Words are not needed for this post. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

This recipe has been adapted from a recipe for soap on DIY Natural. I changed the measurements into grams and some of the American terminology into a more Aussie friendly English, whilst still retaining the main ideas of this recipe from DIY Natural. There is a link to this website at the bottom of the post.


Safety: Please refer to the instructions for the 100% extra virgin olive oil recipe in Soapy Conversations. Just remember: Wear gloves and eye protection. Make sure there are no small children or pets around your work area. Always pour the lye into the water and not the other way around!!

Hand & Body Soap Recipe (Cold Process)Ingredients

• 300g of coconut oil – to produce good lather 
• 400g olive oil – which makes a hard and mild bar 
• 300g other liquid oil – like almond oil, grapeseed, sunflower, soybean oil or safflower oil 
• 143g lye – also called 100% sodium hydroxide 
• 330g  cool water – use distilled or purified 

Method

1. Cover your work area with newspaper. Put your gloves and other protective wear on. Measure your water into a jug. Have a stainless steel or wooden spoon ready. Measure your lye, making sure you have exactly 143g . 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 and cool while you move to the next step. Hint: Mix your lye and water under the exhaust fan in your kitchen.
2. Weigh your oils and remember to reset or tare your scale before each weigh. Check the temperature of your oils – they should be about 37 degrees C. Cool your lye to about 37-38 degrees C. This is critical for soap making. Too low and it’ll come together quickly, but be coarse and crumbly.
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. 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. See pics of trace in the blog on 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil soap.
4. Add your herbs, essential oils or other additions at this point. Stir thoroughly to combine. Pour the mixture into mould(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. 
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 6 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). 
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 an humectant, pulling moisture from the air. It should be wrapped to keep it from getting dirty.

Clean up
I like to immediately wash out my Lye water jug or container and then fill it 1/4 of the way with clean water and a little Apple Cider Vinegar. As I finish with each utensil, I pop it into the jug and let it sit. I don't like to leave my bowls etc. to sit as I don't have any other bowls or equipment, so I like to wash it immediately in hot sudsy water. Just keep wearing your gloves as you really haven't finished making your soap until clean up is finished :) 


If you are not making anymore soap for a few days, then letting your bowl sit is great as it turns to soap and you don't need to use detergent. Be sure to place it where children and other inquisitive adults can't touch the lye laden soap. 

Once I made some coconut and  cocoa cupcake soaps late at night and then went to bed. These soaps really looked like edible cupcakes...firstly they were cupcake shaped and finished off with a cocoa frosting, they were sitting on my kitchen bench on a baking rack. My hubby was out playing tennis and so did not see me making the soap. Just before I fell asleep I thought about how realistic the soaps looked, so I jumped out of bed, wrote a big bold note, "This is soap and not cupcakes!" and left it on the bench near the soaps. The next morning Hubby said that he walked in, saw the cakes and was just about to take one when he noticed the note! I laughed but was very thankful that he did not actually take a bite...it would have been a nasty shock!!

With thanks to http://www.diynatural.com/how-to-make-soap-2/



Be sure to leave a comment and check out the Quinoa and Chia Milk soap on Etsy.

I went shopping at my local Indian grocers and while I was searching for my supplies I noticed a lovely bottle of Rose Water and just below it, a packet of red tandoori colour. I began to wonder what it would be like to make a soap using rose water and tandoori colour. So, on an impulse I bought the bottle and the colour and couldn't wait to get home and try it! I used my tried and true 3 oil recipe with Coconut Oil, Olive Oil and Sunflower Oil and used the rose water for my liquid. It smelt wonderful! I wasn't sure how the fragrance of the rose water would stand up when mixed with the Lye, as an awful lot of heat is generated, so to be on the safe side, I froze the rose water. 

I decided to make a cold process soap using the red tandoori colour mixed with a little oil. So far, so good. The rose water appeared to keep its subtle fragrance and the teaspoon of tandoori colour turned one half of the soap a lovely rosy pink. I poured the soap into my mould, covered with plastic wrap and wrapped in a towel to keep warm. I was so excited and couldn't wait until the following day when I could unmould and cut. I just love that part of soap making! It's sort of like unwrapping a present each time!. Well, I unwrapped, and was shocked to see that my lovely rose coloured soap had turned a deep, vibrant tandoori orange! Not what I had in mind at all! I was looking at a kilo of tandoori soap with a hint of rose. 

Well it has been curing for a week now and the tandoori orange is not fading. I'll take some pics and post them for you to have a look at. I am thinking that the tandoori colour is going to prove to be very stable and vibrant. If that is the case...then I will know to only use the tiniest, tiniest bit of this colour in the future. It is just so vibrant! 

I would be interested to know if anyone has had success with colouring their soaps with food colours that are oil soluble. 

Update: the soap is cured and the colour has remained strong and vibrant. No fade at all. I can't sell these soaps as I did not cut them very evenly and they look a bit shoddy...but next batch will be perfect!! I can't believe how the tandoori colour "pops"!

Have you ever just been sitting watching Telly (television for any non-aussie readers) and just got the soap making bug? Well the other night as I was watching a riveting Cricket match between Australia and India I did just that...decided to make some soap. So keeping in tune with the Australia/India theme I went to my spice cupboard and raided it for aromatic spices and found two of my favourites...star anise and cardamom. So out came the soap making gear and my trusty spice grinder and I went to work filling my kitchen with the most wonderful aromatic scent of ground cardamom and star anise. I decided to make a basic 3 oil recipe using Coconut Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Sunflower Oil with a base of Almond milk. I had my Almond milk already frozen for such a time as this!  This made a lovely creamy mix that looked good enough to eat. At a reasonably thick trace I added my freshly ground spices and it smelt good enough to eat! So now I have a soap to remind me of Australia's brilliant win against India in the World Cup Semi-finals...:) Of course I won't tell my hubby this as he is Indian and takes his cricket very seriously!!! But still...I can't help a secret inner smile every time I look at my spicy, fragrant soap! 
Have you ever had a similar experience when you just needed to make some soap late at night? Please feel free to share your experiences!
Janine