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Make your own Soap

It has been a very long time since I made soap for commercial sale, however I do still make my own batches for personal uses when the mood takes me. I often use it as way to use up random carrier oils, oils which may be starting to turn (and can't be used in the skin care products I make), or with hydrosols which are starting to bloom. I filter and boil these. This blog isn't a detailed 'how to' of home made soap making. If you have not done it before there are a number of careful considerations to take with regards the handling of caustic soda (which can dissolve skin if you mishandle it, or cause blindness if you splash it in your eyes!). My mum had a nasty accident with caustic soda where it had been put in an unmarked container and somehow she was cleaning out the laundry cupboard and water got into the caustic soda (which makes it highly volatile). It splashed in her eyes and she had to have her eyes painfully irrigated for over an hour in the ED with a very painful contraption fitted under the eyelids. She is fine now but it was a very scary reminder of basic home chemical safety. This blog here identifies the steps you need to take with photos. There are numerous other blogs and you tube channels as well.
This is my 'fail safe recipe' from the wonderful book by Carolynn Stubbin ' Do it yourself pure plant skincare'. It's now out of print and seems to be highly desirable as suggested by this outlandish price on Amazon. I treasure my autographed copy. So keep an eye out in second hand book stores!. What I like about this recipe is it gives the basics but I have used many variations of it, using different oils etc and they all seems to come out fine for home use.

Her basic recipe is: 

  • 500 gm hydrogenated coconut oil or olive oil, 
  • 200 ml purified water
  • 70 gm caustic soda
  • emollients up to 20 gm
  • exfoliants up to 20 gm
  • colourants up to 20 gm
  • pure essential ils 7-20 mls

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Posted: Sunday 7 May 2017