You will enjoy the fruit of your labor.
How joyful and prosperous you will be!
Psalm 128:2
Things were a little rough and busy over the past few days as three out of the five girls were hit with a stomach virus. We were also in the middle of painting and ripping out carpet, laying a new floor and a myriad of home-tasks over the weekend. Thankfully, we may be over the sickness and as I slowly but surely defeat the laundry pile, things are beginning to return to normal. We are working hard to get most of the homeschooling done before baby #6 arrives – so exciting!
Monday, for fun with math and science, the older girls and I decided to try our hand at making soap. We’re constantly talking about how we can use our hands to help around the house, as well as save money and possibly create an interesting hobby for the girls as they mature into young ladies … so after candle making, soap making was next on the list! Lacey wants to knit up her cute, little washcloths and sell washcloths and soaps this summer – love the idea!
Now I have to say, this soap making idea has been sitting dusty at the top of the must-try list for over a year.
I absolutely love making and creating things at home, making our own household cleaners (I haven’t purchased a store bought cleaner in four years! Maybe I should do a post about that soon?), homemade meals, homemade wipes (although now I do not purchase paper towel to save money and simply use wash cloths) homemade bread, DIY laundry soap, etc. – but the thought of working with lye, which is a necessary soap making ingredient, really scared me! I honestly thought it would be so hard, challenging and ridiculously dangerous to do with little children in the home.
Well, like anything, you must be careful – and obviously, working with lye (and yes, you need lye!! But don’t worry – it is in not part of the final product. You can read about it all here) shouldn’t be done with a baby on your hip or with little fingers nearby. However, it was not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. In fact, the first time, we had daddy mix it up – but the second time we made soap, I mixed the lye very carefully in a well ventilated area and all was fine. No burns on skin. No scary lye stories singing holes in the counter. No fumes burning noses.
Earlier this week, my best friend and I tried a recipe for homemade soap and, sadly, it really, truly failed – or else we failed the recipe. I might be able to salvage the no-good soap into liquid soap but it was not what we were going for at all.
So after some more searching, I found a great recipe and tried it with the girls earlier this week. My advice – don’t be afraid of making your own soap! If I can do it, you can.
Thank you to Jillee for her fabulous recipe! I am blogging about it so you can know you too can make soap and also to document it for myself so I will always have the recipe.
Here are the steps. They are easy. They are simple and you CAN make your own soap at home!
For this super easy recipe, you will need the following:
an old crockpot
lye (we found our lye at a farm store supply in town)
coconut oil
olive oil
essential oil (if you so desire)
electric hand held stick mixer
kitchen scale
Here are the steps:
1. Measure 12.8 ounces of olive oil using your kitchen scale. Dump into crockpot, which should be turned on low.
2. Using kitchen scale, measure 3.2 ounces of coconut oil. Dump into crockpot.
3. Measure out 6 oz. of water into a heatproof glass bowl.
4. Measure out 2.2 ounces of lye. I used a small glass jar that I could wash out afterwards.
5. Gently, slowly and with caution (again, it’s just to be safe) add the lye to the water, being careful not to splash yourself or surfaces. It is suggested to do this in a well ventilated area. As I mentioned, we had daddy do it the first time and then I gained confidence and could manage the second time.
Stir until dissolved. When the oils are mostly melted in the crockpot, add the lye/water to the crockpot. Using your mixer, carefully mix up the soap, again, being careful not to splash about. I had no troubles with this – never once did the lye hit my skin.
Mix for a few minutes until it seems well-integrated.
And that’s it!!!! Now you put the lid on, set the timer for an hour, walk away and just randomly check on your soap making over the next while.
In half an hour, it should look like this:
And at the end of the hour, that is when you can add whatever you want. We added lavender and lavender essential oils to one batch and honey and oatmeal to another batch. Be creative! Lemon, peppermint, coffee, cocoa – do a little research and see what you can come up with.
Just stir in – we didn’t measure, we just guessed. We probably used too much lavender but it works as a good exfoliant, as well. 🙂
Stir your essential oils and ingredients together and pour into molds. We have used silicone molds and baking trays. You can do what pleases you.
Now you wait. I waited 24 hours to take it out of the mold… the longer you wait, the harder your soap will be. Take it out of the mold the next day and let it dry in a well ventilated area. I have heard that you need to wait 2-3 weeks to let the soap cure, which will ensure the lye is inert and will not harm your skin. (Thanks to my friend, Terriann, for that info!). After the time has passed, your lovely homemade soap is ready to go … !
I loved this lavender soap and going to make another batch with another flower-type ingredient for spring …
And the honey and oatmeal is lovely and so smooth -so moisturizing on your skin, as well.
I love having these projects under our belts so we can avoid purchasing and just simply make what we need or want here at home. There’s just something about making things under your own roof. Not only is it wonderful to make and create at home, (and hopefully saves money!), it is also a safer alternative than store bought soaps …
by Gigi
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