First Time Making Soap!!

So after reading about making soap on a few different sites, finally decided to give it a whirl. All as part of my 'buy as little as possible/make as much as I can' mission. Here we go!

I used the the soap calculator found here to get the correct amount of fat/water/lye. It's a pretty touchy recipe so you need to use the calculator to get the quantities right. Lye is soap language for caustic soda. You get it at the supermarket near the Draino.

I wanted to use Olive Oil and Rice Bran Oil, because these are what I had and I read that they were great for the skin. Honey and milk were also other things I wanted to use. This is the recipe I tweaked around with on the calculator.

Ellice's Milk, Honey & Oat Soap (no it's not edible!)

800g Olive Oil
200g Rice Bran Oil
430g Milk
128g Caustic Soda
4 tbs Honey
3 handfuls Quick Cooking Oats

First you have to semi-freeze the milk because when you put the lye in, it heats up and can boil if its not already really cold. Once it looks like a milk slushy, you carefully, slowly pour in the lye granules. Stir it up until it dissolves. It will heat up, most likely curdle and look like this:



Measure out the oils into a large saucepan and pour in the lye/milk mix. Hit it with a stick blender until it reaches trace. (Trace is when it thickens up and looks like custard).

At this point you can add colourings, fragrances and textures. So stir in the honey and oats until its all combined. Now you can pour it into the moulds. I used a plastic tray and some old shallow muffin trays that I don't use anymore. And this is what it looks like now:



After 2 days I can unmould it and cut it up into pieces. Then it has to cure for a month at least so it hardens up fully. No idea how I can wait that long!! I'll post pics of the final product I promise!

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OK, here we are after 2 days, and the soap has come out of the mould. It all came out in one go, and I cut it up with a sharp knife. The square ones from the tray look really interesting I think, and the little round ones from the muffin tray are cute as! The round ones have dried out alot quicker so look paler.





(top image courtesy of dkimages.com)

Warning: When mixing the lye it gives off really nasty fumes. Wear gloves and long clothing as a minimum. Treat it as you would oven cleaner. Keep the area well ventilated or mix it outside. If you get it on your skin, wash and wash and wash with cold water. Vinegar is also recommended.