Home made soap

Introduction

Making your own soap is a great way to save money and have something handy when you’re doing chores around the house. It’s also a fun project for kids and adults alike, so long as you follow some basic safety precautions.

Lye is a key ingredient in making soap, but since it’s highly caustic, it must be used with care.

Lye is a key ingredient in making soap, but since it’s highly caustic, it must be used with care. When lye reacts with a fatty acid (the other main component of soap), the result is saponification: the chemical conversion of fats into soap.

Lye itself does not become part of your final product; all that remains after you have made your homemade liquid detergent is water and glycerin (a byproduct). The amount of lye required to create enough soap for an entire family can be safely stored in a plastic container at room temperature for up to six months. After six months has passed, toss out any unused portion so as not to risk an accidental spillage or exposure when cleaning out storage facilities later on down the road.

Make sure to use the right ingredients.

Before you start shopping, you need to know what kind of ingredients to look for.

Pure lye: You have to use pure sodium hydroxide, not drain cleaner or other types of lye. Lard is a high-quality fat that melts at a neutral pH and has a high melting point.
Coconut oil: This oil has lots of great properties and makes for an excellent soap base because it’s one of the few natural oils that doesn’t go rancid quickly when exposed to air and light.

Wear protective gear.

To make lye soap, you will need to wear protective gear.

Wear gloves.
Wear goggles.
Wear a long-sleeve shirt and pants.
Wear closed-toe shoes

Have plenty of ventilation.

Have plenty of ventilation: Your soap-making process will create a lot of fumes. Open windows, turn on fans, and keep kids and pets away until the air is clear.
Turn off the stove and oven: If you’re making soap at home, you’ll need to turn off your stove before you start so that there are no accidents involving boiling water gone wrong!

Prepare your soap mold.

To make lye soap, you’ll need a suitable container to hold your soap mold. Glass or plastic is fine, but it should be deep enough to accommodate the amount of saponified fat and liquid you’ll be adding to it—typically 2 pounds of each for a 3-pound batch. Your container should also have straight sides that are easy to clean, since we’re about to pour hot water into it without using any protective barriers.

If you’re using glass jars or containers, opt for ones made from borosilicate glass (the kind used in science labs) rather than regular soda-lime glass; if heat is applied directly to the container for long periods of time (as with boiling water), regular soda-lime can crack or shatter at temperatures above 280°F/140°C.

Dissolve the lye in water.

Dissolving the lye in water is a straightforward step that’s easy to mess up. Here are some tips:

Use a non-reactive container. You can use plastic, glass, stainless steel or ceramic—just make sure it won’t react with the lye and turn your whole batch of soap into soap scum. If you’re using a plastic container, make sure no part of it has been softened by heat (i.e., never pour hot liquids into plastic).
Use distilled water if possible, but tap water will work too if you let it sit overnight before mixing with the lye. This way any chlorine or minerals will evaporate out of the water before mixing with your chemicals; otherwise they’ll react to produce nasty results like rotten eggs smells or hard clumps in your final product! Don’t worry about this too much unless you live in a very hard-water area where there’s lots of mineral deposits; most people don’t have those problems at all when they use tap water out of their sinks at home!

Melt your fat.

Melt the fat in a double boiler. A double boiler consists of two pots: one holds water, and the other sits on top of it. Fill the bottom pot with water so that it barely comes up to cover your soap mold, and place another pot inside this pot (so that the water does not touch your soap). Place your coconut oil or other fat in this inner pot and turn on heat to medium-low. Heat slowly until all of your coconut oil has melted into liquid form, stirring occasionally. During this process, be sure not to let any water get into your melted fat—it will create a reaction called “soda ash” which can ruin both your oils and lye solution!
Check the temperature after 15 minutes of heating: If you’re using a candy thermometer (recommended), check its temperature at this time; if not using a thermometer at all but have some idea how hot 110 degrees F feels like (the ideal temperature for soap making), stick out a finger until it’s warm enough–then set aside while preparing lye solution next!

Mix lye and fats together.

The next step is mixing the lye and the fats. This creates a chemical reaction that produces soap. The mixture will get very hot, so use a thermometer to monitor temperature.

Mixing the lye and fats requires precision: if you don’t mix them thoroughly enough or in the correct proportions, you’ll end up with either an unusable batch of soap or one that’s too harsh on your skin. Mixing is done slowly until it reaches trace—the point where you can see signs of thickening (a film on top) for about two minutes after mixing has stopped—and then a final fast-paced burst until trace occurs again.

Add essential oils and coloring, if desired.

If you’d like to add essential oils, now is the time. Most soaps will benefit from some kind of scent, whether it’s coconut or lavender or something else. For a bar with a stronger scent profile, add about half an ounce of oil per pound of soap base; for milder scents, use 1/4 to 1/2 ounce per pound. Essential oils are pure concentrated plant material and can be very strong so it’s best to start with small amounts and then increase as needed based on your taste preferences (it may take some experimenting).

To add coloring, place shredded paper towels in a large bowl and pour just enough lye solution into the bowl to cover them fully—this will absorb most of the liquid and leave behind white paper towels that have been colored by the lye solution. Or you can simply mix in powdered pigments once all ingredients are combined into one mass (be sure they’re suspended evenly throughout). If using dye paste or powder form dyes such as ultramarine blue or titanium dioxide (a white pigment), mix these directly into your mixture before adding essential oils since they will not dissolve properly when added afterward—and make sure that no bits float above surface level after mixing everything together! Check out this chart provided by Soap Queen for more info about how much coloring goes into each batch depending on quantity produced:

Pour into your mold and let sit for 48 hours.

Once your soap has finished cooking, you’ll need to let it sit for 48 hours before unmolding. You can use a plastic or glass container to mold your soap in. I recommend lining a wooden mold with plastic wrap, as this helps keep the wood from absorbing too much of the fats and oils that make up lye soap. If you don’t have access to these materials, a cardboard box lined with paper towels works just fine as well!

Once you’ve made a batch, you’ll have something handy to make sure your hands stay clean!

Soap is a great way to keep your hands clean.
Soap is a great way to keep your skin soft.
Soap is a great way to keep your hair clean and healthy.
And it’s also a convenient, easy-to-use form of laundry detergent, which means you can use the same soap to wash all those dirty clothes that are hanging around in your closet!

Conclusion

With a little practice, you’ll be able to make lye soap with ease. Just remember to wear protective gear, use the right ingredients, and make sure your area is well ventilated (and safe). We hope that this guide has helped you get started with making your own batch of homemade soap!