Soapmaking Theory

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Welcome!

What is Soap? • Well, the Definition is:

– a: a cleansing and emulsifying agent made usually by action of alkali on fat or fatty acids and consisting essentially of sodium or potassium salts of such acids

– b: a salt of a fatty acid and a metal

What this really means is: a cleansing agent that you create with a chemical reaction between Fatty Acids (Oils) and Salts (Lye). This reaction creates beautiful gentle and all around fabulous soap!

Why make or use handmade soap?

I am so glad that you asked! Making soap is practical, as it is something you can use, give to family and friends or you could choose to sell it. • Soapmaking also allows you to use your

creative side. Your creative choices are endless. Colors, fragrances, essential oils, dried herbs, herbal oils, clays and much more.

Benefits of using handmade soap?

• You are using soap that was made I your local area.

• It is gentle and moisturizing on your skin. • Contains No chemicals or preservatives. • Made with natural oils. • Cleanses your skin without stripping away

your skin’s natural oils. • Fun to use!

Safety • When making soap you always want to take extra

precautions to be safe. • You will be using LYE (Sodium Hydroxide) so you

need to make sure there are no children or pets in your working area.

• You should work in a clean area free of filth and debris.

• The utensils you use should be also be cleaned with soap and water.

Lye Safety. • Always work in a well ventilated area as not to inhale the

Lye fumes. • Wear close toed shoes and clothes that cover your legs.

When measuring, pouring and stirring your lye, long sleeve shirts are preferable.

• Treat Lye with Respect. Always handle it carefully and with purpose.

• Always wear your protective gear when using Lye. • Keep extra water on hand in the event of a spill. • Always slowly pour lye into cold water. NEVER pour water

into lye, it may cause an explosion. • Always keep your dry lye in a tightly sealed container

labeled Danger Lye.

Soap Making Terms. Saponification: Saponification is the term used to describe the chemical reaction that occurs when lye is mixed with oils. It is the actual creating of soap.

Alkali: Is a caustic salt that is used to create a chemical reaction. In our use it is our lye.

Trace: Trace occurs when the oils you are mixing together with your lye water start to thicken up and become creamy and harder to stir.

Gel: This occurs after the raw soap is poured into the mold. After pouring the soap the chemical reaction continues for about 18 hours. During this time the soap becomes very hot and the soap will look translucent, this is gel!

Cure: Curing is the time period that we leave our soap out to “dry” and become mild. This will be approximately 4 weeks.

Superfat: Is a standard soap making technique. It is the introduction of additional oils in to your recipe. The benefit of this is that you will have oil that has not been saponified. This extra oil helps keep your skin moisturized and your bar of soap gentle.

Choosing your ingredients. You will want to choose ingredients that: • Are easily accessible to you. • Locally grown oils and herbs • Affordable • Offer something to your recipe

• Lather, Moisture, Conditioning etc.

• You should choose fragrances that appeal to you. • If you are adding dried herbs or clay’s, they

should be interesting to you. • Color, smell, texture, etc.

Common Soap Making Oils • Castor Oil – Used in small amounts Castor Oil provides lots

of big fluffy bubbles with stable lather and a bit of moisturizing properties as well. I always use it at 3% of my oil base. If you use too much you may find there are not as many bubbles and it will make your soap a bit softer and sometimes sticky to touch.

• Cocoa Butter – Adds conditioning properties with a creamy stable lather while making a hard bar of soap. It is also used to help keep your skin supple and moisturized.

• Coconut Oil – Offers superb cleansing properties, lots of big fluffy bubbles and makes a harder bar of soap.

• Olive Oil – Is a very mild and gentle and provides extra moisturizing in soap. It’s a great addition to baby soaps or soaps for people that have sensitive skin and allergies.

Common Soap Making Oils Continued.

• Palm Oil – Contributes to a longer lasting hard bar of soap while providing a creamy lather.

• Shea Butter – I love Shea Butter in soap. It makes your soap moisturizing and conditioning to your skin while providing a hard bar of soap with a nice creamy lather.

• Soybean Oil – Provides a creamy stable lather while conditioning your skin.

• Sunflower Oil – It is rich in vitamin e, conditioning on your skin, mild and has a nice creamy lather. It is a very light oil and will make your bar of soap soft if you use too much of it.

Hard Oils Hard Creamy NaOHBar Bubbly Lather Conditioning Cleansing % to use Saponification

Beeswax * 0-3 0.067Cocoa Butter * * * 0-15 0.138Coconut Oil * * * * * 0-30 0.183Lard - Pig * * * 0-50 0.141Palm Kernel Oil * * * * * 0-20 0.176Palm Oil * * * 0-30 0.142Shea Butter * * * 0-25 0.128Tallow - Beef * * * * * 0-50 0.143

Properties of Common Soap Making Oils

Liquid Oils Hard Creamy NaOHBar Bubbly Lather Conditioning Cleansing % to use Saponification

Almond Oil * 0-20 0.139Apricot Kernel Oil * 0-10 0.139Argan Oil * * * 0-15 0.136Avocado Oil * * * 0-25 0.133Canola Oil * 0-50 0.133Castor Oil * * * 0-10 0.128Corn Oil * * * 0-15 0.137Grapeseed Oil * * * 0-10 0.129Jojoba Oil * 0-10 0.066Olive Oil * * * 0-50 0.134Safflower Oil * 0-20 0.137Soybean Oil * * * 0-50 0.136Sunflower Oil * * * 0-20 0.135Baobab Oil * * * 0-10 0.143Manketti Oil 0-10 0.139Marula Oil * * * 0-25 0.137Moringa Oil * * * 0-10 0.137Neem Oil * * * 0-30 0.139Sesame Oil * * * 0-10 0.134Tamanu/Kamani Oi l * * * 0-10 0.148Watermelon Seed Oi l * * * 0-10 0.135Yangu/ Cape Chestnut Oil * * * 0-10 0.137

These oils are considered more costly in the USA so we use them at lower quantities. If you have easy access to them at a lower cost you could up the ratios 0-25%

When making a recipe you should create a balance of hard oils/ butters and soft oils. As an example: Coconut Oil (Hard) 30% - Cleansing & fluffy bubbles Cocoa Butter (Hard)10% - Hard bar & conditioning Soybean Oil (Soft) 15% - Conditioning with stable lather Shea Butter (Hard) 30% - Moisturizing, conditioning, creamy lather & hard bar. Sunflower Oil (Soft) 15% - High in Vitamin e, creamy lather and conditioning.

This recipe will give you a pretty hard bar of soap that is cleansing and has really nice creamy lather while being moisturizing to your skin.

I recommend always trying to create a balance between each oil or butter and what it will bring to your bar of soap. If the oil really does not add any benefits to the recipe, you should not use it. If you want to make a gentle bar of soap you would pick mild moisturizing ingredients. The perfect bar of soap will be a balance of science and careful planning of your oils and butters.

While creating your recipe you should take into consideration the shelf life of your ingredients. If an oil tends to go rancid quickly you should avoid that oil or use it in small amounts up to 5%. I recommend using .25% - .50% of vitamin e oil to help keep the free oils in your soap from going rancid. If you do not have access to vitamin e I would recommend adding oils that are high in vitamin e naturally. Approximately 5-10% Almond Oil Avocado Oil Neem Oil Sunflower Oil Shea Butter

Making Recipes • Choose your ingredients. • Decide how much of each oil/ butter you will use based on

what you would like the properties of your soap to be. Your total oil percentages should add up to 100%.

• Calculate how the volume of soap you need to fit in your selected mold. You will multiply the length by the height by the width of the mold and take that number (maximum volume) and multiply it by 40% to calculate the oil amount you need to fit the mold. Our example will be a soap mold that is 12 in Long X 2.5 in High X 3 in wide.

We multiply the dimensions 12 X 2.5 X 3 = 90 Then we multiply 90 X .40 = 36 oz

36 oz is the amount of oil you will need to make your soap.

Our Soap Recipe: Cocoa Butter 10% * Coconut Oil 30% * Shea Butter 30% *

Soybean Oil 15% * Sunflower Oil 15% • We need 36 ounces of oil (1020 grams) to fill

our mold. We are now going to figure out the water amount that we need. A safe and easy way to figure out your water is to use 38% of your oils.

36 oz, 1020gr X .38 (38%) = 13.7 oz (387.60) ounces of Water. Lets break down our oils amounts and figure out how much Lye we need. Let’s calculate that……..

36 ounces = 1020gr total oils. To figure out how much we need of each oil we should take the total amount of oils, 36 ounces, and multiply by the percentage of each individual oil in the recipe. See below. Cocoa Butter 10% ~ 1020 gr x .10 = 102.gr Coconut Oil 30% ~ 1020 gr x .30 = 306gr Shea Butter 30% ~ 1020 gr x .30 = 306gr Soybean Oil 15% ~ 1020 gr x .15 = 153 gr Sunflower Oil 15% ~ 1020 gr x .15 = 153 gr Total Oils 1020 gr

Cocoa Butter 102 gr Coconut Oil 306 gr Shea Butter 306 gr Soybean Oil 153 gr Sunflower Oil 153 gr Total Oils 1020 grams

Now that we know our oil amounts we can calculate our lye needed to saponify the oils.

Oils in the amounts needed for our soap recipe as we previously calculated.

Lye Calculations

Lye

Ingredient Weight X SAP Needed

Cocoa Butter 102 gr 0.138 14.10gr

Coconut Oil 306 gr 0.183 56 gr

Shea Butter 306 gr 0.128 39.2 gr

Soybean Oil 153 gr 0.136 20.8 gr

Sunflower Oil 153 gr 0.135 20.6 gr

Total Oils 1020 gr 150.7 gr

To calculate the lye needed we will take the amount of oil in the recipe and multiply it by the SAP (Saponification Value) to determine the amount of lye we need. See below.

Total Recipe, Congratulations! You have made it this far!

Ingredient Weight Cocoa Butter 102 gr Coconut Oil 306 gr Shea Butter 306 gr Soybean Oil 153 gr Sunflower Oil 153 gr Total Oils 1020

Water Needed 388. gr Lye Needed 150.7 gr

Superfatting. To superfat or not? Superfatting your soap is a very personal choice. To superfat you would incorporate additional oil to your soap recipe. This additional oil will not actually get saponified it will stay free floating within the soap. This gives your soap a more moisturizing and gentle bar. It also will give you a buffer in the event that you measured your lye incorrectly. The suggested rate of superfatying would be 2.5-5%. You must keep in mind the climate you live in. If you live in a hot humid climate, I would suggest 2.5 – 3%. This will give you some extra moisturizing properties but won’t make you soap sticky in the hot humid air.

Final Soap Recipe Including Superfatting. If we choose to superfat 3% we will take the amount of oils 1020 gr and multiply it by 3%. That would give is 30.6 gr of extra oil. I would choose the extra oil to be sunflower oil as it is high in vitamin e.

Water Needed 388 gr Lye Needed 5.29 oz

Extra Oil-Sunflower 10.20gr

Ingredient Weight Cocoa Butter 102 gr Coconut Oil 306 gr Shea Butter 306 gr Soybean Oil 153 gr Sunflower Oil 153 gr Total Oils 1020

Soapmaking Utensils

Make sure that your utensils and molds are clean and free of debris. Make sure your work space is also

clean.

Gather your supplies. Make sure you have everything you will need before you get started. It makes soaping easier, I promise!

– Recipe – Ingredients – Apron – Gloves – Eye Protection – Face Mask/ Respirator – Scale – Molds – Wax paper or other mold liner – Spatula – Stainless steel pots – Wire Wisk – Spoons for scooping – Bowls Stainless or Glass for measuring

Mold choices There are many different options that you could choose.

– Wooden Mold, pre-made or you can make your own.

– Heavy Duty Plastic ex. HDPE – Silicone loaf pans, square pans or assorted sizes. – Individual plastic molds similar to candy molds. – Cardboard boxes, which I have used many times. – PVC pipes

Get your safety gear on! Face Mask.

Gloves!

Face Mask

Apron

Gloves

We are ready to

Soap.

Next you should measure out your water & Lye separately. Use caution when weighing your lye. The little beads/ flakes

tend to move around when your pouring.

Measuring my cold water.

Slowly and carefully pour your measured lye into your measured

water. NEVER pour your water into the lye it will cause an explosion.

While slowly pouring your lye into the water whisk the lye water so

that the lye dissolves. Be careful as the lye water becomes very hot,

very fast and produces toxic fumes for a few moments. If you are

asthmatic please use extra caution as it can exacerbate asthma.

You should never handle Lye with

out being properly covered!

I personally take my lye and water outside to mix them together. It

keeps the fumes out of my house. Each person does something

different and you will do what works comfortably for you. Please make sure where ever you choose it is

well ventilated and safe. Meaning there are no pets, children or

unsuspecting people that may come along and get hurt with your lye

water.

Prepare your mold. This mold is a High Density Plastic that I use for trial batches. I line it with freezer paper or wax paper so that the fresh soap does not leak out the sides. You could

also use Mylar sheets cut to fit the mold.

Next we will begin weighing our ingredients. Notice I have now removed my face mask and have chosen different gloves. Being that I am not using the lye water I can safely remove my face mask. You should continue to wear gloves to keep your ingredients free of germs and other contaminants that you may

be carrying on your hands. I would also suggest pulling back your hair.

Weigh each ingredient separately and then add to your stainless steel pot. Use caution when weighing as not to cross contaminate any of your ingredients. Always use clean utensils for each

individual ingredient. Ex. Do not use the spoon that you scooped out the shea butter with to then scoop out your coconut oil. That is cross contamination!!!

More weighing.

Weighing accurately is very important for the

integrity of the soap. You should

always be as exact as possible.

Humor is, well……… fun. You have to love what you do.

Start melting all of your hard oils. I suggest using a low heat.

Shea Butter

Cocoa Butter

Coconut Oil

Then measure out your liquid oils.

Add your liquid oils to your melting solid oils.

All the oils in the pot, melting.

Melted oils. After they are melted remove them from the heat. Put the pot somewhere safe so that you can mix in the lye water. I

suggest a sink so that if you need water immediately you have quick access to it. I typically use a stick blender to mix my soap

together but a wire wisk works really well also.

Slowly and carefully pour your lye water into your melted oils. I typically pour the lye water away from me in the event of an accidental spill or splash. You should always be

very careful and cautious when working with lye. I am not doing that here because I needed a picture.

You can see as you pour the lye water into the oils it starts to coagulate. Once the lye water hits the oil it

immediately starts the chemical reaction of turning oil to soap. Saponification is starting.

I am gently pulsing the stick blender to thoroughly mix the lye water and oils together.

It is getting thicker.

Soap has come to a medium trace. If you were going to add fragrances, herbs or coloring you would add them

at a light to medium trace which is right here.

Medium trace looks thick. Which you can see on the end of my stick blender.

You can tell that you have reached trace several different ways but in this picture you can see that when I picked up my spatula the raw soap that fell into the pot left a trail

in the soap. This is a classic trace sign. The soap is also clinging to the sides of the soap pot almost like a pudding.

Trace

Once you have added any additional items such as fragrance, essential oils, clays, herbs, therapeutic oils or

colors you should promptly pour your soap into your prepared mold. If you wait too long to pour the soap can it can set up (get thick and become hard) right in

your pot and then it is difficult to transfer to your mold. Your mold should be lined and close by so that you can work quickly with your raw soap. You should absolutely be wearing your cloves and eye protection while mixing the lye water to the oils, stirring and pouring the soap

into the mold.

Gloves & Apron

Beautiful, don’t you think? I always use a clean spatula to scrape down the sides of my pot to get every last

piece of soapy goodness

Now that you have your soap poured into your mold you need to put it in a safe place where it will be untouched and not knocked over for 24 hours. In the next 24 hours your soap will go through several stages and they have different names for these stages. Essentially the lye reacts with the oils and converts the oils into soap.

During this process of transformation the soap will get really hot (the gel phase) so please do not touch it. Then it will start to cool down and set up (get hard). Some people choose to cover their soap (in the mold) with an old blanket or towel to keep the heat in the mold and help the saponification move along quicker. There has been no real evidence that covering your soap makes it saponify quicker or better.

I personally do not cover my soap. I have made soap both ways and have found no benefit to covering it. I also like things to be simple!

After 24 Hours.

Now that your soap has rested/set for 24 hours you should look at it. Put on a pair of gloves and gently touch the top to see if it is hard. If it is you can take it out of the mold. If it is not you should let it sit another 8-12 hours and then recheck it and proceed. After you have unmolded your soap you should look at it and make sure it looks good. It should have a relatively uniform look with nothing oozing out if it. If it looks good then you should cut it into bars.

Here is the loaf of soap. How does it look? It looks uniform in color, consistency, there

are not weird spots or anything leaking out. Should we cut it? Yes we should.

I make soap in 30 lb batches (88 - 4.5 oz bars) in a large block mold. This is what they look like out side of the

mold. The next few slide is me cutting it up.

Getting my grid cutter into place.

The block is all cut, now I

must cut them into bars.

Cocoa Butter Soap with swirls of cocoa powder.

Cutting into bars.

The soap is so beautiful!

Curing Period After you have cut the loaves into bars you should

place them on a shelf or rack to cure for 3 to 4 weeks. The bars should be separated and have space between them. They need air to cure and dry out. In this 3 to 4 week cure period your soap will completely finish the saponification process, any unused water that is left in

the soap will start to evaporate and the bar will become hard. This 3 -4 week time of curing is very

important and should not be skipped.

Notice the bars are not touching and are on a wire shelving unit.

This is a simple “cigar band” label. Goats milk

soap wrapped in cheese

cloth.

Glassline bag with a

printed ribbon.

Inside the soap is

wrapped in a paper

cigar band.

Problem Soaps. The following examples of soaps are real soap

batches & errors that I have made. Soaps that look suspicious should

never be used.

Here is an example of soap that should not be used. There are lye spots here. Lye spots can happen for lots of reasons. Most likely reasons: Not

stirring the lye into the water well, lye that has been exposed

to moisture in the air so it is not as active as it should be,

not stirring well enough when adding lye water to the oils.

Lye Spots.

This soap is made with raw milk, maple syrup and oatmeal. This soap looks mottled and uneven in color and texture. It should not be used. What happened here is the raw milk that I used

saponified at a different rate than the oils. These are things to look for in your soap when determining if it is safe to use.

Here is a picture of the same milk soap but a different batch. This batch had too

much sugar (maple syrup) it in and as you can see it all

settled to the bottom of the soap. The Lye was not able to saponify the soap correctly so

when I opened it up, liquid gushed out and I saw holes in

the block. This soap was safely discarded! It is very

unfortunate when you have to discard soap.

Soapmaking Resources

• Lye Calculators http://www.soapcalc.net www.summerbeemeadow.com www.brambleberry.com www.soapguild.org www.soapmaker.ca ~ Soapmaking & Supply Organization Software

Websites with Soapmaking Directions and information.

• http://www.soapqueen.com • http://www.soapqueen.tv • http://www.lovinsoap.com • http://teachsoap.com • http://www.soap-making-essentials.com • http://candleandsoap.about.com • http://www.otionsoap.com/blog • http://www.natural-soapmaking.net

Soap Making Books Essential Soap Making by Alyssa Middleton & Mary Humphrey

The Everything Soap Making Book by Alicia Grosso

Soap Naturally by Patrizia Garzena & Marina Tadiello

The Soap Makers Companion by Susan Miller Cavitch

Trade Organizations

These are 2 Organizations that are based in the United States however their reach is worldwide and I would highly recommend that you spend some time on their websites.

Indie Beauty Network www.indiebusinessnetwork.net Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild www.soapguild.org