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Cold process soap base

Prep Time10 minutes
Active Time30 minutes

Materials

  • 170 grams of good quality oil e.g. coconut or olive oil
  • 50 ml water ideally distilled or purified water
  • 20 grams of lye 100% sodium hydroxide
  • Essences or dry flowers or other ingredients
  • soap colourings

Instructions

  • Carefully weigh out all three ingredients.
  • Slowly pour the lye into the water and stir until it's fully blended. Set the mixture aside and let it rest.
  • The mixture will heat up and fume at the same time, so make sure you don't breathe it in.
  • Warm up your oil in a separate bowl. This is best done in a microwave as it's such a small amount, but you can also use the hob.
  • Keep both mixutes warm and make sure that both mixtures (oil and the water with lye) are around 44C or 110F. It's best to use a digital thermometer for this.
  • Slowly pour the lye and water mixture into the oil mixture.
  • Stir gently with a fork or a spatula for 5 minutes or so. If you want your soap to have a creamier texture, you can use a hand held mixer to whip the soap. When the soap is ready it will thicken and looks like a sloppy porridge or a pudding.
  • Add your colours, fragrances and dried flowers or other ingredients at this stage.
  • Pour into soap moulds.
  • Wrap the filled soap mould in clean plastic and leave it to rest in dark place for 2 days.
  • After 2 days, you will be able to turn the soap out of the mould and place it on either drying rack or baking tray. Make sure you space out the soap to allow air to circulate.
  • Let the soap to dry and cure on the rack for 5 weeks before using.

Notes

Your cold base soaps will keep indefinitely, but it's best to keep them individually wrapped and in an airtight container to prevent further drying out.