Soapmaking tutorial: Cold process soap. Castile Soap.

 

Today I will show the cold process of soap making step by step. I've choose Castile soap, because this is easy soap for beginners. Castile soap is perfect to nourish the sensitive skin. Of course, it is great for babies as well!  Traditionally Castile soap made with 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil by cold process soap making.  We will add only the coconut oil, just 10%.

What will you need for making soap.

1)      Equipment and tools.

2)      Lye.

3)      Oils and/or butters.

4)    Distilled water.

 

 Equipment and tools:

1)  One big, glass or steel bowl (I use Pyrex), for mixing oils and lye solutions. Choose not flat container, because when you will mix by stick blender you can avoid splashing.

2)   One smaller heat-resistance bowl to mix lye and water.

3)   One container for weighting lye. I used disposable plastic ones.

4)  Digital scale with accurate measurement at least to 1 g.

5)  Thermometer.

6)   Stick blender.

7)   Spoons and spatulas. I used disposable plastic spoons. 

8)  Protective wear: glasses and rubber gloves, long sleeved shirt. Keep a bottle of vinegar nearby so to be able to neutralize fast the potential but unlikely accidental lye spills.

9)   Mold for soap – wood, plastic. 

10) Strainer (only plastic).

Lye safety:

Lye can be fatal if swallowed!

1.Be sure that children and pets are not around during your soap making.

2.Always wear rubber gloves and protective glasses, and clothing, such as a long sleeved shirt when working with lye.

3.Be sure to work in a well-ventilated area. Vapors releases when you mix lye with water and can greatly irritate the lungs.

4.Always have a bottle of vinegar close at hand. Vinegar will help to neutralize the lye/water mixture.

5.Do not use any containers made of tin, zinc or aluminum. Lye will react with them. Recommended containers for mixing your soap include glass, plastic, stainless steel, and enamel.

6.Lye can damages your counter-top, so be careful and use covers - tablecloth, papers…do not let lye to come into contact with surface of your kitchen bench.

7.Freshly made soap can burn and irritate the skin, so wear gloves when you touch soap (unmold, cut).

 Now you are ready!

 1.       Weight you water and put in freezer.

 

  2.       Weight butters/solid oils (such as shea, palm, palm kernel, coconut, babassu) in big container.  In our case this is coconut oil. 

  3.       Melt butters/solid oil. I’ve put my Pyrex bowl in microwave. Or you can place your soap making pot with the solid oils onto the stove over medium heat.

 

4.Take your pot out periodically and stir content until all of the solid oils will be melted. 

5.Once the solid oils are melted, add the (room temperature) liquid oils to the soap bowl. This will bring the overall temperature down.

 

 6.    Now we will prepare our lye/water solution and we need to wear rubber gloves and glasses. Measure out the dry lye in a plastic cup. Be sure to make your lye measurement exact! 

 7.    Remove your glass bowl with water from freezer and place it in the sink. I’ve used additional container with ice, because mixture of lye/water will quickly become very hot. Pour the dry lye into water, water becomes cloudy. Continue stirring until the water turns clear.  Remember to always pour the lye into the water, not the water into the lye!

 

  8.  Now wait until oil mixture and dissolved lye have reached the same temperatures. I like to mix my solutions at around 95F, but it depends on recipes and conditions. You can warm up either solution by inserting the container into hot water or cool it down by inserting the container into cold water until the temperatures will become equal.

 9.   After this step completed slowly pour the lye/water solution into the oil mixture. Good practice to use strainer to avoid not-dissolving particle to be in soap. In our case we used water and can see clear lye/water solution, but if you use milk, coffee, dark tea, wine, or any other non-clear solutions you will definitely need to double check.

Now you can clearly see two separate layers - oils and water/lye.

10.    Blend with the stick blender until it reaches trace.

11. Tracing is easily recognized. Using a plastic spatula, drizzle a small amount on the top of the soap surface. If a trail remains visible for a few seconds before disappearing again, your soap has traced.

12. Fragrances and colors would be added now, but we’ll skip those because a) this is a beginner process, b) this is Castile soap for sensitive skin without any additives.  Pour the soap into the mold before it gets too thick.

13. Cover the mold with its lid (or you can use a cardboard or plastic wrap), then wrap it with towels and leave in a warm place for about 12 hours. 

 

 

14. During this time the saponification process will continue and our soap will go through gel phase. Don’t disturb the soap. I unwrapped my soap just to take picture for you. 

15. The next morning, the soap is ready to cut.

   I wrap each bar into paper and keep the soap at cool place. But we need to wait 4-6 weeks until saponification finished – soap “needs to age”.