry and handmade papers at art supply stores. A large sheet of paper will make a large number of bands, so although the paper may be expensive, one sheet will go a long way.

Regular wrapping paper available at the drugstore can be perfect. Colored tissue is extremely useful. Try distressing it for a casual look or press with an iron on low temperature before wrapping for a more tailored look. Make sure your soap is completely dry or the dyes may run.

Try bands of varying widths until you find the one that looks good to you for each paper and soap. Try cutting with straight scissors as well as with decorative-edged scissors. Sometimes a fancy edge is perfect, but sometimes it’s better saved for another use.

Your fabric store will have a myriad of options for ties. Yarn, cord, ribbon, rickrack, and even seam binding can be used to great effect. Look for specialty millinery supply houses for fancy, vintage, and unique ribbons. Raffia, which is available in many colors, is perfect for tying soap.

Small Boxes

Small boxes can be decorated to hold one or more bars of soap. Little boxes can be found in office supply, jewelry supply, and packaging supply stores. Small folded takeout boxes, such as those often used by Chinese restaurants, are very cute containers for bars of soap. Place a couple of prettily wrapped bars in the container and make a label for the container out of the same paper you used to wrap the soap.

Computer-Generated Labels and Tags

Whether your computer skills are basic or advanced, you can use your computer as a tool for creating professional-looking labels and tags for your soap. Even the most basic word processing program can produce tidy printing in varying sizes.

To get ideas about how to create the layouts for your labels, refer to labels on food and cosmetic jars. For example, you can use a large font size for the name of the soap, which you want to be the main thing people see, and a smaller font size for the ingredients and notes for use. If you intend to sell your soap, however, there are specific rules for how you must label your soap.

Plastic Wrap and Bags

You can use stretchy cling film to wrap melt-and-pour soaps to protect them. Cut a square of wrap a few inches bigger than the bar. Place the bar in the middle, face down. Gather up the edges and gently pull it tight over the surface of the bar. Twist tightly, cut close to the soap, and fix with a piece of tape or a sticker.

Remember that plastic wrap is not the best packaging for lye soaps, since they need to have air circulation to prevent spoilage. If you shrink-wrap them, use wrap that has tiny circulation holes and leave the ends unwrapped.

Stiff plastic bags commonly called “cellophane” bags are an excellent presentation material. You can tie the top with raffia, decorative yarn, or ribbon, or you can neatly fold the opening shut and seal it with a pretty sticker.

Another useful plastic wrap is shrink-wrap. You can buy shrink-wrap in various sizes at craft stores and through online stores. Shrink-wrap is placed around the soap, fixed with tape if necessary, and heated with a special heat tool. There are some shrink-wraps that are designed to be used with the high setting on a blow-dryer. Shrink-wrap can lend a finished look to your soap if it’s done neatly. You can purchase shrink-wrap that will let you smell the bar of soap through it. Shop Internet soap supply houses for this and other shrink-wrap products created with the soapmaker in mind.

Designing a Gift Suite

A carefully planned gift project can take a good two months or more, so get ready to plan ahead! Soap gift packages can be planned in stages, so you can tailor your project to fit your time. From start to finish, a coordinated presentation is a rewarding project. Be sure to keep records and take photographs for reference.

When you give a gift of handmade soap, be sure to include somewhere in the packaging some information about the soap. Many people have never used handmade soap and are not aware of some of the attributes that make it special. The main thing is to let the person know that the soap shouldn’t sit in water between uses. Let them know that the solid lye soaps need air and that the casting soaps need to be kept airtight. Include the expected shelf life as well.

Planning Ahead

In order to be able to have just the right soap on hand to go into your special presentations, you need to do some planning. One way to do this is to keep a calendar with holidays, birthdays, and upcoming events marked on it. If you know that your friend’s wedding and Father’s Day are both coming up in June, you can plan your crafting and soapmaking time in May to prepare for these projects.

If you visit a person to whom you’ve given your soaps and you see your creations gathering dust, reiterate that even though it is pretty, the soap needs to be used, and that you’ll happily make more for them. If it turns out that they don’t like it or can’t appreciate why it is so wonderful, then perhaps they would prefer a different gift next time.

If you’re making cold-process soap, you need to make it at least two to three weeks before the day you plan to put together your gift basket. You may also need this long to shop for supplies and order through the Internet. Hot-process soaps, including liquid and transparent, are best if they’re made at least a week ahead. That gives opaque hot-process soap time to dry out a bit and the clear soaps time to settle or become clearer.

Sure, you can make a half dozen bars of beautiful casting soap in an hour. However, you also need time to make labels, wrap and package the soaps, and assemble the basket. It is easy to underestimate the time you’ll need to complete a project.

Multitask

You can multitask and make some elements you’ll need later while you make the ones for the project at hand. For example, if you’re making cold-process soap for a party next month and you want to make a chunked soap for the month after that, make more than you need for the party and cut the rest into chunks to use in the next project. The same thing goes for melt-and-pour and hot-process soap. You can always get a little jump on what’s coming next with just a little planning.

If your soaps are not neutral, have too much dye, leak excess oil, or have other characteristics of poor soaping, no amount of beautiful packaging can make up for that fact. Make sure your soaps are of high quality before you give them away. They don’t have to be beautiful, just safe to use.

If you’re making up a number of the same baskets, set up an assembly line. It’s even more fun if you have a few friends to help on a big project. Promises of your soap will get you lots of volunteers.

Gift Collection Ideas

Here are some ideas to get you started on ways to present your soaps. Some of the soaps have recipes in this book, and others you get to make up on your own. Use the suggested names and descriptions in the soap listings as prompts for you to create your own unique soaps. You have the skills, or at the very least, the book in hand to acquire the skills. Don’t follow each suggestion as if it were the only option. Use what you like, adjust to what you have or can get, and forget what doesn’t appeal to you.

Many people spend too much time hunting for exactly what they saw in a book, without taking into account their own innate creativity. You can learn more from the way you adapt these suggestions than by following them to the letter.

ALL NATURAL

Soaps: Unscented, uncolored bars made with only herbs or grains for texture, plant colorants, and essential oils for fragrance

Wrap: Brown craft paper

Tie: Plain cotton string or garden twine

Label: Use a pair of decorative-edged scissors to cut paper into a folded hangtag. Write the information about the soap on the tag and hang it from the tie with cotton string.

Container: Natural-color wicker basket or folded or crimped brown paper bag

VALENTINE PRESENT

Soaps: Heart-in-Circle casting soap in tube mold, Pink and White Swirl cold-process, Vanilla and Chocolate cream soap

Wrap: Red cellophane bags, heart-print fabric, or red or ivory silk dupioni fabric

Tie: Red and white satin ribbons or cord

Container: Heart-shaped candy box or heart-shaped basket

GARDENER’S GIFT

Soaps: Fresh Herb hand-milled; Tomato Leaf melt-and-pour; Basil hot-process; Cucumber liquid hand wash; Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme shower gel; Gardener’s Grit Special cream soap

Wrap: Garden-themed wrapping paper or handmade paper with leaves or petals color-coordinated to the soap

Tie: Garden twine

Container: Terra cotta flower pot, trug-shaped basket, small bushel-style basket, or berry basket

THANKSGIVING PRESENTATION

Soaps: Pumpkin Spice cold-process, Mulled Cider hot-process, Falling Leaves casting soap, Autumn Jewels transparent soap, Fall Festival liquid soap, Turning Leaves cream soap

Wrap: Warm-toned papers or harvest-themed fabric

Tie: Orange raffia or maroon velvet ribbon

Container: Cornucopia-shaped basket

CHRISTMAS GLOW

Soaps: Holiday Lights transparent, Santa’s Special cream shaving soap, Embedded Star in Circle slices

Wrap: Clear or colored transparent cellophane bags, and gold and silver tissue paper

Tie: Gold and silver stretch cording

Container: Cut glass bowl

CHRISTMAS FAIR

Soaps: Orange Spice hot-process, Ice Castles melt-and-pour, Gingerbread hand-milled, Snow Bank shower gel with peppermint

Wrap: Festive, holly leaf–patterned bag or fabric

Tie: Colored raffia that coordinates with the fabric

Container: Vintage Christmas cookie tin

HANUKKAH GIFTS

Soaps: Carrot Spice hand-milled, blue and silver casting soap made in dreidel-shaped chocolate molds, casting soap loaf with eight-candle design, casting soap “latkes,” bitter herb cream soap

Wrap: Pretty blue handmade paper or iridescent white paper

Tie: Silver and blue metallic ribbon

Container: Silver metal basket with white cloth

SPRING DELIGHT

Soaps: Fresh Cut Grass casting soap slices, Hand-Molded Egg-Shaped hot-process, Spring Meadow fragranced cold-process, Lemon Fresh liquid hand soap

Wrap: Spring green organza bags and pale green leaf-print fabric

Tie: Green garden twine

Container: Nest-shaped basket

SUMMER PLEASURES

Soaps: Cucumber Melon cold-process, Mixed Melon Salad melt-and-pour, Rosemary Mint cream soap, Blue Skies hand-milled, Ocean Blue transparent

Wrap: Clear plastic bags or frosted-plastic, Chinese takeout–style containers

Tie: Gingham ribbon

Container: Transparent beach bucket or picnic hamper–shaped small basket

PINK FLUFFY BIRTHDAY

Soaps: Hot Pink Mermaids, Gentle Chamomile and Lavender cold-process with no colorant, Bubble Gum Scented blue liquid soap

Wrap: Hot pink, iridescent gift bag and iridescent cellophane wrapping paper

Tie: Bright pink yarn or holographic curling ribbon

Container: Makeup box or hot pink, iridescent gift bag

DINO BIRTHDAY PARTY

Soaps: Dinosaurs in Amber melt-and-pour, Frog and Slime in clear bag, Rough and Tough Scrub-Up cream soap, Black Tar liquid soap

Wrap: Dino-print gift bags

Tie: Green plastic string

Container: Metal tool box or burlap sack

ZOO BIRTHDAY PARTY

Soaps: Casting soaps embedded with animals such as elephants, zebras, tigers, and snakes; Zebra- and Tiger-Striped casting soap slices

Wrap: Animal-print fabric or burlap

Tie: Thin rope or raffia

Container: Canvas zookeeper’s hat

AQUARIUM BIRTHDAY PARTY

Soaps: Casting soap embedded with plastic fish and aquarium plants

Wrap: Fish-print paper or fabric

Tie: Green satin ribbon

Container: Pail or small glass fishbowl

BRIDESMAID’S GIFT

Soaps: Casting soap in rose mold in the colors of the wedding, rich and gentle facial soap with rose otto and neroli essential oils, shimmering shower gel

Wrap: Silk and organdy, coordinated with the wedding colors

Tie: Satin ribbons in the wedding colors

Container: A hatbox with gold printing

MOTHER’S DAY

Soaps: Casting soap to match her bathroom, liquid hand soap for the kitchen, guest soaps to match her guest bathroom, luxury soap with rose and jasmine essential oils

Wrap: Elegant organza bags

Tie: Satin ribbons to coordinate with the soap

Container: Pretty fabric-covered box to match her dresser that she can use for other things

FATHER’S DAY

Soaps: Cold-process Shaving Soap rounds, Rosemary Mint liquid soap, Forest Green casting soap slices with tree embed

Wrap: Waxed paper folded neatly like wrapping paper or glassine bags

Tie: Green twine from gardening section or brown and green raffia

Container: Attractive box that is useful on his dresser, or a mini-tool or tackle box

Packaging Elements

As you head to the back of your local craft store, searching for soap supplies, you may have walked down one of the aisles bursting with design elements intended for scrapbooking and other paper crafts. Or, you may be a dedicated “cropper” with much scrapbooking experience and a stash of beautiful treasures.

All those stickers, rubber stamps, embellishments, and beautiful papers can be pressed into service as exquisite presentation materials for your soapy creations. A small packet of colored paper bags and a sheet of seasonal stickers is a wonderful and easy alternative to presenting your hostess with a bar of soap in the plastic sandwich bag you grabbed on your way out the door to dinner with friends.

Besides using them on the papers you use to wrap bars of soap, you can use stickers on the containers you use for liquid soap, shower gels, and cream soaps. Since they are not intended for use in a wet environment, they will probably come off, but you might be pleasantly surprised.

Rubber stamps on blocks and the kind of stamps with a band of changeable letters can work well for embossing soap and stamping the label you use to package it. Be sure to clean your stamps of soap residue that may decay the rubber and metals over time. Borrowing from another craft, stepping stone making, you can find sets of individual letters that will make clear imprints on your soap.

Select a set of stickers or other embellishment that suits the nature of your gift. You can go by event theme (such as birthday, graduation, or anniversary), by season, or by the nature of the soap itself (such as a nature-oriented decoration for an all-natural bar or a tropical theme for coconut-scented soaps). Select papers and ribbon to coordinate, add fancy-edged scissors or a shaped paper punch, and all you have to do is put it together.

Using this approach if you’re selling your soap is not going to be economical, but for ease in assembling a single gift or a small number of items, these materials are perfect. Encourage the happy recipient of your gift to actually use the soap, no matter how pretty it is.

Shelf Life

Handmade soap is gentle and free of excessive preservatives. That fact, however, is one of the few caveats involved with making soap at home. Handmade soap has a shelf life—a time after which it isn’t as fresh as it should be.

Signs that soap has passed its shelf life vary from variety to variety. With lye soaps, an “off” or rancid odor is a sign that your soap has gone bad. If you use a high degree of lye discounting and superfatting, this will happen sooner than if you have a more completely saponified bar.

All soaps, including casting soap, will display signs of age by yellowing and changing texture from firm and smooth to warped, grainy, or slimy. Liquid and cream soaps can grow mold, particularly if not preserved. You can prevent premature spoilage through appropriate storage and careful use of cosmetic-grade preservative. Every soap, though, will pass a point of no return if not used in time.

Storing Soap

Keep soap at its best through proper storage. Don’t store soap in sealed plastic storage boxes or bags. Store soap out of direct sunlight. Keep your soap where it won’t be exposed to extreme shifts in humidity and temperature.

Sealing lye soap in plastic will cause rancidity. Soap that gets lots of direct sunlight will heat up and cool down, causing rancidity through breakdown of oils, and scent and color will fade. Soap that is exposed to high humidity can get slimy because the glycerin in the soap is a humectant; it attracts moisture from the air.

Curing

If you make soap on a limited basis—2 or 3 pounds at a time, for example—you can easily use a shelf on a bookcase for curing and storage. If you find yourself continually running out of room, get a set of plastic shelves you can put up and take down as needed. And if you get to the stage where you are a constant soapmaker, you may as well just give in and buy or make a soap-curing/storage rack.

Use soap in the order it was made. Soap that is older should be used before a fresh bar of the same recipe. Be sure to keep “made on” and “use by” dates on your soap storage boxes and racks and in your production records.

You can modify a bookcase or start from scratch to create your soap rack. Plastic needlepoint canvas makes an excellent, ventilated surface for the shelving. Place freshly cut soaps on the rack, spaced about ¹⁄₂–1 inch apart. When the surfaces are dry to the touch, you can stack them more closely. Try to space your soapmaking so that you can rotate partially cured soap out as you place the freshly cut soaps.

After Curing

After 2–3 weeks of curing, cardboard or paperboard shoeboxes are useful for storing your soap. Line the box with plain paper—brown kraft paper is good. Place the soaps loosely in the box. Cut ventilation holes in the lid and sides so that the soap will be protected from light and dust and still get some air.

Be sure to always label your storage system with soap variety, date created, cure date, move-to-storage date, expected expiration date, and other information that will help you remember the details about each batch. Observe and record the changes your soap goes through as it ages. Again, keeping records is one of your most useful tools in progressing in your craft.

CHAPTER 17

Deciding to Sell

Once you’ve been making soap for a while, you will very likely find yourself attracted to the idea of turning your passion into a moneymaking venture. There are many things to consider before selling your soap. What follows is just a taste of what it takes to start your own soapmaking business.

The Impulse to Sell Your Soap

If the thought, “I could make some money doing this,” has gone through your mind, you are not alone. Innumerable soapmakers have had this exact thought. You shouldn’t be afraid of money, nor should you let desire for it overwhelm you. Your labor, ideas, creativity, and time went into your soap, and you can charge a price that is representative of that energy.

Calculating Price

You can roughly calculate the amount you should charge by doubling the cost of your materials and adding in your labor. This is a very rough, working calculation for friends and relations. A “family” price, perhaps.

Go back to your records and figure out how much it costs in materials to make the soap. You can easily figure the materials by going through and calculating the price per ounce and how many ounces in a batch, and then dividing by how many ounces in a bar. Double that for a base price.

Then, you need to calculate in the cost of the wrapping and decorating. How much did the paper cigar band cost? How much did you pay for the glitter pen you used to make the tag? How much gas money did you spend on gathering all the materials and gear?

Another way to set a rough price is to comparison shop. How much does a bar of handmade soap cost at the health food store, online, or at a boutique?

You are making soap at a time when there are thousands of hobbyist soapmakers thinking exactly what you are thinking. Join the trade organizations, research other companies, and seek out mentors. A few hours of a small business consultant’s paid expert time can save you months, even years, of trouble.

However you decide to set the price of your first little sales, the bottom line is to be fair to the buyer and yourself. You need to make back your costs, earn a small profit, and set a price that is appealing and friendly.

The Excitement Money Can Cause

Getting some money in return for a bar of your soap is an exciting feeling. You start calculating in your head and wonder if you can actually make money from doing something you really enjoy! But don’t get carried away counting soap bars before they’re sold. There are so many factors, and you really need to be smart about taking them all into account.

For a while, just sock your soap money away to recoup what you spend on supplies. Then make a fund where you save up your earnings and spend it on more supplies and equipment. If you carry on in this way, you’ll have plenty of time to research your market, what people like, what you like to make, and how much it costs.

Forming a Business

Let’s say you find your fund is getting big, the demand for your soap is increasing, and you still love the process of making, cutting, dressing, and selling on a small scale to friends and relations. You need to decide if this level is enough for you or if you want to take it to another level. Will you be happy, continuing as you are with a self-supporting hobby? Do you yearn to be self-employed at something you love? Can you make your soapmaking hobby into a part-time job that will earn back your time and effort and give you a small salary?

Family Considerations

Countless soapmakers have talked about resentment toward their work from their partners and families. It is a reaction to this kind of situation that leads many soapers to give soaping for money a try. “Just see what they think when I start making money at this!” This is, however, one of the situations that is most likely not to work out. If someone is busy away from the family as a hobbyist soapmaker, just imagine how neglected a family will feel if the business end takes off. Not only will the family feel more neglected, but the resentment will not be healed by the extra money.

If you are a person in this kind of situation, stick to keeping soap a hobby and see what you can do to improve the quality of your family life. Getting your family involved on a small scale is a great way to build family harmony. Working together to create holiday gifts for friends and extended family is a place to start.

When Pleasure Becomes Burdensome Toil

Listen to yourself. If you hear, “I have to make soap today,” rather than “I get to make soap today,” it is a sign that you’re getting tired of it. If you find yourself saying the latter more often than the former, you need to take a look at what you’re doing. When your business takes off, it can very quickly become too much for you to handle on your own.

The world will not end if you decide you don’t want to be in the soap business anymore. There are many hobbyist-turned-small-business-soapers who’ve gone back to hobbyist status or stopped making soap altogether.

Maybe you still love to make soap, but the details of running a business are so time-consuming that you’re too tired to enjoy it. Or, you may find you love the business end and would rather leave the soapmaking to someone else. Once you start a business, in order to make it work, you have to be in it for the long haul. And you have to be able to recognize when it’s time to change your mind.

Doing Your Research

If you are even considering going into business as a soapmaker, do your research. Make soap consistently for at least a year before seriously considering stepping up to selling in a formal way. Sell at a few school craft bazaars, for example, to see if you like selling. Work on your recipe, perfect your technique, and develop your product line. Make yourself into an expert soapmaker.

Learning to Sell

Before you get to large-scale production, you need to get back to the planning stage and learn about selling. You need to make soap that is going to appeal to an enormous number of people. This will involve moving beyond your personal favorites and staying current with the desires of your market.

If you do craft fairs and farmers’ markets in different locations, you can tailor your stock to the venue. You may find that for no apparent reason, the market you go to in a suburban area on Sundays never buys your Peach Sunset soap, but you can’t make enough of it for the demand at the Thursday afternoon downtown market.

Identifying a trend is more important than finding out why. For example, you can look at your inventories week after week and never understand why they like peach on Thursday and not on Sunday. Just take what sells! There are some universal hot sellers, such as oatmeal and lavender, but other than those two (which are time-tested but not fail-safe), there is a huge variety in what a “bestseller” can be.

Keep an open mind. If you have oily skin and tailored your base recipe for yourself, don’t forget there are lots of people with dry skin who won’t like that soap, but would love one with more excess oil. If you’ve never liked fragrance, be sure to expand to allow for the tastes of your potential customers.

Every local government has a set of rules and regulations, guidelines, and help for small start-up companies. Look into the laws that govern small businesses in your area. For example, some areas require that you live in a certain kind of residential zone in order to have a home-based business.

Some of the primary ideas behind selling personal care products are very simple. You need to know everything about the product: what it does, how it’s made, what’s in it, and why it’s special. You also need to be able to explain why it’s good, what it will do for the user, and how their life will be better if they buy it.

Since you already know all about your soaps and why they are special, this should be a breeze—at least in theory! Knowing and being able to communicate what you know are different skills. Practice your pitch on yourself in the shower or car, then try it out on sympathetic ears. Then move on to someone who you know will tell you the truth.

When you are practicing how to sell your soaps, think about how you like people to talk to you when they’re trying to sell you something. Very few people respond well to a hard sell. You need to be able to discern the difference between someone who is looking and will ask for information when they need it, and a person who is expecting you to go first.

One of the great things about soapers who decide to sell their soaps is that they are deeply excited about their products. Gear the information you give out to the depth of knowledge desired by the prospective buyer. Don’t launch into a speech about saponification values and temperature if the person just wants to know what a soap smells like.

Creating a Product Line

Once you’ve decided you want to sell, you need to find out if your products will sell. Do some market research and trend-spotting, and adapt your products to the wants of the market. You can sell one thing that you really love, but you can sell more if you expand, even a little, to include more items for varied tastes.

Now that you’ve varied your products to allow for tastes and needs other than your own, it is time to create a “line.” To get an idea of what that means, look to some of the giants in the cosmetics industry. A line can be defined as a group of different products that relate to each other around a theme.

Relating Products

Many skin care lines have a cleanser, toner, and moisturizer at the root of their treatment sales philosophy—three products that are meant to be used together.

A common thread among handmade soapmakers is the “all natural” theme. If you’re going to go this route, clearly define for yourself what “all natural” means and create your company philosophy around this idea. No matter what you choose as a focus, get a clear picture of what you’re going to offer, and stick with the niche.

Categorize by Threes

Having a standard three-faceted fragrance palette can create a strong selling base. Perhaps you’ll go with the traditional “floral, herbal, and food” divisions. Good florals are the traditional rose, gardenia, and freesia. Herbal scents like lavender, chamomile, and mint are always strong sellers. In the food category, you have everything from the perennially favored oatmeal to more recently popular fruits like peach and raspberry. You can also create a menu of “all natural,” “mostly natural,” and “fancy creations,” for example, for a three-pronged approach to categorizing your lines. You can offer an unscented soap, along with color-free lavender, for the all-natural part of your line. You can add naturally colored essential oil and fragrance oil blends for the “nearly natural,” and go all-out with fantasy florals and bright colors for the “fancy creations.”

Of course, you don’t have to think in threes. You can have a categorizing system that you devise on your own. It is, however, good to have one main focus, and then have two to four divisions within that focus.

Soap Selling Smarts

Many people start a business the wrong way; they get set up for business before ever making a batch of soap. Soon, most of these adventurers find themselves in over their heads. Licensing, zoning, safety, supply stream, cash flow, and quality control are just a few of the stumbling blocks facing the small-business soapmaker.

Make sure that you don’t create a soap name that infringes on trademarked items that are part of the organized festival. You may think you’re the first person to come up with a name that fits so perfectly with the event, only to find out the name has already been taken and actually belongs to someone else.

Take a class in starting a business. Make a business plan. Do your research and homework. Be more prepared than you think you’d ever need to be.

The venue usually dictates the type of person who is buying your soap. For example, if you sell at a holiday bazaar at church or work, make products for sale that go with the holiday. If you are selling at a weekly farmers’ market, you can adjust your products to reflect the offerings of the market, create occasional seasonal items, and have a few standard soaps for all seasons. If you do a big craft fair, be sure you know if there is a theme to the fair. If you’re selling at the local Apple Festival, Harvest Celebration, or Easter Fair, gear your soap to those themes.

CHAPTER 18

Bringing Soap to the World

If you’ve made the decision to try some formalized selling, you need to know what you’re in for. Every situation will be different, so these ideas are just that: ideas. The more prepared you are, the easier things will go. So, take a deep breath and dive in!

Planning for Sales Events

There are many opportunities to sell your soap on a small scale. Ranging from selling one dozen bars in an afternoon to dozens of bars over the course of a few days, these opportunities can give you an excellent taste of a full-time soap business. Some events are small and informal; some are large and highly organized. Most events require a percentage of your gross sales as a fee or donation. Almost all events charge a fee for having a table or booth. Many events take a percentage and charge a fee.

Getting ready for a show takes a great deal of time and energy. If you are able to spread your concentrated work out over the course of days or weeks, you’ll save yourself a lot of stress and last-minute hassle. For example, spend one evening cutting all the labels, another evening cutting all the ties, and a third evening dressing the bars. If you’re working with lye soaps, you may want to leave the wrapping of the soap to a few days before the event so the bands will still be tight.

Another of the many things you need to think about if you’re contemplating soapmaking as a business is large-scale production. The batches in this book may seem like a lot of soap at first, but there are small-business soapmakers who make hundreds of pounds a day. When you start to deal in volume, you need special equipment, bulk suppliers, storage room, and shipping facilities.

At least a month in advance of your sale, be sure you have all the ingredients and materials for the soaps you want to make. This is also when you should make your cold-process soaps so they’ll be ready. Next, make the hand-milling projects, then hot-process, then clear and liquids. Save the casting projects for last and wrap them in clear stretch wrap.

Among the types of events to sell your soap at are bazaars, craft fairs, and farmers’ markets, and your prep work will be slightly different for each.

Office or Church Bazaar

Once or twice a year, particularly around Thanksgiving, many offices and churches invite employees and members to sell their handcrafts at their facility. Usually this is a sales event with no booth fee, but a percentage of your sales will probably be donated to a charity in the name of the office or to the church itself.

If the bazaar is at an office, there may be a couple of people who have organized it and will take care of the sales for the day while you’re working. Sometimes workers will take turns taking money and helping customers. Be sure you are in compliance with the requested inventory and payment system for each event you attend. It makes things easier on everyone.

A typical bazaar setup is a number of long tables set in a horseshoe shape around a room. The tables will probably have cloths and seasonal decorations. Typical craft offerings include cookies and other homemade treats, knitted and crocheted items, wood crafts, as well as jams, jellies, and other preserves.

A nice way to present handmade soaps at a bazaar is to place the wrapped bars in a basket or two, depending on the space you are allotted. A few days prior to the event or at the beginning of the event, the coordinator will tell you where to place your soaps. Include a fact sheet with your inventory to answer questions a purchaser may have. Be sure to include your contact information so someone who wants to order more can find you.

Craft Fair

Craft fairs are a fun and exciting next step. Once you’ve found an event you want to do, you’ll usually need to apply for a space. Some fairs require a payment in full or a deposit on the booth fee. Once you’ve sent in your fee, you’ll be sent information about the location of your booth and how and when to set up.

Some shows are “juried” shows, where each artisan and crafter must be approved before entering. This means photos or actual products are given to the organizers to review for appropriateness to the event. The idea behind a juried show is twofold. One is to control the quality and appropriateness of the items, and another is to control the number of duplicate items.

At these types of events, each artisan and crafter is assigned a certain amount of floor space. Depending on the fair, you may or may not have to supply your own table and canopy. It’s very important to find out exactly where your space is. Don’t try to set up in another vendor’s space. Make sure you keep within the bounds of your designated area and that you’re using all of your area. If someone is encroaching on your area, they probably don’t know they are. Speak with them reasonably and help make the necessary adjustments.

Craft fairs go more smoothly and are more enjoyable if you have someone to help you. A friend who helps you wrap or make soap is ideal. Your friend should be able to talk about at least the basics of the soaps and why they’re so nice. He or she should feel comfortable taking care of the booth while you’re away at the restroom or getting food.

Farmers’ Market

Selling soap at a farmers’ market is much like selling at a craft fair, but they are usually held on a weekly basis. Some soapmakers sell at one, two, or three markets each week and sell an enormous amount of soap.

A very interesting community surrounds the farmers’ market circuit, and you will find yourself fitting into the rhythm of each market you do. It is hard work to haul your setup and stock to each weekly event, and this hard work increases exponentially with each new market you add to your weekly schedule. It is imperative to allow enough time to make soap so that demand does not outstrip your supply.

Farmers’ markets can be monotonous and become a grind. Getting some help before you burn out is essential if you want to stay on the market circuit. Make sure the people who help you love your soap, know all about it, and understand your method of keeping track of stock and money. Train someone to stand in for you by having them work with you a number of times.

What if I can’t get into the farmers’ market to sell my soap?

Because of the large number of soapmakers selling their wares, there is often a waiting list to get into a farmers’ market. If you apply and find there is a waiting list, don’t be discouraged. Just get on as many waiting lists as you can, and in the meantime, focus on making your soap stand out from the rest.

Before the Event

Whether it’s just another week of markets or your first office bazaar, everything will go more smoothly if you are prepared. There are so many variables over which you’ll have no control that it is a good idea to have as much under control as you can. A few things to keep in mind are stock, packing lists, inventory control, and dry runs.

Stock

Until you’ve done a number of events, you’ll have to guess about the amount of stock you should bring. You can make an educated guess, however, by thinking about how many people are expected at the event and how many other vendors are going to be there. If it is around the winter holidays, people are shopping for gifts and are usually going to spend more.

In general, it is best to take more than you need. It is better to take soap home than wish you’d brought more. It is, however, a wonderful feeling to bring your entire stock and have nothing left to take home.

Packing Lists

To prepare for the show, make a list of everything you need for the day. Besides the stock itself, you will need change, a change box, blank receipts, inventory sheets, paper, a clipboard, pens and pencils, signs and displays, tablecloths or drapes, scissors, bags, ties, chairs, more change, pamphlets, business cards, trash receptacle, cooler with food and beverages, layered clothing, and still more change. You may need to provide your own table and chair. If the show is outdoors, you’ll need cold and/or rainy weather gear, sunscreen, and an umbrella or canopy to protect your soap from the sun.

Inventory Control

Take an exact count of what you brought and what you have left so you can calculate how much you’ve sold. Remember that you may drop a bar in the dirt and not be able to sell it, or you may trade a few bars for the work of another artist. Occasionally someone will actually steal from you, and you list these missing items under “shrinkage.” Additionally, some events ask each vendor to donate items for a raffle or a silent auction. Just make sure inventory that is damaged, donated, traded, or stolen is accounted for appropriately. If you accidentally count it as sold, your figures will be off at the end of the day.

It’s a good idea to create an inventory chart. Make a chart with the following columns: product name, price per unit, starting count, trades, charity, damages, shrinkage, ending count, sold, and gross receipts. If you are careful to make an accurate inventory at the beginning, keep track of every bar, and make an exact count at the end, you’ll have precise, useful records. You’ll keep excellent track of your money and be able to make more informed decisions about what to bring in the future.

Dry Runs

A few days before the event, when you still have time to make changes, set up everything for a dry run. Set up in an approximation of the area you’ll have at the event. Make sure your array of soap is attractive and the pricing is easy to understand.

If you have a complicated setup of tables, table coverings, displays, baskets, wrapping area, and more, you really need to practice setting up the whole thing. Setting up at a fair or a market can be chaotic and you may have limited time, so you need to have a system in place. After you’ve done it a few times, you won’t need to do your dry run until you have a new idea to try. Trying it at home is better than losing setup time making an unrehearsed change.

After you’ve set everything up, stand back and take a good look. Make any adjustments necessary. Take an inventory of everything you’ve used to set up. (Use this to revise the packing list you created earlier.) Next, make a diagram of where everything goes.

Now you’re in the perfect position to practice something else—packing up. Take your time, tear down your display, and pack up your soap and equipment. If your dry run is close enough to the actual event, pack the car with what can sit out overnight. Keep your stock in the house until you’re ready to leave (it isn’t very good for soap to sit outside in the car all night). The less you have to do the morning of the show, the better.

At the Event

After weeks or even months of planning, the big day has finally arrived. Here’s how to have a great day.

Setting Up

When you arrive at the location, you will have to unload, and you will usually have to park your car at a distance from the site so your customers will have a place to park. There is often a registration booth where you pick up information and your booth location assignment. You may have already been sent your assignment in the mail, but at some point you will most likely have to sign in.

After you’ve set up your display, check the arrangement to see if you want to make any alterations. This can happen frequently due to the differences between the aesthetics of your home and the site. Walk by your setup from both directions to see what you like and what you want to change.

Put all of your extra stock beneath the tables, hidden by the table coverings. Make an organized—and secure—area for change, wrap, and other business. You want to keep everything close at hand, attractive and tidy throughout the day. You’ll need a trash receptacle, even if it’s just a plastic sack hung off the back of your chair.

Placing your soaps on the sink counter in the bathrooms at the event is a great way for potential customers to get hands-on experience with your soap. Place a little note or business card on the mirror. A note could say something like, “Soap donated by,” the name of your company, and where your table is located.

Selling

Now that you’re all set up, all you have to do is wait for the people to buy your soap, right? Well, partly. You can’t sell anything until they arrive, but just sitting and waiting for someone to say, “I’ll take this,” isn’t going to sell much soap.

Most people who come to fairs and markets intend to buy something. If the event is large, many people like to go around and look at everything before making purchases. Don’t be overeager at the start of the day. Let people browse and don’t overwhelm obvious browsers with information about your soap. Invite them to pick up the soaps and sniff them, and let them know you can answer any questions about the soap.

Standing out in front of your table, making sure everything is just so, can help you to be available to answer questions. Don’t just sit there, ignoring potential customers. You will find your own style of talking to people about your soap. If you are excited about your soap and not pushy, you’ll be fine.

It is effective to ask open-ended questions—those that require more than a “yes” or “no” answer. “What is your favorite fragrance?” is a good approach if the shopper looks like she is having trouble deciding between scents. Having a working knowledge of fragrance will really help you.

When a person asks you a question about your soap, don’t bombard her with huge amounts of information. You, of course, know that the lavender essential oil is organic and that you stirred the lye solution and the fats together at exactly 100°F, but that isn’t what most people will want to know. Tailor your pitch to the level of interest shown by the potential buyer.

When a customer has decided on the soaps he wants, be sure to let him know about how to keep the soap fresh, how to store it, and how to extend its usefulness. Tucking a brochure or a fact sheet with your contact information into the bag is a great way to extend the service customers have received from you. It also invites them to look for you and your soaps again.

Handling Money

Depending on the nature of the event, you may or may not have to handle money. At office and church bazaars, there is usually a group of volunteers who do that work. Some craft fairs are run that way as well. Most of the time, however, you’ll have to add up the merchandise, charge tax, and make change. If you are not a champ at figuring change, by all means use a calculator. You need to be efficient and accurate.

Near the end of the day, you may find you have a lot of customers who’ve been waiting to make their purchases. You may even have people who want to trade their wares for yours. That is one of the finest perks of doing craft fairs and farmers’ markets where barter among vendors is alive and well!

Always count the change in your cash box before an event. It is important to know how much you started with so that you will know how much you collected at the end of the day.

Taking cash only is, of course, the safest way for your customers to pay you. If you decide to take checks, be sure to get current information so you can contact the buyer if there is a problem with the check. Be certain to deposit the checks right away so that you don’t make someone carry a check over to another month.

Keep a record of everyone who writes a check for their payment. Make a file for checks with the name, address, and phone number of each customer, the date of the check, the bank number, and the check number. Don’t forget the amount. With this record, if for some reason a check should come back to you, you can easily find the information and contact the person to let them know about the problem.

There are a growing number of credit card solutions that are affordable and portable. You’ll make more money if you take credit cards, but be sure that you don’t lose the increased revenue on fees. Square, for example, has a point-of-sale solution for the iPhone and a more extensive one for the iPad. You can enter your inventory and prices, and you can keep track of your sales right on the iPad. Just be sure you don’t have a customer accidentally walk away with your device when you hand it over to complete the transaction!

After the Event

When the event is winding down, make sure you know what your responsibilities are before you leave. You will have to pack up your remaining inventory, break down the setup, repack the car, and drive home.

Before you pack up your inventory, take a final count of everything you have left. Be sure to take into account any trades, damages, or other ways soaps have left your hands. If you are missing a soap and cannot account for what happened to it, it may have been stolen.

Once you’ve taken your final count, add up the money on hand, subtract the change you started with, and compare that to the total on your inventory sheet. Hopefully the figures will match. If you need to pay the event coordinators a percentage of your sales, deliver it to the organization table at this time.

You can do fine-tuning and double-checking of accounting later when you’re home and have time to puzzle it out. Don’t let your bookkeeping slide, though. If you are going to do business, even on an extremely small scale, be smart and keep good records.

Perhaps even more important than the question “How much money did I make?” is “How can I make more next time?” One of the main things you learn when you do your final inventory count is what sold and what didn’t.

If you do the same event frequently, like a weekly farmers’ market or a yearly craft fair with the same target attendees, you can easily spot trends in what sells. You may absolutely love your “Enchanted Rainbow Dream Mist” soap, but if no one bought it, you may want to rethink it. Additionally, if you despise the smell of patchouli but a dozen people asked you if you had it, you need to hold your breath and make some.

Be careful of getting stuck in the rut of always making the same thing. But do keep making the classic bestsellers and don’t be afraid to go on a hunch. Pay attention to trends in bath and body shops and to colors in fashion. Use this information, combined with your own unique style, to create a bestselling line of soaps.

Moving Forward

Now that you’ve done an event, take a breather and evaluate your soap-selling ideas. Sometimes you know immediately what you think, but often it takes a while to let the event sink in. Talk to your soapmaking friends and your family, and take time to process your thoughts. Here are some questions to ask yourself.

Do You Want to Do It Again?

Did you have a blast? Were you in utter misery the entire time? Was some of it fun and other parts of it nerve-racking? Most likely your response to your experience will be a combination of things.

It is fun to be busy, telling everyone about your soap, even if you didn’t sell much. And if you didn’t have many customers, you may have made friends with other vendors. It’s possible that you got irritated about not being able to enjoy the event yourself.

Give yourself a few days to process your ideas. If, after you’ve cleaned up the mess you made of your house getting ready for the event, you think you want to do it again, start making a plan.

How Much Money Did You Actually Make?

After you’ve added up all the supplies, equipment, fees, and the value of your time, if you made money your first time out, you are ahead of the game. Be brutally honest with yourself. If you didn’t make any money, even if you lost money, you still learned something. It is rare to make money right away. Remember to value your time, ideas, and experience.

Most soapmakers do not make a profit their first time out. Many don’t make a profit the second time. Often proceeds cover only the cost of materials, but for many soapers, this is enough. Developing a profitable soapmaking business will take time, research, and investment.

Are You Prepared to Live Like This?

If you’re still thinking positively about selling more soap, you have to make hard choices about your lifestyle. If you get into the farmers’ market circuit, you have to go even when you don’t want to. Until you get to the point where you can hire someone, you’ll have to spend all your spare time cutting, trimming, wrapping, tying, packing, and unpacking.

Creating a Website

If you’ve found yourself attracted to the idea of having your own soap website, you’re not alone. There are an enormous number of websites dedicated to microbusiness handmade soap storefronts. However, very few of these online stores make any money for their owners.

If you go into selling soap online expecting to make a lot of money, you’ll be disappointed. There are very few people who actually make money through the Internet. If, however, you want a place to showcase your products and to give your existing customers access to a catalog, you’ve got the right idea. If you decide the web is the place for you, the next decision is if you want to create the site yourself or hire a pro.

Do It Yourself

You can have a website without having your own “dot com.” To make a webpage, you could learn the programming language HTML—hypertext markup language. Although there are simple rules, writing HTML is a highly specialized skill, and becoming proficient in it takes a long time. A simpler way to make a webpage is using a WYSIWYG, or “what you see is what you get,” webpage creation program. Although some people scoff at using such programs, for most people, it is the most accessible way to create attractive and usable webpages.

Some soapmakers make money by selling their soap through their websites. Just not very many do. This information isn’t given to discourage you but rather to help you be realistic when making decisions about how to spend your time and money.

When designing your own website, remember: Less is more. Forget dancing bunnies and fluttering fairies; you want it to look professional. Keep your site clean and straightforward and let your products take center stage. For this, you must have good-quality product photos. Consider hiring a professional photographer.

If you plan to create your own site, be sure to watch out for these common mistakes:

Poor-quality photos

Distracting backgrounds, graphics, images, and overall design

Grammatical errors

Don’t forget to proofread all the text you include on your website, and have a friend or family member look it over as well. Nothing will make your business look more unprofessional than describing your “sopamaking” techniques!

One of the best ways to educate yourself is to surf the Internet for web-pages of other soapmakers. This way you can find out what you like, what you don’t like, and what you’d like to try. Although you can get ideas from other people about how to put together a soap webpage, it is illegal to copy someone else’s work. It is also unnecessary. Get inspiration for your site by looking around, but your own original work is far more interesting than something you may be tempted to steal from someone else.

Hire a Pro

Perhaps instead of creating your own website, you’d like to hire an expert. Consider choosing a web designer who specializes in soapmaking sites.

How big does my business have to be before I should consider a website?

When (or if) you choose to build a website is up to you. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re already running a successful business, a website is an integral part of doing business in today’s computer-based market, and every business—large or small—should have one.

Having an effective website should pay off in sales; many potential customers will be nervous about handing over their credit card numbers if your website makes it look like you don’t know what you’re doing. A professional-looking website will inspire confidence and result in more sales.

Online Marketplaces

There are hundreds and hundreds of soapmakers who sell their wares on marketplace sites like Etsy (www.etsy.com), Zibbet (www.zibbet.com), and Artfire (www.artfire.com). Some new sellers use them as a way to test the waters before committing to their own e-commerce site. Some seasoned soapmakers use them as an additional venue for sales and exposure. Each marketplace has unique features and structure, but they all have similar interfaces. You must have good photos—clear, high-resolution images showing the details of your soaps. Most sites have an easy-to-use uploader that will place photos from your computer in your shop. Etsy, for example, suggests images that are 1000 pixels wide at 72 resolution.

Respected portrait and art photographer, Marc Studer, gives his top five tips for excellent soap photographs for online shops:

Dial in your camera. Good photos start with your camera. Taking a few minutes to delve into the menus of your camera, be it a point-and-shoot or a DSLR, can go a long way toward making your pictures more polished and refined.

For your soap’s sake, use a tripod. Because your shutter needs to remain open longer to let in as much light as possible, you could get motion blur. One of the easiest ways to ensure that your photos are in focus is to mount your camera to a tripod. Not having the camera move while you’re taking a picture will do wonders for the final image.

Even lighting is your friend. While your eye has no trouble making out detail on a piece of soap at high noon on a sunny day, your digital camera will not necessarily see it, too. Find a place that has even lighting, such as indoors or in the shade.

Make sure your photo of soap is a photo of soap. Presenting your soap to a viewer scrolling through a large catalog means that you’ll only have seconds to catch their eye and bring them around for a second look. One of things that’ll help you do that is to be sure that your soap is the most prominent object in the frame. While it’s tempting to pose your soap with dishes, flowers, or place mats, those things can compete with the soap for attention.

Look, look away, and then look again. When you spend time setting up a composition that features your soap, your brain becomes comfortable and familiar with all the different elements in the viewfinder. Because of this, it’s possible to snap a picture with all sorts of extra things in it that you’d swear weren’t there before. To remedy this, after you compose your shot, look away from the screen/viewfinder, count to five, and then look back. As a result, things like car keys, awkward colors, and distracting props suddenly snap back into focus and can be dealt with.

You’ll need good marketing copy that describes features and benefits to help the customer make a decision, so look around the site you’re thinking of using to see what other soapmakers are doing. Then do something original! Finding your specific niche is a good idea in general, and it will really help your target customers find you among thousands of other bars of soap.

APPENDIX A

Glossary

Acid

Compound that reacts with a base to form a salt and has a pH of less than 7. In soapmaking, this refers to oils and the fatty acids that comprise them.

Base

Compound that reacts with an acid to form a salt and has a pH of greater than 7. In soapmaking, you use a base, or alkali, solution to react the acids, or oils, into soap.

Caustic

A substance that burns or destroys organic tissue by chemical action. Two caustics used in soapmaking are sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide.

Cold-process

This is the basic form of handmade soapmaking. A blend of oils is mixed with a solution of lye and water, stirred until thickened, and poured into a mold. This technique is called “cold” process because there is no cooking involved, beyond heating the oils enough to liquefy them.

Hand-milled

In this soapmaking process, you take finished cold- or hot-process soap, grate it, heat it, mix in additives, scoop the mixture into molds, and let it set. Some people call it “rebatching,” but that term usually describes the rescue of an otherwise failed batch. Soap projects that start out with the intent to use this technique are most often called hand-milled.

Hot-process

This type of soapmaking is basically an extension of the cold-process technique. After you follow the cold-process steps, you cook the still-caustic soap batter for several hours, forcing it to neutralize. This eliminates the need to wait several weeks for the soap to cure. You can make solid, liquid, clear, and cream soaps using this procedure.

Lye

A strong alkaline used to make soap. To make solid soap, you use sodium hydroxide, abbreviated as NaOH. To make liquid or cream soap, you use potassium hydroxide, abbreviated as KOH.

Mise en place

This term, borrowed from French cooking, refers to the practice of measuring out all the ingredients ahead of time and putting away everything except what you’ll be using in your recipe.

pH

The measure of acidity and alkalinity of a solution that is a number on a scale on which a value of 7 represents neutrality, lower numbers indicate increasing acidity, and higher numbers, increasing alkalinity.

Rotting

When making cream soap, the soap will change in texture during a period of “rotting.” It is an old-fashioned soapmaking term, brought into use for home soapmakers by Catherine Failor.

Soap casting

Also known as “melt and pour” or “melt and mold,” soap casting is a wonderfully accessible method of making soap at home. In this method, a simple meltable soap base, commonly called glycerin soap base, is melted down and poured into a mold.

Saponification

Literally, this means “to turn into soap.” It is a reaction between a lye solution and oils. A soap is said to be “fully saponified” when there is exactly enough oil and lye to fully react. Since you usually want a little extra oil in your soap, for gentleness and moisturizing benefit, most soaps are formulated with slightly more oil than will completely saponify.

Trace

A key stage in the soapmaking process. When your soap is “tracing,” you know that the chemical reaction is working properly. The term trace refers to the presence of traces of the soap mixture on the surface of the mass when some of the mass is removed with your stirrer and dribbled back into the pot. If the dribble makes no mark, your soap has not traced. When it leaves a little lump on the surface that sinks in quickly, it’s beginning to trace. Opacity, a slight graininess, and a subtle soap smell are other clues that your soap is tracing.

A trace state is described from “light” to “heavy.” You add color, scent, and other materials at varying levels of trace. A light trace may be like a thin pancake batter; a medium trace is like a medium-thick gravy. If your soap gets gloppy, you’ve got a heavily traced batch, which you need to get into its mold as soon as possible.

APPENDIX B

Troubleshooting

Cold-Process Woes

In the Soap Pan

The batter will not trace.

You may have not yet stirred long enough, or you may have mismeasured.

The batter is chunky.

The soap has seized, probably due to the addition of fragrance or essential oils. It could also be due to widely different temperatures when you mixed the lye solution with the oils.

The mixture has separated.

You have not stirred enough.

The batter looks curdled.

The soap may be on the way to seizing, or you’re not stirring with a firm enough hand.

There are specks of pigment that I can’t blend.

You didn’t blend them well enough when you added them. Try breaking them up as well as you can.

There are streaks around the fragrance or essential oil I added.

Stir the oil very well to dissipate any streaking.

The oatmeal sinks to the bottom.

You added the oats before the soap had traced enough. Keep stirring until you achieve a heavier trace.

In the Mold

Lye water is floating on top of an oily mass.

You didn’t stir well enough. Pour it back into the pan and stir to full trace.

Oil is floating on top of a saponified mass.

You may have mismeasured. Stir it well again and wait to see if it separates.

Mounds of soap batter won’t lie flat.

The soap has traced heavily. Try smoothing it out as much as you can. Or make beautiful textured tops!

Bubbles are coming up and making holes in the surface.

You’ve incorporated air while blending with the hand blender. Tilt the head of the stick blender when it is in the soap mixture to release any air that is under the head. It will rise as a bubble through the mixture.

A thick crust of lye crystals is on top of the soap.

You’ve greatly mismeasured and the soap is lye-heavy. You can’t save this one, so prepare it for storage until you can take it to a hazardous materials cleanup site.

After Unmolding

I can’t get the soap out of the mold.

You may have not waited long enough.

The block of soap is leaking essential oil.

You’ve added too much essential oil. It will leak out of the cut bars. This usually isn’t a serious problem, but if you are sensitive to the oil, it could be. This is a good candidate for hand milling.

The block of soap is leaking caustic lye solution.

You’ve mismeasured and the soap is caustic. Prepare it for disposal.

The block of soap is sparkly and crusty.

The batch is lye-heavy and not usable. Prepare it for disposal.

After Cutting

The soap is crumbly and has sparkly patches.

The soap is lye-heavy and should not be used.

There are white streaks that do not leak or sparkle.

This could be from incomplete stirring of fragrance oils or colorant. This is only an aesthetic problem.

After Curing

The soap is still soft after three weeks.

You have probably mismeasured, adding too much water or too much oil.

The soap is brittle.

The soap is lye-heavy, and you shouldn’t use it.

Casting Soap Woes

The soap is sweaty.

It is normal for casting soap that has been sitting out to collect moisture on the surface after a day or so. If the soap is sweaty right away, or before you’ve even used it, you may have overheated the soap or purchased a low-quality base.

The soap smells bad and is slimy.

You may have purchased a low-quality base or base that has been exposed to extreme temperatures during shipping.

The embedded objects have bubbles on them.

You needed to spray them with more rubbing alcohol.

Hot-Process Woes

The soap won’t neutralize.

You may have mismeasured, or you haven’t cooked it long enough.

The soap is dry and hard.

Too much water has evaporated, or you mismeasured.

APPENDIX C

Making Molds, Cutters, and Planers

Wooden Soap Box Mold

Inventive and generous soapmaker/carpenter Jennifer Patella has created easy-to-follow instructions for making your wooden soap mold. This is a basic 3-pound mold. The beauty of this box is the fact that the parchment paper fits perfectly in the box and the next day, the paper just pulls out of the box and peels off the soap very easily. These boxes can be used when making regular cold-process soap and hot-process soap in a slow cooker.

Patella makes her boxes to fit parchment paper, which is exactly 15¹⁄₁₆ wide. You can also make a box to fit freezer paper, which is 18 long. (Your soap batches will need to be increased in size to get the final dimension of your finished product the way you want.) Inside dimensions are 15¹⁄₁₆ × 3¹⁄₂. (Please note that a 1 × 4 board is actually ³⁄₄ × 3¹⁄₂.)

MATERIALS

1 × 4 board

1 × 6 board

Wood glue

Nails or wood screws

Cut 3 pieces from the 1 × 4 board, each 15¹⁄₁₆ long (one lid and two sides).

Cut 2 pieces from the 1 × 4 board: 5¹⁄₈ long (these will be the two ends).

Cut 1 piece from the 1 × 6 board: 16⁹⁄₁₆ long. (This will be the base; it will be the length of the sides plus the width of the end pieces.) You can make the base longer and have a lip all the way around.

Lid and handle: Cut a small piece from whatever is left over from the 1 × 4 board for the handle on the lid. If you prefer, you can purchase a wooden dresser pull or brass handle instead. Just make sure you don’t let the nail or screw be in contact with the soap in the box.

Assemble the box with wood glue and nails or wood screws.

Cutters

If you make soap in big blocks, you may find cutting with a knife, dough scraper, or cheese wire frustrating. You can make very inexpensive and excellent soap cutters using two wooden miter boxes, two guitar strings, four screws, and two cup hooks. You may find these are the only cutters you ever need.

Screw one screw into one side of the miter box, about one-third of the way along the length. Screw another one on the other side at the same place. Screw in the cup hook about ¹⁄₂ inch away from the screw. Screw the cup hook all the way in, and then back it out so that just a few threads are in the wood.

Cut a length of medium-gauge guitar string long enough to wrap around one screw. Go over the sides of the miter box; go around the other screw; and wrap onto the cup hook. Leave a little extra on the ends. Make a loop at one end, twisting the wire to make sure it is fast. Loop that around the solo screw. Tightly pass the wire over the top of the miter box, around the other screw, and around the cup hook.

Miter Box Log Cutter

Holding the wire tight, twist the cup hook so it starts to go into the wood, taking up and tightening the wire. Since there aren’t a lot of turns on the screw of the cup hook, be sure the wire is quite tight before you start to turn it. Twist until you get a somewhat musical note from the wire.

Repeat with the other miter box, except this time pass the wire through one of the cuts for holding the saw. Run your blocks of soap through the “big” cut first, then through the smaller cut to make bars. Clean off the cutters between uses.

Planers

To create a very finished look, many soapmakers remove uneven surfaces, edges, and corners from their soap bars. Although some soapmakers prefer the bumps and unevenness that is a hallmark of handmade products, others prefer smooth edges and beveled edges.

There are many ways to smooth your soap. Some people simply use a potato peeler to bevel the edges and a cheese planer to smooth the sides. You can put the scraps generated by this activity to use in hand-milling and “confetti” soaps. Take it easy with these tools, though, or you’ll find yourself with a pile of trimmings and no bar!

Again, soapmaker/carpenter Jennifer Patella has easy-to-follow instructions to make your own soap planer.

MATERIALS

1 × 4 board

1 × 6 board

4 scraper blade with 2 holes (usually found in paint departments)

2 small screws

8 wood screws

Cut 2 pieces from the 1 × 4 board to a length of 11 each. (These will be the supporting side pieces.)

Cut 2 pieces from the 1 × 6 board: 15⁷⁄₁₆ × 4". (Note: A 1 × 6 is actually ³⁄₄ × 5¹⁄₂, so you will cut the 5¹⁄₂ dimension down to 4. This will fit the 4 blade perfectly.) Cut the edges of these two pieces at a 45-degree angle.

Attach the 4 blade to one of the pieces with the 45-degree angle with the two small screws. Make sure you put the edge of the blade just above the wood line so it will rise above the platform slightly.

Set the two 45-degree angles face down and butt next to each other. Remember to leave a small gap for the soap shavings to fall through.

Attach the sides to the two top pieces. Make sure you lower the top piece without the blade slightly more at a slant than the other. This will give you a smooth throughput on planing your soap. You can also adjust this to shave more or less soap.

Note: Please keep the planer away from children and pets. The blade can be replaced with a new one as it wears.

APPENDIX D

Resources

Websites

Trade Organizations

Indie Beauty

Donna Maria’s networking and support organization for makers and suppliers of handmade toiletries

www.indiebeauty.com

The Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild

International non-profit trade organization

www.soapguild.org

Resource Sites

Botanical.com

A great resource for information on herbs

www.botanical.com

The Essential Herbal

Educational and charming herb magazine

www.essentialherbal.com

Saponifier Magazine

Web magazine for soapmakers and soapmaking community

www.saponifier.com

The Dish Forum

Large, active, and educational online soapmaker’s community

www.thedishforum.com/forum/

Teaching Sites

Kathy Miller’s Homemade Soap Pages

www.millersoap.com

Teach Soap

www.teachsoap.com

Suppliers

Brambleberry

Large selection of soapmaking supplies, including LabColors

www.brambleberry.com

Camden-Grey

Essential oils and soap supplies

www.camdengrey.com

For Craft’s Sake

Maker of The Tank Soap Cutter

www.forcraftssake.com

From Nature with Love

Comprehensive soap supplies

www.from-nature-with-love.com

Milky Way Molds

Catherine Failor’s outstanding line of soap molds and stamps

www.milkywaymolds.com

Mountain Rose Herbs

Superior source for organic oils, herbs, and more

www.mountainroseherbs.com

Natural Oils International

Excellent source of base oils

www.naturaloils.com

Majestic Mountain Sage

Comprehensive soapmaking supplies and the original online lye calculator

www.thesage.com

Rainbow Meadow

Essential oils, fragrance oils, and soapmaking supplies

www.rainbowmeadow.com

Symphony Scents

Soap-tested fragrance oils, pigments, and more

www.symphonyscents.com

The Scent Works

Unique soap-safe fragrance oils and other supplies

www.scent-works.com

Sweet Cakes

Extensive listings of soap-tested fragrance oils

www.sweetcakes.com

TKB Trading

Kaila Westerman’s outstanding colorant company

www.tkbtrading.com

Woodfields

Silicone-lined wood soap molds

www.woodfieldswood.com

Zenith Supplies

Wide range of soapmaking supplies, primarily a storefront

www.zenithsupplies.com

Further Reading

Browning, Marie. Melt & Pour Soapmaking (New York, NY: Sterling Publishing, 2002).

Cavitch, Susan Miller. The Natural Soap Book (North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 1995).

———. The Soapmaker’s Companion (North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 1997).

Coss, Melinda. The Handmade Soap Book (North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 1998).

Failor, Catherine. Making Transparent Soap (North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2000).

———. Making Natural Liquid Soaps (North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2000).

———. Making Cream Soap Bulletin (Portland, OR: Milky Way Molds, Inc., 2001)

Lavabre, Marcel F. Aromatherapy Workbook (Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press, 1990).

Lawless, Julia. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils (New York, NY: Element Books, Ltd., 1990).

Maine, Sandy. The Soap Book (Loveland, CO: Interweave Press, 1995).

Maine, Sandy. Creating a Herbal Bodycare Business (Making a Living Naturally Series written by Sandy Maine) (North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 1999).

Westerman, C. Kaila. Melt and Mold Soap Crafting (North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2000).

Casting Soap (Chapter 11)

“Organic Lavender and Oatmeal” (Chapter 13)

Cold-Process Soap with an Embossed Stamp (Chapter 6)

Sample of Organic Soap (Chapter 13)

“Mocha Latte with Mounded Textured Top” (Chapter 7)

Cold-Process Six-Color Soap Using Swirling Techniques (Chapter 7)

Cold-Process Organic Soap with Patchouli (Chapter 13)

“Summer Sun” (Chapter 11)

Cold-Process Textured Top Soap in Blue (Chapter 7)

Cold-Process Bar Soap with Ring Swirl (Chapter 7)

Orange Cold-Process Bar Soap with Yellow Swirl (Chapter 7)

Green Cold-Process Bar Soap with White Swirl (Chapter 7)

Salt Bar Soap Ammonite (Chapter 7)

Salt Bar Soap in a Cube Shape (Chapter 7)

Hot-Process Sphere from Sculpting Project (Chapter 8)

Comparison of Two Layered Textured Tops (Chapter 7)

Copyright © 2013, 2007, 2003 by F+W Media, Inc.
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Contains material adapted and abridged from The Everything® Soapmaking Book, 2nd Edition by Alicia Grosso, copyright © 2007 by F+W Media, Inc., ISBN 10: 1-59869-229-1, ISBN 13: 978-1-59869-229-7.

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