This one of many Basic Soap Recipes. It will give you a huge block of plain soap. From there you can cut off smaller batches to melt down and make your specialized soaps.
Ingredients (taken from
The Complete Soapmaker)
32oz blended vegetable oil or olive oil
74oz tallow
3oz cocoa butter
14oz lye*
41oz cold water
*Lye will give you a chemical burn so have a small dish of vinegar on hand incase it gets on your skin. You can neutralize it immediately rather than getting it together when your skin is frothing off. Always use gloves.
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| Container #1 |
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| Contaier #2 |
Container #1 Fats: Put the fats (oil, tallow, cocoa butter) into a big pot and melt them down.
Container #2 Lye & Water: Use a microwave safe plastic container for the lye water mixture. Add the lye to the water, not the other way around.The lye will get hot as hell, ~ 200F.
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| Basic Soap before drying |
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| Trailings |
Next: The idea is to get the fats and the lye both to between 95F-100F at the same time. It can be a bit tricky but I do this by setting the pot of fats on the counter and setting the lye solution in a cold water bath in the sink. Once they are the right temperature pour the lye into the fat, stirring constantly for what seems like a long time. Stir, stir, stir until you get trailings. Trailings are present when you can drip the mixture on top of itself and it stays for a bit. Sort of like pudding, google it if it's unclear. It can take up to 30minutes to get trailings but I usually notice them within 10-15miutes with this recipe. Pour the soap into a 12quart container (like the one you used to make tallow), wrap it in a towel and put it in a warn place for at least a day. Voila Soap!
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| Basic Soap |
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