Soap Making

[melissalw]

I just thought I'd pop by to say: I did it! I made a lovely 3 pound batch of orange-scented soap, my very first batch. And thanks to all the helpful tips I got, it was a success! I made it on Black Friday, which meant it had just enough time to cure to be the perfect Christmas gift. My family loved it!

[kib]

What a lovely gift. Do you use real orange, or an orange essence oil?

Hey ... ok, I know, my mind is like a mexican jumping bean, but last night I was stranded on a desert island assembling my essential supplies ... and I though to myself, I wonder if I could make soap from wood ashes and cocoanut fat. ... after an hour of this foolishness I finally got up and messed around with the dates for the forums, and That did the trick to put me to sleep, but I'm still wondering ... do you think it could be done?

[melissalw]

I used orange essential oil.

...Wood ash and coconut fat? Since I have no idea where lye comes from, I really don't know. Except, you know, you'd have to have some way of measuring pretty accurately on your desert island...

[Gina]

A number of years ago I made a number of batches of soap from fats and commercial lye. It was lots of fun. The scent reminded me of the simple laundry soap mom made when I was a little kid. I think mom used woodash, but have no clear recollection. I do remember the cut bars of soap sitting to age in the basement.

I looked up 'making lye from ashes' and found a number of articles. Here is just one. I don't know how effective their procedure is, but it's a start. Now I want to try it, lol.

http://www.countryfarm-lifestyles.com/make-lye.html

[Hattie]

Soap making is something I've wanted to try. Does anyone have an easy recipe to try for someone green like me? I don't want anything perfumey - more like ivory soap.

[Gina]

When I was making soaps, I got my recipes from the internet. There are many out there. I also don't like most scents.

One thing I really liked about my soaps was that they cleaned my hands really well. They didn't foam much, but they didn't have coconut oil in them. If I could have found a cheap source for that, I would have added some.

If you want something really easy, I think craft stores have some heat and pour ones for glycerin soaps.

[Hattie]

Thanks Gina. I'll see what I can find online. :)

[kally]

Granny Clampett used to just throw stuff in to make soap back by the pool. Maybe she didn't have to measure. lol

I used orange essential oil.

...Wood ash and coconut fat? Since I have no idea where lye comes from, I really don't know. Except, you know, you'd have to have some way of measuring pretty accurately on your desert island...

[melissalw]

The recipe I used was one I found online, and was very simple in terms of ingredients. To make it without scent, just don't add a scent!

26.66 oz olive oil
6.66 oz cocunut oil
10.66 oz water
4.6 oz lye
Makes 3 pounds of soap.

[kib]

This site (http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/vita/soapmake/en/soapmake.htm") has everything you'd ever want to know about making soap whether you're buying ingredients online or living in a pioneer village! It's not pretty, but it sure has a lot of info.