Best Natural Soap
Natural soap is defined by the process of combining fats and/or oils and an alkali, such as lye. The best natural soaps are from fats and oils, which can be from animal, vegetable, or mineral sources, that are broken down and then combined with lye to form natural soap. When made properly, no lye remains in the finished product, it is completely consumed by the fats. To be called “soap,” the product must include lye.
Basic natural soap does not have many ingredients and is relatively easy to make, but you can add so many things to it to make it your own. You can add products for exfoliating, softening skin, calming skin and – well, the list goes on.
There are two top ways you can make soap from home. The two processes are called Cold-Pressed Soapmaking and Melt and Pour Soapmaking. Both of these are popular and we will go over the differences in them.
For the Melt and Pour Soapmaking –
This type is separated into two processes. The first part is to acquire your soap base. Most prefer to buy pre-made soap bases and you can buy different bases at many places, including Amazon, Walmart and Etsy. The advantage to buying is you don’t have to make the soap base yourself, you don’t have to mess with lye and the dangers that come with it and it’s quicker. After making a soap base from home it needs to cure between 4-6 weeks.
Some people don’t like to buy their soap base because they don’t have control on how it was made. I do understand this, because I feel the same way. If I want to handmake my soap I would like to complete it from beginning to end. I do understand people who have kids that want to join in and have fun making soap. Buying pre-made is definitely better with the lye not being a danger and you can began making soap as soon as you receive the soap base.
Before moving on, for those that want to make their own soap base, following is a great melt and pour soap base recipe.
Melt and Pour Base Recipe For Natural Soap Making
Ingredients:
7.51oz or 213g. of distilled water
3.36oz or 95.2g of Lye
7oz or 198.4g of coconut oil
5oz or 141.7g of olive oil
6oz or 170g of shea butter
3oz or 85g of castor oil
3oz or 85g of vegetable glycerin
1-1/2teaspoon of Kaolin clay
Equipment:
Cooking pot for stove top
Digital scale
Digital thermometer
Whisk
Rubber gloves, apron and safety glasses
Rubber spatula
Strainer
Heat resistant plastic pitcher or stainless steel container
Soap mold
Step 1: Heat and Melt the Oils
Measure out your oils and butter in ounces or on a digital scale. You can place a container onto the digital scale, zero out the scale and then add your oils and butter. Place them into your pot on the stove top. Monitor the temperature with a thermometer. You want to get to about 100 degrees F. It may take more heat to melt some oils and fats, but then they can cool down to this temperature. Keep an eye on this so it doesn’t burn.
Step 2: Safety First
Put on your rubber gloves, apron and safety goggles. Lye can cause burns because of it being a caustic and can be dangerous.
Step 3: Measure the Water and Lye
Measure out your water (make sure the water is at least at room temperature, maybe even a little cooler. Warm water can make the lye foam and bubble) and lye in ounces or use a digital scale like you possibly did when measuring out your oils and butter. Add your lye to the water that is in the heat resistant pitcher and mix it up thoroughly. It will get hot, this is normal.
Step 4: Add the Kaolin Clay
Now add the clay to the oil mixture and stir until mixed.
Step 5: Combine and Stir
Make sure that both the lye mixture and the oil mixture are both about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. If they are off by more than 10 degrees you could have a volcano effect. Slowly pour the lye-water solution through the strainer and into the oils. Stir manually at first, then switch to using an immersion blender.
Step 8: Mold and Cure
Pour your raw soap into your mold and let it sit for 24-48 hours until it’s hardened enough to remove. Then, cut into soap sizes and store it so it can cure for 4-6 weeks to allow excess water to evaporate.
The Second Part of Melt and Pour Soapmaking.
Okay, so you have your soap base, whether you bought it pre-made or made it from home. ’Measure out 1 pound of the soap base.
• Cut in to small cube pieces so it is easier to melt.
• Place the cubed pieces into a double boiler. This is so the pieces will melt better without the risk of burning. You can use a spatula to stir.
• Once the soap base has melted you can add all the goodies you want. Essential oils, natural colorants like tea, coffee and Turmeric, exfoliants like oatmeal, seeds and sea salt. You can also add flower pedals. There are so many things you can add to make the soap your own creation and gear it toward you and your families needs. Their is a drawback here for the melt and pour method. You can’t use fresh ingredients like milk, honey and purees. These ingredients have to become part of the soap base. When lye is introduced to the fats and oils something called saponification happens and since this has already been done you can’t go back. Similar to baking cookies, there are ingredients that need to become part of the cookie, after its baked you can’t go back and then add an egg or milk.
• Now you can pour your soap into any kind of mold you want. You can make small bars, rose shaped, teddy bears, anything you want. You can spray rubbing alcohol on the top of the soap, this will helps with air bubbles, but it’s not necessary. This does not interfere with how the soap functions, it just makes it look more professionally made.
You want to let the your soap set up between 6 hours and overnight. You can then unmold and use them.
For the Cold-Pressed Soapmaking –
This type of process for making soap is done all at once with the end result having to cure between 4-6 weeks.
The following are detailed instructions for cold-pressed soapmaking, but you may notice that there is no ingredients list. Its really because there are nearly an infinite amount of recipes that you can make. When you know what you can add, what it can do for you and when to add it, your mind will explode with possibilities that will be tailored to you and your family, these are truly the best natural soaps. I will be making suggestions of what can be added, but it is in your capable hands to add what your body will benefit from.
Also I want to give you all the tools to be successful at this. I found this online; a lye calculator. This is not mine, but it is a great tool to have. This lets you know how much distilled water and lye to add to the ingredients you are making your soap base from.
There a four fields to fill out and I want to go over each of them so it’s easy for you.
The first one is to choose the type of soap you are making. The choices are Solid and Liquid. We are making Solid, so you would choose that one.
The second one is to select how you will be weighing out your ingredients for your soap base. You have an option between Ounces, Grams or by Percentage. Gram is a unit of weight and is more precise.
The third one is the Superfatting Level. The definition for Superfatting: In the soap base, fat consumes or bonds with the lye to make soap. If all the oil you have goes to consuming the lye to make soap the superfatting percentage is at 0%. Because you have the exact amount of fat for the exact amount of lye to make soap with no fat left over. With no fat left over the soap can be less moisturizing for the skin. With too much fat left over the soap bar can be soft and not lather up too much. I say enter between 4% and 6% in this field.
The fourth and last field, after clicking Next, is to enter the amount of the different oils you are going to be using. You will see a list of a lot of different oils (not essential oils). You can click on the up or down arrows for each one to display how much you are going to be using and then click Next.
This will show you how much distilled water and lye you need. Here is the link to the Lye Calculator.
Equipment:
Cooking pot for stove top
Digital scale
Digital thermometer
Whisk and immersion blender
Rubber gloves, apron and safety glasses
Rubber spatula
Strainer
Heat resistant plastic pitcher or stainless steel container
Soap mold
Directions:
Step 1: Put on your safety glasses, apron and rubber gloves.
Step 2: Combine the lye and distilled water together.
Step 3: Put the solid oils in the pot on the stove and turn it to its lowest heat setting. You want to melt the oils with just as much heat as it takes.
Step 4: Add the liquid oils (not essential oils) to the now melted solids. Mix together.
Step 5: Make sure the temperature of the lye solution and the oils are about 100 degrees each. They should not be more than 10 degrees off from each other.
Step 6: Pour the lye solution through the strainer and into the oil mixture.
Step 7: Use the immersion blender. When setting the blender into the mixture bring it down at an angle so you don’t trap air. Start blending, but do not lift the blender out of the soap base yet. The mixture will start getting a little thicker, kind of like custard. Cut of the blender and gently stir the mixture around with the end of the blender. Use the blender again in pulses. Continue this stirring and pulsing until the mixture gets to the Trace point. The trace point is when you can drizzle the mixture on its surface and see a trace of the drizzle. Your mixture is beginning to saponify (turning into soap). You want to try and catch this right when it happens so you have a longer period of time to add your other items.
Step 8: This is the time to add your essential oils, milk, honey, seeds, flowers, purees, citrus zest or countless others.
Step 9: After incorporating your additives into your soap mixture thoroughly pour your mixture into soap molds.
Step 10: This step is whether you want your soap gelled or un-gelled. Either way is purely aesthetics and does not have any bearings on how the soap functions from the ingredients you used. Gelled soap comes from the soap naturally heating up as it sits in the mold. You get more vibrate colors from this. Un-gelled you get more pastel looking colors. If you want gelled, which is my favorite, you can wrap the mold in cling wrap and then wrap the whole mold in a towel. If you want it un-gelled you can place the mold in your refrigerator.
Step 11: Leave it alone for the next 48 hours. This allows time for oils to completely consume the lye and to harden up.
Step 12: Unmold your soap. If you used a mold that has individual bars then you can just unmold and set aside. If you used a loaf mold, then you need to unmold the soap and cut it with wire or a knife to the desired size.
Step13: Your soap now needs to cure. Between 4-6 weeks completes the saponification and allows water to evaporate to give the bars a good lather when used. Place on wax paper and far enough apart for air flow. They should not be in direct sunlight.
Step 14: Use and enjoy.
Benefits of the Best Natural Soaps
- Nourishing: With picking natural ingredients that are known to be good for your skin and that releases scents that help the mind you are nourishing your whole body.
- Quality Ingredients: There are no better ingredients then fresh, natural ingredients that you choose to put in your soap.
- Healthier: Quality ingredients leads to a healthier you. The natural ingredients you put into your soaps help to moisturize and cleanse your skin naturally.
- Environmentally Friendly: Natural soaps are better for the environment as they do not contain harmful chemicals.
Handmade soaps can be fun to make at home. The best natural soap is one that you control the ingredients used, ensuring a quality product that is tailored to your personal preferences and needs.