The Fine Art of Making a Home: No Heat Required!

In my endeavors to make more of the things we use around the house, I have naturally been drawn towards soap; Body washing soap and laundry soap. The laundry soap will have to wait for about 3 more weeks. You will see why in a minute.

With all things new, the first thing I did is research. And once again this process began over at my partner in crime's house. I guess I just need encouragement because, to be honest, soap making does seem as if it would be incredibly hard. I learned so much about the topic in just one night from watching her and her sister. Actually, just like the toothpaste, it was not that hard at all! So, once again I went home and began to research.

I not only researched the process and the different recipes, (which let me tell you there are lots of), but I also did a bunch of comparison shopping online. That part was probably the most important because if you're not careful you can spend way too much! Here are a few of the places online I compared:

If you too make soap and have another place for me try please feel free to share!

After I found the best pricing possible I ordered all my supplies. Which recipe did I go with you ask? Well, I am keeping that a surprise until this weekend when I should be able to make my "good" stuff.

So the point of this blog? Well before I use the more expensive oils, I thought I would try a tester soap. So I decided to make a simple lard soap recipe I found at: http://fimby.tougas.net/. I did make one slight change in the process, as the title suggests I am using no heat in the making of this soap. Everything was done at room temperature.

First a little back ground there are two basic soap methods that most soapers use. The first in the hot method which takes a few hours cooking in a crock pot or on top of the stove. The benefit of this process is the cure time does not take nearly as long. The second, and from what I have been reading, the most popular is the cold process method. This one involves placing oils on the stove to melt them and then bringing the temperature back down. Once that is finished you can finish your soap. This process is relatively quick compared to the hot method. The down side is it takes about a month for the soap to cure to where it is usable.

So which method did I use? Neither!

So let's get started.........

The Recipe

4 pounds Lard (I found mine at Wal-Mart however you may want to try a local butcher)
28 oz of water
8.5 oz of Lye (the Lye I found at Menards)

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The Supplies

One large stainless steel or glass microwave safe bowl
One smaller bowl the same as above
Scale
Latex gloves
Eye protection
Immersion blender

Metal spoon
Cardboard box line
Vinegar (just in case of spills. It
neutralizes the lye)

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Once you have everything out and ready to go make sure your counters are completely clear! I forgot to do this and spent a good amount of time cleaning lye splatters. Put on your protective wear. And lets get to work!

First weigh everything out into separate containers. If you use a different recipe with more than one kind of fat or oil you can put like oils into the same containers after they have been measured. The solid oils in one bowl and the liquid oils into another.

Next prepare your lye solution. It is important at this point to have good ventilation because the water and lye mixture will give off some fumes. I placed this batch on my stove top (I have a flat ceramic top to my stove) where I was able to turn on our stove vent that sucked the fumes right away. SLOWLY pour the lye into the water. NEVER the other way around bad things can happen. Stir as you pour until all the crystals dissolve.

Now you need to wait until the lye solution becomes clear. Once it does pour it over your hard oils. The heat the lye and water produces in its chemical reaction will melt your oils. Use a large metal spoon to mash the oils down and to stir. I would not use a whisk the oils just clump up and makes a big mess! Trust me I know, I tried!

Once the oils have melted if you have liquid oils now is when you would add them, but I didn't, so now I began to mix. Use the immersion or stick blender to mix everything together. Mix until the mixture traces. (This is the time you would add color and fragrance) Everything should be blended completely with no little beads of water in the soap mixture.

Now just simply

pour the mixture in the mold, smooth it down and tap it a bit to get out any little air bubbles.

I let the soap rest over night and then the next day I cut into bars. Finally, I separated each bar and placed them stand