The Finished Soap with "Silk Added" - A Story in Pictures

Lye and water mixed.  Ready to Add Silk Noil. 8:08 AM

My camera automaticly records the time, so I thought it would be interesting to add it in. 

This is the Easy 2 Pounds of Soap Recipe.  I decided at the last minute to make silky soap so I added a little bit of silk noil.  Noil is the short fibers left over during combing or spinning silk.  It takes just a little piece of silk to make "silky" soap.  The silk noil is added to the lye/water mixture and is quickly dissolved.  Silk is a natural additive for soap, producing a silky bar.  I will add short captions under the pictures since you are becoming somewhat familiar with the steps of soap making.   

Oils and lye at proper temperature.  Ready to add lye to the oils. 8:48 AM

Oils are beginning to saponify. 8.51 AM

Oils are at trace stage. I used the stick blender (not pictured).   8:59 AM

9:01 AM

This is a box mold I lined with freezer paper.  The box is a used and recycled medium size flat rate priority mail box.  I cut the end off of the bottom up at the 4" level.  The box finished at 12" long X 3.5" wide X 4" high.  It is perfect for 2 pounds of soap.

9:04 AM

The soap has been poured into the mold.

9:07 AM

Mold covered with a small quilt to keep heat in.

Next morning.  6:18 AM

6:22 AM

Removed from box mold and freezer paper unfolded.

Silk Soap Log - 46.30 Ounces

Easy 2 Pounds of Soap Recipe

I call this my "Easy 2 Pounds of Soap" recipe. 
This is a nice recipe for a well-rounded balanced soap using only 3 oils.

Coconut Oil 10 ounces (283.49 grams)
Lard 10 ounces (283.49 grams)
Olive Oil 12 ounces (340.19 grams)
Distilled Water 10 ounces
Lye 4.54 ounces ( 126.84)
 Yield: 12 Bars 

Coconut Oil - Lard - Olive Oil

Distilled Water - Lye Crystals

Follow these simple steps and you will be on your way to being a good soap maker.  You will enjoy the luxury of fine, chemical free, handmade soap in all of its glycerin glory.

1. Prepare your water and lye crystals as shown in above photo.  Wearing rubber gloves and eye covering is recommended in case of spills.  The important thing is, be careful and don't spill.  Go outside in open air.  Pour lye crystals slowly into water (not the reverse).  The lye mixture will fume for a minutes and it will get somewhat hot.  Leave it to cool as you are preparing your oils.

2. Weigh your oils.  Put the coconut oil and lard in a stainless steel pot and melt on low heat.  Remove from heat and add the olive.

3. Allow your oils and your lye water to cool down to around 110 degrees, a little more or less.  I don't believe this degree is crucial.  Some people get very technical with this issue and use a thermometer.  I have not found this to be necessary. ----I am getting a little ahead, but I want to point out the thing that is important.  It is necessary to insulate your soap after it has been poured into the mold.  Placing a small blanket or the equivalent over your soap will help hold the heat which occurs during the saponification process.  Holding the heat in insures that your soap will reach "full gel".

4. Pour your lye water slowly into your oils.  You will see your oils starting to change as saponification begans.  The oils are starting to neutralize.

Stir with your wooden or plastic spoon for a minute, then use a stick blender if you have one, as this will speed up tracing tremendously.  Blend in spurts.  Blend then stir, but be careful to keep your beater under the soap at all times to keep down air bubble in the finished soap.  Wooden spoons or plastic items will need to be reserved for soap making as the lye will absorb into these materials.

5. If you don't have a blender that you want to use, you will need to stir with your spoon until your soap reaches trace.  It will take longer, sometimes much longer, but just keep stirring.  It will trace :).

6.  Pour into your mold and cover with a blanket for 10 - 12 hours.  Remove from mold and cut into bars when soap is firm to the touch.

I am showing you the results of this recipe in MMS Lye Calculator.

You can see by the record above that I took a 6.5 % lye discount value and the amount of lye necessary is 4.54 ounces (see the green column).   This means that you will have 6.5 % excess oils in your soap that will not be neutralized. 

Anytime you make a recipe of your own or use a recipe that you find in a book or that someone gives you, I can not stress how important is is that you run that recipe through a lye calculator.  You should prove before you waste good oils that your lye discount is in a good zone, not lye heavy, nor lye light.  Soap that is lye heavy will dry your skin and to the other extreme, not enough lye will cause the soap to become rancid. 

Happy soaping,

Soap Making - Know Your Lye Amount

I realize that I have posted rather extensively on this subject, however I feel the need for one more post about "lye calculating" before I leave the subject.  There are several good calculators on the internet and they will all give you the same thing, or close.  I have mentioned two calculators in previous post, the SoapCalc and the MMS.  MMS is user friendly and is mainly for just finding the amount of lye and water to use for a specific selection of oils in a recipe that you may have found on the internet, whereas the SoapCalc is more for finding soap properties, etc. and learning to create recipes on your own.

In this case, I am showing you MMS and I am using one of my easy soap recipes for an example.
It is very simple to add your amount of oils into the proper slot and then click Calculate.  This is what you will see. 

Under Liquids, you get your amount of water to be used.  You can use the low amount for quicker trace or higher number for slower trace, or go middle ground is good, even for a beginner.

You see the oils you entered in the Fats and Oils Section.  Next section is the Lye Table.  Scroll down and select a number that you choose to "Super Fat" at.  I use 6.5% but it is ok to use 6%, to be less confusing.  I would use about 5.25 ounces of lye in this recipe, (using 6.5%).  Never use less that a 5% lye discount for body and face soap.  The red area is considered the danger zone, your soap will be "lye heavy" if you are in the red area.  To super fat in the turquoise are at 9% - 10%, your soap will be too soft and worse, "too fat" and will go rancid on you, smelling bad.

For making your own laundry soap, super fat at 1%.

Soap Making Picture Tutorial - Dragon's Blood Fragrance - Red Color

Melt solid oils on low heat - Remove from heat and add liquid oils. 

List of Oils : Coconut, Palm, Palm Kernel, Olive and Canola.

Other oils can be used, but you will need a combination of several

different oils for a good balanced soap which is high in bubbles, cleansing,

creaminess, conditioning and hardness.  Some oils may be good for

 cleansing, but produces no bubbles.  Some will be good for bubbles and

cleansing, but produces no conditioning.  So you see, it is very important to

study the properties of oils.  Go Here.  Google oil properties for soap making. 

The oils and lye are ready to combine.  Each has cooled to about

100 - 110 degrees.  Some soap makers want to get the degree

precise with a thermometer.  I have not found that to be necessary. 

If you are not sure nor comfortable with that, use a thermometer.

Pouring in the oils on the back of a spoon to keep

from creating air tiny air bubbles in the finished soap.

In this photo, the oils and lye water are not blended.  The mixture has

a watery consistency.  It would take a lot of stirring with a spoon to get

a blended mix, but it can be done and trace can be reached.  A stick

blender or most any mixer will bring the oils to trace in a very short time,

even just a very few minutes, all depending upon the type oils you are using.

Oils and lye water are blended, will not separate when not

being mixed.Remember to hold the mixer beneath the soap at

all times, so as not to make air bubbles.

Light trace has been reached.  It is good not to go to a really heavy

trace.  If so, air pockets will be created in your soap as you pour into the

mold.   You will not have as smooth a pour, however your soap will still

be nice and a pleasure to use :) 

Stop right here if you do not want to use additives, such as fragrance and color.

Plain Jane natural homemade soap in all of it's glycerin glory is so very nice.

Pour the soap into your mold.  Your soap will become warm.  Cover with something like a couple of towels or a small blanket.  This is for insulating so your soap will stay warm long enough to reach a full gel.  Leave covered overnight.  The next morning you will have soap ready to cut.  Place on a rack to dry for about six weeks.   

If you would like to use fragrance and/or color, read on.

Getting Fragrance Oil Ready - How much per pound

of soap depends upon the type fragrance and your preference.

Add your fragrance at the earliest trace point or as soon as you are

certain you have your oils blended really well, no separation of oils and

water.  The importance of adding fragrance at earliest time is because

some fragrance oil speeds up reaching trace, especially floral fragrances. 

By adding fragrance at early trace, you should have plenty of time.

Add your color at early trace.  It is easy to simply add color to the

whole pot and blend well, resulting in a solid color.  Pour into your mold.

In the pictures I am showing you a sort of swirl technique.

I added my color to a little bit of soap, about 3/4 cup.

I am pouring in about one fourth of the scented soap. 

(you can see that after I added the fragrance oil, the soap is darker. 

Some fragrancesdiscolors, some do not.  Your fragrance suppliers 

usually has this information.) 

I am streaming in about one fourth of the red color.

I am using a skewer to lightly swirl the colors. 

 I repeated these last three steps four times.

Cover and wait for the saponification process to complete.

I uncovered and took a quick peek.  It has reached complete

gel stage and still warm.  See how the color has changed?  I wonder

what color it will be when it cools and complete saponification has occured?

This is what it looked like the next morning.  The soap is firm,

ready to be removed from the mold.  I cut the block into two 

pieces with a knife and now it is ready to be cut into bars. 

This is Dragon's Blood Soap

(scented with dragon's blood fragrance oil)