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    Basic Soap Making: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started
    Basic Soap Making: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started
    Basic Soap Making: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started
    Ebook433 pages49 minutes

    Basic Soap Making: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started

    By Elizabeth Letcavage and Patsy Buck

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Hundreds of step-by-step, full-color photographs illustrate exactly how to make cold-process soap. Instructions on molding soap, cutting bars, creating original recipes, packaging gifts, and more. Includes a chapter on constructing a soap mold, liner, and cutter at home.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStackpole Books
    Release dateSep 15, 2009
    ISBN9780811740968
    Basic Soap Making: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started

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      Book preview

      Basic Soap Making - Elizabeth Letcavage

      Buck

      Introduction

      Abar of cold process soap isn’t fancy. It has an old-fashioned look, similar to something the American colonists or pioneers would have used. And indeed, they did.

      The procedures for making this type of soap haven’t changed much over the centuries. The process starts with a lye and water solution that is added to a combination of liquid oils, solid oils, fats, and/or butters. Some of the liquid oils used include canola, corn, olive, peanut, and safflower. Solid oils are coconut and palm. Fats are lard and tallow. Butter options include cocoa and shea.

      Each oil contributes different properties to the soap. For example, coconut oil creates a hard bar with a hearty lather. Olive oil makes for a stable lather and a soap that conditions the skin. Cocoa butter makes a firm conditioning bar with a stable lather. The charts in the soap recipes chapter show the beneficial properties of the various oils and butters.

      Oils become soap when combined with lye and water through a process called saponification. Lye is the chemical sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Great care is essential when handling lye, a caustic alkali that can burn skin and cause blindness. Please read the safe-handling information on page 8 before starting your soap-making project.

      When lye is added to water, it becomes very hot. The solution is allowed to cool and then added to the oils. This mixture is stirred until it thickens but can still be poured out of the container. This is called stirring until trace.

      Knowing the point at which trace is reached is perhaps the trickiest part of soap making and is learned through practice. Understirring the soap mixture may result in liquid pockets of lye in the bar. Overstirring causes the mixture to become very thick and unpourable.

      The recipes in this book will yield lightly scented, natural-colored bars that cleanse the skin well yet are gentle enough for your hands, face, and body. Although not necessary to achieve a fine finished product, added scents, colors, and botanicals can spice up your bars. Chapter 3 on soap additives will guide you through this process.

      With or without additives, you will pour the soap into a mold. To enable the raw soap to cure, you will put it to bed by covering the mold with wood or cardboard and wrapping it in towels or old blankets.

      After twenty-four hours, the soap can be safely handled. It is then removed from the mold and cut into bars. The bars are placed in open air for about a month to dry and cure.

      Before commercial soap manufacturers started mass-producing soap, handmade cold process soap was a necessity. Today, it’s a luxury. You can make your soap without the chemical additives of store-bought soap. You can make it to suit your skin type and cleansing needs. You can select from an array of colors and fragrances or choose to add none at all.

      Handmade soap also serves as an unusual yet practical gift that friends and family will appreciate. Chapter 4 illustrates how to rebatch your soap into fun, fancy shapes. Chapter 6 offers ideas for packaging your soap for gift giving.

      Once a necessary household chore, making soap at home has been transformed into a relaxing craft that involves many creative options. Enjoy!

      1

      Basic Equipment and Ingredients

      Chances are that you have most of the equipment you need to make soap right around the house. The equipment and ingredients you don’t have are easily found in grocery stores or online. As you gain experience making cold process soap, you might want to make your own wooden mold, mold liner, and soap cutter. Instructions for doing so are included in chapter 7. In the meantime, easy-to-find alternatives will work almost as well.

      Equipment

      PLASTIC OR GLASS BOWLS

      Use a 1½-quart heavy-weight plastic mixing bowl or a 4-quart heat-safe glass measuring cup with a handle to make one batch of soap.

      PLASTIC OR GLASS CONTAINERS

      A variety of 1-quart freezer-weight plastic or 2-cup heat-safe glass measuring cups work well to measure and hold soap-making ingredients until they are mixed. Aluminum containers are not to be used, as they will react with the lye.

      THERMOMETER

      To precisely measure the temperature of the lye and water solution, you will need a thermometer. A candy-making thermometer is not costly and is available at kitchen shops, grocery stores, and craft stores. For safety’s sake, it’s best to dedicate this tool to soap making.

      COFFEE GRINDER OR MORTAR AND PESTLE

      The fast way to prepare soap additives such as oatmeal is to use an electric coffee grinder. A mortar and pestle work just as well to grind dry ingredients—it just takes a little longer to do it by hand.

      SCALE

      Almost all soap-making ingredient measurements are by weight, not volume. To make a single batch of soap, a small spring scale will suffice for measuring out ingredients. For larger batches, you might want to purchase a counterbalance or electronic scale that can measure heavier weights. Scales are found in kitchen shops or in the kitchen sections of department and discount stores.

      IMMERSION BLENDER (OPTIONAL)

      Also called a stick blender, this tool will substantially speed up the process of mixing ingredients. Many experienced soap makers use immersion blenders instead of hand stirrers. Be careful to use only immersion blenders that do not have aluminum shafts or blades—check the packaging to determine if yours does.

      SOAP MOLDS

      Any nonaluminum container that will produce a rectangular log can be used. The basic soap recipes in this book are calculated to fill a 3½-inch wide, 6-inch long, 2½-inch deep mold. Suitably sized plastic food containers or cardboard boxes lined with freezer-weight plastic bags work well, too. (Instructions for making a wooden mold and mold liner are offered in chapter 7.)

      STIRRER FOR SOAP

      If you choose to

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