Making Lye Soap

When I was growing up I can remember my Mammy making lye soap on one occasion. I wasn't there while she was making it, but I remember her telling me she used lard or suet from McClellan's. And I can remember it sitting in the laundry room curing. I also remember she had a large cast iron scalding pot that stayed outside that she said she used in making it. Maybe rendering the lard? I only ever remember her using that pot one summer to boil beets and then for fun adding in some white laundry to dye it pink.

Fast forward to my mid twenties. I had started breaking out badly--- much worse than my teenage years. Nothing I tried worked. Then in 2009 I ended up purchasing several bars of plain lye soap from Silver Dollar City when we went on vacation that year. It helped tremendously. From then on I would stock up on homemade soaps from The Cats Meow that would frequent our local Dogwood Festival. But in the back of my mind I always wanted to learn how to make my own.

In late 2016, when I moved into our RV at Chigger Haven, there was a lot of downtime. I remember reading an article in Backwoods Home or Mother Earth News about making soap and making your own lye to make soap.  I knew right then I wanted to start learning how to master certain 'homesteading' skills that I did not already possess. I had already learned how to make jelly, can vegetables and had started raising chickens. Thanks to a Christmas gift I had learned how to cook on a wood stove. I had been raised bed gardening for a few years. But making soap still scared me a bit. Then, this year (2018) for Christmas, the hubs bought me everything I needed to make my own soap: lye, a mold and cutter, and an immersion blender. I still need to try making lye from scratch!

Another homesteading skill I conquered back in 2015 was rendering lard (the easy way) in my crockpot and putting it in mason jars to freeze for later use. My Dad is always good to give me some pork or beef when he has one slaughtered and I asked for the lard so I could try this. It was really easy -- though it does tend to make your house smell a bit.






The hubs and I watched several videos on YouTube on how to make your own soap and ironically we felt like the video from Becky's Homestead (posted below) was the easiest to follow. Here is her recipe:

40 oz. lard
5.4 oz lye
13.5 oz water

.33 oz or 10 ml of essential oil *optional*  --- I later discovered this is a bit misleading since most essential oil bottles are 10 ml bottles. When making soap ALL MEASUREMENTS ARE BY WEIGHT NOT VOLUME. I have also started learning how to use SoapCalc -- an online calculator that lets you make your own recipe and tells you how much lye you should use and how much of each oil and how much fragrance . For Becky's recipe it recommends using .5oz WEIGHT fragrance.

Now for the steps:

For safety use gloves and goggles

Measure out all your ingredients first.

The lye always goes into the water, not the other way around. This solution will be VERY hot. And the fumes will knock you down. I always do this step outside.

You should also keep vinegar around in case of spills or contact to skin.

Warm lard to room temperature about 80° F. Before adding the lye solution to the liquid lard wait until the solution has cooled to 100° F   The cooling process can take forever so it's best to mix the lye and water first and then you can  measure and melt your lard and gather anything else you might need while waiting for it to cool down. Like I said, I do this step outside and its been in the 30's each time and it still takes about 30 - 45 minutes, if not longer.

Once the lye solution is cooled and the lard is warmed, *read this article* add lard to plastic or stainless steel bowl and then add the lye solution. Mix with spoon until thoroughly mixed then use your immersion blender beating in 20 second spurts until you see a "trace" or it looks a bit like pudding.



At this point add essential oil if you're using it. Mixing it in well. Then, pour into molds, cover with lid and wrap in towels. Leave it alone for 24 hours. Then you can cut into bars and let cure for 3 weeks.

This was my first batch -- Patchouli Sage. I sprinkled the top with dried sage from my herb garden.

There's a learning curve to cutting straight bars.

I didn't have enough lard from the hog Dad gave me to make another batch. So we contacted two of our local slaughter houses and were told they couldn't give or sell us unwanted lard because they weren't licensed to do so. So I learned another homesteading skill -- bartering. My husband belongs to several Facebook groups and posted in a few local homesteading groups that we were wanting lard/suet to make soap. Several people were willing to sell it to me, most often for more than I could buy already rendered at Walmart, but then one lady said she would gladly give me hers for a bar of soap. I gave her a bar of my patchouli sage and threw in a jar of honeysuckle jelly I had made. She sent me a message later telling me how much she loved my soap and couldn't wait to try the jelly. And then later that day her nephew contacted me to give me his lard.  I think I'll be set to make at least 4 more batches of soap.

Becky's video:

There is a Soap calculator  that lets you plug in what kind and amount of oils you will be using in your soap and it will tell you how much lye and water to use. I've made the above recipe 3x without much issue other than inconsistent gel phase on the last two batches (I wonder if I even had gel phase at all on the first batch). When I put it into the calculator it tells me to use 15.2 oz water and 5.36 oz of lye. I've also joined a group on Facebook for beginner soap making and was informed that less water makes it harden faster, quicker to cut, easier to unmold, and gives less soda ash.

To combat the gel phase issues I was advised to set my oven to 170* and to set my soap once in the mold into the oven. Wrap it in a towel like normal, shut the door, and turn off the heat. Leave it overnight -- I plan on trying this method soon. The last 3 batches I didn't wrap it in a towel at all. I just set it inside a small cardboard box, set another piece of cardboard on top for a makeshift lid and closed the box. I haven't had any inconsistent gel phase doing this method.

Fragrances

I'm still learning how to combine the right essential oils for the best scents. I've learned that

30% of a blend should be Top Notes
60% of a blend should be Middle Notes
10% of a blend should be Base Notes

That means if I stick to my recipe above using 10mL that means

3 ml should be Top Notes

6 ml should be Middle Notes

 1 ml should be Base Notes

Top Notes	Middle Notes	Base Notes
Basil	Bay	Peru Balsam
Bergamot	Black Pepper	Cassia
Cinnamon	Cardamom	Cedarwood
Clary Sage	Chamomile	Cinnamon
Eucalyptus	Cypress	Clove
Grapefruit	Fennel	Frankincense
Lemon	Geranium	Ginger
Lemongrass	Hyssop	Jasmine
Lime	Juniper	Myrrh
Mandarin	Lavender	Neroli
Neroli	Majoram	Oakmoss
Verbena	Melissa	Patchouli
Orange	Myrtle	Rose
Peppermint	Nutmeg	Rosewood
Sage	Palma Rosa	Sandalwood
Spearmint	Pine	Valerian
Tangerin	Rosemary	Vanilla
Tea Tree	Spinenard	Vetiver
Thyme	Yarrow	Ylang Ylang

This is a great free EO blend resource where others share their blends: EOCalc


Below are a few scents I want to try based on diffuser blends.


Scents (repeat combinations until you have at least reached 10 mL )

Take A Hike: (5) Cypress (2) Tea Tree (2) Cedarwood (1) Bergamot *Made 2/25/2019*

Cashmere: (5) Lavender (1) Ylang Ylang (2) Clary Sage (3) Orange (1) Patchouli (2) Veviter (1) Clove

Man's Man: (1) Patchouli (2) Bergamot (1) Cedarwood

Mischief: (3) Orange, (2) Rosemary (2) Bergamot (1) Patchouli

Zen: equal parts Lavender, Bergamot, Frankincense
 or (5) Cedarwood, (5) Frankincense, (3) Lavender, (3) Bergamot and (3) Geranium

Heal Me: (5) Lavender, (4) Frankincense and (3) Tea Tree

Passion: (3) Patchouli,  (3) Lavender and (3) Orange

Crisp Autumn: (3) Patchouli, (3) Orange, and (1) Clove

Mountain Top:  (3) Lemongrass (2) Eucalyptus and (1) Lavender

Lovespell: (5) Grapefruit, (4) Cinnamon and (1) Cedarwood

Night In The Woods: (6) Orange, (5) Cedarwood and (3) Frankincense

California Coast: (2) Cedarwood (2) Frankincense, (2) Orange, and (1) Rosemary

Autumn Equinox: (6) Clove, (4) Frankincense and (3) Cedarwood

Fall Sunrise: (3) Rosemary (2) Orange (2) Lemongrass  (1) Eucalyptus (1) Cinnamon (1) Clove *Made 2/17/ 2019*

Another recipe I'd like to try is this one from Soap Making Essentials:



This basic soap recipe, like the one above, is also a great one for those who are new to soap making.

Coconut Oil - 225 gr. | 7.9 oz. | 25%

Lard - 180 gr. | 6.3 oz. | 20%

Olive Oil - 450 gr. | 15.9 oz. | 50%

Castor Oil - 45 gr. | 1.6 oz. | 5%

Distilled Water - 297 gr. | 10.5 oz.

Lye - 126.7 gr. | 4.5 oz.




Water as % of Oils = 33

Super Fat/Discount = 5%

Remember I'm still learning... but the above recipes tips and hints should help you get your feet wet if you're wanting to try this.

Until next time,
Becky