A few weeks ago, I decided I’d like to try making my own soap.  My grandmother has made it several times, and I helped my sister make it once.  I was familiar with the process, then, and thought it would be a fun project.  So last week, a friend of mine came over while our husbands were golfing, and we made lye soap (or at least, our first attempt at it).

We used the easy shea butter cold press recipe from this site.  We added some tangerine essential oil for scent and some orange crayon for color.  (I don’t know if that’s an accepted practice in soap making, but my grandmother had done it once, and it turned out okay, so that was good enough for me.)

I think I was too impatient, though, with the stirring.  I didn’t stir the soap long enough (letting it get to the “trace” point) before I put it into the trays/molds, so when I popped the soap out of the trays, I discovered that it had separated some.  The layered effect might have been nice if it was just a visual layering, but some of the oils (including, I think, the shea butter) had risen to the top layer, so that the top was too oily/greasy to be a soap.

I scraped off the top layer (and smoothed out the edges a bit), and wound up with “acceptable” soap.  I’ve used it a couple times, and it works fine, but it’s not the smooth, moisturizing soap I was after, since so many of the good oils had separated out.  If you’re interested in trying it, yourself, here are some directions:

Ingredients:

Coconut Oil 16 oz.
Olive Oil 18 oz.
Palm Oil 16 oz.
Shea Butter 4 oz.
Tallow 16 oz. (I used shortening)
Totals 70 oz.
5% Superfatted Lye Amount 9.815 oz.
Ounces of water recommended 23.100 oz.

Start with a pyrex or stainless steel container with the water in it.  Wearing gloves and goggles, slowly pour the lye into the water while stirring.  The lye solution will get very hot (over 200 degrees).  After the lye all appears to be dissolved, heat your oils/fats in a large stainless pot on the stove until they are all melted.  Remove from heat.  Put a thermometer in your lye solution and one in your oil solution.  You want them to equalize in temperature around 115 degrees.  If the lye is still much warmer than the oil, you can set the lye container in an ice bath (and vice versa, if the lye has cooled below the temperature of the oils, you can set the oil pot in an ice bath).  When both mixtures are at about 115 degrees, slowly pour the lye mixture into the oil mixture while stirring.  Stir the combined mixture until a trace forms behind the spoon (or when you lift the spoon out, the drizzle from the spoon sits on top of the mixture momentarily before sinking back in).  At this point you can add your essential oil, coloring, or any other additives (orange zest, lavander, etc.) if you choose.  Then carefully ladle the mixture into molds or trays to set up.  It will likely take 24-72 hours to set up completely.  Remove from the molds and enjoy your homemade soap!