If you love natural soap, then making your own soap is the next step. A whole new field for experimentation and creativity. Well, it needs some organization and attention, but it is a quite easy process for everyone to do.
I have a very sensitive skin and a very sensitive nose, which mean that I am very careful with the products that I use. Skin is the largest organ of our body and pretty much anything that comes in contact with it, it is absorbed through it - from air pollution to the products we apply on it. Keeping that in mind it is almost impossible to use any chemicals on our skin again, right?
It is ideal for any type of skin, kind and gentle for the sensitive ones, hydrating for the dry ones. And it doesn't have to be boring, botanical dyes, herbal extracts, clays or seeds, there are unlimited ways to enrich a soap, just needs some good will for experimentation :)
I like simple natural stuff, so these days I made a soap with chamomile and turmeric. All my soaps are made with organic olive oil and by using the cold process.
For a more detailed description you can see this post by @fotostef!
Being organized before you start will make things easier. I was a bit unfocused this time and managed to create a big mess. I also had a small burn, but this is not going to happen to you, that's why we will start with safety first :)
Long sleeves and plastic gloves.
Ideally outdoors or at least close to a door or window. Some chemical reactions are going to happen and we must not inhale that smoke.
Anything you use to make a soap, you will never again use it in your kitchen to make food.
Plastic buckets and wooden or silicon tools.
The ingredients are simple, but you have to be very accurate when measuring them:
olive oil
sodium hydroxite, known as caustic soda (NaOH)
distilled water
The basic recipe goes like that:
1000 gr (35,3 oz) oils - fats
300 gr (10,6 oz) distilled water
130 gr (4,6 oz) sodium hydroxide
Anything else is optional.
I used chamomile extract (in distilled water) and added some almond oil as well.
A thermometer, a (digital) scale as accurate as possible, buckets and something to mix it all together. Although I have a rubbish scale that I can't rely on, I have the strongest stirrer :)
Basic stuff!
Add slowly the caustic soda to the water, NEVER the opposite. And stir.
Keep your face away from this bucket, cause some magic happens here, the temperature can get up to 90°C and the smoke coming up is not good to inhale :)
Warm the olive oil. We need both caustic soda water and olive oil to be roughly at the same temperature (30-50°C) before we mix them.
When we achieve the same temperature for both, we put the olive oil in a bucket and then add the caustic soda to the olive oil, NEVER the opposite.
And some more magic will start happening!
Mix until the point where you reach a light trace, as you can see at the second photo below.
It usually takes a few minutes, this time it was almost instant and I was not well prepared for that. I forgot to add the almond oil, which I did at the very end. You normally add it when the trace begins.
I created a chaos with the turmeric, but it all ended up well!
And I had forgotten to cover my brand new wooden mold, while the soap was getting thick in no time...
A layer of turmeric...
And then the rest of it. Filling some plastic molds as well!
Today (after two days) I took them off the molds and cut them. The whole house smells soap and they look... delicious!
Cutting them is my favorite part!
They will now rest on the closet (covered to be protected from dust) for at least 2 months. I usually leave them for 3 months or even more. The more you let it rest, the soap will be gentler for your skin as it becomes less and less caustic.
And it might sound a bit unorthodox, but since the scent of fresh soap has filled the house and their beautiful color has brightened my day, it will all make it a #SublimeSunday hosted by @c0ff33a , as well as a very #beautifulsunday hosted by @ace108.
Make sure you put something nice on your skin today!
If you would like to know more about me this is my introduction post.