Soap Making

About 8 months ago I was on the last leg of ANOTHER bottle of body wash. I admire those who live sustainable, healthy and minimally and I am striving to do so myself. I have a LONG way to go and am trying to be more mindful beyond the “but, I recycle.” So I thought ‘what body wash can I get that has simple ingredients and is better for my skin’. After looking up many words from the back of body wash bottles - words I have no idea how to pronounce — I decided it could me fun to make my own soap.

I had made whipped soap as a party gift awhile back and loved both the process and the outcome. However, I decided the whipped soap I previously made wasn’t as natural as I was going for and decided to go the route of cold process soap. DIY Natural has been a great resource for me. And Bramble Berry has some great tutorials and unique recipes. You can even buy supplies from Bramble Berry.

An added bonus to all of this is that I could reduce the amount of plastic waste we put in the recycling bin. Additionally, making soap and using bar soap is supposedly more cost effective in the long run. I haven’t run the numbers but I would tend to agree — at least once you have the process down. The two batches I made at the end of last year lasted ~4 months and I gifted almost half of it, if not more.

I have now made 6 batches with a variety of smells and colors. My first attempt was an epic fail - I tossed it in the trash even after trying to melt it down again and remold it. I partially blame this first failed attempt on not having a immersion blender to get the soap to trace. Trace is when the mixture become thick and looks similar to vanilla pudding.

My second batch turned out pretty good but was a bit crumbly. So I broke it down and created laundry detergent. I was thrilled with my third batch. My fourth batch turned out even better than the third. My fifth batch was a coffee soap that failed - I think I had to much lye in the mixture.

My most recent attempt is actually sitting on the floor as I write this — waiting for me to cut it; and I hope it isn’t crumbly. My heart is beating fast with nervousness and excitement. To be honest I have a bad feeling about this one - my lye mixture and oil mixture were cooling at different rates and I had to improvise. When both the lye mixture and oil mixture are close to 105 degrees my final soaps seem to be good. This mixture was closer to 95 degrees by the time I mixed it.