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Safety Precautions
Upon opening a container of lye, the lye crystals absorb water from the air, which can weaken the strength of the lye and cause it to form a solid lump. When not in use, keep lye closely capped.
Lye reacts with some metals: aluminum, zinc, and tin. Safe containers include heatproof stoneware, glass, enamel, stainless steel and plastic.
Lye can be fatal if swallowed.
Lye can remove paint. If lye, lye/water or freshly-made soap splatters onto a painted surface, wipe it off immediately. Wash the area with water and detergent; wash it with clear water, then wipe it dry.
Lye, lye/water and freshly-made soap can burn and irritate skin. You’ll notice itching before burning. Lye/water on skin is first noticed by a slippery feeling. Rinse your hands with vinegar and immediately rinse them with running water.
Since lye can burn skin, you can imagine what it does to eyes. It’s difficult to rinse your eyes while they’re burning and you can’t see. This painful and dangerous situation in entirely avoidable. Always wear eye protection!
You may wonder why anyone wants to bathe with soap that contains something as harsh as lye. Well, the good news is that soap is ‘made’ with lye, but soap doesn’t ‘contain’ lye. Lye reacts with fats, creating roughly three molecules soap and one molecule glycerin. The lye is no longer present–only great soap and glycerin.
NOTE: If you have small children, keep lye (and essential oils) in a ‘locked’ cabinet. Lye/water sitting at the edge of a counter can easily be reached by children and even swallowed. Drinking lye/water is like drinking liquid fire. Anyone ingesting lye/water should immediately be taken to an emergency room for treatment!
Children and others that don’t understand the risk, shouldn’t be around when you make soap, or have access to stored soap-making materials, especially essential oils and lye. Procedure
Heat the fat. Put the fats in a lye-resistant container and place a glass or stainless steel thermometer into the fats. Be sure the thermometer doesn’t touch the bottom of the container and give a false reading. Heat the fats and optional ingredients to the temperature specified in the recipe.
Put on eye protection and rubber gloves.
Use a heat-proof container to measure the amount of cold water (70 to 75 degrees F) specified in the recipe. Cold water is important. If you add lye to hot or boiling water, the water could “boil-up” out of the container. If you add lye to ‘really’ cold water, the lye/water might not reach the high temperatures required to make some recipes.
Stir the water and slowly add the lye. The water will get hot and turn cloudy. Continue to stir until the lye dissolves. Don’t breathe or intentionally smell the fumes coming from the cup because they are quite ‘chokey’. If you wait too long to stir the water, the lye could harden in the bottom of the container. This is not a problem. You can still sitr it, but it will be more difficult. Add a glass or stainless steel thermometer to the lye/water and wait until it reaches the temperature specified in the recipe.
When both the fat and the lye/water reach the temperature specified in the recipe, add the lye/water to the fat. It’s sometimes a balancing act to get the fat mixture and the lye/water mixture to specific temperatures at the same time. Never place lye/water in a microwave (the cup could break). It takes lye/water longer to cool than it takes fat to heat. Most soap makers wait for the lye/water to cool to about five degrees above the desired temperature, then heat the fat. When both the lye/water and the fat are within five degrees of the temperatures specified in the recipe. Use a pot holder and move the bowl to a sink (to contain splatters). Slowly pour the lye/water into the fats while stirring. Temperatures for small one-pound batches of soap poured into individual molds aren’t critical. As long as the lye/water and fats are between 120 and 140 degrees F you will have good success. Larger batches or batches poured into a single mold, require lower temperatures.
Stir the soap until it ‘traces‘. When lye, water and fat first combine, the mixture is thin and watery. Gradually, as the lye and fat react chemically to form soap, the mixture thickens and turns opaque.
After the soap traces, add up to one tablespoon essential oil (if desired) and stir a few minutes longer to incorporate the oil. About the only soap that remains totally scent-free is the Pure Soap Recipe that follows. Other fats result in soap that has a ‘fatty lye’ smell. Essentials oils are necessary for a pleasant-smelling product.
Pour the soap into molds and wait for it to harden. The recipes states this length of time as ‘time in mold.’
Unmold the soap. Soap is still harsh when it’s time to remove it from the molds. Put on rubber gloves and press the back of each mold compartment to release the soap. It’s a lot like removing ice cubes from a tray. Sometimes the soap doesn’t release easily from the mold. To overcome this problem, leave the soap in a freezer for a few hours. Freezing soap causes it to contract slightly, become hard and release from the plastic mold.
Wait the time specified in a recipe for the soap to”age” (usually 3 weeks). During the aging time the pH of the soap decreased (the soap becomes mild) and the bars harden. It’s a good idea to write the following information on a piece of paper and place it with the soap: the date you made the soap, the date the aging time is over, and recipe.
Step 10 is ‘enjoy your soap!’ Equipment
4. One 4- to 6-cup mixing container made of lye-resistant material (For example a stainless steel mixing bowl)
5. One heat proof container that holds at least 2 cups (For example a Pyrex measuring cup)
6. Stainless steel, plastic, wooden spoon or a rubber spatula
7. Two thermometers made of glass or stainless steel (candy and meat thermometers work well)
8. Eye protection (wear sunglasses if you have to!)
9. Rubber gloves (optional)
10. Accurate scale to weight the fats and lye
11. Soap molds (any flexible plastic container works well)
12. A clock with a second hand or other type timer
13. Wire whisk (optional)
14. Pot holders or oven mitts
15. Measuring spoons Tracing
‘Tracing’ is a term to describe the consistency (thickness) of soap when it’s ready to pour into molds.
To test for tracing
Drip some soap onto the surface of the soap in the stirring bowl. It should leave a “trace” or small mound.
Draw a line in the soap with a spoon or rubber spatula. If a “trace” of the line remains for a few seconds, the soap has traced.
Tracing is easy to recognize, yet it causes new soap makers a lot of worry. Relax and know that the soap will trace eventually. Just stir the soap constantly for the first 15 minutes or so, then stir the soap every fifteen minutes until it thickens and traces, no matter how long it takes. Soda Ash
As soap ages, a fine, white powder may appear on the surface. This is soda ash (sodium carbonate) formed by a reaction of lye with carbon dioxide in air. This white powder is mostly on the surface exposed to air while the soap was in the molds. Soap that contains wax develops little or no soda ash.
three ways to deal with soda ash:
Try to prevent it: Immediately after pouring soap into molds, cover the soap with plastic wrap or waxed paper. Press the wrap or paper onto the surface of the soap to prevent air contact.
Cut it away: Overfill the molds slightly. Later, when the soap hardens, take a knife and cut the soap level with the mold. This also cuts away the soda ash.
Wash it away: Wait until the soap ages and hardens. Wash the powder away by rubbing the soap with your hands under running water or by rubbing the soap over a wet dishcloth. Set the soap aside to dry then enjoy your soap! Soap
Natural Veggie Soap (Used to Make Soap)
6 cups olive oil
2 1/4 cups coconut oil
3 ½ cups solid vegetable shortening
1 ½ cups lye
4 1/4 cups cold water
Slowly add the lye 1 tablespoon at a time to the cold water while stirring continuously. (Lye is caustic and should not come into contact with your skin, avoid inhaling fumes and wear rubber gloves)
After you have stirred thoroughly, allow the mixture to sit until the temperature drops to between 95F and 98F. As the lye cools, place the oils and shortening together in a pot and heat it to 125 F-130 F.
Remove the pan from the heat and place a thermometer in the liquid and let the mixture cool, watching the temp. When the two solutions are the same temperature, 96 F, stir the oil mixture for about 30 seconds, and then add the lye mixture slowly but evenly in a steady stream.
Do not stop stirring. When the consistency is like very thick gravy, the soap is ready for additives. Continue stirring while making additions, the pour the soap into the mold of choice. The simplest mold is a wax coated cardboard milk container.
To make bars, pour the solution into a rectangular flat pan large enough to make the soap ½” to 2” thick. When the soap has had 24 hours or more to cure, use a hot knife to cut it into squares and remove it from the pan. After molding and shaping the soap, let it sit for 2-3 days in a dry place to cure. Once cured, it does better if wrapped.
Herbal Soap
You can replace the water in soap recipes with herbal tea, but to be honest, most of the properties (color and fragrance) are lost. The best way to use herbs in soap is to add dry, finely powdered herbs to the fats before adding the lye/water. Use anywhere from 1 tablespoon to 1/4 cup dried herbs to 1 lb soap. Restrict coarsely-ground herbs to about 1 or 2 tablespoons per lb soap because they contribute a coarseness to the soap that sometimes makes it uncomfortable during use.
The nicest way to add properties of herbs to soap is the addition of pure essential oils. Over time, soap can develop a 'lye-fat' odor, which essential oil prevents. Use anywhere from 1 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons essential oil per lb soap (depending on the strength of the oil). Color is an illusive thing as far as soap is concerned. Natural colors can be obtained by adding 2 tablespoons red clay, Calendula petals, or yellow palm oil.
Super Fatty Soap
It's recommended to use 2 - 4 tbsp of castor oil which is added when the soap traces. Castor oil is emollient and contributes to soap lather. Castor oil (added after tracing with 1 tbsp of essential oil) seems to Contribute to keep the soap smell.
Pure Soap
This is the only recipe I've discovered that remains scent-free without adding fragrance to the recipe. This soap is a bit too harsh for bath soap, but great for cleaning, washing dishes, delicate laundry, etc. Great lather and no fragrance.
453 g (16 oz.) Coconut oil
80 g (2.8 oz.) lye
1 cup water
Fat and lye/water temperature about 49 C (120 F)
Estimated tracing time: 1 1/2 hours
Time in molds: 48 hours
Age: 3 weeks
Pure Soap as a Shampoo
453 g (16 oz) weight coconut oil
83 g (2.9 oz) lye
3/4 cup water
Oil room temperature
Mix and use lye
Estimated tracing time 1-2 hours
When it traces, add 4 tbsp of castor oil to make the soap super fatty and make a soap with a softer structure. Let it sit in the mold for 24 hours, freeze it for 3 hours, remove it from the mold. Store for three weeks. Essential oil is optional in this recipe. The soap will be fragrance free without it.
Soap - 1
170 g (6 oz) coconut oil
170 g (6 oz) olive oil
142,5 g (5 oz) vegetable shortening
74 g (2.6 oz) lye
1 cup water (8 fluid ounces)
Fat and lye/water temperature about 49 C (120 F)
Time in molds: 48 hours
Age: 4 weeks
Soap - 2
256 g (9 oz) vegetable shortening
114 g (4 oz) coconut oil
85 g (3 oz) lard
76 g (2.4 oz) lye
3/4 cup water
Fat and lye/water temperature about 49 C (120 F)
Time in molds: 24 hours
Age: 3 weeks
Soap - 3
285 g (10 oz) vegetable shortening
170 g (6 oz) coconut oil
28 g (1 oz) lye
1 cup water
Temperature around 49 C (120 F)
Time in molds: 48 hours
Age: 4 weeks
Soap - 4
455 g (16 oz) lard or beef tallow
65 g (2.2 oz) lye
3/4 cup water
Estimated tracing: 45 minutes
Fat and lye/water temperature about 49 C (120 F)
Time in molds: 24 hours
Age: 3 weeks
Soap -5
371 g (13 oz) olive oil
57 g (2 oz) Beeswax Castile
28.5 g (1 oz) palm oil
59.9 g (2.1 oz) lye
1 cup water
Fat and lye/water temperature about 65 C (150 F)
Tracing time: about 12 minutes FAST! (This is not a good blender soap candidate!)
Time in molds: 48 hours.
Melt the beeswax with the fats. Place the soap in a freezer for 3 hours, then remove it from the mold. Age: 6 - 8 weeks.
Beeswax Soap
456.5 g (16.1 oz) olivenolje
57 g (2 oz) beeswax
62.7 g (2.2 oz) lye
1 cup water
Fat and lye/water temperature about 65 C (150 F)
Tracing time: about 12 minutes FAST! (This is not a good blender soap candidate!)
Time in molds: 48 hours.
Melt the beeswax with the fats. Place the soap in a freezer for 3 hours, then remove it from the mold. Age: 6 - 8 weeks.
Lemon Lime Coconut Hair Bar
30 ounces Olive Oil
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 ounces beeswax
1 egg yolk
1-ounce lime essential oil
1 ounce lemon essential oil
2 tablespoons finely grated coconut
14 ounces water
4 ½ ounces lye
Measure out 1 ounce of the olive oil and set aside the rest Beat the egg yolk into the 1-ounce of olive oil.
Melt together the beeswax, 29 ounces of olive oil, and coconut oil. Gradually stir in the grated coconut. When the temperature reaches between 120F and 135F, remove from heat. Measure out the lye and slowly add to the water, stirring frequently until the lye is dissolved. When the lye mixture cools to within the same temperature as the oils (120F-135F), gently pour it into the oils and stir until the soap begins to trace. Whisk in the olive-oil egg mixture and blend thoroughly. Add the essential oils. Mold and let cure as in the soap directions.
Basic Glycerin Shampoo
4 heaping tablespoons (60ml) lye
1-cup cold soft water
2/3-cup glycerin (preferably vegetable)
3 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons coconut oil
2 cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons commercial shampoo (optional, provides extra bubbles)
While gently stirring, slowly add the lye 1 tablespoon at a time to the cold water. After stirring thoroughly, allow to cool for an hour or so until temperature drops to 90F to 95F. Then heat the glycerin and coconut oil in a pan until the mixture reaches 150F. Slowly pour the glycerin and oil into the dissolved lye. Stir constantly until it reaches the consistency of honey. While continuing to stir, add the lukewarm water. If you prefer more suds, add 2 tablespoon of your favorite commercial shampoo. For variety and fragrance, add a small amount of any of the following – aloe vera gel, jojoba oil, herbal infusions, honey, rose water or other floral waters, natural extracts, aromatherapy oils, or dried herbs and spices. ½ tsp of tea tree oil added to the final phase makes a good dandruff treatment.
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