Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Soap isn't nearly as difficult to make as you might think. I've known several people who were intimidated by the idea of making their own bath and beauty products. They assumed there would be a steep learning curve.
In reality, just about anyone can learn how to make soap. Now if you want to make really fancy soaps that look like little flowers and smell like lavender, or if you want to make soap from fat and ashes, then yes, you'll have to spend some time learning and practicing.
But if you just want some ordinary old-fashioned bar soap, you can make some right now with just three ingredients. In this video, Brad from Big Family Homestead explains how to do it. Here are the three ingredients:
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- 8 ounces of filtered water
- 22 ounces of coconut oil
- 2.8 ounces of lye
And here are a few things you'll need (in the order that you'll need them):
- A regular pot for melting the coconut oil
- A cooking thermometer
- Rubber gloves so the lye doesn't burn you
- A stainless steel pot for the lye and water
- A wooden spoon
- A stick blender (optional)
- Plastic tray (to use as a mold)
One other thing you may want to keep on hand in a bottle of white disilled vinegar. If you get lye on your skin, it will burn you, but vinegar will immediately neutralize it.
Here's how to make soap:
1. Melt the coconut oil on the stove. Get it between 100 and 120 degrees F and keep it there until you need it.
2. Put on your rubber gloves, then add the water and the lye to the stainless steel pot. Mix until the lye is completely dissolved.
WARNING: This will cause a chemical reaction that makes the water heat up, and the resulting fumes can harm your lungs, so be sure you do this in a well-ventilated area.
3. Wait until the lye/water mixture cools down to between 100 and 120 degrees F. Then pour the coconut oil into the mixture.
WARNING: Be very careful because if you splash the lye onto your skin, it will burn you.
4. Mix everything together with the wooden spoon. As you do this, it will begin to saponify. It will be about 20 minutes before the mixture is ready for the mold. To cut that down to 5 minutes, use a stick blender.
5. Once it's nice and thick like pudding, it's ready. Pour it into the mold.
6. Wait 24 hours, then pop it out of the mold and cut it into bars. But before you use it, you need to let it sit and cure for 30 days. That's how long it takes before the chemical process is complete. After that, your soap is ready to use.
Watch the video below to learn more and see it done.
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Can you use a different oil? I’m concerned about coconut oil which is expensive and not very ecologically friendly.
yes you can. Coconut oil makes for a nice hard bar of soap. Different oils and fats lend different properties to soap, but my grandmother used pure lard to make her lye soap. You can even use olive oil, but that is expensive too. Crisco even works. Do a google search for crockpot soap, and you will find the simplest recipe ever. I use it a lot.
Every recipe that I have seen for soap call for adding the lye/water mixture to the oils. This is the first time that I have seen directions to do it the opposite way. Just be careful and add very slowly, stirring the whole time.
I recycle qt and pint size milk cartons (from half and half, etc), for my soap molds. Spray with Pam type cooking oil makes it easier to remove the carton once the soap has set (I usually do this the next day).
I’m assuming that this recipe doesn’t lather. What would you recommend for a nice lather, and when in the process would you add it?
Coconut oil makes nice lather, which is why it is in many soap recipes combined with other oils. HTH