5 Handmade Soap Recipes for Beginners

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Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Before you read this article, here is a full disclosure: Soap making can become an addictive habit. You’ll keep finding new ingredients, molds, and creative ways to package your soap. You’ll cherish the compliments you get from friends and family, and you’ll enjoy the fact that your family is cleaning up without worry of harsh chemicals.

Okay, if all that is understood, let’s move on to what’s important. Handmade soap can be a fantastic way to provide a quality, healthy product for your family, sell or give away at events or special occasions, and offer a creative outlet at the same time.

This article offers an overview of soap making basics, the supplies you need, and some soap recipes to inspire you.

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Soap Making Basics

Whether you are new to soap making or thinking of kickstarting a craft you want to return to after a hiatus, you need to understand some basic information.

The two methods for making soap from scratch are hot process and cold process. In the hot process, external heat accelerates saponification. Saponification is the process that converts acid (fats and oils) into soap by combining them with a base (lye, which is sodium hydroxide).

Most soaps made with the hot process can be used the next day, but waiting a week often can produce a harder bar. The cold process uses internal heat produced during saponification. Soap made this way will harden in four to six weeks. This video shows how to make cold process soap.

Here are basic beginner-friendly directions for hot process soap. Weigh and measure all soap ingredients.

Melt the oils. (Many beginners use a crock pot.)
Mix the lye solution. (Wear safety gear as noted below.)
Combine the oils with a stick blender.
Cook the mixture.
Add color and fragrance as desired.
Prepare and fill your mold.
Allow soap to harden.

For a demonstration of how to make hot process soap, watch video.

Supplies You Need for Soap Making

As with many other hobbies and crafts, the more experienced you get, the more equipment you may want to have. However, the supply list for basic soap making is pretty simple. You probably already have some of these items on hand.

Large stainless steel bowl for melting the oils and mixing the soap
Saucepan that the stainless steel bowl will fit over the bowl, allowing the solid fats to melt
Kitchen scale to ensure accurate measurements
Hand blender that is reserved only for soap making (aka immersion blender)
Glass jars or heavy-duty plastic containers
Elbow-length rubber gloves
Safety goggles
Flexible rubber spatulas
Cooking thermometer
Soap molds (These can be as simple as clean, dry plastic yogurt cups initially. If you choose to purchase molds, silicone ones work well.)
Parchment paper
Plastic cling wrap
Sharp cutting knife

The ingredients you’ll need will depend on the soap making process you are following and the recipe you’re using.

Recipes for Handmade Soap

Now, let’s get to the fun part – how to get creative with soap making. Here are some recipes that we recommend.

Oat and Honey Soap

Here’s a beginner-friendly soap recipe. It does use lye, so be sure to take precautions when using this caustic ingredient.

Ingredients:

600 grams of olive oil
80 grams of castor oil
100 grams of coconut oil
100 grams of almond oil
100 grams of cocoa butter
20 grams of beeswax
250 grams of water
135 grams of sodium hydroxide
1 teaspoon of kaolin clay
1 teaspoon of titanium dioxide (oil dispersable)
1.5 tablespoons oat flour
1 tablespoon of honey, mixed into 1 tablespoon of water
20 grams honey fragrance oil

Here’s a video that demonstrates the process for beginners.

Castile Soap

Known and appreciated over the centuries for its gentleness on the skin, castile soap can be used for bathing or as a shampoo.

Ingredients:

21 ounces of olive oil
3.8 ounces of water
2.8 ounces of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda)
10 drops of essential oil (optional)

Instructions:

Make the lye solution, which is ready to use when it reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
While the lye cools, heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Continue heating until the oil reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Note that the oils and lye must be as close as possible to the same temperature to blend correctly.
Pour the lye mixture into the oil mixture and blend with a handheld blender until the mixture begins to thicken. This thickening can take up to 15 minutes, and the soap will lighten as it emulsifies and gets the consistency of honey.
Add essential oil and stir to incorporate. Pour into molds.
Place molds on a drying rack to air dry for six to eight weeks or even longer. (The longer the soap air dries, the better its texture and suds production.)
Wrap in wax paper to store.

Here is a video that shows how to make homemade castile soap.

Coconut Oil Soap

This soap feels rich and creamy and smells great, whether you choose to add essential oils or not. And the recipe is easy enough for beginners to try.

Ingredients:

54 ounces of liquefied coconut oil
24.25 ounces of distilled water
9.7 ounces of lye
Coloring or essential oils (optional)

You can watch the soap making process in this video.

Oats and Lavender Soap

We like this recipe because the oats provide a grainy texture for scrubbing while the lavender adds a relaxing scent. Another plus is that you need only four ingredients, and one of them isn’t lye.

Ingredients:

9-10 ounces of melt and pour white soap base
1 TB dried lavender flowers
¼ cup quick cook oats
¼ tsp lavender essential oil

Instructions:

Chop the melt into chunks and add the oats and lavender.
Microwave the mixture for about a minute or so until melted.
Add the lavender essential oil and mix everything well.
Pour into soap molds.
Allow the mixture to cool until it fully hardens.
Remove hardened soap from the mold.

Flower Soap Recipe

Here’s a recipe that encourages you to be creative with flowers and herbs. You can decorate the finished product with petals and sprigs of your choosing to make a lovely gift.

Ingredients:

Lye solution
1 tsp of French Pink Clay
4.37 ounces of distilled water
2.19 ounces of sodium hydroxide
4 ounces of coconut oil (refined)
2.4 ounces of shea butter
1.6 ounces of cocoa butter
7 ounces of olive oil
.81 ounces of castor oil
3 tsp of essential oil (optional)
1 TBS of dried flower petals (optional)

Instructions

Mix the clay into the distilled water.
Create the lye solution and stir well. Leave the jug to cool in a shallow basin of water.
Melt the solid oils in a small saucepan on low heat until just melted, and place the pot on a pot holder to cool.
Pour the liquid oils into the pan. Stir to mix well.
The temperature of the oils and the lye solution should each be 100°F. When they are within ten degrees of each other, blend with an immersion blender to emulsify the ingredients.
Stir in the essential oils if using.
Pour the soap batter into the mold.
Decorate as desired with dried flower petals and herbs.
Leave the soap to cool and harden for two days before unmolding and cutting.
Cure soap for one month.

For more handmade soap recipes, here are a few resources: