Home made lye soap

[hoosierlogger]

I have decided to start gathering the equipment to make soap. I plan on using beeswax in it and honey to sell at the farmers markets along with my honey. I have been perusing goodwill for the kitchen tools to dedicate to soap making so as to not contaminate the kitchen utensils. I found a nice stainless steel sauce pot last night. Almost too nice to use for soap. Lol. The hardest thing to find will probably be the stick mixer. Might just have to buy a new one of those.

Anyone else make soaps? a guy can get pretty confused reading all of the different entries on the web. I have the basics I think. Eg. Pour lye into water not water into lye, no aluminum, gloves and goggles, let it cure for 4 to 6 weeks before using, always use lye calculator. Am I missing anything?

does hot process make a superior soap to cold process?

any advice or tips will be appreciated.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

go take a class if one is offered in your area

remember your using drain cleaner to make a product people will apply to their skin , use a good calculator , balance your oil to lye and know it well before you start selling it

many old timers remember lye as a harsh soap , we know now that was because they were not properly balancing their oil

my wife took a class in it and once she did , we have made a number of soaps , the calculator is important

we use a process where she heats the oil to a specific temp , adds the lye to the water then reduces that to a particular temp , then combine and use a immersion blender for what seems like a very very long time to hold down the button on the immersion blender to get to trace , then we move to molds and wrap in towels so that it cools slowly then we set aside a few weeks , then cut into bars and put in a box

the longer it sits to a point the harder it gets , the harder it is the longer a bar lasts in the shower

[GoodOlBoy]

buy food grade lye.

Main difference between cold and hot process soap is hot process soap you can use almost immediately. Cold process soap has to "cure" (as you mentioned sometimes several weeks). Be advised to check your local laws. Some states have come up with some idiotic laws about selling homemade soap being equivalent to making cosmetics, or even medicine.

Look up the term "superfat soap" it will explain how you can be certain to always use up all the lye during the cure process.

GoodOlBoy

[mjwcaster]

Get a stick blender, there is no better tool for making soap.
If you cannot find lye, ask at a local hardware store, many keep it behind the counter, if they still carry it (dang methheads)

Safety- I use the same gear I use for smelting, long pants/shirt/facemask while mixing up the lye, with kitchen gloves.
Remember that freshly poured soap can still burn.

The wife wasn't too pleased with the light lye burns my daughter got from playing with freshly poured soap, she got what looked like a light rash.
I told my daughter that it would probably burn, but she just had to learn for herself (I figure she is old enough to make some of her own decisions, part of growing up, I sure can't be there all the time).
I do make her leave the room while mixing and pouring the lye, besides splash burns the fumes are noxious.

Decent ventilation, I use a fan blowing the lye fumes away from me and leave the room for a few minutes after first mixing the lye water (depends on ventilation, never needed to leave the garage when I worked there, just turn my head away, maybe I'm just older and more cautious now).
Keep distractions down while working with lye, no kids, pets etc. (sounds like reloading again).

Also stuff splashes, ask me how I know.
I have gotten a little more safety conscious as I get older, and it has paid off a time or two

Making basic soap is easy, getting scents to stay and colors to come out nice is an art form, one I have yet to master.
I can make pretty looking and smelling soap, but am still not consistent batch to batch.
Then again I don't make much or try hard any more.

Find a good calculator or 3, I use a downloaded one, a spreadsheet, so I can keep copies of my recipes and notes.
Kind of like reloading, get a binder and keep notes on your batches,
basics- oils,water,lye amounts.
specifics- temp of water/oil, how much fragrance/colors, how long stirred, physical attributes-poured while liquid, starting to set up quickly, got to temp fast, etc. Just note how the batch went. How it looks while mixing, pouring, after curing, etc.
How you mixed the colors into the soap, makes a huge difference in appearance.

Take pictures of your finished batches and keep them with your notes, you will forget how things looked, and when selling soap visual appeal means the difference between selling out and taking soap home.

The temp of the oils and lye water makes a huge difference in the time it takes to trace (stiffen up).
If you let the lye water get down to room temperature it makes things go much slower.

Keep your lye dry, try and get it in plastic bottles. I had a large batch that I ended up throwing away, came in 10lb boxes with an inner plastic bag.
Must have still absorbed water, as it did not work right after a year or so (I had a large amount). Not worth risking batches of soap, so down the drain it went.

The better notes you keep the more consistent you can be, it has helped me a lot.

Find a local supplier of oils/lye.
I used to have a somewhat local supplier (by st louis) that was worth the 90 mile drive, saved some on price, but a ton on shipping.
But I have moved and haven't found a local place that has decent prices, even though a manufacturing plant if just 10 miles from my house (at least for soy wax, I used to make candles also).
If I was still at it I would be planning on stopping by there next week on my way home from vacation, did this a few times after we moved away.

Start small, but remember that batch size can have an effect on soap outcome, smaller batches don't get as hot while 'cooking'.

Keep the soap in as dry a place as you can, if the humidity is high the soap will take forever to cure.
If it has not cured well it will be soft and dissolve quickly when you try to use it, making customers unhappy.

Have fun and have patience (something I lacked).

[mjwcaster]

Biggest thing is have fun, stay safe.

My daughter just started helping me last christmas break, she loved it. Probably one of the best things we did together over break.
I don't make much anymore, but have everything set up in the house right now, will probably make a few batches up when we get back from vacation.

If you are trying to do this as a business, write up a business plan.
Keep track of materials cost, remember that not every batch will be a keeper and you lose some soap to trimming, if you use a bulk mold and cut the soap to size.

Cutting soap to even sizes can be a topic of it's own.

Wrapping soap for sale, never did find a great way to do this, soap shrinks so those nice paper wrappers you so painstakingly took your time putting on will become loose in a few months and fall off.
Plastic wrappers may be the way to go, never played with them

Making soap is fun, selling it is a pain.
Farmers markets/craft fairs are fun, made great friends there, driving 300 miles to visit one later today.
Farmers markets are disappointing, when the weather doesn't cooperate, or the customers just don't show up.
You will invest lots of time getting ready and packed up, getting there, setting up, then packing everything up, driving home and putting it all away.
A 3 hour market 10 minutes from the house involved 6 hours of time, at least.
Remember you have to be there before the market opens and stay after it closes.
Don't give up, I used to be the last person to leave, and normally made sales because I was the only one left.

Talk to other soap makers, most just love what they do and will share their experience.
We made friends with other vendors who were our competition, and would even point buyers to each other for specific items we didn't have.

Read up on marketing, a pretty booth, fresh cut flowers, nice brochures and a friendly attitude make all the difference.
How your booth is arranged makes a difference, people do not want to stop, you have to engage them as they walk by.
Have prices and information posted so it is easily seen by those window shopping.

Talk to everyone who walks by, say hi and tell them what is special about your product.

Research markets, some are much better than others.
Some markets nobody buys at, been there, wouldn't go back.

Diversify, we did a truck garden, soaps, candles, bath salts etc. Just relying on one item would have made it hard to make money, but having an assortment, especially complimentary items was a benefit to the customer (and my wallet).

Look into retail sales, much easier to drop off a batch of product at a few stores, making less money per item but more money overall.

Myself I loved making candles/soaps, but marketing was a drag.
Some Days we made good money, others we got skunked.
After a few years we slowed down and only did the markets/shows that we made good money at and had fun at.
Even after we moved we still took vacation and did a few of our old markets just because we had so much fun and knew everyone.

Paid vacations are never a bad thing.

[hoosierlogger]

Thanks for the replies!! This is just something else to sell along with the honey, or to give tonintice them to buy more honey. I don't plan on becoming rich from soap sales alone. I've got a nice quiet little back shed to make it in. Power under the canopy outside will give me the ventilation I'll need.

[mjwcaster]

Forgot to mention-
If you are using a log/block type mold, cut it as soon as it hardens up enough.
Wait too long and it can be a pain to cut it.

Molds can be simple, a wooden box lined with parchment paper is what I still use, never got around to making nicer molds.

And if it for your honey business, maybe make up a nice stamp, with a bee or your company logo.
Stamp each bar, makes a nice touch.

[Mk42gunner]

A stick blender takes the monotony out of stirring soap, just be careful when lifting it out of the mixture.

Line your molds with either plastic or parchment paper; not wax paper, it will melt to the soap and be a pain to separate.

If you use drain cleaner for the lye, make sure it is 100% lye. Some drain cleaners have aluminum and other contaminants.

I would advertise/ market it as handmade or custom soap, not lye soap for the reason Greencountypete stated.

Make or buy a way to cut uniform bars, using a handheld knife is fine for home use but it isn't quite uniform enough for commercial sales.

Good Luck,

Robert

[hoosierlogger]

Yeah I was planning on omitting the word lye from the soap and marketing it as honey and beeswax soap.

[xs11jack]

Went to an old timey cane squeezing, molasses making fair here in MO some years ago and there were booths with sorta primitive stuff for sale. At one I bought one bar of plain lye soap and one bar of soap with goat fat or something in it. Used them in the shower. The plain one wasn't bad, but that goat one stunk sooooo baaaad I threw it out after two tries. If the plain one had some manly scent in it, I might still be using it, but that goat fat not only stunk up your skin, but stunk up the whole bathroom. Does anyone know what goat lye soap is really made of??
Ole Jack

[GhostHawk]

I got lucky, I started with a good book, continued to research, and was not afraid to experiment.

My best so far is a cold process recipe, that I put together in a crock pot. (Pre warm oils) Then add my water/lye. I leave the heat low or off until I have solid "trace" then I cover and turn on the crock pot. About a half hour to 45 min later it starts to foam up, until it pushes the glass lid off the crock pot. Cut the heat, turn into molds, let cool, slice, etc.

I have used mine fresh, and it is ok. But it is better, harder after it cures for a couple of weeks.
It has Olive oil, Coconut oil, lard, and I use some red palm oil for super fat, gives it a nice yellow color.

I started using it on my hair and for 8 years now have had zero dandruff. The rough patch's of skin at knees and elbow's have melted away. I have dry sensitive skin and it looks totally different than it used to.

I'll never use anything else.

Next up on the experiment list is pine tar soap and birch tar soap. Both of which have reputations for being very good for skin.

Red Devil lye seems to be gone out of business. However there is good food grade lye for sale on Amazon.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

the immersion blender is nice and works better than any hand stirring but I think I would either be wiring the immersion blender to stay on and adding a switch to the cord or more likely using corded harbor freight drill with a paint mixer mounted to a stand adjust the speed on the trigger and set the pot on a lazy-susan and let it spin with the mixer so that I could be getting the next batch going while watching the first mix

but I am inpatient and want to maximize my time

i checked the pantry my wife's last order of lye was from http://www.essentialdepot.com/category/sodium-hydroxide-components.html there is also roto lye from ace hardware that she had used at one point , but I think she said last time the online was a better price if your order enough to make the shipping worth while.

[Mk42gunner]

I've been thinking about this, and came up with a better idea than you trying to learn from our written word: go to youtube and watch a few soapmaking videos, just take their obligatory warning about the horrendous dangers of lye with a grain or two (truckloads) of salt. If you can safely cast your own boolits, you can safely make soap. There are also some decent ideas as to packaging and labeling there.

Find a couple of soapmaking lye calculators via google to verify your recipe and things should be fine.

The first batch of soap I made was similar to Ghosthawks, without the palm oil or crockpot. I think I got the recipe from a post of Mrs. sundog's IIRC, and it works fine. I had never made soap before, and my Mom only remembers Grandma making it once right after WWII.

I eventually made mom a batch of milk soap using basically the same recipe, it came out a dark tan with a whitish border from the reaction of the milkfats, whereas the plain soap comes out a pure white. I have no idea what honey or beeswax will do to soap.

I have not tried any colorants or scents in my soap, but the plain stuff cuts grease almost as well as Lava without the gritiness.

Robert

[Down South]

It's been a while. I learned how to make soap some years back just to learn. I still have all of my soap making stuff plus the cool miter box I found at a resale store. They didn't know what it was.

[Down South]

Oh, BTW, all my soap is cold process. I've got more pictures somewhere, I've have to go find them. As mentioned, getting fragrance to stay and color is an art.

[mjwcaster]

Down South I am stealing that miter box idea.
I tried making one that used wires to cut the whole block at once, but never got it all lined up right.
Stopped making soap, so I never finished it.
Yours looks much easier to make, and I just do it for fun now.

And for making milk soap, you need to keep the milk cool.
I used an ice bath while adding the lye a little at a time, not too cold or it wont trace easily, but not too hot (and it will get hot fast, very very fast).
Burnt milk soap is not a good thing, my first milk batch got pitched, and the windows opened up.

Never made goats milk soap, but have bought some, never a bad smell.

Maybe the milk was bad or it was superfatted to much and started to go rancid.

[mjwcaster]

And for a great smell removing soap, try a coffee soap, just use strong brewed coffee in place of some of the water.
For added scrubbing powder, add coffee grounds to it.
Removes stains and smells better than anything I have ever used, although I never did get feed back on how it worked on pig stink (had some passed on to some pig farmers, never heard back).

[mjwcaster]

Not sure about dandruff, but I use my castile (pure olive oil soap) for everything, body and hair (what little I have).

Have been using it for years now, and I love it.

You can also use handmade soap or the cut offs for making laundry soap, just dissolve it in some water.

[Rustyleee]

Yeah I was planning on omitting the word lye from the soap and marketing it as honey and beeswax soap.
For marketing FWIW I had a cousin that lived in your part of the country that sold a great deal of buckwheat honey. He said he always sold it out first whenever he took it to the market.

[Lever-man]

It's been a while. I learned how to make soap some years back just to learn. I still have all of my soap making stuff plus the cool miter box I found at a resale store. They didn't know what it was.

I have one of these in SS that I bought, really like the one you have better. Looks like you can adjust the bar thickness. I use my soap for everything and love it. I started making soap back when you could not buy un-scented soap anywhere. All the ladies in the family love it too, started putting essential oils in to make it smell good for them, you know how the women are, they like "pretty" scents. I get whatever I can't get locally from www.bulkapothecary.com they have everything for soap and candle making including the lye.

[Down South]

Yes, I use the essentials oils for scent as well. Most of my latest soaps were Castile. I did use a bit of Palm and coconut oil for suds. So my soap isn't pure Castile.
The miter box that you see in my pictures is adjustable.

[hoosierlogger]

I was going to make my soap mold today but the table saw motor went caput right at start up. Spent most of the day trying to find a good cheap motor to put on it. Will have to work on it on Monday.

[Down South]

Gotta try and remember, I used a wax paper inside my mold to keep the soap from sticking to the wood, you might not have to worry about that if you have a stainless or aluminum mold although, I would stay away from aluminum.
My mold is made out of wood. I line it with wax paper so that I can get the soap out of it easily. I'm in Tx and my soap making material is in La in a cardboard box including the paper I use.
The soap expands as it cures as it goes through a saponification reaction. I keep it covered with a towel for about 24 hrs while curing. I uncover it a couple times checking on the reaction. It builds heat during this process and will actually turn back into a liquid. After it has cured for 24 hrs, It has risen up above the top of my mold. I shave the top off with a sharp knife making a good square top using the top of my mold as a guide. All my shavings go into soap balls. You can but a looped string into these to make them easy to hang in a shower. Just wet your hands and shape the shavings into balls.
Once the long bar seen in my pictures is out of the mold, it is ready for the miter box to be cut into soap bars. I take a potato peeler and trim up the bars on the edges to pretty them up and I use those shavings for my soap balls.

After that, I set the bars on a rack on the their edges to finish curing for a few weeks. I turn/flip then about once a day until fully cured.

[Down South]

You can use a plastic cake pan for a mold to make soap. That's what I started out with when making pure lye soap with hog lard.

A stick blender is a must or you will have popeye arms from stirring with a wood spoon. Once you start getting a good trace, pour into your mold quickly. Have the mold ready before you start stirring.

[Down South]

For added scrubbing powder, add coffee grounds to it.

The soap in my pictures has ground up Rosemary in it. I use an old coffee grinder that I picked up at a resale store for cheap to grind up the Rosemary with. Those dark specks in the soap in my pictures is the ground up Rosemary. It gives a bit of texture and extra scrubbing power.

[GhostHawk]

I mostly use an old steel bread loaf pan, along with a few silicon molds and one silicon muffin pan.

That makes nice rounds that can be cut in half if desired.

I have a big steel wire slicer but I just freehand mine. Essentially an over sized cheese slicer.

The one silicon mold is about 1" squares half an inch deep and it is my current favorite. Easy to fill, easy to get them out, nice finished product.

[hoosierlogger]

Yeah, I was thinking about a bread loaf pan, but I want something that looks nice and square when it is cut. Easier to wrap and make look presentable for sale.

[reloader28]

I cook mine in a dutch oven and stir it with a wooden spoon. It aint difficult at all. Got my recipe from a fellow member here about 3 years ago and aint used that stuff they call soap from the store since.

I tried the wax paper like Down South,but it didnt work to good for me. I use freezer paper in the molds with shiny side in. If I'm careful I can reuse them 3 or 4 times before I have to replace them.

I make about 4 or 5 batches in the winter and that keeps the whole family in soap for the year.