If you’ve been doing your own arts and crafts for long enough, then chances are you’ve probably considered making your own cold process soap. Lots of people have been doing this for a very long time, and it is the traditional way that soap has been made for centuries. On top of being a great DIY project, making your own soap for you and your family to use is much healthier than using soaps that you purchase from a store.
You can also eliminate many of the rashes and skin irritations that you may deal with on a regular basis by simply using soap that you make yourself.The main problem with store purchased soap is that they add several fragrances and chemical dyes to the soap to make it look more appealing to the consumer. While this makes your soap smell good in the shower and look nice on the store shelves, all it is really doing is adding unnecessary toxins to your cleaning process that can lead to skin irritations and even nasty rashes or infections. To save your family from this potential threat, you can easily make your own cold process soap by following the instructions below.
Supplies
If you are planning to just make enough soap for you and your family, there are plenty of kits to get you started available online. However, most of them include the same essential ingredients, so getting the supplies together yourself isn’t very difficult. Here are the basic supplies that you’ll need to make your own cold process soap.
- Oils such as coconut oil, palm oil, etc. (recipe dependent)
- Fragrance Oils
- Soap mold tray
- Lye
- Olive Oil
- Your soap recipe
Cold Process Soap Recipe
There is no shortage of blogs and websites online that offer free cold process soap recipes.
Your exact list of ingredients will be dependent on what type of soap you are intending to make; however, all cold process soaps are made from lye and a natural fat like olive oil. Please be aware that lye is very hazardous if handled improperly, so always wear gloves and eye protection when making your cold process soap.Though each recipe is slightly different, the basic step involved are combining a specific amount of lye and olive oil together to make the main soap compound. You do this by diluting the lye to a specific amount with water, then heating your oils in a large steel pot, and then adding the lye mixture to the warm oils. You’ll need to stir the concoction together for around 15 minutes until it is completely combined and the lye has broken down the fats in the oil to render soap, and then you can add your natural fragrances if you desire. Some recipes are more complex and require adding different oils at different times during the process, but the instructions with your recipe should be very clear. Once your soap is ready, you can pour it into your soap molds and let it cure for around 48 hours. Then you can cut them into bars and allow them to fully cure for around 6 weeks before you can use them.
If this DIY process seems too daunting or you don’t want to wait 6 weeks, there are other options. You can always buy cold process soap online and have it shipped right to your door, or you can head to a local craft show and pick some up there from a local artisan. It may not be quite as cool as being able to say that you made your own soap from scratch, but you’ll still get all of the great health benefits that come along with using cold process soap instead of the horrible stuff that they sell at your local stores.