I’ve been asked by several to share a recipe for a basic bar of soap and I’m happy to do so! This recipe and instructions are excerpts from my book “Soap Making Made Simple!”. Making your own soap at home is not hard. Most people are afraid of the lye but if you understand what you are doing, and you are careful, you don’t need to be afraid.
Every recipe you get from a blog post, a book or off the internet needs to be run through something called a lye calculator – yes! even mine! People make mistakes, many people are blogging about something they have never done but have saved to a Pinterest board. Typos happen even to the best!
I recommend this one from the Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild. Every oil has a certain saponification value (how much lye it takes to turn that oil from a liquid to a hard bar of soap). You must use that SAP value for every oil in your soap. This will assure you that you are creating a safe, solid bar of soap. Sounds complicated but it is just a matter of filling out the form correctly!
Here is an easy basic recipe to make soap at home! These are the ingredients you will need to purchase:
Here is a list of equipment you will need to have on hand:
An old vinyl tablecloth to protect your table.
A stainless steel pot. (Enamel is also usable but avoid aluminum and copper. Those metals can react with the lye.)
Two stainless steel slotted spoons – one for mixing lye and one for mixing oils
Silicone Spatula
Glass measuring cup or bowls (several) – for measuring lye and essential oils.
Glass or stainless steel bowl for mixing lye & water
Measuring spoons
2 Quick Read thermometers – one for lye and one for oils. These should have a stainless steel shaft and have a range of 70 to 200 degrees F.
Digital scale with a “tare” feature to measure oils, lye and water.
Small grinder for processing herbs (optional)
Stick blender (much quicker than stirring with a wooden spoon!)
Mold for your soap and freezer paper to line the mold
Eye protection (goggles or glasses)
Some old towels, rugs or blankets to insulate your mold
Rubber gloves
Apron
White vinegar (to wash lye off of skin if you spill!)
Before you begin your batch of soap, make sure you have assembled all of your equipment and supplies. Use Stainless steel or glass – no aluminum or copper pots or utensils! Make sure you have a mold to pour your soap into…silicone molds are easy to use. Mine are all wood. There are many options! Wear safety goggles! You do not want to splatter lye water into your eyes! If you get lye in your eyes – flush with cool water and seek medical attention immediately! Wear gloves! Lye can burn your skin – keep vinegar on hand to neutralize the lye/lye water!
Use a scale to measure, by weight, lye and set aside. Use a scale to measure, by weight, water. Take water and lye outside and pour lye into water while slowly stirring. (Never pour the water into the lye.) CAUTION:Do not breathe in the fumes – stand so the wind carries them away from you. When lye becomes clear take back inside and set in safe place out of the reach of children. DO NOT DO THIS INSIDE!!
Line your mold with freezer paper, shiny side towards soap mixture. Use a scale to measure, by weight, solid oils and gently heat. Measure out liquid oils by weight and set aside. Use scale to measure out essential oils if you are using them. Grind and measure herbs if you are using them.
When solid oils are melted, add the liquid oils to the soap pot. I turn the heat off when some of my solid oils are still solid – I call them “floaty bits”. The residual heat will melt the rest. Takes less time to cool the oils down that way.
Bring both lye water and oils to 100º – or within 10º of each other at that temperature. DO NOT heat lye water on the stove. I just use a sink of ice water and cool each pot down to about 100 degrees.
Slowly add lye water to soap pot while stirring gently and continuously. Use a stick blender until you achieve a light trace. What is trace? When you pick up your blender and let it drip onto the surface of the soap in the pot and you can see the drips or lines sitting on the top of the soap in the pot, you have achieved “trace”. See how the drips are sitting on top of the rest of the batch in the pot?
Add the herbs/spices. Stir herbs in thoroughly. Add essential oils and continue to stir until thoroughly blended. Make sure essential oil is completely dispersed into soap solution.
Pour into prepared mold. Cover soap with freezer paper (shiny side towards the soap) and insulate. I use a bath towel folded over my molds. Let rest 24 hours. Un-mold and cut into desired size bars. Place in well-ventilated area and let cure for 30 days. DO NOT USE BEFORE 30 DAYS!! Lye evaporates during the saponification process and over the next 30 days. Using your soap too early may mean there is lye still active in your bars. This can do damage to your skin!
As you learn more about the oils you can use in soap making, you will find oils can be drying, moisturizing, softening, have natural anti-oxidants, be a humectant and so much more. Studying the properties of oils, and essential oils, will help you create the perfect bar of soap for YOU!
Soaps can be colored naturally with plants macerated in olive oil, dried herbs, some foods (pumpkins for instance) clays and more. I do not use dyes or minerals. You’ll never see bright red, blue, orange etc. in my soaps because those things are not natural – although there are many who will try to convince you that they are…don’t listen to them!
There are many more things to learn about soap making: learning about percentages and how to use that knowledge to make your bars harder or softer, how to affect the amount of lather you have and much more. It will help you look at a recipe and know what kind of bar it will make before you invest the money into the supplies. It can even help you tweak a recipe to your liking!
You will want to learn about super-fatting your soap, taking a lye discount, absolutes, butters, shelf life of oils, “notes” of essential oils, how to blend essential oils and so much more! Soap making truly is an art and a science but if you love the creative process you will love it!
When it all comes together you are left with a beautiful bar of hand crafted soap!
If you have questions, please leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them!
Happy Soap Making y’all!
Blessings,
Cheri
Thank you for this soap making information! Where does one buy lye for soap making?
You should be able to buy lye from a “chemical” company. We have several in our area. You may have to meet with them in person so they know you are legit. I’m going to be buying more this week – I hope they aren’t out of stock!
Do you have to use lye to make soap.
Hi Lona!
You do have to use Lye to make soap. However, there is a chemical process that happens when the lye water meets the oils…it’s called saponification. During that process the lye begins to dissipate (the majority of it is gone within 24 hours.) and by the time your soap is cured…there is no lye left in the bar. That is why soap needs to sit 30 days after making. Hope this helps!
When I was young my grandmother made soap down in her basement. She had a stove my grandfather had installed down there for her. He was a dentist and his Dental Office was in their home. So grandma had to “cook” in the basement so as to not disturb his patients.
Grandma had a big black pot not sure if it was cast iron or not but she would stir and stir. She had a wooden box that she lined with butcher paper and would pour the soap in. When it was ready I would help her cut the bars using a wire that had a wooden handle at each end. My grandmother created many other things down in that basement, pickles, spiced peaches, tomatoes, pie fillings.
My what memories! Thank you!
Patricia,
That is so awesome! My Grandma also had a stove in her basement! It was cooler down there in the summer in Indiana – her house had no air conditioning! I learned to make jams, jellies, pickles and so much more in that basement! Yes! Great memories!
Blessings,
Cheri
Cheri, enjoy your site! Wish i could have caught you on the TV, I purchase lye from Ace Hardware in the drain cleaner section. Must read the labels carefully because only one states that it is 100%Lye. These are 1# plastic jars, I have located a chemical company who can source a 25# but worry about having that large a volume open for the amount of time it would take to use it all. I have a batch of soap on the way tonight.
Hi David!
People used to be able to purchase lye at all of the hardware stores here. They don’t sell it anymore. I do buy mine in 25 lb. bags and keep in a 5 gallon bucket. It takes quite awhile to go through that much lye! Making soap can be addicting!
Blessings,
Cheri
Do you have a book to purchase with receipts of soap and oils to use. I am looking for soaps or oils good for eczema and can be used on children.
Hi Melody! I’m working on a book 🙂
for color, have you used items like elderberry or grape when ripe? I would almost imagine that the colors would come off on the skin. just a curious question.
Also, I make my soap from Lye and Lard (render it ourselves). I have figured out what botanical s work and which do not. Thank you for sharing your story with TCR.
Hi Andrea,
I have used food, herbs, spices, clays and more to color my soaps. I think to use elderberry you would need to dehydrate and powder and experiment with it – the colors of the herbs etc. that you use changes as your soaps cure – you would just have to see what elderberry left you with! For instance, I just used Spirulina to color one of my fall soaps that will be coming out soon – it is called My Tennessee Mountains. When it came out of the mold it was a bright vibrant green but as the soap has been curing for a few weeks, it is turning into a much softer, darker, more muted green. This is part of the fun of soap making – lots of experimentation and surprises along the way. Take good notes so you can repeat your efforts/mistakes 🙂
You state not to heat the lye water on the stove- -do you heat the lye water at all? Your instructions say to use a sink of ice water to cool each pot down but I must be missing something because you never say to heat the lye water and said DO NOT heat it on the stove. Please explain what I’m missing here – I’m sorry for the trouble.
Hi Dallas! Sorry I wasn’t clear….when you add the lye to your distilled water it heats naturally. It will become very, very hot…well over 100 degrees. I do my lye water first, then begin to heat my oils. My intention is that it gives the lye water time to cool down while you are prepping the rest. I find that I actually have to cool down the lye water on my first batch. If I do more than one batch of soap and do both of my lye waters at the beginning, the second batch usually cools down with perfect timing. If my lye water gets too cold (happens when I do multiple batches of soap) then i sit the bowl in a sink of very hot water and allow it to slowly rise in temperature to match my oils. Hope that helps – let me know if you have more questions!