Making Soap - Cold Process
Cold process is where you mix the oil and lye water at the same temperature
With this process it takes a month or 2 for the soap to cure, before you use it
You should end up with ph 9 to 10
One guy said that licking the soap was the best way to tell
Equipment
You don't actually need the Lone Star logo
5 gal stainless pot to mix the oil and lye
Oil
Lye
Gal plastic lemonade picture
Coffee grinder
Coctail hand electric mixer
Spatula
Deep cookie tray, not aluminum or Teflon coated
Table knife and sharp knife
Bath towels
Scales or balance beams
Oil / Lye chart
Ice
Large plastic spoon
Water
Pencil
Plastic wide thermometer or 8in piece of wood
Wax paper cups 16oz
The process
Herbs Set these up so that they are ready I would grind them in a coffee grinder After a half hour I would be tired = 5 or 6 Generally I had a theme ie heart
Prepare your molds Spray some cooking oil so they will not stick Some plastics will melt The soap is hot and it gets hotter or stays hot for a while during the first stage of curing The soap will eat aluminum and teflon I ended up using mostly deep 1 inch cookie trays
Measure oil, by weight
I used paper glasses and a balance scale 1 oz liquid water = 1 oz weight 2x8 in plastic thermometer on a pencil Glass on one side fill with oil Fill other side with water till balance Measure the water and presto the weight
Record the weight I used 16oz glass so 4 or 5 is a gallon 1 gallon oil was about how much I could do at a time The process would take me about 4hr
Put the oil in a 5 gallon stainless soup pot, aluminum reacts to the lye And teflon peals away but I did not try it in the mixing process
Add up the weight of the oil If you use more than 1 type of oil add them seperately
Look on the chart I had one from certified-lye.com (Add link here) Multiply the lye per oz of oil to get how much lye to use
Multiply the amount of lye by the amount of water to use per oz of lye
With cold process you want to mix the lye water and the oil at about the same temperature
Liquid oil like corn oil are at room temperature I would use about half the water as ice The water is by weight So I would use the balance beam again
Put the water ice in a gallon picture
When you start with the lye You should use goggles, rubber gloves and a smok I only used the gloves and wore holy clothes
Measure the lye Also by weight
Take the water picture outside
Take the lye outside Slowly add the lye to the water Mixing with a heavy plastic spoon Although a stainless steel one would work Do no breath the fumes The water will get very hot With the ice it will be just a bit warm Ideally it will be room temperature
With solid oils like lard You will need to melt the lard And you do not need the ice After you mix the lye into the water they seem to be the same temperature I think about 170 deg F
Slowly pour and mix the lye water into the oil
You want to be careful about splashing the water or the mixture onto you You will get holey clothes And if you get some on your skin you need to rince for about 15 minutes That is a long time
You could mix for about 4 hours by hand although I think this does not have to be constant stiring Maybe once every 15 minutes
Use a coctail hand mixer One that fits into a glass With a little hood cover over the blade
Stir until you get light porage consistency It holds a bit of form Maybe 1/2 in when you stir the soup There is a technical term Maybe I will remember later Soft something
The amount of time to mix seemed to vary with the type of oils
When you get to soft poridge Add your plate of herbs And any in liguid form Mix until you get hard poridge Bit higher ridges If you mix too much you will not be able to pour the soap into molds
Pour into molds You need to do this fairly quickly Because it continues to thicken
Surround and cover the molds with bath towels to keep it hot
After a while cut into bars If you are using special shape molds you would not need to do this I did not use any of those so I do not know the complications Different oil combinations and herbs affect the time the soap gets hard If you wait too long some will need a saw I checked fairly regularly Using a table knife Generally if it sticks to the knife it needs to cure a bit more
After you cut the bars and remove them from the molds You need to let them cure with air around them for a month or 2 And after that storing them with air flow is good
When they are cured they should have ph of 9 to 10 One guy said tasting them was the best method