Homemade Soap

A couple of months ago for my birthday, my good friend/neighbor Brittany brought over some of her homemade soaps. I was so excited to try them....and they were fabulous - SO much better than the store bought kind. Their scent filled our whole bathroom and they were way more moisturizing than any soap I've used before. Even Dave loved it. So, I asked her to teach me how to make some. Yesterday, I tried my first hand at it and I'm so excited to be able to use it. They turned out really great....so I'm hoping that next time I try (when I'm all by myself without the guidance of an expert) I'll get the same results.

The scent I made was 1/2 Coconut-lime-verbena and 1/2 Lime. It smells SO good!! Here are a few pictures of the process. I was a terrible picture taker, so I only got a few.

First you have to carefully measure out all of the oils. We used coconut oil, avacado oil, canola oil and lard. Each oil has to measured out by weight, so we weighed the ingredients on a scale. The picture is actually of the fragrance, which doesn't get added until later.

Once all the oils are measured out, they need to be melted and warmed - slowly on a very low temperature so they don't get too hot.. It takes a while for them to be the right temperature.

Meanwhile, you have to measure out a specific amount of distilled water. Then mix lye in the water. It sounds easy, but it's way more complicated than it sounds. Lye is very toxic, so you have to make sure your arms, legs and hands are completely covered and wear goggles (or in my case, sunglasses). I somehow got through high school and college without taking chemistry, but now there is a part of me that wishes I would have gone. It's really amazing to watch what happens with soap. First, the lye gets really hot in the water all on its own. Then, when the lye and the oils are about the same temperature, you mix them together. As you mix, the lye consumes the oils it a process called "saponification" and the mixture is converted into soap!


It takes a while to mix the lye in the oils and when it gets to just the right thickness, you can add the fragrance. When it's about as thick as conditioner, you pour it into a mold to harden. We used a box.

You then leave it in the oven for 24 hours with the light on so it can finish converting into soap. After a day or two, you can cut the soap into bars:

I still have to wait three weeks to use it so it can finish curing. But, I'm so excited to learn and experiment more with soap making.