The best kinds of gifts are the ones you made yourself. Of course, any kind of gift is special but something that you made with your bare hands deserve a little more praise. This coming Mother’s Day, why not give the moms of your life home-made soaps. You can make soap that caters to her specific needs. Plus, it’s actually pretty easy. If you wish to know how to make soap to give away on Mother’s Day, take a peek at the steps below.
There are a dozen reasons why you should know how to make soap. Perhaps the most important reason is that you get to choose what you put in your DIY soap. Commercial soaps have ingredients that may not be too nice on your skin and to the environment. As mentioned earlier, you can create soaps that are specific to your needs. You just have to know which natural ingredients teat the specific condition you have. For example, if you have dry skin, you can use almond oil and Shea butter as your main ingredients since these two are known to help soften skin.
What You Mainly Need
Lye Crystals
The version of lye you need for your home-made soap is either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide.
Fats and Oils or Soap Base
If you wish to know how make soap, you must understand that there are different ways to it. Some people prefer using fats and oils, for example, while others use soap base.
You can choose from a variety of oils, most of which are used for cooking. The popular ones include olive oil, coconut oil, and almond oil. Other oils you can use are rice bran, coconut butter, caster, and jojoba oil. You can also use lard and vegetable shortening.
You’ll be producing one block of soap for every block of soap base. In other words, it’s a one is to one ratio. The essential oil, coloring agent, and other ingredients will not affect the volume of the soap base that much since you’ll only be using a few ounces or drops of each.
Essential Oils
Essential oils are different from fragrance oils. The former is filled with the good stuff such as anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. The latter, meanwhile, is all about the scent. If you use fragrance oils, you risk drying and irritating the skin more because it is made of synthetic compounds unlike essential oils, which are pure plant extracts.
Every essential oil has its own expertise, so to say. Use the essential oils of chamomile, lavender, or patchouli if you want a soap that induces relaxation. Grapefruit essential oil helps in dealing with depression and anxiety. For moisturizing the skin, use avocado and sweet almond essential oils.
You can experiment with different combinations of essential oils. Make sure you check if you like the scent before you proceed with the soap-making process.
Coloring Agent
The most common coloring agent used in soap-making is ordinary food coloring. They give off pretty vibrant colors.
Other Things You Need
Distilled water
Double broiler or stainless steel cooking pot
Digital kitchen scale
Digital thermometer
Measuring cup
Mixing spoon or whisk
Soap molds
Wax paper
Other ingredients (such as Shea butter, honey, oatmeal, cocoa butter and activated charcoal)
Safety equipment (gloves, googles, mask)
How to Make Soap With Lye
Measuring and Mixing
Knowing how to make soap at home requires a little patience and precision. Use this soap calculator to determine how much of each ingredient you need to produce a certain amount of soap.
Once you’ve calculated, measured and placed the ingredients in their respective containers (plastic tubs will do), it’s time to do some mixing. First, carefully mix the lye into the water. Don’t pour the water into the lye. You could make a splash and get lye all over you. Of course, we’re assuming that you already have your protective gear on at this point.
Set it aside for a little while. You’ll notice that the container will get hot. You can use a digital thermometer to see if the lye mixture has reached about 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
More Mixing
Once you got the right temperature, pour the lye mixture into the soap base. If you’re using olive oil or any other oil, simply add the lye mixture into your pot of oil. Pour the lye carefully and mix with your spatula as you do. After dumping all the lye into the soap base or oil, continue stirring and mixing with your spoon until it gets thicker. You can also use a hand mixer or whisk.
Adding the Oils and Color
By this stage, you should’ve decided on the essential oils and colors you’re going to use. You may want to match the color with the oil. For example, use yellow food color for lemon oil or purple dye for lavender oil. You can even do mismatching oils and colors just to put some fun on into your DIY soaps. This depends entirely on you. For beginners, however, you may want to try using one essential and one coloring agent first. Once you’ve got the method down pat, you can experiment with different mixtures.
Add an ounce of the essential oil or oils that you’ve chosen along with a few drops of your coloring agent to the soap blend.
Adding Other Ingredients
If you’re using other ingredients outside the main ones, now is the time to add them. Mix well with your mixing spoon.
Pouring into the Mold
Carefully pour or scoop the soap blend into the soap molds. You can use store-bought silicone molds or repurpose some items already in your kitchen such as ice trays, silicone muffin cups, and yogurt cups.
Set the soap blend aside to let it cool and cure. Cover the molds with a towel to control the loss of heat. This will take hours so make sure you put them somewhere it won’t be disturbed. Once the soap is hard, remove it from the mold. For blocks of soap, you will want to cut them to bar size using the stainless steel scraper. Let it cure for four more weeks.
How to Make Soap Without Lye
Most home-made soap tutorials warns against the possible risks of using caustic soda, otherwise known as lye. If you prefer not to handle lye, don’t fret. There are other methods of making your DIY soap without the need for lye, sort of.
Melting the Soap Base
Place your block of soap base in your double broiler. Your double broiler should be huge enough to fit your soap base. Let the soap base melt completely but be careful not to burn it. Once done, let the soap base cool down to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Yes, you need both the lye mixture and soap base to be at the same temperature at the same time.
The melt-and-pour technique uses a stabilized version of lye. First, you need a pre-processed soap base that’s has no color and scent. The fat in this kind of soap base has already undergone saponification, which means you don’t need the form of lye use in the previous methods.
Simply add your chosen essential oils and coloring agents to the soap base. Follow the next steps as one with the previous method.
Thank you for taking the time to learn how to make home-made soap through this tutorial. Visit The Gentleman Pirate to learn of other DIY projects you can give away as present on Mother’s Day or any other occasion, for that matter.
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