Equipment list:

• A blender.
• Wooden or stainless steel spoon,
• Stainless steel pots,
• 2 Glass, plastic, or stainless steel casserole dishes, 11 1/2 x 7 1/2 or what ever will hold a blender full.
• Candy Thermometer Scales that weigh in ounces.
• Pyrex measuring cup.

Recipe #1 of 2:

• 8 oz weight cocoa butter
• 5 oz weight palm oil
• 3 oz weight castor oil
• 2.2 oz weight lye, or liquid caustic soda (if LCS then use 6 oz by weight)
• 1 1/4 cup water or goats milk or reg. milk ( milk makes a dark brown bar)
• 2 tablespoons essential oil or oils, for your choice of fragrance.

One blender full makes about 12 bars of soap 1 3/4 x 3 1/2 x 3/4 inch. According to the Internet, homemade soap sells for about one dollar per ounce. Mix milk and water, and lye (or caustic soda. If you are using lye then melt the lye in water until dissolved) together and bring to 125 degrees in a stainless steel bowl or pot. Stir the mixture until 125 degrees temp. is reached. Weigh and melt all oils together in a bowl and bring to 100 degrees. Pour oils into blender, then water or milk and lye or caustic soda into blender. Start blending a low speed until the mixture is much thicker. The whirlpool must disappear. It the mixture blends like water and does not begin to thicken, then you do not have enough lye or LCS. Add a little while blending and watch it has disappeared then you may have some separation and the mixture will take longer to harden or may harden with water underneath. You probably will not blend more that 2 minutes. At the beginning of blending add oatmeal or other additives and fragrance.

Pour the mixture into the glass, plastic, or stainless steel casserole dish or molds. Leave in the casserole dish or molds over night. When the soap has firmed up, cut the bars with a knife while still in the dish. Allow the bars to cure for 2 to three weeks. You can start using them sooner, however they will just dissolve faster. Aging allow the ph to fall to the 8 range and for the bar to harden up. When the mixture starts to thicken the saponification is taking place. Also the thickening process is called tracing. Then is when the molecules of the oil and lye are connecting to each other in the carbon chain and creating soap and glycerin. You may wonder why anyone wants to bathe with soap that contains something as harsh as lye. Well, the good news is that soap is made with lye, but soap does not contain lye. Lye reacts with fats, creating roughly three molecules of soap and one molecule glycerin. The lye is no longer present, only great soap and glycerin.

Why would you want to make your own soap when soap from the store is abundant and cheap? Because you know what is in your soap and it will be friendly to your skin. Not all ingredients in store soap will be kind to your skin. I share some of my soap with a man that is blind who did not use any soap at all when he showered because of skin rashes from the store soap. He is happy to have something that works for him. Many different things can be added to the soap. My last batch had a 4th cup of oat meal. Also different fragrances. I have used Peppermint, orange, and lavender and lime. Medicinal things can be done according to desire or need, like calendula or different herbs that are powder form.

I have actually learned all I know about soap making from the Internet. If you want to hear from people all over the world who are hooked on homemade soap making, then join the Soapers Digest.

Recipe# 2 of 2:
If 16 oz of oil equals 100 percent of fats then a recipe could be: (this is the one I use)

• 8 oz wt. olive oil (for hardness)
• 4 oz wt. coconut oil (for suds)
• 4 oz wt. palm oil (for hardness)
• 1 1/4 cup of milk or water (milk makes a darker shade of bar)
• 2.2 oz of lye or 6 oz liquid Caustic Soda (sodium hydroxide, handle carefully)
• 20 2 table spoons essential oils for fragrance.

Your call for other additives. (I like to toss in a hand full of oatmeal)

Most all soap making supplies:
Janca's Jojoba Oil and Seed Company
456 E. Juanita # 7
Mesa, Arizona 85204
(602) 497-9494

Lye, obtain from a grocery store. Look next to the Draino. Get only Red Devil Lye. Used as a drain cleaner. You'll use it to make soap.

Just a note here about soap making. All oils and fats have a different SAP value, or how much lye is needed to completely saponify (turn to soap) the lye and oil/fat combination. The amount of lye needed can vary widely depending upon which oils or fats are used. So, it's important to know the SAP value and how to figure out how much lye to use. There is no one chart that can be used for lye and oil amounts. And too much lye in a soap recipe will give you a nice skin peel, whether you want one or not (very caustic).