Soapmaking Ingredients

There are many options for ingredients when making soap. There are a few ingredients that are required. Without oil, water and lye it would not be soap. You get to choose which oils and in what amount you superfat and what additives make your recipe unique. To learn more about the specific ingredients take a look at the list below.

Lye

All soap recipes contain lye (or it wouldn't be soap). Lye is to be respected, not feared. Store in a place where children or pets will not find it. Protect your hands and eyes while using it. Dissolve lye in cold water. Never pour the water into the lye or it could explode. Stir consistently as you pour the lye into the water, or the lye will settle to the bottom and solidify. If this happens, tap it with the stirring utensil to break it up. As you mix it, a chemical reaction produces heat and fumes. I alway mix my lye outside. Stir the lye water until the water becomes relatively clear. The lye water will have to cool to 120 degrees F before adding the fat.

Water

For best results, us rain, distilled or soft water. You should generally us 6 oz. of water to 16 oz. of fat. Another way to figure the same thing is water weight+fat weight x 0.38. I actually to online to one of the lye caluculators to figure out my ratios because it is so simple and I trust the calculations more than my own. The water measurement doesn't have to be exact. The lye calculators give youa range to workwithing. The one I've used the most is found at http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php.

Fats and Oils

Each fat or oil has a different property. Traditionally animal fat has been used, with beef tallow making the best soap and pork lard as the next choice. If you want to use vegetable oils in your soap, palm oil is a great choice for a hard soap. Olive oil will add mildness to your soap and is sometimes used as the single oil in a recipe. Coconut oil or palm kernel oil will contribute big fluffy bubbles to the recipe, but is drying if used alone in a batch of soap. Soybean oil by itself makes a brittle, but hard white soap. Combine with other oils to make a nice soap that is less expensive. If you want to better understand the individual oils, The Natural Soap Book by Susan Miller Cavitch lists the benefits of each.

Superfatting Oil

When your soap gets to the trace stage, the saponification process is almost complete. Fat added at this point makes your soap softer. More expensive oils are often added at this point to keep them as "free fat" that doesn't saponify with the other oils. Use these nourishing oils to superfat your soap, making them more moisturizing. A good rule of thumb is to use 1 oz. per pound (16 oz.) of total fat used in the recipe. Some of the more common superfatting oils are:

• Avocado Oil: Moisturizing. Contains vitamins, protein, lecithin and fatty acids, all of which are espceially beneficial for those with dry skin or eczema.
• Cocoa Butter: Makes a hard bar. It has wonderful soothing and emollient qualities, but doesn't lather.
• shea Butter: This moisturizing and nourishing butter will not saponify and so remains in your soap to soothe sensitive skin.
• Sweet Almond Oil: Moisturizing and rich in protein, which offers relief for itchy or inflamed skin.
• Castor Oil: Acts as a humectant which means is attracts moisture to the skin. Because of this castor oil well suited for shampoo bars and skin-care products.