Making Soap Naturally

In the beginning of making soap, I started with an Olive, coconut, and palm oil soap recipe, which worked very well. Over the years and depending on supply deliveries, supplies on hand, environmentalism, and ingredient costs, I came up with 6 very tried and true soap recipes.

Soap logs out of the molds before cutting into bars

The only oil to not use in over 50% of total oils, is canola oil. Although canola oil is the oil of every single restaurant on the planet, it isn’t the best for soap, but only because of the reaction to the lye and the oxidation of the oils. This means that a canola oil-based soap will start getting brown discolored spots on the soap bars. This is too bad really, because the cheaper cost of the canola helps keep the price of your final product lower.

small electronic scale to measure your oils

This makes about 25 4-ounce bars, so dividing it in half to make test batches would work well. Continue reading →

In the beginning of making soap, I started with an Olive, coconut, and palm kernel soap recipe, which worked very well. Over the years and depending on supply deliveries, supplies on hand, environmentalism, and ingredient costs, we came up with 6 very tried and true soap recipes.

5 nice-looking soaps from the mold!

The only oil to not use in over 50% of total oils, is canola oil. Although canola oil is the oil of every single restaurant on the planet, it isn’t the best for soap, but only because of the reaction to the lye and the oxidation of the oils. This means that a canola oil-based soap will start getting brown discolored spots on the soap bars. This is too bad really, because the cheaper cost of the canola helps keep the price of your final product lower. more about the type of oils and the pros and cons of each can be found on this basic soap-making recipe page.

This makes about 25 4-ounce bars, so dividing it in half to make test batches would work well.

Olive, Coconut, and Palm Kernel soap recipe:

Continue reading →

This particular olive, coconut, palm & less water recipe came about because of the Blackberry and Orange soap recipe. The finished bars were a little soft – usable,  but a little softer compared to the other bars. It was concluded this was because of the huge amount of orange essential oil needed to obtain and decent lasting scent. The solution was to add a palm or palm kernel oil PLUS add a little less water, but not too much. The palm oils help to make a harder bar and the less water due to the more liquid of the orange essential oil. And this worked perfectly!

a nice assortment of natural soap logs

The only oil to not use in over 50% of total oils, is canola oil. Although canola oil is the oil of every single restaurant on the planet, it isn’t the best for soap, but only because of the reaction to the lye and the oxidation of the oils. This means that a canola oil-based soap will start getting brown discolored spots on the soap bars. This is too bad really, because the cheaper cost of the canola helps keep the price of your final product lower. more about the type of oils and the pros and cons of each can be found on this basic soap-making recipe page.

This makes about 25 4-ounce bars, so dividing it in half to make test batches would work well. Continue reading →

This particular olive, coconut, palm kernel & less water recipe came about because of the Blackberry and Orange soap recipe. The finished bars were a little soft – usable, but a little softer compared to the other bars. It was concluded this was because of the huge amount of orange essential oil needed to obtain and decent long-lasting scent. The solution was to add a palm or palm kernel oil PLUS add a little less water, but not too much. The palm kernel oils help to make a harder bar and the less water due to the more liquid of the orange essential oil. And this worked perfectly!

as a soapmaker, you will sometimes need to adjust recipes for specific essential oils or fragrances

The only oil to not use in over 50% of total oils, is canola oil. Although canola oil is the oil of every single restaurant on the planet, it isn’t the best for soap, but only because of the reaction to the lye and the oxidation of the oils. This means that a canola oil-based soap will start getting brown discolored spots on the soap bars. This is too bad really, because the cheaper cost of the canola helps keep the price of your final product lower. more about the type of oils and the pros and cons of each can be found on this basic soap-making recipe page.

This makes about 25 4-ounce bars, so dividing it in half to make test batches would work well.

Palm oil vs Palm Kernel, same tree and fruit

olive, coconut, palm kernel & less water :

Continue reading →

In the beginning of making soap, I started with an Olive, coconut, and palm oil soap recipe, which worked very well. Over the years and depending on supply deliveries, supplies on hand, environmentalism, and ingredient costs, we came up with 6 very tried and true soap recipes, well, except maybe this pure castile soap recipe one.

Plain and simple, you would think it would be a big seller – but no it’s not!

Traditionally, Castile soap was a 100% olive oil based soap. Yet the recipes of today seem to vary – same as the history of Castile soap’s history. As wonderful as a pure olive oil soap will be, it can be temperamental to make. I’ve made Castile a few times and this is what I’ve discovered:

• people say they want a plain unscented soap, yet buy the scented one, and the plain soaps ended up in the ‘sale’ basket
• all my castile olive oil bars tended to have soda ash, from high pH, from water/lye/oil saponification process, in the corners and edges of the soap logs
• the finished bar does not bubble very much, it is the coconut that creates large bubbles
• people think that if the bar doesn’t bubble lots then something is wrong with it
• multiple oil soap bases make better bars
• last I heard from whatever-powers-that-be, is that up to 15% coconut oil can be used and still be considered a pure ‘castile’ bar

Here is an example of Castile Soap that is NOT Castile Soap, the coconut and palm oil amounts are larger than the Olive Oil!

This makes about 25 4-ounce bars, so dividing it in half to make test batches would work well. Continue reading →

Lemongrass soap is also one of the easiest and least expensive soaps to make, even less expensive than lavender. Again, this is a one-scent and one-color bar. This bar was probably in the top 15 of the best-selling bars. The scent is so fresh and clean that you can’t resist using it to ‘bump’ up other scents, especially the citrus ones.

Here is a perfectly tinted lemongrass soap

make lemongrass soap:

• Basic #2 Recipe: (other recipes here) Continue reading →

Make your own medicinal products such as this Tea Tree soap recipe. I have added Eucalyptus essential oil to mellow out the sharpness of the Tea Tree or add some earthy warming components. This was a great soap for skin conditions and especially for bug-bitten skin. The tea tree would help to cleanse the bit areas and speed up the healing.  I also make a plain Tea Tree Soap.

Tea Tree soap recipe, with Eucalyptus:

• Basic #2 recipe: (other soap base recipes here) Continue reading →

This blackberry orange soap recipe was the second best-selling soap in my store. Because of its popularity, I made blackberry orange scented lotions, bath salts, perfume oil, and body butter.  There is no way to make this an all-natural bar as there is no such thing as blackberry essential oil, but you can make it half-natural with Sweet Orange essential oil.

here is a very nice purple and orange bar, perfect for a blackberry-orange bar

blackberry orange soap recipe:

• Basic #2 recipe: (other base recipes here)
  51.2 oz Olive oil or an olive/Canola blend
  6.2 oz Coconut oil
  6.2 oz Palm oil
  23.4 oz water
  8.6 oz lye crystals
• for this scented bar, add:
•  3.5 T blackberry  fragrance oil
• 5 T of orange essential oil, or 5-fold (blended) orange essential oil
• colorant:
• 1 tsp of liquid orange color
• 1 tsp liquid dark blue
• for this bar, you could make the base orange with a purple swirl, or split the base in half and make half orange and half purple.

Another nice looking bar, one half orange the other purple

Tons of info on sweet orange essential oil, right here.

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Orange spice soap, also known as Christmas Spice soap, was one of the top ten bars at the store. The essential oils, especially the cinnamon and cloves essential oils, had a long-lasting scent. The other popular and traditional Christmas scents are nutmeg and ginger, yet the cinnamon and cloves along with the orange scent make for a nice scent blend.

Orange Spice, or Christmas Spice Soap bar

Orange spice soap recipe, aka Christmas Spice

• Basic #2 recipe: (other base recipes here)
  51.2 oz Olive/Canola blended oils
  6.2 oz Coconut oil
  6.2 oz Palm oil
  23.4 oz water
  8.6 oz lye crystals
• for this scented bar, add:
• 3.5 T of orange essential oil
• 1/2 T of cinnamon leaf essential oil
• 1/2 T of clove essential oil
• for coloring:
• 1/2 tsp orange color for base
• 1/2 tsp cocoa powder for swirl
• Remember to mix the base color in one cup of the base, mix well, and add it back in
• put cocoa powder in one cup of the base, and mix well
• after soap is poured into the mold, drizzle and gently stir in.

Here is another great way to make your Orange Spice soap, a nice solid dark orange color. This darker color represents the orange with the darker spice colors: (the label is nice and simple too)

Another version of an Orange Spice soap is below. The tint is more like orange juice which is great, then with a small layer of brown to represent the dark spice scents:

If you want to get really awesome, here is a 3 tone, 3 layered version. This has the addition of oatmeal to the base, 3 differently tinted layers, a sprinkling of spices, and the placement of a dried orange slice. Nicely done!

Great article on the origins of spices of Christmas!

#handmadesoap #naturalsoap #makingsoapnaturally #soapmaking #soapmaking #soaps #artisansoap #bathandbody #cpsoap #coldprocesssoap #etsy #soapbase #soapcrafter #soapmaker #soaping #soapcrafting #soaphandmade #soap #giftidea #christmas #barsoap #handmadesoap #natural #organic #skincare #coldprocess #soapsupplies #soaprecipes