This revelation isn't really out of the blue yonder. I have that forest property that I'm saving money to put a well on, plus I'm pregnant. Yay me! It was not exactly unexpected but also not exactly planned. So it's good.
Tonight I had off from work, so I decided to go out for a walk and then come home to make some soap. I thought it would be nice to have in hand for the baby. It also would make super nice Christmas gifts for my family and the bosses, of which I have many at work.
The hardest part of making soap is gathering the ingredients and preparation, the actual process is easy and not too time consuming. There are three main ingredients:
- Lye: sometimes available at the hardware wtore, always available online
- Oil or animal fat: Any vegetable oil will work
- Water or milk: Goat and coconut are at the grocery store in the canned milk section.
You will also need an accurate scale, a crockpot, a shoebox and wax paper, glass measuring cups/bowls, an immersion blender or my choice - a drill with a paint mixer.
My recipe: Coconut Milk and Coconut Oil Soap
935 grams coconut oil
350 milliliters coconut milk
163 grams sodium hydroxide
The hardest part of putting everything together is estimating how much soap to make to fill your container. Its not like shoeboxes have volunetric measurements stamped on the bottom. Since I've vowed to start making my own soap a lot more, I may just invest in one of those cool looking silicon molds from that one online retailer. It should have an accurate volumetric measurement on it.
It smells like sweet milk as it's cooking. I also have an additive to put in it at the end, a tiny bottle of essential oil that I got at the dollar store, coconut and lime scent. If it works out well I may have to go back and buy more for future batches. Can't beat the price if it's effective. I have been wary in the past of additives because they can change the color, not carry any smell, and jack the cost up.
Let me mention superfatting - I only superfatted this a mere 5%. For laundry detergent, you would not want any superfatting, but for hand soap and bady wash, a little extra oil makes it less drying. And man is my skin dry!
It does smell really good. I decided it was done when it tried to escape the crockpot, and I ended up patting down the top surface to make it look pretty. It sure is brown. But its homemade, handmade, from safe ingredients.