Simple Soap Bar Recipe

Simple Soap Bar Blog Post

I’ve made up a bar soap recipe with just coconut oil and olive oil pomace, both available on Amazon. I’ll also include the modification so you can use regular olive oil, rather than the pomace. There will be a note at the bottom about making this recipe with hydrosol. 

Babbel- Feel free to skip. ~ When I started soaping, molds were not easily available and I was intimidated by the idea of making my own. Therefore, I chose to start with liquid soaps. However, now molds are super easy to get ahold of and the recipes are quite fast and easy compared to diluting and neutralizing liquid soaps. So we are starting with a bar soap, rather than liquid. 

I chose this recipe because of its easy to find ingredients, as well as the well rounded soap bar that the ingredients make together. Both coconut oil and olive oil pomace make great bases for bar and liquid soaps. 

Now back to the important stuff….

Tools

  • Soap Mold: This is my favorite beginner mold and this recipe will be for 2 of these molds https://www.amazon.com/Ozera-Cavities-Silicone-Biscuit-Chocolate/dp/B00Q7T5H38/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=silicone+soap+mold&qid=1586897910&sr=8-2

  • Scale

  • Cutting Board/Cookie Sheet/Cooling Rack - something to set molds on 

  • High Heat Proof Container for mixing lye (special glass, plastic, ceramic, or stainless steel)

  • Heat Proof/Long Handle spoon or spatula for mixing lye

  • Crock Pot - if you don’t have a crock pot, here’s a great video of  beginner soap using a microwave to melt oils. Go ahead and use that technique to melt your coconut oil. https://www.soapguild.org/how-to/make-soap/first-cp-soap

  • Immersion Blender

  • pH test strips 

  • Thermometer, candy/meat/laser/etc, just a thermometer that you can submerge in liquid to take temp. (Note 1 is no thermometer method)

  • Ladle or Measuring Cup for scooping soap in to mold

  • Goggle/Gloves/Face Mask/Protective Clothing

  • NaOH

  • Spring or Distilled Water (no soft water or city water) (Note 2 - hydrosol replacement)

  • Coconut Oil

  • Olive Oil Pomace (Note 3-  is with olive oil)

  • Essential Oil

Recipe for 42 oz soap (includes oils, lye and scent) for 2 molds (below 30 ounces can get difficult in a full size crock pot)

Water 10.26 oz

NaOH 4.07 oz

Coconut Oil 13.5 oz

Olive Oil Pomace 13.5 oz

Any Essential Oil 0.8 - 1.6 oz

Melt Oils

I usually melt my oils (minus essential oils. they will be added later) on warm in the crock pot. Once they are melted, turn off the crock pot and let the melted oils sit. Let them cool to under 100 degrees fahrenheit. (Note 4- making lye water first)

SUPER IMPORTANT - Have 2 separate spatulas/spoons to stir your oils and lye or wash your spatula/spoon between them. Never contaminate that other with your spoon.

Make Lye Water

Now is the time to create the lye solution. After you have put on all of your safety gear, covered any exposed skin, and found a well ventilated place (I mix under my oven hood on high), very slowly stir the NaOH into the water. Do not breathe the vapors. Be sure to secure a mask for pouring and measuring the NaOH. Any powder breathed can be quite harmful.

The lye solution will be HOT and cloudy at first. You always want to wait until it has cleared up before using. We will use our candy thermometer to determine when the solution is ready for our recipe.

It is at this point when moving or handling the jug of hot lye solution, I always use heat resistant gloves that have grippy rubber on the palms and fingers. I take every possible precaution in ensuring that it will not slip in my grip or burn me. If you don’t have access to grippy gloves, I suggest making the lye solution in the location where you can let it sit and cool. 

NEVER leave cooling lye solution unguarded. It’s super boring. Grab a book, some work, music, whatever will help you pass the time. It’s a great time to measure out your essential oils. 

Soaping

Any time you work with the lye solution, even if it is just stirring, wear your safety gear and clothing. 

You want the lye solution and the melted oils to be as close to the same temperature as possible within the range of 90-120 degrees fahrenheit. As your lye solution approaches 120, warm your oils slowly until they are both in the mentioned temperature range. (Note 5) It may not be necessary to heat oils additionally after melting. Check the temperature of the oils before adding more heat. Be sure to rinse your thermometer when switching from lye solution to oils.

Before you pour your lye solution into the melted oils, make sure that your molds are set up on the cookie sheet or surface of your choice next to your crock pot. Double check that your essential oils are within reach.

Put your immersion blender into the melted oils, tip the blender to burp out any bubbles. 

Turn on the immersion blender and very slowly pour lye solution into the melted oils to avoid splashing. 

Blend thoroughly until you find a medium trace. I like the way that this blog describes the stages. http://www.bathalchemylab.com/2016/03/knowing-your-trace-in-soap.html. Soap should be a pudding consistency. A drop from the immersion blender should sit on the surface.

This is where you add your essential oils. Blend in thoroughly. If you notice separating, continue to blend until mixture stays smooth. A quick google search on whether or not your essential oil choice creates issues in cold process soap may help. 

Scoop soap into molds. Smooth with spoon or tap cookie sheet on counter to smooth. Store in a cool, dry place. I’ll go over how colorant can be impacted by storage during curing in another blog.

Unmolding

Let your soap sit at least 48 hours before unmolding.  When impatient, and the bars are sticking, you can freeze them for an hour and then pop from mold. 

Leave in a cool, dry place for about 4 weeks (curing process).

You can leave the bars in the mold through the entire cure, until they have shrunk up and come loose on their own, which result in very shiny bars. This will take 3-4 weeks in dry weather and 4-6 weeks in high humidity.

Curing and pH Testing

Saponification is complete in most recipes within the first 48 hours. The majority of a full cure (3-6 weeks) is water evaporation and hardening. If you haven’t made any mistakes in your recipe, you’ll be fine to use it after the full cure period of 3-6 weeks. However, it’s best to be safe than sorry.

Perform a pH test on a test bar with the strips. You want your soap to have a pH between 7 and 10.

Pick out a test bar. You will use this bar as your tester again, if later testing is needed. One method is to wet each side until sudsy and dip the test strip in the bubbles. You want to test each portion of the bar in case there was lye pooling in any specific area. That could be a red flag to an issue with the entire batch.

Another method is to dilute some soap into a smidge of hot water and dip the test strip in there. I find this to be the least accurate.

People argue that the strip tests are both inaccurate and therefore swear by the Zap Test. Place a bar against the side of your tongue. If you feel a slight zap, that’s lye and you have to wait. No zap, and you are good to go.

Some choose to cut the bar and test the middle as well.

I prefer placing the strip on the bar, and only test the middle if I suspect that something is wrong.

 

All done! Enjoy your soap! 

Note 1 - No thermometer? No problem! Simply leave your oils and lye to cool to the point that you can feel no heat when you touch the outside of the container. I like to leave the oils out over night, and then pop the lye solution in the fridge to cool it down to room temperature.

Note 2 - Simply replace any amount of water with your desired amount of hydrosol up to 100%. 

If you want to keep the hydrosol from getting too hot and preserve some of the skin loving nutrients, chill or freeze the hydrosol first. Sprinkle just a bit of the NaOH over the frozen hydrosol, and shove around until it dissolves and you’ll start to notice melting. Continue until all lye is used.

Another, perhaps easier method, is to dissolve the NaOH in a small amount of water and then add the chilled (not frozen) hydrosol after all of the NaOH is dissolved.


Note 3 - Olive Oil rather than olive oil pomace will result in a softer bar. Just leave it in the mold longer and you’ll be fine. Olive oil requires a smidge more NaOH to saponify, so you’ll use 4.09 oz of NaOH instead of 4.07. The larger your recipe, the larger difference you’ll notice.

Note 4 - You may absolutely make your lye water first. As it cools and gets near the 100 degree mark, melt your hard oils (coconut). Then pour in your liquid oils (olive oil pomace). Check the temperature. If below 85-90 degrees, heat just a bit more. When temperatures are within range, you may begin.


Note 5 - Specific recipes, like the soap frosting, require the mixtures to be room temperature or 75-80 degree fahrenheit. Much more heat than 130-150 degrees may cause the batch to firm up too quickly and be difficult to put in the mold. 

In my experience, having your lye solution and melted oils too far apart in temperature will create blending issues. That can lead to pooled pockets of lye and ricing. Both of which can ruin a batch. Too cold of lye water will solidify harder oils and butters and also create blending issues.

Soap Safety- Working with lye is no joke!

#1 rule!  ALWAYS pour NaOH/KOH into water. NEVER the other way around. Pouring water into NaOH/KOH will create an explosive reaction.

Lye will react with some metals. Do not use aluminum or tin. Ceramic, stoneware, heat-resistant plastic, or glass are best for mixing and storing lye. I use stainless steel, but must be careful of the handle as it can get quite hot. However, I prefer it over glass as I would certainly break it.

Test your plastic container before you mix lye. Place it upside down in your sink and pour very hot water over it. If it becomes soft or bendy, do not use it! If it holds up firmly, you’re good to go.

The reaction of mixing NaOH/KOH in water will generate heat. Be careful when touching the bowl/jar and use heat resistant items to stir.

Setting up your work area

Remove clutter! The less that you have to bump in to and knock around, the better. It’s important to protect the surfaces that you are working on. Drop clothes can be a great way to protect anything that you can’t remove from your counter/table, like cutting boards or appliances. 

Find a pet/kid sitter while you are working with lye and raw soap. Pets can be secured in another room, if you can’t find help. Up to you if your kids can be shut in another room without issues. 

VENTILATION! You are creating a chemical reaction. Don’t breathe the vapors coming off of the lye mixture as it reacts. If you can mix outside, even better. I mix mine under the hood of my stove at the highest power.

Personal Protective Gear

Now that you’ve protected your work space and put all pets and little ones away, you must protect yourself. Cover every bit of skin that you can. I often wear a man’s dress shirt, flipped around backwards. Then I can pop the collar up and protect my neck. Gloves are a must, and should be tucked in to or over long sleeves. Be sure to wear goggles!! Tie hair back. Long pants and socks/shoes are a good idea, in case of any splashing.

NaOH and KOH can come in tiny pellets or bigger flakes. No matter which sort you choose, it will get powdery at the bottom of the container it comes in. Wear a mask! I mistakenly breathed in powder from the bottom of a container and wow! Bloody, scabby grossness. If it did that to my nose and sinuses, imagine what it did to my lungs. 

Choosing pellets vs flakes

The tiny pellets are a good option for pouring, as they mix easily. However, they can be impossible to control. In the winter, static can make them fly all over! Hence, making the drop cloth imperative. 

The tiny pellets are sneaky! Since NaOH or KOH won’t react without moisture, I didn’t know that I had a tiny pellet on my lip. After my soaping project, I felt a bit of an itch, probably from the pellets reacting with perspiration. Then I licked my lip. That fully activated it! I was away from my sink by then, so it burned a decent little hole in my lip before I was able to rinse. 

The flakes are easier to pour, but be careful in high humidity. NaOH/KOH will absorb moisture from the air, and the flakes are more likely to clump before and after pouring in to your water. This can mimic the “pouring water into lye” catastrophe. You will get a blow up!! Pour in to water slowly and carefully, stirring continuously to be sure that the flakes or pellets do not clump in the bottom. 

You got some on you! What do you do?

If you get the dry NaOH/KOH on your clothing or skin, use a dry cloth or paper towel to brush into a sink or a garbage can. Once the dry flakes or pellets are removed, discard contaminated clothing or rinse skin under cool water to remove any residue.

For lye water and raw soap splashes, rinse skin continuously with cool water for several minutes. Many suggest a vinegar rinse, as it neutralizes lye. However, this neutralizing process is a reaction between the basic lye and the acetic acid in vinegar that causes heat (an exothermic reaction). This can burn! Therefore, where vinegar may work for tiny splatters and residue on surfaces, I do not recommend it for rinsing skin after contamination or for large spills on surfaces. 

If you get it in your eyes, rinse with cool water for at least 5 minutes and get yourself to a doctor asap! Do not take this lightly!! You are risking permanent damage to your eyes. Also get to a doctor if it splashed into your nose or mouth.

If ingested, call poison control immediately at 1-800-222-1222. Do not make the person throw up unless told to do so by poison control. 

Securing your area and your body takes the scary out of working with lye and raw soap. Start with small batches, as small spills are easier to contain that giant catastrophes.

What is soap?

What is soap?

Soap is made through a process called saponification. Simply put, lye + fat (lipids) = soap. More techinically, an alkali (lye) is blended with the acids in lipids, resulting in a chemical reaction. 3 mole of alkali meet 1 mole of lipid, creating 3 moles soap and 1 mole glycerol.  A mole is a unit amount in chemistry used to measure large amounts of a small entity, like atoms & molecules.

Many commercial soap companies will remove the glycerol (glycerin), as removal increases shelf life. However, glycerol is a humectant that helps skin lock in moisture and draws moisture from the air, so it’s a great component to leave in soap. The removed glycerol from commercial soaps is often added to other cosmetic products. Hand-crafted soaps typically leave in this naturally occuring result of the soaping process.

How does soap clean? 

One end of a soap molecule is hydrophilic (attracted to water) and the other is hydrophobic (repelled by water). The hydrophobic end binds with oil/dirt/grime, while the hydrophilic attaches to the water and pulls the dirty stuff off of you and down the drain.

What is lye? 

Lye is an aqueous sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution or an aqueous potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution. Sodium hydroxide results in bar soaps, while potassium hydroxide results in a gel that is easily diluted in water for liquid soaps. Paper Street will occasionally use a 10% NaOH & 90% KOH solution, resulting in a “thicker” liquid soap.

I will cover the safety elements of working with lye in the next blog post.

How do you know how much lye to use to saponify your oils? 

Every oil brings something unique to a soap. Once you’ve chosen your oils and batch size, how do you know how much lye to use? Each oil has its own saponification value. You can find the values and do the calculations manually, but I suggest using a saponification calculation program to check your work. After a few months of soaping, I found it reliable to simply use these calculators and skip doing the math myself. http://soapcalc.net/default.asp is a great option. I recommend reading the Getting Started and Soap Calc Directions before starting. In a future blog post I will use this calculator to create a simple soap recipe, so you can see how I use it.

Another great option is the calculator provided by Hand-crafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild. https://www.soapguild.org/lye-calc.php I find the soapcalc version to be a little more user friendly.