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Happy day!
There are hundreds of recipes over the net on “how to make your own soap”. This project is designed for somebody who has never made soap before, using the cold process method. The recipe we have chosen for you, is the more simplistic and effective way we could come up with, because making soap it is really easy, creative and funny!
Different processes have different results, pros and cons. Here we focus on the cold process, which we reckon to be the best compromise in term of results, costs and efforts. Furthermore, this basic recipe can be easily integrated with your favorite fragrances, and the ingredients that best suite your skin type and needs.
SAFETY REMINDER
We advice to wear rubber gloves, goggles, long sleeves. When you are making your own soap, never use aluminum containers to mix the ingredients because will react with lay, creating toxic fumes. Moreover, always soap in a well-ventilated area.
CALCULATE YOUR INGREDIENTS
The recipe below based on the use of olive oil, which is widely available everywhere. Different oils can be used and mixed, the important consideration is that each type of oil requires different amount of lye for the saponification process. Therefore, the doses must be calculated specifically, these below refer to the use of olive oil only.
SOAP MAKING TIPS
To have a harder and longer lasting soap, you can choose to integrate some glycerin, wax or hard oils. Hard oils refers to oils that are solid at room temperature such as: palm oil, coconut oil, palm kernel flakes, etc. Our choice falls on soy wax, for his characteristic and sustainability, ideally up to the 8% of the total ingredients.
Wheatgrass and Eucalyptus Mint Bar Soap – Plant Based & Vegan
INGREDIENTS:
1 kg (35 oz) olive oil
128g (4.5 oz) lye
300g (10.6 oz) distilled water
200g (7 oz) soy wax
STEPS:
- Measure all the ingredients separately.
- Slowly, add carefully the lye to the water, and stir accurately until fully dissolved and clear Set aside to cool.
- Slowly add the lye solution to the oils and, at the same time, stir them with a spatula or spoon.
- Stir the mixture with a stick blender for several minutes until reaching the ‘’trace’’ stage. The ‘’trace’’ is the moment in soap making process when oils and lye water have emulsified, thus when the mixture looks more thick.
- Now is time to add essential oils into the soap and stir it with the spatula or spoon. You can also add dried flowers as decoration.
- Pour your soap into a mold. We recycled a milk carton container, but you can also use any mold covered with parchment paper, or a silicone mold.
- Leave the soap in the mold for at least 24 hours, wrapped somewhere protected from dust.
- Remove your soap from the mold and cut it into bars.
- Let the bars of soap cure in a dry ventilated place turning for at least 40 days.
Check out how we made our HOMEMADE ROSE SOAP!
Try to make your own natural soap and let us know how you like it!