Learn how to make soap from veteran soap maker, Debra Maslowski. Her natural, homemade soap making process is simple, versatile, and teaches many every year!
How to Make Soap
Homemade soap making is my number one passion, so if I have a day to do nothing, I’ll just make it all day.
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People always ask me how to make soap, so today I show you how I do it!
Master Soap Maker for 20+ Years
In 1994 I came across a book on soap making and thought, “Well, gee, it can’t be too hard.” I remembered my great grandmother from Sweden had made it, and so had my mother when I was much younger.
So I gathered my ingredients and set forth to make soap.
The First Batch of Homemade Soap
The first batch turned out great, then the next, but the next after that was a dismal failure. So what did I do wrong? I wasn’t sure, so I decided to take a class. I contacted the local adult education center and found the instructor had left the area. Would I be interested in teaching? I got talked into it and started the following January. I taught people how to make soap for a total of 11 years in Minnesota.
When I came to North Carolina in 2004, I had to hunt around a bit to find a venue, but ended up at a local college in 2007 and have been there ever since. I now teach classes on how to make soap, along with several other natural products. I also sell my soaps and other products online, at local tailgate markets, and at the state fair each year.
Soap Making: The Basics
Soap making can be very simple or you can make it as complicated as you like.
First, the beauty of making your own is that you can make it with the ingredients that you choose and the fragrances that you like. And adjustments aren’t hard but do take some practice. Further, most homemade soap recipes use ounces or grams and ingredients must be weighed to get good results. But I’ve found a way to simplify the process by converting the ingredients to cups and portions of cups. Consequently, it’s much easier and you get the same results time after time.
Lye in Homemade Soap
The one thing in homemade soap you can’t substitute is lye. You should always use 100% sodium hydroxide, or lye in crystal form. Don’t substitute liquid lye or drain cleaners such as Drano. These may cause inaccurate measurements or have bits of metal in them. You don’t want either.
Lye is caustic. It can eat holes in fabric and cause burns on your skin. Always be extra careful when using lye. Use gloves and eye protection and a mask if desired. When you mix the lye with water, it will heat up and fume for about 30 seconds to a minute. It may cause a choking sensation in your throat. Don’t worry, it’s not permanent and will go away after a few minutes. Always add lye to water (not water to lye), and start stirring right away. If allowed to clump on the bottom, it could heat up all at once and cause an explosion.
No Lye in Finished Soap
Even though lye is caustic and dangerous to work with, after it reacts with the oils in your soap (through a process called saponification), no lye will remain in the finished product.
The lye reacts with the oils, turning what starts out as a liquid into blocks of soap. When made properly, no lye remains in the finished product.[1]
(For more information, read our article: Can You Make Soap Without Lye?)
Homemade Soap Making Equipment
When learning how to make soap, remember to use equipment that will not be used for cooking. While you could clean everything really well, it’s best not to take a chance.
Stainless steel, tempered glass, and enamel are all good choices for mixing bowls. Don’t use copper or aluminum, they will react with the lye. Some plastics may melt, so don’t use plastic bowls.
For spoons, use styrene plastic or silicone. For molds, you can get soap molds at your local craft store or online here, or use silicone baking pans (like this). These are great because you can peel the mold right off. Other things you want to have are a pint and a quart canning jar, newspaper, a stainless steel thermometer that reads between 90° and 200° (find it here), an old towel, and any additions you want to add to the soap.
How to Make Soap: The Additives
There are as many variations of soap as there are colors in the rainbow. You can literally do almost anything. Here are the basics of additives:
Herbs
All herbal material must be dried. Lavender is popular, as well as chamomile. I love lemongrass and oakmoss, though not together. Use about ¼ cup of dried plant material per batch of this size. (Find high quality dried herbs here.)
Essential Oils
Essential oils are from plants. They come from the roots, stems, flowers or seeds. Fragrance oils can be blends of essential oils or they can be artificially produced. Be sure you know what you have. Most oils can be used at the rate of 15-20 drops or around a teaspoon per batch of this size. (Find 100% pure essential oils here.)
Colors
Natural colors are easy. Use cinnamon or cocoa powder for a brown soap, powdered chlorophyll for green, turmeric for yellow and beetroot for orange. However, sometimes things change colors, like magenta beet powder turning yellowish orange. I would avoid food colors since they don’t hold up well in soap. Check out our article, 44 Ways to Color Homemade Soap Naturally, for even more ideas.
Other Items
This would include aloe vera gel, oatmeal, dry milk powder, clays, cornmeal, ground coffee, salt and anything else you may want to use.
How to Make Soap for Hand & Body
YIELD 5 3.5 OUNCE BARS
Ingredients
- coconut oil ⅔ cup – to produce good lather (buy it in bulk here for soap making here)
- olive oil ⅔ cup – which makes a hard and mild bar
- other liquid oil ⅔ cup – like almond oil, grapeseed, sunflower or safflower oil (find them here)
- ¼ cup lye – also called 100% sodium hydroxide (find it here or at local hardware stores)
- ¾ cup cool water – use distilled or purified (find the best water purification systems here)
Instructions
Step 1
Cover your work area with newspaper. Put your gloves and other protective wear on. Measure your water into the quart canning jar. Have a spoon ready. Measure your lye, making sure you have exactly ¼ cup. Slowly pour the lye into the water, stirring as you go. Stand back while you stir to avoid the fumes. When the water starts to clear, you can allow it to sit while you move to the next step.
Step 2
In the pint jar, add your three oils together. They should just make a pint. Heat in a microwave for about a minute, or place the jar of oils in a pan of water to heat. Check the temperature of your oils – it should be about 120° or so. Your lye should have come down by then to about 120°. Wait for both to cool somewhere between 95° and 105°. This is critical for soap making. Too low and it’ll come together quickly, but be coarse and crumbly.
Step 3
When both the lye and oils are at the right temperature, pour the oils into a mixing bowl. Slowly add the lye, stirring until it’s all mixed. Stir by hand for a full 5 minutes. It’s very important to get as much of the lye in contact with as much of the soap as possible. After about 5 minutes, you can keep stirring or you can use an immersion blender (like this). The soap mixture will lighten in color and become thick. When it looks like vanilla pudding it’s at “trace” and you’re good to go. (Watch this video to see what trace looks like.)
Step 4
Add your herbs, essential oils or other additions at this point. Stir thoroughly to combine. Pour the mixture into mold(s) and cover with plastic wrap. Set in an old towel and wrap it up. This will keep the residual heat in and start the saponification process. Saponification is the process of the base ingredients becoming soap.
Step 5
After 24 hours, check your soap. If it’s still warm or soft, allow it to sit another 12-24 hours. When it’s cold and firm, turn it out onto a piece of parchment paper or baking rack. If using a loaf pan as your mold, cut into bars at this point. Allow soap to cure for 4 weeks or so. Be sure to turn it over once a week to expose all the sides to air (which is not necessary if using a baking rack). For a DIY soap drying rack, I took an old potato chip rack and slid cardboard fabric bolts (from a fabric store) through the rungs.
Step 6
When your soap is fully cured, wrap it in wax paper or keep it in an airtight container. Hand made soap creates its own glycerin, which is a humectant, pulling moisture from the air. It should be wrapped to keep it from attracting dust and debris with the moisture.
Notes
When you’re done making soap, always clean your equipment that has been exposed to lye. You can neutralize the lye with white vinegar, then wash the equipment well as you normally would. For the rest of it, let it sit for several days. Why? Because when you first make soap, it’s all fat and lye. You’ll be washing forever and you could burn your hands on the residual lye. If you wait, it becomes soap and all it takes to clean it is a soak in hot water.
For pictures and other information on cold process soap making, check out our other homemade soap article here.
How To Make Soap Video Tutorial
Well, what are you waiting for? Now that you know how to make soap, GO MAKE SOME!
I promise you’ll love your homemade soap.
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Sources
- Soap: FAQs. FDA U.S. Food & Drug Administration. November 2017.
About Debra Maslowski
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Comments
AN ELITE CAFEMEDIA HOME/DIY PUBLISHER
(I’m from Canada so for the long winter I’m going to give this soap making a go)
your tutorial has inspired me to try this, I wondered how much whey/coffee/kelp powder I would add to the batch? and will it come out clear if I add nothing but just scent? sorry to be a pain but nothing here in the UK seems as helpful as your article. thank you Christine.
I have a coupld of questions about making goat’s milk soap. Would you substitute the goat’s milk for the water? And raw goat’s milk is best, correct? Thanks again!
Blessings,