Ugly As Homemade Soap

Have you ever heard the saying, "Ugly as homemade soap"?  You are about to see what that means! LOL!  After seeing that my friends at Four Irises made homemade soap, I have been wanting to make some of my own.  Here is the recipe that I used and pictures in case you want to make some yourself.  It was actually fairly easy.  I am going to let my girls make some as a craft project for school.

We found the recipe at Chickens in the Road.

HOT PROCESS SOAP

Ingredients
Crisco — 9.6 ounces or 272.155 grams
olive oil OR olive oil pomace — 9.6 ounces or 272.155 grams
lard — 6.4 ounces or 181.437 grams
coconut oil (76-degree melt point) — 6.4 ounces or 181.437 grams
distilled water OR milk* — 12.16 ounces or 344.73 grams
lye — 4.463 ounces or 126.524 grams

Tools
Crock pot
Rubber Gloves
Goggles
Freezer Paper
Food scale
Glass measuring cup
Hand mixer
Large mixing Bowl
Wooden Spoon

1.  Measure your oils and put them in your crock pot on low so they can melt.  When it is completely melted, turn your crock pot off.

2.  Measure your water and place in bowl.  WEARING GLOVES and GOGGLES, measure lye.  We went outside to pour our lye into the water because of the fumes.  Always pour lye into water, not the other way around.  Stir with a wooden spoon.  It is cloudy at first.  You will know it is ready when it is clear.

 

 

3.  Slowly add the lye to your melted oils, making sure to stir.  Now you will mix with a hand held blender until your soap traces.  That means that when you use your hand blender or whisk to draw a line on top of the soap, that line stays.  (Just a tip: Use your blender a little at a time.  Use a wire whisk while the blender rests. Then use it again.  This will keep from burning up the motor!)

 

Here is our trace below.

 

 

 

4.  Turn your crock pot back on low and place the lid back on it.  This says in the original recipe it takes about an hour, but it took us closer to 1 1/2 hours.  Stir the soap every now and then to make sure it is cooking evenly.  We had a party while we waited, so you should do that too!

 

 

 

5.  Here it is at 30 minutes.

 

 

 

6.  This is what ours looked like at about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  We did a zap test to see if the it was ready.  Basically, it is like sticking a battery to your tongue to see if it is good.  If it zaps, your soap is not ready.  You can also buy pH strips to do this if you prefer.

 

 

 

7.  I wanted to add scent to my soap, so I took out my soap mixture and stirred for a few minutes to allow for cooling.  (If it is too hot, the scents can be cooked out.)  This only makes two pounds of soap, so no more than 1 oz. of scent is needed.  I used pure essential oils.  The one below is half of my batch of soap with .25 oz. of cinnamon bark essential oil, 1 tablespoon of real cinnamon, and 2 tablespoons of honey.  ( Use a maximum of 1/2 cup dry additives in a two-pound batch.  More may make your soap crumbly. If adding honey, add 2 tablespoons per two-pound batch.)  You can also add soap colorant but it is better to use liquid.

 

 

 

8.  You can line a 9x13 pan with wax paper and pour your soap into the pan to make soap OR you can do what the super cool kids do and use Pringles cans for round bars.  You will need 2 cans per batch of soap.  Clean out the Pringles cans.  No need to line because you are going to cut in to them later anyway.  Pour your soap in but leave about an inch at the top so when you cut your can off your soap, you aren't cutting into the soap.  Bang the mold a few times on the counter to allow the soap to settle.

 

 

9.  This will need to sit for 12 hours.  We just used a large knife and cut the Pringles can at the top and peeled it off.  Go ahead and cut your soap.  Janet used a nifty soap cutter.  I used a knife out of my kitchen.  Whatever works for you!

 

 

The bars on the left are cinnamon honey.  The bars on the right are lavender.

 

The original recipe says to let the bars sit for one to two weeks, but you can use them immediately if you can't help yourself! It might be ugly, but it lathers well and smells delicious!   Happy soap-making!