I originally intended just to give the recipe so I have it available for later. It turned into a narrative. This is not an exhaustive set of instructions. Standard Internet Warranty Applies - This is at your own risk, Ramblingmoose.com is not responsible if you rush through and miss a step or burn something with Lye. I used this process a number of times and I have made my own soap for years. It works for me!
After all, I sometimes run with scissors!
I have a cut down cereal box that works beautifully as a Soap Mold. It will easily hold 50 ounces of soap with my old "Standard Recipe". But dollar store brownie molds or old plastic yogurt containers work as well. Plastic and Silicone for molds are what I recommend.
The problem was "Dreaded Orange Spots". It happens when a host of issues effects your soap. Old ingredients, Environmental problems, humidity attacking the soap.
I had made enough soap that friends had enough on hand and told me that they didn't need any. I enjoy making the recipe, it reminds me of when I was in high school and got a 99.6% of theoretical return on my Chemistry lab experiments.
The teacher couldn't do it that well and just let me act like a teacher's aid in those classes. Yes, I was a nerd, still am. A Jock and a Nerd? Go figure!
Anyway, this recipe has a few features.
1). It makes 10 bars of soap. Regular sized soap in a mold. See picture. This way they will get shared, but not overwhelm my friends and family.
2). It is a little less Olive Oil, a little more Coconut Oil. That will make it harden much faster and as such it won't sit on my dining room table for months absorbing everything in my house. I was able to unmold and use that soap the next day.
3). It was a fast warm process soap. The batch went from liquid to "vanilla pudding" in under 4 minutes with the stick blender. Saved my sanity.
4). I think it is a little more astringent. All soap I make has Shea Butter for moisturizing. This is my preference. Since my skin is dry, I wanted to tailor it to clean but not dry out my skin. I do a lot of DIY on the car and my sports equiment. Skate Bearings and Bicycle Chains get grease all over the place and I am constantly washing up. This helps.
"Dreaded Orange Spots" or "DOS" happens in older soap. I don't use preservatives so here in South Florida, it can be a problem. The last two bars from my last personal batch were getting soft again from the humidity. It was a couple wet weeks and I got the beginning of DOS.
So I made more. With Cedar Oil. I made the batch for myself, and I wanted Cedar. My choice.
The disclaimer - Use at your own risk. Lye can cause burns. I know, it has burned my fingers before. Use Proper Protection. I use a stove hood that vents outdoors, rubber gloves, and I dispose of anything that comes in contact with full strength lye. Plastic for caustic substances, stainless for the oils and soap, silicone or paper for molding the soap. I use a large "waste" glass jar to mix ice water and Lye. Making Soap makes dangerous chemicals and can make caustic gases.
But the recipe is nice. I used my first bar this morning in the shower, and have since I made the stuff. I rather like this recipe and will make more from it.
Ingredients:
Oils:
Coconut Oil. 92 Degree. It melts at 92F. 76F versions are available, and I have used them interchangeably.
Olive Oil Pomace. It works fine, and cheaper than EVOO. Save the good stuff for cooking.
Shea Butter. It has the texture of dairy butter. A darker yellow than dairy butter too. This will need to be melted first and the other oils added to it in order - Coconut first, then Olive. Allow all to cool to a reasonable temperature. Warm to the touch, not hot.
Ice, Water, and Lye:
Ice and Water. I use a about half and half mix of Ice and Water because when you add pure Lye to water, it gets hot. You don't want it to get too hot as it cold crack a glass jar while you are mixing it. Ice keeps the temperature manageable. The idea is to make sure that the Ice and Water and Lye end up approximately the same temperature as the oils so you don't get it flaring up.
Lye. PURE Lye. Not something from under the kitchen counter unless it says it is pure.
Recipe:
Oils:
Coconut Oil - 12.5 ounces or 354.4 grams
Olive Oil Pomace - 10 ounces or 283.5 grams
Shea Butter - 2.5 ounces or 70.9 grams melted
Ice and Water - 8.75 ounces or 248 grams. About 50/50 mix.
Lye - PURE Lye - 3.9 ounces or 109.75 grams
Fragrance - 1.5 ounces or 44 grams of essential oils.
Process: This is not exhaustive, I wrote it off the top of my head, omissions are possible.
Make your Oil Blend:
Into your stainless steel mixing pot melt your Shea Butter over gentle heat or use your microwave. Aluminum will chemically combine with soap ingredients, and coatings will absorb your ingredients (partially) BARE STAINLESS STEEL.
Add Coconut oil to the pot. The carry over heat will melt this as well.
Add Olive Oil Pomace to the pot.
Your oils are now mixed together and solids will be melted.
Make your Lye and Water Mix CAREFULLY:
Add your water and ice to a separate non reactive mixing container. I use a large glass jar for this purpose. Glass is non reactive as is plastic or stainless steel.
To a separate non-reactive container measure out your Lye precisely.
Slowly add the lye to the water and ice mix under the stove hood while stirring with a mixing spoon to be thrown out later. This is where the left over plastic spoons from the last picnic or takeaway meal become useful.
When the Lye has completely dissolved into the ice and water, the ice will have melted, and there will no longer be lye at the bottom of the mixing jar.
At this point you have liquid oils in the stainless steel pot and lye completely dissolved into the water in the jar.
Marry the Lye Mix to the Oil Mix in the pot:
Pour slowly so that you don't splash caustic lye on yourself or others as you begin to marry the two solutions to make soap.
Under your stove hood or outdoors, begin to slowly add the lye/water
solution to the oil mix. This is done bit by bit and stirring the
entire time. (Repeated for emphasis).
Mix the Soap until it begins to thicken:
Plug in your immersion stick blender to mix the solutions together. You CAN do this manually with a mixing spoon but you will get better and faster results with a stick blender that is reserved for this purpose and only soap making.
The solution that will become soap will be liquid at this point. Continue to mix until it begins to thicken. It will begin to resemble vanilla pudding at some point, this is when it is ready to pour into molds.
Last step is to add in your fragrance. Use the stick blender to mix it in.
Your soap is ready when it begins to look thick and will appear to hold a "Trace" when you drag the stick blender across the bottom of the pot. It has gone through a number of shade changes during this process and thicken. It should not be "solid" but like a loose pudding.
When you are satisfied, mold your soap to your liking:
Tap the mold a number of times to make sure bubbles have worked their way to the surface.
Allow the soap to harden a day or so before attempting to unmold the bars. This recipe was ready to unmold the next day, and I used it on day 3.
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