Servings: 6 soap bars
Cost: $5 - $20 / 4€ - 15€
Equipment
Ingredients
Lye Water
- 115 g distilled water
- 62 g lye (100% sodium hydroxide)
Oils
After Trace Ingredients
- 10 drops grapefruit seed extract (GSE) (anti-oxidant)
- ¼ tsp ultramarine violet (CI 77007)
- 1 ½ tsp poppy seeds to exfoliate
- 13 ml essential oils blend
- alcohol or witch hazel to sprinkle
Essential Oil Blend
- 1 tsp essential oil rosemary
- 1,5 tsp essential oil lavender
- 0,5 tsp essential oil cedarwood Atlas
Instructions
Get Ready!
- Wear goggles and gloves! Look at “Safety Precautions” in the video above or in Soap Making Safety Precautions
- Watch the video above about "Cold Process Soap Making Tutorial" or read the post Learn To Make Cold Process Soap for instructions on cold process soap making before starting. These are generic but important steps for all recipes.
- Assemble everything: ingredients, equipment, safety equipment. Prepare your workstations. Measure all the ingredients. Don’t start the recipe without having everything ready!
- Add the ultramarine colorant to one teaspoon of oil in a separate cup, mix well, and put aside. You can use the measured oil.
Heat the Oils
- Heat the oils until the solid oils are completely melted (it is not necessary to heat all the time).
Make the Lye Water
- Make the lye solution according to How To Make Lye Water. Mix it until the vapors start to dissipate.
Make the Soap Batter
- Use as a target temperature 40ºC for the oil-solution mixture. If necessary, you can reheat the oils, but not the lye solution.
- When adding the lye water to the oils, strain the water to avoid lye crystals in your soap batter.
- Add the oil with the colorant and mix well. Use the immersion blender to avoid clumps of colorant, but be careful not to reach heavy trace (creamy batter). If needed, use a whisker.
- Reach medium trace with the immersion blender.
- Add the rest of after trace ingredients: extract, essential oil (s) and poppy seeds. Stir with just a spoon. Lavender essential oil usually turns the soap batter from liquid to solid instantly. Be careful and be fast with the next step.
Molding and Curing
- Pour the dough into the large soap mold or silicone molds and sprinkle with alcohol or witch hazel.
- Optional step – Pre-heat the oven with 40ºC. Turn it off then place the molds inside: the color will be brighter if the molds are heat insulated.
- Wait 48 hours, keeping an eye on the hardness of the soap.
- Unmold and cut the soap into small bars (if you used the large soap mold). See How To Cure Soap, "Unmolding and Cutting" chapter.
- Let the bars cure for 4 to 6 weeks. See How To Cure Soap.
Video
Tried this recipe?Send a pic to @herbalcochete!
