Soap!

[xenia]

Does anyone like to make soap? Using fats, oils and lye? I would like to share soap recipes. My last batch turned out kinda rough and I could use some pointers.

Also, does anyone know of a inexpensive source for beeswax?

Thank you.

-Xenia

 

[lucypevensie]

I made some soap a few years ago and had a lot of fun with it. I just used some premade vegetable based cubes that I melted in the microwave and added essential oils and colors and stuff like dried herbs, cocoa butter, loofah, orange peel, a bunch of stuff.

I'd be interested to know how to make soap without having to buy more of those cubes.

 

[xenia]

Hi Lucy,

I have never tried making soap using the cubes... is that glycerin soap?

When you make soap using fats and lye, you have to be very careful (no little kids around) because the lye (Drano) gets very hot when you mix it with water and bubbles up alarmingly. In my last batch I used lard, olive oil, coconut oil and lye. The soap set up nicely and is a pale green color. Smells a little lardy, though.

-Xenia

 

[lucypevensie]

I'm not sure if it was true glycerin or not. I had a choice between glycerin cubes and vegetable-based cubes. I don't know what the difference is, or if there is a difference.

Would the lard smell be masked by using essential oils?

What do you use the soaps for?

 

[xenia]

Hi Lucy,

I have tried using essential oils. While I'm making the soap, the kitchen smells wonderful! But as my soap hardens, the rose or lavender smell goes away and the ol' lardy smell grows ever stronger.

I had thought to give this year's batch away as Christmas presents, but things didn't turn out as pretty or as aromatic as I had hoped. My plan was to knit everyone a cotton wash cloth that matched the soap and tie it up with some raffia and wild flowers. It would have been pretty if it had all worked out! I'll just use the soap in the bathroom now. I think I have enough to last a while!

I don't know the difference between glycerin or vegetable based soap cubes either.

-Xenia

 

[GodFreak43]

I love to!

 

[Wonder]

Hi I make soap quite often. I still have batches that mess up every now and then. I use the lye and oils, but I use the hot process method. That is using a double broiler after the soap traces to cook the lye to where you can use the soap that night. Also the essiential oils are put in the soap right before you pour it into the molds. One more thing, do you think you can help me with the colorants. I mean I try to make a blue soap and it comes out red. My brown came out purple. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[ShetlandRose]

Hi! When I was growing up we always made our own soap; it was used for laundry soap however. My grandmother raised me and we would render saved fat and use lye. Then on laundry day we shaved the soap (after it had aged sufficiently) into a round tub wringer washer. I know this makes me sound ancient, but my grandmother just never got rid of her wringer washer and it would not die.

A few years ago, in a very nostalgic moment, I decided to try making soap again. Didn't need a recipe, for it was branded into my mind. It turned out terrible and the consistency of loose mush. I wondered if it was the lye--maybe it isn't made like it used to be years ago?

You all know not to get lye anywhere near aluminum, don't you? And you wouldn't think of pouring the hot soap into an aluminum pan, right? Chemical reaction BIG TIME -- like KABOOM!

Blessings. Enjoy your soap.

ShetlandRose