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Basic Cold Process Soap Recipe
Ready to unleash your inner soap maker? Look no further - this Basic Cold Process Soap Recipe is here to get you started on the journey. From necessary supplies and terms explanations, everything needed for a great start in homemade soaps awaits! And who knows where it may end up… Get ready for some DIY fun with natural cold process creations that can be customized as your skills increase!
When selecting your equipment, there are certain tools that are appropriate with the chemicals. For example certain plastics can hold sodium hydroxide, here is a useful link about the different plastics: Containers For Lye Solution.
When mixing your lye solution, we would recommend a metal whisk. Again it removes any issues with plastic and ensures the particles are broken up and dispersed evenly through your mix.
Cold Process Soap Steps Simplified:
Making cold process soap doesn't have to be a complex - we've split the process up below into 9 simple steps so you can create your own luxurious bar of cold-processed goodness!
1. Make your lye
2. Prepare your oils
3. Combine your lye & oils
4. Mix until trace
5. Add in your fragrance (if required)
6. Blend in your colour (if required)
7. Pour into your mould
8. Decorate accordingly
9. Leave to cure
These are the very basic steps, below we go into detail about each stage and what each step involves.
Equipment Needed
• Two good sized stainless steel or enamelled saucepans.
• A heat-proof measuring jug (please see above for recommendations)
• Accurate kitchen scales.
• A metal balloon whisk and rubber/wooden spatula, or similar.
• A mould to pour the liquid soap into whilst it sets.
• Eye and hand protection (safety glasses and rubber gloves).
• A blanket or large towel.
Shop all our available soap making equipment here!
Cold Process Soap Ingredients
(excluding colour & fragrance)
• 340g of cold, clean water
• 125g of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) beads or pearls
• 454g olive oil (preferably pomace grade but virgin or extra virgin will do)
• 284g coconut oil (hard variety)
• 170g palm oil (hard variety)
• 1/4 tsp Grapefruit seed extract OR vitamin E (optional preservative). Note…Grapefruit seed extract will speed up the time it takes for your soap to 'trace'.
• 20ml Fragrance or Essential Oil/s
Make sure you have all the ingredients and equipment listed above BEFORE you start, weigh them out into suitable containers ready to use.
Always wear safety goggles/glasses and use protective gloves when soap-making to avoid injury from spills and splashes.
First choose your mould. Traditionally, soaps are made in wooden moulds lined with waxed or siliconised paper, but a cardboard box lined in a similar way is fine or you can use a silicone cake-baking mould, as they are usually lye and heat-resistant.
Cold Process Soap Making Method:
Make the Lye
• Measure out 340g of cold clean water into a jug. Weigh (accurately) 125g of sodium hydroxide beads (or pearls) into a suitable container. Carefully add the sodium hydroxide to the water, and whisk, stirring all the time.
• Be careful not to breathe the vapour that is initially given off, so hold your breath and stir until all the sodium hydroxide has dissolved and there are no lumps stuck to the bottom of the jug.
• The solution (now known as Lye) will heat up to nearly 200°F (95°C) and will need to be left to cool. Place the jug in a large bowl of cold water, being careful not to 'float' it.
The Oils
• Meanwhile, measure out exactly 284g of coconut oil and 170g of palm oil into one of the saucepans (the smaller if there is one) and gently melt it on the stove. Don’t overheat it, just melt it. When there are tiny pieces of solid oil still left to melt, turn off the heat and leave until completely liquid.
• Whilst the solid oils are melting, measure out 454g of olive oil (pomace grade is best) into the other saucepan (this will be the soap-making pan). If adding an optional antioxidant, add it to the olive oil now.
• Once melted, pour the combined coconut and palm oils into the olive oil and mix them all together.
• Then slowly and carefully pour the lye into the oils, and start stirring with a balloon whisk to ensure the mixture all starts to chemically react and combine.
• You should stir the mixture fairly briskly. You will notice the solution start to turn more opaque and as the minutes pass it will start to thicken.
Trace
• This is when you can drizzle the mixture from the whisk onto the surface of the solution and it leaves a visible trace before sinking back into the rest.
• If adding essential oil/s, add them at ‘the trace’ after any colour and stir in well.
• Once everything is added and the mixture traces simply pour it into your lined mould.
• Cover the mould with something like a cardboard sheet to prevent anything touching the surface of the soap whilst it’s setting.
• Insulate with old towels or a blanket and leave at room temperature until the soap has solidified. With a small batch like this example, this should be no more than 24 hours. Larger batches can take longer.
• Once set and cool, remove the soap from the mould and remove any lining paper from the soap. At this stage it will be a soft solid and can be easily cut into bars or smaller blocks if desired. If it appears too soft to handle, leave it for 2-3 days and try again.
• Leave your soap ‘curing’ at room temperature for typically at least 3-4 weeks, preferably on a sheet of uncoloured absorbent paper allowing air to circulate around each bar or block. Curing will allow the soap to lose excess moisture and become harder.
Cold Process Soap Tips & Useful Info
Adding Fragrance…
If adding fragrance use pure essential oil/s (20ml in this recipe size).
If you're using this recipe as a base for a soap you're adding your own colours and fragrances to, take a note that in your early attempts at natural soap-making it is far easier to fragrance a soap using pure essential oils. Avoid most fragrance oils as they are almost all alcohol based (e.g dipropylene glycol) and virtually all forms of alcohol can cause 'seizing' in a soap mixture. This is when the mixture starts to set solid very rapidly, before you have a chance to pour it, ruining all your efforts.
Adding Colour & Usage Guidelines…
Generally, food-safe colours are not suitable for natural soap-making (there are some exceptions). There are colours that work well and are simple to use;
• Ultramarines: Oxides: Insoluble pigments which are used to colour the oils: Food-safe dyes (sold as water soluble powders)…e.g. Tartrazine yellow: Sunset yellow (orange): Amaranth red: many types of ground spices i.e. Turmeric: Paprika: Cinnamon.
• All ultramarines and oxides require mixing with a little water and can be added at any stage after all ingredients are in the soap making pan together, up to the trace.
• Some types of pigments (known as insoluble pigments) are NOT water soluble and give colour to soaps best in warm oils. Add these powders or dispersions to melted coconut/palm oil and whisk into the soap making pan very thoroughly to avoid any 'spotting'.
With ALL colours/pigments, the depth of colour will vary with the amount added.
Keep colours subtle to avoid bleeding of colour into the lather when using the soaps. Mix up enough in a little water (except insoluble pigments) and add a bit at a time until the depth of colour you want is apparent. Guide for this size recipe… All ultramarines/oxides max 1 tsp (5ml). Most food-safe water soluble powders max 1/4 tsp (1.25ml). Lakes max 1/4 tsp (1.25ml). These are a guide only.
Ground Spices are basically in 2 varieties. Those that will add colour to the oils (Turmeric and Paprika) which can be added to the warm oils similar to Lakes and those that simply add colour by suspension (i.e. gound cinnamon) which are best added near the trace in a little olive oil as a runny paste.
Important…
Do not store your soap in a cold place. Soap will 'sweat' if cured or kept in a cold or cool place and then moved to a warmer one. Avoid 'sweating' by keeping your soap at a constant room temperature.
Tip… The majority of 'pretty' additions to a soap such as dried flower heads etc. will very possibly turn brown and discolour the soap if added to the mixture whilst it is a liquid (an exception would be calendula petals). This is because of the high water content and caustic nature at that stage. Additions that work well are dried pulses, spices and dried herbs. Some spices achieve good colour as well. Turmeric (yellow) and paprika (salmon-like) are two examples. Petals etc. (like dried lavender) can be successfully 'pressed' onto the surface of the soap after pouring, before covering and insulating, although keep your gloves on when doing this as the mixture is still caustic at that stage.
Tip… If packaging your soap, avoid absorbent paper or card coming into contact with your soap directly as any ‘sweating’ of the soap once packed will spoil the packaging. If you must use paper or card, wrap your soap first in something like waxed or siliconised paper or plastic film.
Note… If you want to enrich your soap with specific oils for their properties (e.g hempseed or wheatgerm etc.) use approx. 1 Tbsp. (15ml) at trace. Honey, also approx. 1 Tbsp. (15ml) at trace. Exfolients, i.e. oatmeal or similar, up to 1/4 cup (60ml). at or before trace. Take care to ensure your soap is thick enough to ‘support’ any exfolient additions before pouring or they may sink or float (depends what they are).
Basic Cold Process Soap Terms
Saponification…
Saponification refers to the chemical reaction that occurs when oil and lye molecules create
new soap molecules. Each oil has its own saponification value, or the amount of lye it takes to turn 1 gram of oil into
1 gram of soap.
Emulsification/Emulsify…
Emulsification is when the oils and lye solution have mixed together, and will not separate from each other.
Trace…
Trace is a point in the soap making process when oils and lye water have emulsified and begins to thicken. Trailings of soap stay on the surface of your soap mixture when lightly drizzled from a few inches overhead. Once the soap has reached thin trace, it will continue to thicken over time. Some fragrance oils can accelerate the soap batter, causing it to reach a thick trace more quickly.Temperature also plays a part in trace. When soaping at higher temperatures, medium and thick trace will be reached more quickly than when soaping with cooler temperatures.
Superfat…
Soap is made by lye turning oil molecules into soap molecules. Any extra oil left in the soap and not attacked by the lye is called a ‘superfat.’ In all home soap making, to ensure safety and avoid ‘free caustic alkali’ in your soap you should Superfat your recipe. A minimum super fatting percentage generally considered appropriate is 5%. Therefore, after calculating your required sodium hydroxide you should discount this by 5% minimum or add 5% more oils.
Soda Ash…
Soda ash forms when unsaponified lye reacts with naturally occurring carbon dioxide in the air (see example below). The result is a white “ashy” appearance on the top of the soap. Soda ash is a harmless, and it’s most common on the surface of your cold process soaps. Soda ash can be washed off or sometimes wiped off.
Higher grades of olive oil it will usually take longer to reach a trace. Pomace grade is ideal for soap making
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