How To Make Soap At Home

“I have to ask about your handmade soap recipe. How do you make soap at home? I’ve been thinking about making my own for a while (maybe also add some oat pulp that remains from making oat milk?). It would be interesting to see if there’s a minimalist and safe way to  make homemade soaps.”

Ever wondered how to make soap at home? Here’s a secret: soap making is ridiculously easy; it’s also fun! In this short-and-sweet episode I’m answering a listener’s question about how to make cold process soap in your own kitchen.

Here’s a preview:

[2:30] Essential materials and safety precautions

[7:30] How to make soap at home, step by step

[9:30] Additional ideas for making soap that’s uniquely yours

Tools needed:

• Old clothes (long sleeves) or an apron
• Goggles or safety glasses 
• Rubber or latex gloves 
• Silicone spatula or a stainless steel spoon
• Heavy duty plastic container for lye solution 
• Several measuring cups 
• A good kitchen scale 
• *Stainless steel bowl or heavy plastic (#2 or #5) bowl
• Immersion blender 
• Kitchen thermometer
• Soap mold (I have this one) 
• *note: never use glass, aluminum, or soft plastic when mixing/measuring lye.

Ingredients:

 (I buy everything from this online store)

• 3.8 ounces coconut oil
• 3.8 ounces palm kernel oil flakes
• 25.4 ounces olive oil (just buy the cheapest from the supermarket)
• 10.65 ounces water
• 4.57 ounces Lye
• 1/4c lavender essential oil, if using 

1. Pre-measure your ingredients. 
2. Melt hard oils (coconut and palm kernel oils) together in the microwave or crockpot until liquid. Add olive oil. Temperature of mixture should be around 111 degrees. Add mixed oils to a stainless steel or heavy plastic bowl; set aside.
3. Make sure you are in a well-ventilated area, then add lye to water in a stainless steel bowl. (Do not at water to lye!) Due the nature of the chemical reaction, temperature will rise to 90-100 degrees. Gently stir.
4. Slowly add lye mixture to oils. Gently stir. 
5. Use your immersion blender and gently mix for 90 to 120 seconds. You will know your mixture has saponified when there’s a trail (or “trace”) behind wherever the blender goes. The mixture will look like a thick custard. 
6. Add your optional additions, such as essential oil, coffee grinds, oatmeal, flower petals, etc. 
7. Pour mixture into one mold and set aside. Let sit for 24 hours until hard. 
8. After 24 hours, cut into 10 1-inch bars. Allow to sit in a coo, airy place for 4 weeks so it can harden. 

* Thank you to ForDays for sponsoring this week’s episode! Get 15% off with code MINIMAL15 at checkout.

* Leave a voicemail with your question and I’ll answer it on-air! Here’s how: State your name then leave the show a message at (508) 960-9046. (This new feature only works with audience participation, so don’t be shy!)

* Prefer to send an email? Reach out at MamaMinimalistBoston@gmail.com.

* Want more episodes like this one? Check out #010: Your Complete Homemade Beaty Products Template.

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