Soap
Processes
Making soap is about doing a chemical process called [Saponification|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponification].
There are two processes as far as I can tell
- (naoh+water) + oil -> mold @ 100F - 110F
- (naoh+water) + oil, stir, then add salt -> hard stuf comes to the top (gycern in the bottom bit with the water). The hard stuff is the bar of soap.
I need to flesh this out a bit more. It looks like you get bars in the first process, but where does the gycerin go?
And to make gycerin soap you need to make soap to make the gycerin so huh?
Instructions
Basic Soap Making Instructions
- While wearing safety goggles and neoprene gloves, combine solid lye and water, stir well. Set aside and allow to cool (100° F to 125° F). This is best done outside while you are standing upwind.
- Combine oils and heat gently. Once the fats and oils are melted allow the temperature to drop to 100° F to 125° F.
- Combine lye solution and melted oils. Be careful not to splash while combining the mixtures. Stir until the mixture traces. If tracing takes more than 15 minutes, which it often does, stir for the first 15 minutes, then stir for 5 minutes at 15 minute intervals. Tracing looks like a slightly thickened custard, not instant pudding but a cooked custard. It will support a drop, or your stir marks for several seconds. Once tracing occurs...
- Pour raw soap into your prepared molds. After a few days the soap can be turned out of the mold. If the soap is very soft, allow it to cure for a few days to firm the outside.
- Cut soap into bars and set the bars out to cure and dry. This will allow the bar to firm and finish saponification. Place the bars on something that will allow them to breathe.
Equipment
- 2 Old pots - 2$
- Digital Thermometer - 12$
- Digital Scale - 28$
- plastic containers - free - used containers from other stuff , yogurt, wood putty
- Goggles , Safety Glasses, Apron
- hand mixer, eg braun hand mixer (10$ at value village). I tried to do this by hand and the mix was unreliable. The hand mixer is a must have. It just changes the quality of your work. Everything comes out smoother ( if frothy ).
Gallery of moulds
-
pavoflex home edition, picked up in NYC for 10$ USD on sale
-
putty box
-
silicone muffin
-
packages for: tofu brie applesauce
Consumed
- olive oil - 3 litre - 11$ - grocery store
- lye ( sodium hydroxide - NaOH ) - 3kg - 22$ - hardware store
Oils
hard soft butter all types, why do I want one over another?
- Olive oil - lower environmental impact, no habitat destruction, sustainable operations. Softer soaps.
- Coconut oil - less habitat destruction , labour concerns, danger pay , child labour. imparts hardness + lather
- Palm oil - lots of habitat destruction. imparts hardness and lather.
Tough decisions.
Scents
- patchouli
- ginger root
- vetiver essential oil - no clue what this is , yet.
- citrus
- lemon lime orange grapefruit madarine tangerine - extraction? zest? rind? oils?
- dried fruit?
- apricot cranberry raisins figs
- honey
- oats
- bacon
- Herbs
- lavender, sage, thyme, rosemary, basil , mint ,
- avacado
- chillies
- vanilla
- trees
- juniper and fir pine
- cinnamon
- anise - like licorice
- sandal wood - expensive
Resources
Abrasives
- salt
- sugar
- walnut shells
- corn meal
- ground luffa
Unit notes
- 1 ounce = 28.3495231 grams
- convert KOH Sap value to NaOH Spa values by dividing by 1.403 ( it's the ratio of the molecular weights , see note below )
My Recipes
Not stuff I created ,but stuff I have done or will do.
Used http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp for calculations
Roughly
fat + base ( NaOh or KOH ) = Fatty Acids + Glycerol i.e. soap
100% olive oil take 1
ingredients:
| Ingredient | Grams |
| Water | 190 |
| Lye - NaOH | 66.381 |
| Olive Oil | 500 |
| Total oil weight | 500 |
| Water as percent of oil weight | 38 % |
| Super Fat/Discount | 2 % |
| Lye Concentration | 25.892 % |
| Water : Lye Ratio | 2.862:1 |
| Sat : Unsat Ratio | 17 : 83 |
| Iodine | 85 |
| INS | 105 |
| Fragrance Ratio | 0 |
| Fragrance Weight | 0 Gm |
| Ingredient | Pounds | Ounces | Grams |
| Water | 0.419 | 6.702 | 190 |
| Lye - NaOH | 0.146 | 2.342 | 66.381 |
| # | √ | Oil/Fat | % | Pounds | Ounces | Grams |
| 1 | Olive Oil | 100 | 1.102 | 17.637 | 500 | |
| Totals | 100 | 1.102 | 17.637 | 500 |
| Soap Bar Quality | Suggested Range | Your Recipe |
| Hardness | 29 - 54 | 17 |
| Cleansing | 12 - 22 | 0 |
| Conditioning | 44 - 69 | 82 |
| Bubbly | 14 - 46 | 0 |
| Creamy | 16 - 48 | 17 |
| Iodine | 41 - 70 | 85 |
| INS | 136 - 165 | 105 |
| Lauric | 0 |
| Myristic | 0 |
| Palmitic | 14 |
| Stearic | 3 |
| Ricinoleic | 0 |
| Oleic | 69 |
| Linoleic | 12 |
| Linolenic | 1 |
So I was unable to disolve al lthe lye , so added more water until I could get all the lye dissolved. Now I have a spongy caustic soap. Next step: create troubleshooting section , see below.
I've tried this recipe a couple of times and it's starting to work. I believe that the reason why it didn't work the first time was due to poor mixing. The first couple of times I tried this recipe I mixes by hand with a spoon. In later attempts I used an electric hand mixer and got much better results.
100% Coconut oil take 1
calculated at https://www.thesage.com/calcs/LyeCalc.html
- water: 125 to 188 milliliters of liquid.
- coconut oil: 500 grams ( 1/2 KG )
naoh:
| % excess fat | Lye Amount (grams) |
|---|---|
| 0 | 91.96 |
| 1 | 91.04 |
| 2 | 90.12 |
| 3 | 89.21 |
| 4 | 88.29 |
| 5 | 87.37 |
| 6 | 86.45 |
| 7 | 85.53 |
| 8 | 84.61 |
| 9 | 83.69 |
| 10 | 82.77 |
I will be going with a 5% superfat ( 87.37 grams of NaOH )
Results so far
- worked out really smooth. Stiffened up quickly.
- I did the saponification test easy peasey. But I felt that the soap was too hot for fragrance, so I let it sit over night. Then I used the microwave to remelt. I used several 30 second burts wathcing closely. In fact at about 15 second it was bubbling over. I would stop the microwave , give it a stir , wait a couple of seconds and hit it again for 15 seconds. After 6 rounds or so, the soap was melted, it was about 125 degrees celcius, still pretty hot for fragrance as far as I was concerned, but I had to give it a try.
- To one bar I added no fragrance.
- To three bars I added orange extract.
- To 4 bars I added a mixed of ground dried juniper berries ( about 2 tables spoons ) and some clove ( about 8 flowers ).
- I used silicone muffin trays.
66% coconut + 33% olive oil
- this was my first attempt using essential oils ( 15 ml ) of bergamont.
- Officially the calculator called for 23 grams , roughly 23 ml. but "wut evs"
| ' | Grams |
| Water | 285 |
| Lye - NaOH | 118.99 |
| Coconut Oil | 495 |
| Olive Oils | 255 |
| Total Oils | 750 |
| Fragrance | 23.25 |
| Soap weight before CP cure or HP cook | 1177.24 |
some stats:
| Total oil weight | 750 g | Sat : Unsat Ratio | 62:38:00 |
| Water as percent of oil weight | 38.00% | Iodine | 36 |
| Super Fat/Discount | 5% | INS | 206 |
| Lye Concentration | 29.45% | Fragrance Ratio | 31 |
| Water : Lye Ratio | 2.3952:1 | Fragrance Weight | 23.25 g |
75% coconut + 25% olive oil
| ' | Grams |
| Water | 250 |
| Lye - NaOH | 108 |
| Coconut Oil | 500 |
| Olive Oils | 166.5 |
| Total Oils | 666.5 |
| Fragrance | ~15gm |
| Soap weight before CP cure or HP cook | 1046.75 |
some stats:
| Total oil weight | 666.5 g | Sat : Unsat Ratio | ? |
| Water as percent of oil weight | 37.00% | Iodine | 36 |
| Super Fat/Discount | 5% | INS | ? |
75% coconut + 25% olive oil TAKE II
June 2018
ref: https://www.thesage.com/calcs/LyeCalc.html
Basics
- 860 coconut oil
- 286 olive oil
- NaOh - see grams in chart below.
- Water - 286 to 430 milliliters of liquid. †
† Amanda Gail - Indicates that with oils that yield software soap ( like olive oil ) she errs on the side of a water discount to ensure a harder cure sooner. I think I'mma go with 430 which is 150% of lye weight. Wish me luck :P
update David (talk) 14:14, 26 June 2018 (UTC) So far so good, it's cured overnight.
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Lye Table (NaOH)
% excess fat Lye Amount (grams) 0 196.92 1 194.95 2 192.98 3 191.01 4 189.04 5 187.07 6 185.10 7 183.13 8 181.16 9 179.19 10 177.23
2018 Dec 7th Work
plan:
- 4 batches
- Adding some sunflower oil to the basic olive oil I've been doing so far.
- flavours
- orange extract
- Lemon extract
- cinnamon - 2 x tablespoon
- cloves
- Cranberry Hibiscus tea
- Anise extract
- Lemongrass tea
- juniper Berries
I used the internet to figure out how much flavours to add. They are estimates based on what I read on various web pages. Based on my 500 g of oil recipe.
This page http://www.humblebeeandme.com/cinnamon-oatmeal-soap/ indicates 30g of EO ( Essential Oil ) per 500g of oil. so that sounds about right.
| ' | ' | olive oil | ' | Sunflower | ' | Coconut oil | ' | ' | ||
| Batch | total grams | percent | grams | percent | grams | percent | grams | Total percent | Aroma/Flavour/Scent | Grams of Lye (@ 5% superfat) |
| 1 | 500.00 | 0.80 | 400.00 | 0.20 | 100.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | Christmas Blend | 64.44 |
| 2 | 500.00 | 0.50 | 250.00 | 0.50 | 250.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1.00 | Christmas Blend | 64.59 |
| 3 | 500.00 | 0.90 | 450.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.10 | 50.00 | 1.00 | nothing | 66.64 |
| 4 | 500.00 | 0.80 | 400.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.20 | 100.00 | 1.00 | nothing | 68.94 |
Grams of lye calculated here: https://www.thesage.com/calcs/LyeCalc.html
Mls of water: 125 - 188
Christmas Blend is 1 Tablespoon of Ground cloves, 2 tablespoons of Orange Extract.
---
I ended up making 2 of these batches and ran out of time. Additionally none of the fragrances worked. They all "cooked off". The resulting soap has no fragrance. Again added the fragrance when it was too hot.
2019 April 6th - 1kg Olive Oil, 500ml Coconut
- Largest Batch to date, 216 g of lye.
- Added lots of ends from previous batches ( 500 mil / 2 cups worth )
Pounds Ounces Grams Water 1.257 20.11 570.00 Lye - NaOH 0.477 7.63 216.19 Oils 3.307 52.91 1,500.00 Fragrance 0.103 1.64 46.50 Total 5.143 82.28 2,332.69
Oil/Fat % Pounds Ounces Grams Coconut Oil 34.00 1.124 17.99 510.00 Olive Oil 66.00 2.183 34.92 990.00 Totals 100.00 3.307 52.91 1,500.00
Soap Bar Quality Normal Range This Recipe Hardness 29 - 54 38 Cleansing 12 - 22 23 Conditioning 44 - 69 58 Bubbly 14 - 46 23 Creamy 16 - 48 15 Iodine 41 - 70 60 INS 136 - 165 157
Fragrance
A little bit of Lemongrass, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, and a fair portion of orange extract.
Notes
The Lye would not dissolve on it's own so I heated it up a bit on the stove. I also heated up the oil to get the coconut oil to melt. Other than that, pretty straight-forward pour.
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2020 Jan 6th - 1.5kg Canola, 500 ml Coconut
Grams Water 760.00 Lye - NaOH 276.02 Oils 2,000.00
Soap Bar Quality Range Your Recipe Hardness 29 - 54 24 Cleansing 12 - 22 17 Conditioning 44 - 69 71 Bubbly 14 - 46 17 Creamy 16 - 48 8 Iodine 41 - 70 85 INS 136 - 165 107
Jan 3rd 2022
Finally ran out of soap and need to make more.
Plan: Hot process , spare coconut , spare vegetable shortening.
calcumator: https://www.the-sage.com/lyecalc/
275 to 412 milliliters of water.
| Fat | Amount (grams) |
% in recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Coconut Oil, Virgin | 370 | 33.64 |
| Olive Oil | 500 | 45.45 |
| Soybean Oil | 230 | 20.91 |
| Total Weight | 1100 |
Lye Table:
| % excess fat | Lye Amount (grams) |
|---|---|
| 0 | 166.93 |
| 1 | 165.26 |
| 2 | 163.59 |
| 3 | 161.92 |
| 4 | 160.26 |
| 5 | 158.59 |
| 6 | 156.92 |
| 7 | 155.25 |
| 8 | 153.58 |
| 9 | 151.91 |
| 10 | 150.24 |
Lessons Learned / Gotchas
- Do NOT use aluminium pots for the work. Lye reacts with aluminium.
- "Braun like" hand mixers make mixing less work and more effective.
- Batches made with the mixer are smoother in consistency, and took shorter time to get to the end of the reaction. ( google "braun hand mixer" )
- Value village / Facebook / Kajiji - it's possible to get a cheap second hand unit.
On Scents
I've made a couple of batches of soap now and I'm getting a feel for the chemical reaction, so I'm spending more time thinking about scents.
In a couple of test batches I've put citrus rind in, both Lemon and Orange. Both of which did not work quite as expected. I put the rinds in after making the soap, before I poured it in a mould. I think this is a problem. Two factors I think destroyed the scents. One , the reaction is still going on. This means that there is unreacted NaOH reacting with the scent, rather than with the oil. Two, the temperature is high and that can destroy the scents. The results is that I get a bit of "grit" in the soap, which is not totally undesirable, but more importantly the scent is not there.
So, what to do? I've a different approach. I make the soap sans parfum, let it set, cut it, let it cure. Then I take it to a cheese grater and mix it with the scent and melt it in a double boiler. This addresses the two issues: Once the soap has cured it should not be reacting any more, and the double boiler keeps the heat to a minimum. The soap takes a while to melt using the double boiler method, but it seems to have worked. I tried this with thyme and I have a bar of soap that smells like thyme.
Interesting to note that the colour of the soap changes with the addition of rind , slightly yellowing.
Here are three recent samples. The Bare soap is completely without scent and very white. The soap with the rind has yellow streaks and has a very mild aroma, not clearly citrus. And the Thyme which turned out well, and smelling as expected.
Next up:
- Lemon
- lime
- rosemary
- rosemay + lavender ( http://www.sironasprings.com/product/provence )
Lemon
Tried lemon rind, poor results. Regardless if I added right after mixing ( while hot , bad ! ) , or if I added it after cooling.
The effect was very minimal.
Lavender
Just adding bud was nice and mild effect but left problematic "bits" in the soap.
I soak buds in vodka for a couple of days in a jar, which got me a brown vodka and lots of good smells coming from the liquid, but still the effect was minimal. My mom who HATES lavender could not place the smell it was so weak.
Essential Oils
Finally took the plunge and spent money on essential oils. First up Bergamot, and next GrapeFruit . I've just poured my first batch with bergamot. Will be a couple of weeks before I can tell if it's good. So far it _does_ smell, we'll see if it lasts. David (talk) 04:41, 15 August 2016 (UTC)
---
Late Sunday night I cracked open my soap making box and whipped up a new recipe: 66% coconut oil 33% olive oil and 15 ml of bergamot. I have been doing soap for a couple of years and mostly dabbled in types of oils and how they affect soap qualities. I struggle with the fragrance part. I have tried several "home grown" experiments with lemon rind, lavender buds, sage oil, mint leaves. All of which failed miserably. Last month I finally sprung for some proper essential oils as the Internet indicated one would use. I picked up 15ml of grapefruit ( 27.33$ )and 15ml of bergamot ( 46.67$ ) from dōTERRA . I decided to go with bergamot for this run. I did the math and the recipe came out to 23 ml of fragrance. I only had a 15ml bottle, but that was close enough for me. Things went really well. I have a smooth creamy soap that actually smells good. I dumped the whole bottle of bergamot in. It set OK after 24 hours. Not super hard like all my 100% coconut runs would, But I'm not too worried. To spite the hot weather I decided to run the batch at a low temperature, forcibly cooling the naoh solution down in an ice bath. Now we wait for the soap to properly cure. Which I don't expect to happen quickly in this heat / humidity. David (talk) 16:09, 1 September 2016 (UTC) - see [#66.25_coconut_.2B_33.25_olive_oil]] above.
Advanced topics
Glycerin
At the time of writing this section , all of the soaps mentioned here do note remove the produced glycerin from the resulting soap.
There are two side effects of this. One, the soap will tend to try and draw moisture from the air and be softer when it does. Glycerin is a "humectant" also called "hygroscopic". Additionally
- Salt, Sugar, and Sodium Lactate in Soap
- https://countrysidenetwork.com/daily/lifestyle/soap-making/salt-sugar-and-sodium-lactate-in-soap/
- Removing glycerin from CP
- https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/removing-glycerin-from-cp.16952/
- Tips on Making Clear Glycerin Soap
- http://www.millersoap.com/glycerinsoap.html
- How to Make A Clear and Natural Glycerin Soap Base
- https://www.diynatural.com/how-to-make-glycerin-soap-base-recipe/
- Making Transparent Soap
- http://www.bearchele.com/soap/Tutorial.html
- All That Glycerol - Author
- Kevin Dunn - Monday, September 18, 2017
- https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/handmade101/learn-to-make-articles/all-that-glycerol.aspx
Resources
- http://www.susanparks.com/soapworks/soapworks.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycerol
- NaCl - Salt
- NaOH
- KOH
- The Soap Making Forums
- Grams of lye for Grams of fat X http://www.thesage.com/catalog/FixedOil.html#Beeswax
- Lye Calculator™ https://www.thesage.com/calcs/LyeCalc.html
- Thread about making NaOH http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=5673
- A great Piece on "Sap Values" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponification_values
- Handmade soap makers who aim for bar soap use NaOH (sodium hydroxide). Because saponification values are listed in KOH (potassium hydroxide) the value must be converted from potassium to sodium to make bar soap; potassium soaps make a paste, gel or liquid soap. To convert KOH values to NaOH values, divide the KOH values by the ratio of the molecular weights of KOH and NaOH (1.403).
- http://www.teachsoap.com/ - lots of recipes
- http://thesoapbar.blogspot.com/2008/07/salt-soap-tutorial-by-ladybug-soapworks.html salt soap bar
- http://www.soap-making-essentials.com/soap-recipe-salt-soap.html
- Processes http://www.soap-making-essentials.com/how-to-make-soap.html
- http://www.soap-making-essentials.com/how-to-make-soap.html - all the different process side by side for easy reading.
- All sorts of supporting articles and recipes: http://www.humblebeeandme.com/
Troubleshooting
