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Base Part of Recipe
Base Part of Recipe
These recipes are 40 oz. of oils. If you don’t want to make this much you can split recipe in half.
The oils in these recipes will make your clearest soaps.
Recipe 1:
Veggie Recipe 1:
Veggie Recipe 2:
Your lye discount will be 0% for a clearer soap. The reason for no supferfatting is to achieve clarity.
Remember alcohol is lighter in weight than water, so make sure you have more than what is called for in your recipe. I usually have
two bottles on hand at all times just in case. You do not want to run out of this very important ingredient. One pint of alcohol weighs
around 12.5 oz. Compensate for evaporation. It evaporates very quickly when heated. Also, keep the lid on as much as possible!
14 oz. Alcohol
11.2 oz. sugar dissolved into 4 oz. boiling water. Dissolve sugar thoroughly in as little water as possible. If sugar crystals are left, it
will cause cloudy soap.
6 oz. Glycerin
The faster your soap cools the more transparent it will be. Winter puts her molds outside in the winter like on a porch and pours into
the molds so they will cool faster and freeze. I tried it last night and it does work great.
47. Pour into molds as quickly as possible and spray down foam with alcohol. Spritz until smooth.
48. Let sit undisturbed until soap is completely firm. If you have trouble releasing soap, freeze for an hour and try again.
49. Let cure for 2 weeks before cutting soap because soap will shrink. Ask me how I know!
50. Keep in mind the longer the soap cures, the clearer it becomes.
• Your soap will be a natural amber color before coloring; this does not affect your final color.
• If you’re making your soaps for decorative use, when unmolding use rubber gloves so you won’t get fingerprints on the soap.
• I would suggest starting with one color until you get the hang of it, then you will know what to expect.
• The thinner the soap, the more transparent it will appear.
• Transparent soap needs time to harden.
• Frozen soap will look cloudy; let it rest first before checking for clarity.
• Make sure to use 0-1% superfat for clearer soap.
If you find your soap is sticky or not clear after removing from the molds, you can cut it back up into small pieces into a large Pyrex
cup, heat at half power in the microwave for a couple minutes at a time until all melted down. If you have a couple chunks left over
in the mix, stir with a spoon and they will melt. Add a couple more ounces of alcohol, stir and pour through a sieve into another
Pyrex cup. Now pour into your molds. I also do this if I didn’t quite achieve the color I wanted. I add more color and alcohol and pour
into molds. Make sure you do this within the first couple of days because you risk evaporating alcohol, which reduces transparency
and makes sticky soap.
After freezing, let soaps thaw for about 3 or 4 minutes and they should pop out.
Sherry's Fantastic Soap ( Contributed by Sherry Wersing, who wrote the poem at the top of the "Soapy Success" page)
24 oz canola
18 oz coconut oil
6 oz cocoa butter
6 oz castor oil
16 oz olive oil (pomace or pomace/olive blend is fine)
9.8 oz lye
21-23 oz water
Fragrance Oil or Essential Oil of choice
This recipe has often been requested on the Latherings Forum and the feedback from folks who've made it has been
great! Sherry has agreed to share it here for anyone who would like to make it. It will not be as large a batch as the
rest posted on this site, so adjust for fewer bars/smaller mold. See "Shaving Bar" variation below...
To make a GREAT shaving bar, WHICH BY THE WAY makes a GREAT SHAMPOO BAR! (my hair only stays after being blown dry by
THIS bar! Perhaps it is the microcrystalline wax, I do not know. But the next day, after sleeping on it, my hair brushes back into
place! NEVER did that before with ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!
I make the above recipe, except that instead of using 6 oz of cocoa butter, I use 2.5 ounces of cocoa butter and add a 3.5 oz tub of
PALMER'S COCOA BUTTER FORMULA (it is NOT a cream or lotion, rather hard in a plastic tub..) The ingredients of it are cocoa butter,
mineral oil, microcrystalline wax, fractionated cocoa butter and vitamins C and E. I infused calendula petals in the olive oil, but this is
just an option. Makes a thick lathering soap, and funny, but a great shampoo bar!
I've had a request to post a larger version of this recipe so that it will be the same size as the other recipes on the site (for people
who have molds to accomodate that size). The following is pretty close to the same percentages as Sherry's original, with minor
variations for the sake of simplifying the numbers.
I wanted a bar of soap that would help with a friend's acne/oily prone skin & I had read that witch hazel, Tea Tree oil and some other
botanicals would be good for his skin. So I set out to make some, just to experiment. I began by taking common cooking canola oil.
and adding the herbs; red clover, chamomile,slippery elm, peppermint and comfrey leaves and gently heating them on the stove on
low heat for about 2 hours. (For the amount of oil, I usually use about 2 Tablespoons of each herb. Also, someone wrote because she
found that after heating and soaking the herbs it "smelled and looked funny"; she was worried it was burnt and unusable. So, just as
a pre-warning, it WILL smell kind of odd due to the combined herb smell.The tea tree oil will more than cover up this smell for you.It
also should look light brown to a greenish color. As long as it.doesn't smell burnt, and the oil isn't blackish brown it is fine.) I
strained, and set this aside.
I heated all the oils together until the beeswax and stearic acid melted and then set aside to cool.
I am afraid I am not the type of soapmaker who measures the temperature of the lye/oils before she mixes. I just feel the side of
both containers until they still feel warm, but not hot to the touch. I KNOW this is not exact- but I honestly have never ever had a
failed batch (knock on wood) yet.
So I added the lye to the oils ... it traced very very fast. I started with hand blending for 2-3 minutes, then stick blended for 2-3 min.
At this stage it was fairly thick - like heavy pudding. I added:
I then hand blended for another 2-3 minutes. At this point I was beginning to think this would be my first unsucessful batch. It was
way to thick to pour out of the pan so I had to spoon/scoop it into the molds. (It was a wonderful yellowish color- looked like the
bars of Neutrogena you buy.) I went ahead and decided to put them into the molds to see what would happen. I put half into the
Milky Way pattern molds, and half into a box mold that would need to be cut later into bars. I was working in my basement which
was a stable 65 degrees. I didn't insulate any of the molds- I just shut the light off and went to bed.I was sure the next day I would
find a big mess down there but boy was I in for a pleasant surprise! The next morning I checked them and they were hard enough
already to unmold, and cut. They looked great! I cured them for 3 weeks only, they had little to no ash formed on the edges. [I
would still suggest four weeks cure time to be safe. The beeswax could be cut by half and still make a nice bar. Not insulating is
probably not a bad idea with beeswax in the mix... any traces of honey will heat up the soap quickly... somtimes too much. - Kathy]
Let me tell you - these bars are the best soap I have made to date. Both the pattern molds and the cut bars held up equally well.
The bar hade a wonderful yellow color- looking alot like a bar of beeswax. They smelled slightly medicinal but not too heavy. I think
the lavender lightens the scent some ( I added this due to reading it had a antibacterial/antibiotic property in an herb book I have). I
have made this recipe 4 times now- each with equal sucess, and this is a best selling bar for me. My friend loved it so much, he
bought 30 bars for himself and a bunch of his friends. It helps "cut" oily prone skin but leaves your skin very very soft. He swears
that in combination with my witch hazel/mint/vinegar toner (recipe below for those who have asked)- his acne problem is gone!
I hope more people will read this experience and realize that they CAN make their own recipes.
-Lisa Thomas
Mix all ingred. together stir thoroughly and allow to sit covered for 3 days. Strain or filter out the mint (HINT if you use tea bags- 2
of them, then you don't need to strain!). Pour into a clean container with a lid, apply with cotton ball as needed.
I have found that this is excellent for my oily skin. Sometimes if I get a little dry, like in the winter, I add a teaspoon of honey in the
mix to use at night. It helps add moisture to the skin as well as combats acne, and clears up the red spots from old acne areas.
1 cup tallow
1/2 cup melted coconut oil (I use olive, too)
2/3 cup glycerin
1 to 1 1/2 cup isopropyl alcohol
3/4 cup water
4 TBSP lye flakes
yellow food coloring (or whatever)
Melt tallow and coconut oil, as previously described. Cool to lukewarm, by "floating" pan of oil in a tepid water bath. Stir lye into cold
soft water. Cool to lukewarm. Pour lye into fat, stirring to emulsify. When creamy, add glycerin. Pour into mold greased with
petroleum jelly.
After three days, grate soap into the top of a double boiler. Begin to heat over gently boiling water. Add alcohol and stir constantly.
When the liquid is transparent, lift the spoon. If a ropy thread forms, remove from heat. If a skim forms immediately upon removing
from heat, pour into molds.
Unmold after a few days and stack to air cure for 2 weeks.
A traditional and blender soap combination. The fats are expensive, but milk allows for about 12 bars, vs. only 6 bars of the same
recipe without milk. Pretty sneaky, huh?
Dissolve the lye in the water. Add all ingredients to the blender. Process about 30 seconds, or until the mixture looks smooth and a
uniform color. It will not trace. Pour it into the molds (it won't separate, trust me)
We have all seen the oatmeal soaps in the store that cost a fortune. Here's how to make your own. you can also add other dried
material such as cornmeal or pumice for varying abrasive effects.
10oz palm
4oz coconut oil
2oz olive oil
1/4cup regular oatmeal, run through the blender
2oz lye
1 cup distilled water
optional scent
Mix lye and water and set aside to cool. Melt palm oil and coconut oil together and set aside to cool. In a blender or food processor,
mix the olive oil and oatmeal. When the lye reaches 1000F and the fats are 1200F pour lye into fats and stir until it traces. Add the
oatmeal mixture, and stir until well mixed. pour the soap into the molds. Allow to sit for 48 hours. Unmold and cut if needed. allow to
age for 3 weeks.
Combine the lye-water mixture and fat, stir occasionally for one hour and forty minutes. Add 1/4 cup of hot tap water and stir for ten
minutes. Add another 1/4 cup hot tap water and stir until the soap is thick and smooth (only a few minutes). Time in mold 24 hours.
Place the soap in freezer for 3 hours, then remove it from the molds. Age 3 weeks.
*Soybean with Coconut and Olive (Kathy Miller)
As much as I loved the texture of the bars of Favorite Castile after cutting, they don't have the nice suds that the Almond Joy batch
did...it had spoiled me. As mild as olive oil soaps are, the sudsing is less and tends to feel a little slimy (which doesn't bother some
people). Anyway...I did this recipe and upped the coconut and used more soy instead of quite so much olive, while still retaining
some olive for its wonderful properties. For the batch shown above, I did the chocolate swirl idea again (like "Almond Joy") but
instead of powdered cocoa, I melted 1.5 ounces of Ghirardelli's dark chocolate (one of my Christmas presents) with a couple of
teaspoons of the original fats and mixed it into a small percentage of the soap after pouring most of it into the mold. The 2 ounces of
Bitter Almond FO were added to the whole batch at thin trace and just before pouring the white part into the mold. This soap was
thinner when I poured it, because I didn't want to have the ridged effect like the first one and it made me nervous, but the soap set
up just great and the swirls really blended with no tendency to separate between colors.
Add at trace:
Instructions as usual. Add the Bitter Almond oil at early trace and pour 3/4 of the soap into the mold/s. Mix the cocoa powder quickly
into the remaining soap (stick blender makes this easy) and drizzle it over the top of the white soap in a back and forth fashion. Take
a butter knife and gently run it back and forth to gently swirl the two colors together (you decide when it looks pretty enough to
stop). A note on adding the cocoa. You could probably blend the powder with a small amount of the soap before stirring it into the
rest. When I did it, I added some olive oil to the cocoa, but had some oil ooze out of the darker soap after it set overnight, so think it
was too much.
This soap was a bit ridged on top where it was swirled as it got thick, but I left that on also. It looks kind of neat and really smells
strong! If you pour your soap at light trace, this probably won't happen. I put in more Bitter Almond than I listed in the ingredients
above and it was a little too much for my tastes, but will last longer. One ounce should be okay. The soap is very hard, cleansing,
and lathers well. People who are into almond and chocolate really get excited over these bars! :-)
*"Purely Herbal" with Jojoba Oil (Kathy Miller)
The sugar added to the soap gives the finished bar a more translucent quality, making the color darker than when sugar is not
added. I LOVE this basic recipe...it is a joy to mix with the stick blender and doesn't suddenly set up on you as a general rule
(depending on what you add at trace). The Purely Herbal FO has quite a fruity smell...almost reminded me of when I'm peeling and
coring lots of apples for canning. If you use some other scent, you might not want the color I chose. You can add anything you want
to any of the base recipes on the page, within reason!
This is a variation of the "Chocolate Mint" soap on the animal fats recipe page. I have not actually done this version yet, but it should
be very nice and I wanted to post it for those of you who may want to do it without any animal fats. I love the other one! If you
tailor ANY recipe and use 8 oz. of cocoa butter in it, you'll get the wonderful traits of cocoa butter in your finished soap. Just be sure
that if you include that much in a recipe that already has a high percentage of saturated fats in it, that you use the amount of water
usually suggested on the MMS lye calculator. Cocoa Butter makes a HARD bar! Skimping on water for a high saturated fat recipe
makes the bars very difficult to cut! :-)
If you use good smelling cocoa butter, this will smell nice on its own, even without added fragrance oil. The cocoa butter gives the
lather a really nice creamy feel and it's SO gentle on the skin. Since cocoa butter costs more than the other ingredients, this is kind
of a luxury soap at my house!
The bar at right was scented with 2 oz. of the King's Ransom EO blend from A Garden Eastward and swirled.
39 oz. olive oil (For harder soap substitute 2 oz. of cocoa butter for 2 oz. of the olive)
24 oz. coconut oil
18 oz. palm oil
26-30 oz. cold water (lower for essential oils, higher for troublesome fragrance oils)
12 oz. lye crystals
This is the latest recipe I've been making. Some people think canola can be problematic for weeping in storage, so I'm using this
classic combination of olive, coconut and palm. I've tweaked this from the original and cut back a little on the olive oil... I think it
stores better.
LAUNDRY SOAP
Soap I -- Pure Soap Elaine White
This is the only recipe I've discovered that remains scent-free without adding fragrance to the recipe. This soap is a bit too harsh for
bath soap, but great for cleaning, washing dishes, delicate laundry, etc. Great lather and no fragrance.
16 oz coconut oil
2.8 oz lye
1 cup water (8 fluid ounces)
Fat and lye/water temperature about 1200F
Estimated tracing time: 1 1/2 hours
Time in molds: 48 hours
Age: 3 weeks
This lotion works well in either a pump or squeeze bottle, but is thick enough for a jar. Fractionated
coconut makes a lovely, light and emollient lotion, but other light-to-middle weight oils such as Sweet
Almond, Apricot Kernel or Safflower oil may be substituted.
Mix the Emulsitying Wax, Oil and Glycerin together and heat until the wax is just barely melted. Allow to
cool to about 110 degrees. F. Stir in room-temperature water and Essential Oils. Beat with a stick blender
for 30 seconds. Pour into containers.
Don't have a scale? Here's a volume based recipe that doesn't need the critical measurements. Chocolate
lovers can substitute our Natural Cocoa Butter to envelop themselves in the rich, dark chocolate scent.
Our Natural Beeswax retains a delicate fragrance of honey, but White Beeswax can be substituted if the
honey scent interferes with chosen Essential Oils.
Melt Cocoa Butter and Beeswax together. Add other oils and let melt in the hot oils. This will help drop the
temperature more quickly. Add Essential Oils and pour into container to solidify.
Lotion Bar
More of a butter bar with the Shea and Cocoa Butters, but wonderfully moisturizing! For a chocolate
scent, use our Natural Cocoa Butter instead. Our unrefined Shea with its nutty fragrance and richness may
be substituted, but our refined Shea is scentless and does not interfere with delicate essential oil blends.
Natural Beeswax, with its light honey scent, may be substituted for our White Beeswax.
Melt the Beeswax and Cocoa Butter together until just barely melted. Add the remaining oils and allow to
melt in the hot oils. This helps the temp drop more quickly. Add essential oils; stir well. Pour into
deodorant containers.
1. Add lye to very cold water and whisk gently and constantly until solution is clear. Let cool to 90ºF.
2. Gently heat Palm Kernel Oil until melted, and pour over liquid oils. Heat of all oils combined should be around 90ºF
3. Make a slurry of the clay and essential oils. Use about 1/2 oz of your olive oil to make a smooth slurry.
4. Add the lye solution to the base oils with your stick-blender whirring away in the oils. Alternate between hand whisking and the
stick blender until trace. At medium trace, add your EO slurry. Mix very well.
5. Pour into your prepared mold. I try to keep the soap from gelling at this point by keeping it cool. Seems to agree with the
lavender scent better
6. Unmold and cut 12 hours after pouring. Soap should be smooth and fine-grained. If using more water, wait about 18 hours before
unmolding and cutting. Enjoy!!
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Mix your lye solution first and set it aside to cool. Measure and heat your solid oils until completely melted. Measure and add the
liquid oils to the melted solid oils. When both the lye and the oils are at about 100-110 degrees, slowly pour the lye solution into the
oils. Stir with a stick blender, alternating short blasts with the blender and stirring. Mix the soap until it reaches a light trace. Add the
fragrance oil. Mix them into the soap thoroughly. Pour the raw soap into your mold and let it sit for 12-24 hours until it has cooled off
completely and is hard enough to cut. Remove it from the mold and slice into bars. Let it cure an additional 2-4 weeks.