Easy Basic Beginner Soap

• Oils & Vinegars

  • 100 g Coconut oil
  • 10 g Lavender essential oil
  • 500 g Olive oil, Extra Virgin

• Liquids

  • 195 g Water

• Other

  • 80 g Lye

Found on thethingswellmake.com

Description

Ingredients

• 500 g extra virgin olive oil
• 100 g coconut oil (Regular coconut oil that melts around 76ºF)
• 10 g lavender essential oil
• 80 g lye
• 195 g water

Directions

• Mix your lye into your water (Not the other way around!!!). Do this in a recipient that can handle heat; I used a glass bowl. It is best to do this step outside so that you dont fill your house with the fumes. Try not to breath them in!! Once the lye has dissolved, leave the mix to cool in an area where no kids or pets have access to it!!!
• Meanwhile, you can weigh and mix your olive and coconut oils. I mixed them in a large, glass bowl with room for adding and mixing the other ingredients.
• After the lye mixture has cooled a bit, bring it back inside and pour into your oil mix. Mix them together gently at first.
• Once your lye mix has been incorporated into your oils, you can start to blend them with a hand blender. Be careful not to spray the mixture all over!! I blended mine in the bottom of my sink, and distanced myself as much as the blender would allow, just in case!! You can do this step by hand, but it supposedly will take a very long time.
• When your mixture starts to thicken like mayonnaise, after a few minutes, you are at the stage that is called trace. That is what you want!!!
• Mix in your essential oils.
• Pour into soap molds. (I used a silicone pan and some plastic containers. Its a good idea to oil the plastic containers beforehand to prevent sticking.)
• Cover and set aside for at least 24 hours. It will probably get warm. If you cover it with a cloth to keep the warmth in, it supposedly contributes to the quality of the soap. I dont know if thats true or not, but I do it anyway. 🙂
• After 24 hours, uncover and see if you can unmold it. If it is too soft, wait a few more hours and unmold. You can put it in a cold place to help shrink it a little to help the process out. Dont wait too long or it will be too hard to easily cut into bars.
• Cut into bars. I like the look of big, chunky square-ish bars. The nice thing about making your own, is that you can decide how you want to cut them.
• Let set for around a month, turning every day or two at first, and then every week later on. This is to let your soap dry out and harden.
• Enjoy your soap!!