Making Homemade Soap

Video: How to Make Soap

An Easy Way To Make Scented Herbal Soaps

Using Leftover Soap

Ideally, the leftover pieces of soap you use should be unscented or, at least, only very lightly scented. Highly scented soaps will compete and overpower the aromas from your essential oils. The color of the soap doesn't matter, in fact, if you want to change the color, you can find soap coloring at craft stores that carry soap-making supplies.

Remnants from glycerin based soaps (soaps that you can see through) will melt fairly quickly and evenly. The opaque (solid colored) soaps like dial, ivory, etc., melt a lot more slowly. To speed up the process, grate your leftovers with a vegetable grater or chop them into tiny pieces. Melt your soap scraps on the stove top in a double boiler over simmering heat. Whatever you do, DO NOT melt opaque soaps in the microwave or you'll have a huge, foamy mess on your hands. Once you start experimenting with soap recipes, you may run across several calling for Castile soap. This pure, white, concentrated soap (with no scent) works very well for making soap. You can usually find it in health-food stores and some larger grocery store chains.

Making Essential Oils

Essential oils are what give herbal soaps their scent. The strongest and longest lasting aromas come from oils that contain herbs like rosemary, lavender, and thyme. Other herbs to experiment with include mints (spearmint or peppermint), lemon verbena, lemon balm, chamomile, comfrey, and roses. To make essential oils, place about 4 ounces (1 1/2 cups, tightly packed) of a single herb's leaves or petals in an airtight glass jar with 4 ounces of extra virgin olive oil. Keep the jar in a cool, dark place for about 3 weeks. After 3 weeks, strain the oil to remove the plant debris. You now have an aromatic essential oil. Use it to make your soaps, or add a few drops to your bath water for a refreshing and relaxing aroma.

Making Bar Soap:

Ingredients:

• slivers of leftover soap
• essential oil of your choice

Directions:

Once the old soap is melted, add about 1 tablespoon (more or less to your tastes) of the essential herbal or floral oil of your choice, and continue stirring for several minutes. Pour the mixture into plastic molds (available at craft stores), or into small containers that have been lightly greased with olive or vegetable oil. Leave soaps for at least two days before unmolding and/or cutting. After removing your soap from the molds, you may find that you still need to cure them (let them dry out and harden up) a bit longer. Depending on your preferences, this can take several days to a few weeks. Once they set up sufficiently, wrap them in plastic wrap or wax paper to store.

Honey Lavender Soap

Ingredients (makes 1 bar of soap):

• 10 Tbsp. of grated leftover soap
• 1/2 tsp. olive oil
• 2 tsp. of clear honey
• 2-3 drops of essential oil (use more or less as desired), such as lavender or rosemary

Directions:

Additional tips:

• The addition of essential oils to soap "batter" can sometimes (not always) cause the soap to darken in color. Also, adding bits and pieces of dried herbs to your soap will give it an interesting look and texture, but don't be surprised if they turn brown. The exception seems to be calendula petals, which are generally good at retaining their color.
• A lot of different variables (e.g. combination of herbs, amounts of water and oil, curing time) work together to affect your end product. Getting the exact results you're looking for may take experimentation and practice.

By Ellen Brown

Homemade Gardener Soap

You can use pink soap, it looks really nice. Great for gifts.

By coville123 from Brockville, Ontario

Homemade Letter Soap

Approximate Time: 1/2 hour

Supplies:

• block of clear unscented soap (for one soap, about 8 oz., depending on size)
• dye (optional)
• scent (optional)
• small amount of white unscented soap
• square/rectangular mold
• letter molds
• freezer
• microwave
• knife
• alcohol in spray bottle
• microwave safe container
• Popsicle sticks

Instructions:

1. Melt a small amount of white soap in the microwave, 25 seconds, mix (with Popsicle stick), repeat another 25 seconds and repeat until melted.
2. Pour into letter mold of choice.
3. Place mold in the freezer for about 15 minutes or until solid.
4. Remove letter from mold.
5. Melt about 8 oz. of clear soap (or as much needed for the square mold) in the microwave, 25 seconds, mix (with Popsicle stick), heat for 25 seconds, until fully melted.
6. Add dye or leave as is.
7. Add a drop of scent or leave as is.
8. Pour into square mold.
9. If bubbles form, spray with alcohol.
10. Wait about 2 minutes so the soap cools a little and doesn't melt the letter, then place the letter in the center of the melted soap in the mold.
11. Let harden for about a day.
12. Remove from mold.

By Esther from Baltimore

Grate Soap to Form New Bars

It may be a little bumpy and colorful, but it works great and lasts a long time because the bars are bigger and not full of air.

By Sweet Pea from Butternuts, NY

Homemade Soap

Ingredients:

• 1 can lye
• 6 lbs. fat
• 2 1/2 pints cold water

Directions:

Slowly add lye to cold water, stir to dissolve. Melt fat and let it cool. Pour into lye and use a wooden spoon to stir until it gets too stiff to stir.

By Robin

Soap Making, No Boil Method

3 Page(s)

Contents:

• Preparation for Soap Making
• Toilet Soap
• Reclaiming Soap
• Soap Making Tips

This article is available in PDF format. Click here to download it.

Published by: Utah State University

Simple Soap Making Idea