How to Make Soap – Part 5: Adding the Second Layer
So you’d like to make your own soaps? You’ve come to the right place. Today I’m going to show you to make your own handmade soaps.
A quick note: Since every soap recipe is different, I won’t be going into exact measurements for each step. You will learn some Best Practices and tricks along the way.
In Part 4 (the previous episode) we added colorant and fragrance oils to one batch of soap. Since the soap we’re making will feature two distinct bands of color, we’ll need to perform this process once more with the second batch. Just like before, I add the colorant to the soap and stir continuously to make it mix in fully. Afterwards, I add 8 oz of fragrance oil. This is done just like the colorant, by stirring it in continuously. Keep stirring until it’s all mixed. We don’t want any pockets of fragrance oil.
Once it’s all ready, you can move over to your soap mold to pour it. As you can see, we already have the first layer (the green layer) in the mold. It’s been setting up for about 5 minutes now. Go ahead and begin to pour your soap into the soap mold. It’s ok that the first layer is not totally set-up yet. The additional layer will sink into it a little bit in some places, which adds character to your finished soap.
Once the soap is all poured, you’ll want to give it a light shake to the left and right so that any bubbles that may have been trapped during the pouring process can come to the surface. Then you’ll want to make sure your soap is level before moving on to prepare the final batch. Stick around because we’re going to be adding the final layer to our soap shortly!
How to Make Soap – Part 4: Adding Colorant and Fragrance Oils
So you’d like to make your own soaps? You’ve come to the right place. Today I’m going to show you to make your own handmade soaps.
A quick note: Since every soap recipe is different, I won’t be going into exact measurements for each step. You will learn some Best Practices and tricks along the way.
We’ve got our lye-water and our oils. We’ve mixed them together. Now what do we do? Separate them!
This particular recipe for Tangerine Sage soap is a three color process so we’ll be dividing our soap into three separate groups. The first bucket will get 8 lbs. The second bucket will also get 8 lbs. Now that we’ve got our buckets of soap separated, it’s time to add the essential oils and the colorant.
I’ll pour a bit of the soap into a small container filled with colorant powder. Once I’ve mixed that a bit I’ll pour it back into the large bucket of soap. I’ll use my spoon to stir it in. Once I’ve gotten all the colorant into the soap bucket, i’ll have to work fast because it sets up quickly.
After the colorant has been mixed, it’s time to add the fragrance oil to the soap. Be sure to pour it all and mix it thoroughly so that there are no pockets of fragrance oil. Quickly take your bucket and pour it into your soap mold. You’ll probably notice that it’s already beginning to set up a bit. All the more reason to act quickly…
Stick around because we’re going to be adding a new layer to our soap shortly!
How to Make Soap – Part 3: Immersion Blending Your Ingredients
So you’d like to make your own soaps? You’ve come to the right place. Today I’m going to show you to make your own handmade soaps.
A quick note: Since every soap recipe is different, I won’t be going into exact measurements for each step. You will learn some Best Practices and tricks along the way.
Now to continue with our Soap Making video series. In the first two videos, we mixed our lye and water together then we brought all our ingredients to 100 degrees in preparation for mixing. Now we’re going to incorporate the ingredients together.
I’ll begin by pouring the lye water into the oils. Once you’ve poured all the lye water into the oils, you’ll want to stir it a bit with a large spoon. After you’ve mixed the ingredients together roughly, you’ll want to switch to your immersion blender. After about 30-60 seconds of mixing with the immersion blender, you’ll be ready for the next step, which is… well, you’ll just have to check back in to find out!
How to Make Your Own Soap – Part 2: Preparing to Mix
So you’d like to make your own soaps? You’ve come to the right place. Today I’m going to show you to make your own handmade soaps.
A quick note: Since every soap recipe is different, I won’t be going into exact measurements for each step. You will learn some Best Practices and tricks along the way.
This is Part 2 of a 7 part series. In Part 1, I demonstrated how to prepare your lye-water for the soap making process. Now that we have our lye-water, it’s time to put it to use!
Now you have your lye-water in a pot. It’s hot! How to we cool it down quickly and without adding additional water to the pot? We take it to our mop-sink for a Cold Water Bath.
If you, like me, don’t have an extremely cold faucet, there is a trick you can use to create very cold water very quickly. The night before you make your soap, fill up 5 or 10 plastic water bottles with water then freeze them. Be sure not to fill them all the way up to the top, just about 85% of the way full. The next morning you’ll be able to take these frozen bottles of water and place them in your mop-sink to create a very cold, Cold Water Bath.
We want the lye-water to reach a temperature of about 100 degrees. Once it’s ready, we’ll take it and set it next to our oils which have also cooled to 100 degrees. Now we’ll begin to mix the two. To mix these, I use a Cusinart imeersion blender which has proven to be a sturdy and reliable tool for soap-making.
Come back again soon for the next step, where we’ll begin to mix the ingredients together!
Lynette Vail (The Soap Lady) has been creating handmade Soaps and Scents for over a decade. She loves to invent new and exciting creations. 