01 Natural Soapmaking Ebook
01 Natural Soapmaking Ebook
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This book is dedicated to my wonderful
husband and amazing children, who are
always so supportive of everything I do.
I love you!
Upon researching the craft though, I became intimidated. Lye sounded so scary
to handle! The charts filled with SAP numbers and iodine values made absolutely
no sense to me.
• A heatproof pitcher for mixing lye with water. I use an old 4-quart Tupperware
pitcher or heavy duty plastic paint buckets. (I used glass or Pyrex in the past, but
no longer do that since there’s a chance of shattering.)
• A small container for measuring lye in. I use a small plastic cup, clearly marked
with the word: “LYE.”
• A soap pot or large mixing bowl. I use an enamel-coated pot that I picked up at
my local Wal-Mart or the removable ceramic liner from an old crockpot for mixing.
Other options include stainless steel or high density plastic (recycle symbol 5.)
Never use aluminum, cast iron or non-stick containers, since they can adversely
react with lye.
• A digital scale for measuring ingredients.
• A thermometer for testing temperatures of lye and oils.
• Heat proof mixing utensils. I have a heavy-duty plastic spoon I use to mix the lye
with water and a heavy-duty silicone spatula to scrape the soap mixture into molds.
• Rubber gloves, long sleeved shirt and safety goggles to keep hands, arms and
eyes protected from splashes of lye and raw soap.
• Stick blender, also called an immersion
blender. I consider this almost essential,
since it shortens mixing time to minutes
instead of the hour or more that hand
stirring takes.
• Soap molds. We’ll talk more about them
on page 26.
Once you make your first batch though, you realize, yes, lye can be dangerous and it
deserves a great deal of respect. However, the same can be said for strong household
chemicals such as bleach and ammonia. All items of this sort can cause potential
harm and should be handled carefully and only by adults. Children and pets should
never be allowed in the work area.
Lye mixtures and raw soap are very alkaline and caustic.
When working with them, you should always wear gloves,
long sleeves and safety goggles. If lye solution or raw soap
gets in your eyes, rinse thoroughly with water and then
promptly seek medical attention.
Always pour lye into water. Doing it the opposite way could
possibly cause overheating and a lye volcano. Work in your
kitchen sink, if possible, so if anything spills, overflows or
breaks, it will all be contained in one area.
Avoid breathing in lye fumes. Since we’re working with teas and infusions in this book,
the fumes are usually less offensive than with plain water. However, you should still
turn your head away while first mixing the lye into water, work at arm’s length while
you stir to dissolve the lye and utilize an exhaust fan or fresh outdoor air for good
ventilation. If you have breathing issues or concerns about this step, consider wearing
a full facemask. (Thin white dust or allergy masks aren’t sufficient for this job.)
If you spill some lye solution or raw soap on your skin, rinse thoroughly with plenty of
cold water. Seek medical treatment if you have damaged large areas of skin or have
persistent pain.
The short answer is that our grandmothers manufactured their own caustic chemical
of sorts, called potash, from hardwood ashes. Since there was no way of standardizing
the ingredient, often their soaps turned out extremely harsh.
By using standardized lye (sodium hydroxide for solid soaps and potassium hydroxide
for liquid soaps), these days we’re able to consistently produce batch after
batch of gentle soap.
Without lye, the oils in your recipe would stay oils. A chemical change must happen in
order to create soap.
The purple represents the “sodium” and the light gray & red represent the “hydroxide”
parts of lye.
The oils (and butters) in your recipe are made up of fatty acids and glycerol. They look
something like figure 2.
In the presence of heat and water, this is what happens to the parts (see figure 3.)
The fatty acids bond with the sodium part of sodium hydroxide and form soap. The
glycerol and “hydroxide” parts form glycerin, which is great for your skin! No actual lye
is left in the finished soap.
The main criteria I use for determining which flowers and herbs are safe to experiment with, is
if they’re edible or not. If a plant is safe to eat, I figure in virtually all cases, it should also be
safe to use on our skin.
While a quick Google search will let you know if a particular flower or herb is edible, here’s a
list of some of my favorites:
Dandelion - blossoms
Violets & Pansies - leaves and flowers
Bachelor Buttons
Dianthus, Sweet William, Carnation
Chamomile
Calendula
Forsythia
Honeysuckle
Sunflowers
Hollyhock - flowers and leaves
Roses - all types
Mint - all types
Lemon Balm
Basil
Lavender
Goldenrod
Nettle
Rosemary
To make, gather a few handfuls of fresh flowers or herbs and place them in a heatproof jar or
pitcher. Try to fill the jar at least half way (packed loosely), but if you don’t have enough plants
to do so, that’s okay. You can steep your tea a little longer to make up for it.
If you don’t have a source of fresh plants, you can fill the jar about 1/8 to 1/4 full with dried
herbs/flowers instead. (Mountain Rose Herbs is my go-to place for high quality dried herbs.)
The size of the jar will depend on how much tea you need for your recipe. All of the recipes in
this book use between 8 to 10 ounces of liquid, so a pint jar works perfectly.
There are two ways to make infused oil – the slow way or the fast way. While some have good
results using fresh plant matter for this purpose, I find that the high water content leads to
quicker spoilage and a shorter shelf life for the finished oil.
For this reason, I recommend using dried herbs and flowers or at least freshly picked plants
that have been allowed to wilt overnight on clean dishcloths or paper towels, letting most of
the moisture evaporate.
You can use infused olive oil for part, or the entire amount called for in a recipe. If you only
have 8 ounces of infused oil but need more for a recipe, that’s fine – just use plain olive oil to
make up the difference.
After that time has passed, strain the oil from the herbs/flowers. Discard the
plant material and pour the oil into a clean, dry mason jar. Cap, label and store in
a cool, dark place for up to a year.
You may want to infuse your oil on a sunny windowsill instead of a dark area.
Extended exposure to sunlight tends to discolor and age herbs though, so stash
them in a cabinet after a week or two.
Set the pan over a low burner and allow the water
to heat, but not quite to a simmer. Boiling or heavily
steaming water is too hot. In doing this, you’re creating
a makeshift double boiler of sorts, to gently warm the oil
and speed up the infusing process.
After about two hours, remove from heat and strain the
infused oil into a clean, dry mason jar. Store in a cool,
dark place for about a year.
Fresh flowers and leaves should never be mixed into soap batter as they’ll spoil and blacken
fairly quickly.
Even dried herbs should be used with care. Lavender buds look lovely sprinkled on top of
soap, and will maintain their purple color for some time. However, if you mix them into the
soap itself, the buds will turn brownish-gray and start to resemble mouse droppings.
Whenever you get the urge to add a food item to a soap recipe, do a quick Internet search
first to see if anyone else has tried it out. You can usually find some great posts on soaping
forums where people share their experiences and feedback.
If you’re adding purees to a recipe you created, be sure to discount or subtract a similar
amount of liquid from your recipe. So, if you add 2 ounces of pumpkin at trace (right before
pouring into the mold), subtract about 2 ounces of water from your initial lye mixture.
Starting at the top of the photo, on this page at right, these are the amounts used to obtain
the colors shown, when used in recipes that each contain around 27 to 30 ounces of total oil
(or approximately 2.5 pound batches).
The following pages have a few more close-ups so you can see the ingredient next to the bar
of soap used to color it, along with some tips for using natural colorings in general.
Rose Clay
• Bergamot (Citrus bergamia) has an uplifting and relaxing scent that’s a combination
of citrus and a hint of floral. It’s sometimes used to treat skin conditions such as acne,
eczema and psoriasis. Use up to 15 grams per pound of oil in a soap recipe.
• Cedarwood Atlas (Cedrus atlantica)
has a soft pleasing woodsy scent that’s
popular with both men and women
alike. Its astringent and antiseptic
properties make it useful for oily skin
types. Use of to 17 grams per pound of
oil in a soap recipe.
• Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea) has a lovely
calming floral scent. It’s great for aged
or dry skin types, or in shampoo bars
designed for hair loss or dandruff. If
pregnant or nursing, check with a health
care provider before using. Use up to 14
grams per pound of oil in a soap recipe.
• Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) is
very gentle with a clean evergreen scent.
Its astringent properties make it helpful
for balancing oily skin. Use up to 17
grams per pound of oil in a soap recipe.
• Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) has a strong, cooling camphor-like scent. Eucalyptus
is not recommended for using on children under age 10. Use up to 14 grams per pound of
oil in a soap recipe.
• Grapefruit (Citrus × paradisi) has a bright refreshing scent that uplifts your spirits. It’s
especially useful for toning oily skin. Use up to 22 grams per pound of oil in a soap recipe.
• Juniper Berry (Juniperus communis) has a warm woodsy fragrance and may be helpful
for some skin conditions. Use up to 14 grams per pound of oil in a soap recipe.
• Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is very gentle and has a calming herbaceous floral
scent that helps relieve stress and soothe skin. Use up to 20 grams per pound of oil in a
soap recipe.
• Lemon (Citrus limon) has a fresh clean citrus fragrance and is especially useful for oily
skin types. Be sure to use a “folded” type of lemon, shown as 5x or 10x on the label.
Regular lemon essential oil will fade quickly from soap, while the folded version sticks
around longer. Use up to 22 grams per pound of oil in a soap recipe.
• Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) has a lemon like scent and is often combined in
a blend with citrus essential oils to help their scent last longer. Check with a health care
provider before using if you’re pregnant, nursing or on medication. Use up to 22 grams per
pound of oil in a soap recipe
• Lime (Citrus aurantifolia) has a strong citrus fruity scent that blends especially well with
lemon. Like other citrus essential oils, it’s helpful for oily skin types. Use up to 22 grams
per pound of oil in a soap recipe
• Litsea (Litsea cubeba), also called may chang, has a lovely scent that’s a blend of citrus
and floral. It’s often used for those with skin problems, though a small subset of the
population may be prone to sensitivity to it. Use up to 17 grams per pound of oil in a soap
recipe.
• Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin) has a strong exotic scent that most people either love or
hate, but it really shines in blends. Patchouli also offers some regenerative skin benefits.
Use up to 17 grams per pound of oil in a soap recipe.
• Peppermint (Mentha × piperita) has a fresh minty scent that cools. It’s sometimes used
to stimulate the scalp to improve hair growth, making it a good option for shampoo bars.
Avoid using peppermint oil on young children, along with those with cardiac fibrillation or
G6PD deficiency. Use up to 15 grams per pound of oil in a soap recipe.
• Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) has a strong green herbal scent. It should not be
used in products intended for young children, those with epilepsy or women who are
pregnant. Rosemary is often used to stimulate hair growth, making it a good addition to
shampoo bars. Use up to 11 grams per pound of oil in a soap recipe.
• Spearmint (Mentha spicata) has a fresh minty fragrance similar to peppermint, but is
sweeter and gentler. Use up to 15 grams per pound of oil in a soap recipe.
• Tea Tree Oil (Melaleuca alternifolia) has a strong resinous antiseptic scent. A powerful
antimicrobial, it’s often used in soaps for those with various skin conditions. Use up to 14
grams per pound of oil in a soap recipe.
• Vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides) has a relaxing aroma and is used to treat nervousness and
depression. It does best used in small amounts, as part of a blend. Use up to 8 grams per
pound of oil in a recipe.
• Ylang Ylang (Cananga odorata) has a strong sensuous scent and is used to calm
nerves and balance all skin types. Avoid use on children under 2 and those with low blood
pressure. Use up to 10 grams per pound of oil in a soap recipe.
Be careful that the oil is fresh though – old oil makes for a soap that is likely to develop DOS
(dreaded orange spots), which indicates rancidity.
Health stores tend to carry items like castor oil
and other specialty oils, but you can’t usually
beat the prices and high quality from online
soap supply vendors.
• Silicone Column Mold – use batches more towards the 27 ounces of oil range in this mold
or you may have a little extra left over. Decrease the water by about ½ or 1 ounce and allow
the soap to stay in the mold an extra day or two to help it release easier.
• Twelve Bar Silicone Mold – recipes in this book will fill about 9 of the rectangle spaces.
I love this mold for making small test bars. You can separate some plain batter out of a
fresh batch of soap and pour it into an old yogurt container. Then mix and stir in additives
that you’d like to experiment with, but aren’t sure if they’ll work or not. (Use a plastic knife
or spoon for stirring.) That way, an entire batch isn’t ruined if a good idea, goes bad.
• Homemade Log Mold – my homemade wooden mold’s inner dimensions are 8” x 3.5”
x 3.5”. Wooden molds should always be lined with parchment paper, freezer paper or
silicone liners. Don’t use wax paper since it allows moisture to seep through to the wood
and will shorten the life of your mold.
• Glass Bread Loaf Pan – You can use a regular glass loaf pan such as is used for baking
bread, but you must line it with parchment paper or freezer paper, otherwise, it will stick.
For a pretty imprinted pattern, try following these directions using a fondant mat instead of
freezer paper. Fondant mats can often be found in the baking section of your local craft store.
As a bonus, fondant mats can be reused over and over. Use the textured side up, if you want
the outside of your soap to have a design, or flip it over and place the textured side down, if
you want your soap’s surface smooth.
Step 1
Assemble your supplies.
• ruler
• pencil
• your soap mold
• parchment or freezer paper,
or a fondant mat
• scissors
• freezer tape
Step 2
Cut a large section of freezer paper
that’s long enough to almost wrap
around the outside of your mold,
lengthwise. Right now, we’re
eyeballing size, so you don’t have
to be precise. You can always trim
extra bits off later, if needed.
This section will be cut to make two pieces – a long, skinny piece that’s exactly the width of
your mold, and a wider piece that will cover the length of the mold.
Step 4
Cut along the line..
Step 5
You should end up with a long piece of
paper that fits neatly inside your mold
and extends over the sides. Place that
piece in your mold and secure the ends
with freezer tape.
When unfolded and laid flat, the two pieces look like this:
Just add the weight of the oils + lye + liquid in a recipe together..
Since lye is usually in decimal places like 3.95 oz or 4.12 oz, just round that up or down
to an even number, in this case to 4.
So, if a recipe has:
One of the benefits of soap going through gel phase is that it usually helps colors “pop” and
show up more brightly. This is especially helpful when dealing with natural colors, since they
tend to be more muted than artificial ones.
Your soap will probably want to go through gel phase on its own, unless you are soaping at
low temperatures or in a really cold room, but you can help it along by insulating the mold
with blankets. (Peek every so often to make sure that the soap isn’t cracking though. If it is,
that means it’s too hot and should be uncovered.)
Your soap doesn’t have to go through gel phase. In some cases (as with full milk soap), gel
phase might cause the soap to turn out much darker and browner than if you stopped the
process. For some, that’s not always desirable.
A medium, almost thick trace is what’s shown in this picture. I lifted the stick blender and
the imprint of it stayed visible for a moment before sinking back in. By the time soap has
reached this stage, you should quickly add all of your extra scents and colors and be ready
to pour into molds.
When using a stick blender (also called an immersion blender), you should reach trace within
2 to 10 minutes. In contrast, stirring by hand can often take several hours. Don’t use a hand or
stand mixer, since those won’t work in the same way as an immersion blender.
Sometimes, “false trace” happens. This is when your soap looks like it has thickened up,
but if you stop stirring, it becomes thin and watery again. I always check for this before
pouring into the mold. If your soap batter thins out again, as described, try stick blending
or hand stirring for a little bit longer.
If you had exactly enough oil in your recipe, to use up every speck of lye, your recipe would be
considered 0% superfat. That means no extra oils (fats) are left in the bar.
However, if you figured out how much lye you needed to “use up” your oils and then add a
little bit more oil, then your soap becomes “superfatted.” Superfatted soap contains extra
oils, above and beyond what you need to make soap. The reason for superfatting soap is to
make it extra gentle and moisturizing.
• Liquid & Lye Portion – this gives the amount of lye needed for the recipe along with the
amount of recommended tea or water. All of the recipes in this book (other than salt bars)
are superfatted at 5 or 6%. (See previous page.)
• Oil Portion – this gives the total amount of oil in the recipe (ranging from 27 to 30 ounces
for the recipes in this book), followed by how many ounces are needed of each type oil.
You’ll notice a percentage given beside the name of each oil. They’ve been rounded for
simplicity’s sake, but indicate the percentage of that particular type of oil in the recipe.
When you add them all together, they will equal 100%.
After a few new dishwashers plus an expensive plumbing visit to replace a portion of my
kitchen pipes, I learned that straight raw soap should never go down drains, in any form.
You may get away with it for a while, but after so many batches of soap made, the buildup
will have silently grown, and plumbing problems can occur.
While not as convenient as a dishwasher, there are two ways that I use to safely clean up soap:
Before you begin though, read through all of these steps carefully. Be sure that you
understand every section. It’s also a great idea to do some searching online and see how
other people make their soap.
Don’t do like I did though and spend a year thinking about making soap, but not actually
doing it. The best way to learn is to just jump in and try it out!
1) Choose a recipe and run it through a lye calculator, especially if you decide to make
changes to it.
Even though I checked and double-checked the recipes in this book, it’s always good to
triple check them. Typos and human error happen all the time.
Each type of oil requires a different amount of lye to saponify it (turn into soap.) So, if
you’re out of the castor oil called for in a recipe and want to use sunflower oil instead, you
may need a different amount of lye or your soap might end up too harsh or too soft. (See
page 24 for suggested amounts of oils to use in a recipe.)
Don’t forget, you’ll need disposable gloves and safety goggles, along with a thermometer to
measure the temperature of lye and oils. (Have one dedicated just for soap making, and don’t
use it for food.) Wear long sleeves in case any lye splashes on your arms.
Do NOT use aluminum at any time during the soap making process. Aluminum will
react with the sodium hydroxide and form toxic fumes.
When figuring out a recipe on a lye calculator, it may give you a suggested range of liquid to
use. More liquid means your soap takes a bit longer to set up and reach trace (useful if you’re
adding honey or other items that speed up things) and less liquid means it is ready to pour
into molds faster. I like to use somewhere in the middle of the range.
Make sure you pour the lye into water that is cool or
no warmer than room temperature.
Also, you always add the lye to the liquid and not the other way around (the other
cause of lye volcanoes.)
This mixture will shoot up to over 200° F (93° C ) quickly, so use caution when handling.
Turn your face away and/or hold your breath to avoid directly breathing in the fumes.
I keep the window over my kitchen sink opened during this step or work outside on my
back deck. Working under a running exhaust fan may help too. If you don’t have proper
ventilation, consider wearing a full-face mask. (The thin ones intended for dust or
allergies aren’t effective against these fumes.)
The lye will often change the color and smell of the herbal/floral tea. This is normal.
Don’t worry — the strange smells/colors won’t last!
7) While the lye solution is cooling, weigh out the oils and butters called for in your recipe.
Place these in an enamel or stainless steel pot that you plan to use for soap making only.
(Remember, no aluminum!) Place the pot on a burner, turn the heat on low and gently warm
the oils until they reach up to 90 to 115° F (32 to 46° C).
Mixing at higher temperatures will speed things along, but sometimes too quickly. If your
soap sets up too fast and is difficult to get into the mold, try mixing at lower temperatures
next time.
10) Using a stick blender, start combining the lye solution and oils, stopping to occasionally
stir and check consistency.
When you first place your stick blender in the unmixed oil/lye solution, tilt it slightly sideways
to let up any bubbles that are trapped underneath it. Straighten it again and make sure it’s
fully submerged before turning it on. (If it’s not fully submerged, it may splash oil and lye
solution everywhere, making a caustic mess.)
Work in small bursts of about thirty seconds on, then turn the stick blender off and hand stir
with it for about thirty seconds. Keep alternating in a pattern like this. Blending non-stop
from the start could burn out your motor, cause false trace and create lots of air bubbles.
It should only take a few minutes for most of these recipes to reach “trace” – which means
when you drizzle a small bit of the soap mixture over the surface, it will leave a faint pattern
or trace before sinking back into the mixture. (see page 33.)
I HIGHLY recommend using a stick blender instead of stirring by hand. I have one made by
Cuisinart that I’ve had for over a decade, so they’re well worth the investment. Make sure
you use it strictly for soap making and not for food use.
11) Once trace is reached, you’ll add any extras such as honey, oatmeal, natural colorants
and essential oils, then stir for just a bit more until they are all incorporated.
You should already have these measured out and ready to dump in. Some types of add-ins
can make your soap thicken faster, so work quickly and methodically to get them stirred in.
13) Cover with the mold top, if it has one, then several layers of blankets and quilts.
This makes sure that the soap is well insulated and retains the heat needed to go
through gel phase. Leave undisturbed for about 24 to 48 hours. (If you want to skip
gel phase, see page 32.) It’s okay to peek at your soap every now and then. It’s not like
baking a cake where you might make it fall.
Check your soap periodically during the first few hours and make sure that the top isn’t
cracking. If it is, that indicates that the soap is getting too hot and you should uncover it
so it can cool down some.
Let the bars cure in the open air on pieces of wax paper or brown paper, turning occasionally,
for 4 to 6 weeks. I start testing them on myself after three weeks. Store in a non-humid area
where they still have some airflow. A hall linen closet usually work nicely; a bathroom closet or
cabinet is less than ideal.
Most of the soap recipes in my Natural Soap Making ebook and package can be converted to
hot process with just a few changes.
1. Increase the water amount in my recipes to around 10 oz (283 g). Normally, I use a
reduced water amount in cold process recipes so the soap reaches trace quicker and is
easier to unmold. For hot process recipes though, you don’t want to reduce the water
amount or the soap batter may harden or dry up in your crock pot.
2. Don’t add anything at trace. When making cold process soap, you normally mix the soap
to trace then stir in extras such as essential oils, oatmeal, honey and so forth. When
making hot process soaps, you wait to add these things until after cook time.
3. While you can use hot process soap right after making, it will last longer if you let it cure
for at least 2 to 3 weeks before using.
Write down your full recipe, noting if you need to make a tea or infusion for it first.
Try to consider every step you will take. Even little things like where you’ll place your spoon or
spatula after you stir the lye with water. (Since I work in or right beside my kitchen sink
usually, I rinse it with fresh water right after stirring and set it aside on a piece of wax paper.)
Write down reminders to yourself to put on your gloves, goggles and long sleeves
before handling lye.
After over a decade of making soap, I still find that I forget a step every now and then. I’m
rather famous for forgetting to add essential oils at trace! Having a checklist helps minimize
the chances of anything like that happening to you!
While each recipe has specific oils listed, you can take the same ideas, such as infused teas,
herbal oils, or extra add-ins, and use them in another recipe if you’d like.
For example, if you find a recipe that you just love on another web site or elsewhere, you can
take that basic recipe and change the distilled water into an herbal tea instead.
You could take any oil listed and replace it with an infused version of that oil instead.
(Example: If a recipe calls for 8 ounces of olive oil, you can use 8 ounces of herbal infused
olive oil instead. Or, part herbal infused olive oil and the rest plain olive oil.).
You can take any recipe and stir in a few extra items once you reach trace, to give it something
special. (Examples: A teaspoon of honey, or some essential oils for scent.)
Just because a recipe is written one way doesn’t mean you have to exactly follow it, as long as
the oils and lye amounts remain unchanged.
If at any time though, you want to change out one oil for another type, this will require a quick
check using a lye calculator, to make sure that the lye amount doesn’t change. See page 82
for directions on using a lye calculator.
One more important note – some of my recipes are higher in olive oil than others that are out
there. Some of these might take longer to firm up and cure than other soap recipes you may
be used to. Once fully cured though, high olive oil soaps become very hard and long lasting.
As a bonus, they are very gentle!
Lye Solution:
• 3.95 oz (112 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) distilled water
Optional Extras
• 30 - 35 g essential oils
Natural Soap Making THENERDYFARMWIFE.COM 47
Simple Shea Butter Soap
This soap features rich and creamy shea butter to moisturize and nourish dry skin types.
You can leave it plain and unscented, or add a natural colorant (page 17) and/or essential
oils for scent (page 20).
Lye Solution:
• 3.90 oz (111 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) distilled water
Optional Extras
• 30 - 35 g essential oils
Lavender Soap
An old-fashioned classic, this soap’s lovely hue comes from purple Brazilian clay. If you’re unable
to obtain this natural colorant, you could leave it out instead for a creamy white bar of soap.
Lye Solution:
• 3.95 oz (112 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) distilled water
Optional Extras
• 2 tsp purple clay (add to lye solution)
• 35 g lavender essential oil
Natural Soap Making THENERDYFARMWIFE.COM 48
Easy Carrot Soap
Carrots make a wonderful addition to handmade soap, lending both color and
nourishing antioxidants. Carrot soaps are usually very gentle and are often favored as
facial soaps or by those with sensitive skin.
In this recipe, carrot baby food is used, but you could substitute in equal measure with
carrot juice instead, if you’d like.
Lye Solution:
• 3.90 oz (111 g) lye
• 6 oz (170 g) distilled water
• 3 oz (85 g) carrot baby food
In this recipe, I offer two different scent options. If your essential oil supply is limited, you can
use just cedarwood essential oil. If you have them available though, a small amount of vetiver
and clove essential oils really adds a wonderful depth and helps anchor the scent.
Lye Solution:
• 3.95 oz (112 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) distilled water
Optional Extras
• 2.5 teaspoons French green clay
• 1 tablespoon rolled oats, finely
ground in a coffee grinder
• cedarwood “Atlas” essential oil (* see amount or blend suggestions below)
* For a light scent, use 20 grams of cedarwood “Atlas” essential oil, or for a stronger
scent try 30 grams.
* If you have vetiver and clove essential oils available, try this blend instead of plain cedarwood:
Calendula soap’s simple ingredient list makes it a great choice for a beginner soap maker’s
first herbal soap project. Because of the high amount of olive and other soft oils in this recipe,
it might need a few extra weeks of cure time to fully harden up.
Besides calendula tea, you can infuse part of your oils with calendula flowers. (See page 12
for how to do so.) Depending on how much calendula oil you use and how strongly infused
it is, your soap may turn out various shades of off-white or yellow. If you use plain oils and
distilled water instead, this recipe can easily become basic lye soap.
Lye Solution:
• 4.16 oz (118 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) calendula tea
It’s particularly useful for those with rashes, hives and other skin irritations.
When using oats in a soap recipe, be sure to finely grind them in a coffee grinder first. You can
use regular rolled or old-fashioned oats. I use a gluten free variety. Colloidal oatmeal is made
of oats that have been specially processed and can be substituted in equal measure.
This is a bastille soap, which is very high in olive oil. It might need a few extra weeks to cure
and completely firm up, but will be well worth it!
Lye Solution:
• 4.16 oz (118 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) distilled water
To make the flower tea for this soap, gather a handful each of dandelions & rose petals. Place
them in a jar and pour about ten ounces of simmering hot water over them. Let steep until
cool, then strain before using in the recipe.
Lye Solution:
• 4.18 oz (119 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) cold dandelion & rose tea
Once the clays are added to the soap, you should try to work quickly since clays absorb
moisture and will cause the soap batter to thicken faster. Pour the pink half into mold, then
the yellow half on top. Cover and insulate with blankets for about 24 hours before unmolding.
Be sure to let this soap go through gel phase (page 32) to ensure the purple hue develops.
When you add lye to the violet flower tea, it will turn from purple to brown. That’s perfectly
normal and does not reflect the final color of the bar.
Lye Solution:
• 4.21 oz (119 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) violet flower tea
Tips:
• add alkanet to oils before adding lye
solution
• essential oils, optional - You can use
35 grams (about 3 tbsp) of a scent like
lavender, or try a blend of lavender, rose
geranium and a bit of ylang ylang for a
different scent profile.
Violet leaves are exceptional for healing various skin afflictions. In this recipe, both the oil and
water portions are infused with violet leaves for maximum effect.
Lye Solution:
• 3.88 oz (110 g) lye
• 8.5 oz (241 g) violet leaf infusion/tea
It combines the skin soothing properties of cucumber, nettle and French green clay to make a
nourishing, unscented bar.
Make a strong nettle tea by pouring 8 ounces (227 g) simmering water over 2 tablespoons
of dried nettle, cover and let cool. In the meantime, puree 6 ounces (170 g) water with
¼ cup chopped cucumber peel, strain and store in the refrigerator until needed. Add enough
strained tea to the cucumber juice to make the 8.5 ounces of liquid required in this recipe.
Lye Solution:
• 3.75 oz (106 g) lye
• 8.5 oz (241 g) cold nettle tea combined
with cucumber puree
• 1/2 tbsp French green clay mixed with
1 tbsp water
We used fresh rose petals to make the water infusion, since they were abundantly in bloom
at the time, but you can use dried as well. Pour about ten ounces of simmering hot distilled
water over a jar full of fresh petals, or about ¼ full of dried roses, and let it steep until room
temperature or cooler before straining and using. (Avoid steeping too long, since a dark tea
will make for a browner soap.)
I use rose petal infused olive oil for this recipe, but if you don’t have it available, use plain
olive oil instead.
Lye Solution:
• 4.16 oz (118 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) rose flower infusion
To make a minty oil infusion, gather fresh mint leaves from your garden and let them wilt
overnight. Proceed with the directions on page 12, for infusing oils.
Mint infused oil is also great to have on hand for making salves, creams, lip balms and other
such cosmetic goodies.
Lye Solution:
• 4.16 oz (118 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) distilled water
For the liquid portion of this soap, puree fresh jewelweed with 10 ounces of water. Strain and
store in the refrigerator until ready to use or up to 24 hours. Any left over jewelweed infusion
can be frozen in ice cube trays and used as needed to rub directly on itchy skin.
The olive oil is infused with two other skin-soothing herbs: plantain and violet leaf. Those
herbs are optional, but recommended.
*Important note: The lye solution and raw soap tends to smell very bad at first, almost
skunk-like! Just stick it out for several days as the soap cures. The final bar will smell
lightly of oats unless you add essential oil. It may also start out a dark brown, but will
lighten up over cure time.
Lye Solution:
• 4.22 oz (120 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) fresh jewelweed infusion
Lye Solution:
• 3.95 oz (112 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) distilled water
• 1 tsp french green clay -
added to lye solution
Pour half of the green layer in the soap mold. Add the charcoal layer on top. Pour the rest of
the green layer last. If desired, run a plastic knife straight up and down though the batter a
few times, down the length of the bar, to give the charcoal layer a bit of visual interest.
To scent your soap, try adding 20 to 30 grams of essential oil at trace. My favorite kind
in this particular soap is lemongrass, though you may enjoy other scents such as peppermint,
lavender or ten-fold orange.
Lye Solution:
• 4.14 oz (117 g) lye
• 5 oz (142 g) chilled water
• 5 oz (142 g) chilled kombucha
The lye mixture and raw soap batter may start off looking orangish-brown and not the color
you’re looking for, but give it a few days cure time and it should develop the sunny yellow
shade as shown in the photo.
Since regular lemon essential oil tends to fade rather quickly in cold process soap, it’s
been replaced with lemongrass essential oil instead, for a similar, but longer lasting,
zesty citrus scent.
Lye Solution:
• 3.75 oz (106 g) lye
• 8.5 oz (241 g) distilled water
• 1/4 teaspoon annatto seed powder
The tea can be made with fresh or dried rose petals. Since we’re adding 1 ounce of aloe at the
very end of this recipe, we need to subtract (or “discount”) one ounce of liquid from the
starting amount of water/tea we’d normally use. Don’t let your rose petal tea steep for too
long, since a very dark liquid can affect the final color of your soap.
Rose infused olive oil works nicely in this recipe, but if you don’t have any made up, it will be
fine to use plain oil.
Lye Solution:
• 4.01 oz (114 g) lye
• 8 oz (227 g) rose petal tea (if NOT
adding aloe, use 9 oz
Tip: If you don’t have apricot kernel oil available, you can use shea butter instead, for a slightly
firmer bar. If you’d like to replace the meadowfoam seed oil, try using castor oil instead.
To create the infused oil, I go out in my backyard and pick a generous amount of plantain
leaves, spread them out in a single layer on clean dish towels, and let them air dry for a few
days to remove the moisture. If you don’t have an unsprayed source of plantain leaves, check
online at a site like Mountain Rose Herbs.
Lye Solution:
• 3.95 oz (112 g) lye
• 6.5 oz (184 g) distilled water
• 2 oz (57 g) aloe liquid
• 1/4 teaspoon chlorella powder
(for color)
Remember to use a light-colored olive oil for this project, since the rich green of extra virgin
olive oil can affect the final soap’s color.
This is a wonderful soap for treating inflamed, itchy or irritated skin. The sprinkling of chamomile
flowers on top is just for decoration. For more practical use, you can leave them off.
Lye Solution:
• 3.9 oz (111 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) chamomile tea
Lye Solution:
• 4.13 oz (117g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) hollyhock infused tea
At trace, a small amount of powdered tea can be added for textured speckles, along with
bentonite clay. A blend of bergamot and lemongrass essential oils adds a light, citrus
fragrance that’s reminiscent of the tea.
Lye Solution:
• 3.73 oz (106 g) lye
• 8.5 oz (241 g) cold Earl Grey tea
For this recipe, I collected forsythia flowers, spread them out in single layers on clean
dishtowels and let them dry for several days before infusing in oil.
To make the tea for this soap, fill a jar about half full with fresh (or dried) blossoms and
then pour about eleven ounces of simmering hot water over them. Let them steep until
room temperature or cooler before using in the recipe.
I used jasmine absolute in this recipe, since I’d had some sitting around for ages, being
unused. It is very expensive though, so if it’s out of your price range, definitely replace it
with more affordably priced essential oil. Lemongrass is a popular choice, or try blending a
combination of lavender, rose geranium, litsea and/or ylang ylang, for a more floral scent.
You’ll also want to have a lot of practice making successful batches of soap with cheaper
ingredients, before adding expensive essential oil to any soap recipe.
Lye Solution:
• 4.17 oz (118 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) strained forsythia tea
To prevent the leaves from being scratchy, keep the amount of dried leaves low and rub them
through a fine mesh sieve before adding to the soap.
Lye Solutions:
• 3.75 oz (106 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) mint tea or distilled water
Fresh apple cider is used instead of distilled water. It’s important to note that I did not use
apple cider vinegar or hard apple cider. Just regular, non-alcoholic apple cider made from
freshly pressed apples.
Lye Solution:
• 4.17 oz (118 g) lye
• 9 oz (255 g) chilled pure apple cider
(can be diluted 50/50 with water)
Mix together the soap, and then add the canned pumpkin at trace. Before pouring into the
mold, separate out ¼ of the soap batter into a container (I use a recycled yogurt container.)
Mix the vanilla absolute and clove essential oil into this portion and set aside. The vanilla
absolute oil will color this part of the soap brown.
Pour half of the remaining pumpkin batter into the mold, then pour the vanilla spice layer,
then pour the rest of the pumpkin on top. Cover and let stay in the mold for at least 36 to 48
hours. This recipe might take a little longer to firm up at first; if so, just leave it in the mold a
few additional days.
Lye Solution:
• 4.19 oz (119 g) lye
• 7 oz (198 g) distilled water
I used peppermint essential oil in this recipe, since it’s a personal favorite, but you could really
use any type of scent you’d like!
Lye Solution:
• 3.87 oz (110 g) lye
• 8.5 oz (241 g) distilled water
Because of the high amount of olive oil in this recipe, it should ideally cure for
upwards of 6 to 9 months; while most soapmakers prefer to cure Aleppo soaps for at
least a year before using.
• Laurel berry fruit oil smells somewhat like medicinal herbs crossed with old
cigarette butts. It’s not overly unpleasant, but many people find it strong at first.
Be assured that the scent will mellow as the soap cures.
Recipes usually contain 70 to 100% coconut oil to help counterbalance the lather
inhibiting properties of salt. Because coconut oil can become drying when used in
excess, the soap is superfatted in the 15 to 20% range.
Once made, salt bars get hard, fast. I highly recommend individual molds to make
these. If you do use a loaf mold, pop your gloves back on and cut them as soon as you
see they’ve firmed up. (Depending on your recipe, this could be anywhere from 2 to 6
hours, but start checking after about 1½ hours to be safe.)
Waiting too long can result in your bar crumbling or being difficult to cut. This is the most
common difficulty that people run into when making salt bars. (If this happens, try powdering
them in a food processor and incorporating them into a batch of regular soap, as an exfoliant
of sorts.) Again, salt bars set up FAST and individual molds are the best way to go with these!
• Sea Salt
• Himalayan Salt
• Hawaiian Black Salt
• Redmond’s RealSalt
You can also use regular table salt or even canning salt.
While many soapmakers like to make salt bars with 100% coconut oil and a 20% superfat
(and that’s great to do too!), I like the skin-soothing qualities that other oils add to the mix.
Lye Solution:
• 4.4 oz (125 g) lye (15% superfat)
• 11 oz (312 g) distilled water
The minute I saw it, I knew I wanted to make a salt bar from it. Because it’s more costly than
regular sea salt, I only used it for a portion of the salt in this recipe. You can use even less than
I did, just substituting more sea salt for the black salt.
Lye Solution
• 4.4 oz (125 g) lye (15% superfat)
• 11 oz (312 g) distilled water
To make the oil, place 1 cup freshly dried dandelion flowers in a large heatproof jar. Melt the
coconut oil and pour over the dandelion flowers. Set the jar down into a saucepan containing
a few inches of water and place the pan over a low burner. Heat the oil and dandelions for
around 2 to 3 hours or until the coconut oil has developed a bright yellow hue. Strain. Add
more coconut oil if needed so the weight of coconut oil used in the recipe is 28 oz (794 g).
Lye Solution:
• 4.10 oz (116 g) lye (20% superfat)
• 10.5 oz (298 g) distilled water
While shea butter helps give this recipe an extra dose of hardness, you can swap it out with
another butter, lard, tallow or even an oil such as sunflower or sweet almond. (When making
changes to the types of oil in a recipe, be sure to double check with a lye calculator, page 82,
in case it also changes the amount of lye needed.)
Lye Solution:
• 3.9 oz (111 g) lye (10% superfat)
• 9.75 oz (276 g) distilled water
• 1.5 oz (43 g) sea salt
Cold process (CP) soap gradually grows harder over time, as water evaporates from it.
Because of that, you don’t want to wrap these types of soaps airtight. Leave at least a
little opening on each end so the bar can breathe.
My favorite way to wrap soaps is to cut a strip of cloth or scrapbook paper and wrap it
around the middle. Secure this with a dot of glue or piece of transparent tape. I like to tie
a pretty ribbon around the bar too, when giving as a gift.
Another idea is to store each bar in an unbleached muslin bag to protect it from dust
and handling. (They make cute gifts too!)
If you plan on selling or gifting your soaps, you should make a label that reflects the full
ingredient list. This is especially important for customers with allergies, so they can avoid
certain types if needed.
I like to make my labels round, so I can use them on any sized soap. I have a full tutorial
HERE that explains how to make round labels using PicMonkey – an online photo editor.
However, if you’re ready to learn how a lye calculator works and you
want to advance your soap making knowledge – then put on your nerd
hat with me and keep reading!
Without a lye calculator, we’d have to sit down, find the SAP values (or the amount of lye each
type of oil needs to turn into soap) and figure out recipes by hand. It would involve a great
deal more math than I would be fond of doing!
Even if you don’t want to create or change a recipe, it’s always a good idea to double check
the amount of lye in any new recipe that you’re trying - even ones from this book and my web
site. Typing errors happen all the time and it’s better to take a few minutes to make sure the
recipe is correct than wasting valuable ingredients and time with a failed batch.
For this demonstration of a lye calculator, I’m using the one found at:
https://www.thesage.com/calcs/LyeCalc.html
It’s the one I learned to use when just starting out, and it has served me well for many years.
There are other lye calculators out there though, that you can explore, including the ones at:
• Bramble Berry
• SoapCalc
You can enter your recipe title, units of measure, lye type and any notes you want to make here.
Lye Solution:
• 3.87 oz (110 g) lye
• 8.5 oz (241 g) distilled water
Using the little boxes beside each oil’s name, I’m going to fill in the number of ounces of oil in
my recipe. The numbers will look like this:
Once you do, this screen will pop up, with several important numbers that you need to know:
Liquids
The first section covers the amount of liquids you need. Normally, you use distilled water (in
case your tap water has a mineral or contaminant that might react negatively in your soap.) In
this book, we use several herbal infusions too. You can also use milk, aloe, coffe, etc.
Now you can use this same process with any new
recipe that you’d like to try.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see this:
Under “Resized Batch”, change the 28 to 56, if you’d like to double it, or to whatever number
you’d like to increase it by.
Hit “Resize Recipe” and the new amounts of oils, liquids and lye that you need for the larger
batch appears.
Go to the oils information on page 23 and decide what you’d like to use. It looks like mango
butter is in the recipe for moisturizing, but it also hardens soap a tiny bit. It’s not much
though, so we’ll just use something similarly moisturizing to replace it.
Let’s go with hemp oil – keeping in mind our new bar might be a tad softer.
Let’s start with this first picture. What you see there is what happens when...
If you see a crack forming, uncover your soap right away. Move it to a cooler area, if practical,
or even your refrigerator. You can gently push things back together with gloved fingers or a
heavy-duty spoon or spatula.
If that doesn’t help, you can freeze your soap for several hours to firm it up enough to try
and pop it out.
Next time, try using a less water in the recipe and/or add 1 teaspoon of salt to the lye
solution.
Check your lye. Is it clumpy or well past the expiration date? If so, moisture has likely
compromised the ability to measure it out correctly and your soap is probably too heavy
in oils to firm up.
Another reason is from using too much water. Double check the recipe and make sure
you didn’t overdo the liquids.
If your soap recipe is high in “soft oils” like olive oil, sunflower oil, and so forth, it just might
need a little extra time to cure. Leave it in the mold for a few days longer and then recheck.
If your soap never firms up, you should still be able to use it. It probably won’t lather as well
and shelf life will be shorter, but try it out and see how it works for you, before giving up on it..
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