Making your own soap can be a very creative procedure, result of thorough research and extensive experience, it can even be an art form, expressing the maker's imagination and resourcefulness but in its essence it is ridiculously easy!
I am not an expert in soap making, it is only a couple of years since my first try and since each bunch is enough for a lot of months, my experience is very limited. Actually I always make the same unscented natural soap without any fancy ingredients but it is so easy that I have to tell you:
ANYONE CAN DO IT!!!
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
For those that don't know me I am an organic farmer and I produce extra virgin olive oil. Every autumn I clean the tank in which I save it and I use the sediment at the bottom for making my soap but you can use any kind you can find, even used frying oil will do! A small quantity of coconut oil makes the soap more foamy, too!
The first step is to heat your oil at 40 - 50 °C (104 - 122 °F), I do that in a pot.
Then in a plastic container we put the water and the sodium hydroxide. A little caution there, it is not known as caustic soda for no reason. It should never touch your skin or any metal utensil. The temperature of the solution will get very high and you'll have to set it aside to cool.
Once the oil in the pot and the solution in the container have the same temperature, around 40°C (104°F) we throw them in a bucket, first the oil and then the sodium hydroxide solution.
Now you'll need something το stir the mix until it thickens. I use a drill but for small quantities a stick blender from your kitchen will be OK.
It may take some time but don't worry. Even if it doesn't become very thick, you'll still have your soap!
The next thing you'll need is one or more molds. I keep plastic cups from yogurt or any other packaging. That way I give them one more use before they end up into the recycle bin!
Two or three days later should be ready to get out of the molds. At this point the soap is thick enough to stand on its own and soft enough to be cut with a knife. Which brings us to the fun part of cutting the soap bars!
The last step may be the hardest one for those of you that are a little bit impatient. A few days after cutting it, the soap will be hard enough and potentially usable but you should leave it to rest for 3 months before you start bathing with it :)
That period of time is necessary to ensure that the soap's ph will be completely skin friendly!
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
Commenting, upvoting and resteeming are highly appreciated!