How to make soap to

Learn How to Make Soap

Have you ever wondered how to make soap? I’ll bet that you didn’t realize how many forms of soap making there actually are!

When talking about bars soaps alone there are so many types, it boggles the mind.

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Cold process, hot process, room temperature, melt and pour, transparent or glycerin, whipped bar soap.

And then, just to mix you up even more, we will add in variations to some of them.

How about cold process oven process, hot process oven process or crock pot hot process.

Of course we mustn’t forget about liquid soap making and whipped cream soap making,

Below you will find a list of the different types of soap making methods used and general descriptions for each. Those that have tutorials, have click-able link headings. Check them out!

Cold Process Method

This is a tried and true method of soap making and the one I used when I first starting to learn how to make soap. It begins with melting the hard and soft oils together and then blending in a lye solution.

The oil mixture and lye solution must first be brought to similar temperatures (usually around 90 degrees Fahrenheit).

Once the oil and lye have been combined, the mixture is blended with a whisk or stick blender until it is thick (called trace) and then poured into a soap mold.

This method requires the use of a heating element to melt the oils and a thermometer to check temperatures. It then must cure for 4 to 6 weeks before it can be used.

Room Temperature Method

My new favourite method on how to make soap. This type of soap making process does not require an external heat source or any thermometers.

It begins by pouring the hot lye solution onto the hard oils and gently stirring while the oils melt from the heat.

Once the hard oils have fully melted, the soft oils are then added to the mixture. The mixture is then blended until it is thick and poured into a soap mold. It then must cure for 4 to 6 weeks before it can be used.

Hot Process Method

Many soap makers like this method because it speeds up the time it takes for the final soaps to become hard.

Many soap makers will use hot process soap as soon as it can be cut though I prefer to let it cure for a couple of weeks.

With this method you melt the oils and and blend in the lye solution (no need to check temperatures). You blend until the soap is thick and then you cook the soap until it is very thick (resembling mashed potatoes) and somewhat translucent. It is then scooped into a soap mold and allowed to cool.

This method tends to produce a soap that is a little more rustic in appearance than the previous two methods.

Oven Process Method

This is a variation that can be applied to each of the three methods above.

With the cold process and room temperature methods, once the soap has reached a thick trace and been poured into your soap mold, it is then cooked in the oven at about 150 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit until it reaches the gel stage.

This technique can vary from soap maker to soap maker as well. Some will put the molded soap into a hot oven, turn it off and leave it for the night while others will cook it for a couple of hours.

With the hot process method, the oven is used as the heat source when cooking the soap until it resembles mashed potatoes. Other options are a crock pot or a double boiler.

Whipped Soap Bar Method

This is a really cool soap method that does not use heat to melt your oils. In fact, you don’t want them to melt at all. With this method you will actually chill the lye so that there is no chance of melting the oil.

A whipped bar soap recipe is high in hard oils and has very little in the way of liquid oils. The hard oils are whipped until fluffy and creamy and then the liquid oils are blended in.

Once the mix is again fluffy, the cold lye solution is very slowly blended in until it is quite thick and creamy.

The soap can then be molded into a regular soap mold or piped like icing onto butchers paper in fun shapes. And guess what? Whipped bar soaps float!

Melt and Pour Soap

Most of you have probably heard about melt and pour soap making. It is a ton of fun and a great place to start when you want to learn how to make soap.

With this method you do not need to use lye since melt and pour is a soap base that has already been made. The lye stage of the process has already been done for you.

All you have to do is cut up the soap, melt it, add your colour and scent and pour it into a soap mold.

Once it has cooled and hardened, you can use the soap right away.

Whipped Cream Soap

Another interesting way of making soap. This method of soap making produces a soft soap that resembles whipped cream. Talk about cool!

It uses both sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide and is a bit more complicated than the methods listed above. This method is not a beginner method at all.

I’ve posted a link to my adventures with trying this method out but be aware that this is not a tutorial. It is more of a diary of my exploration.

Transparent or Glycerin Soap

My mother and I made transparent soap during our second year of soap making. It was lots of fun and we combined both transparent and regular cold process soap into our soap designs.

Transparent soap starts off as hot process soap making but takes a bit of a turn once it hits the mashed potato stage. At this point glycerin and alcohol are added to dissolve the soap base.

Once the base has melted into the glycerin/alcohol solution, a sugar solution is added to aid transparency.

After adding in scent and colour,it’s poured into molds to harden and must be left for about 4 weeks before it can be used.

This method is not for beginners and in Canada, you have to get a special licence to buy denatured alcohol from a wholesaler.

For more information on how to make soap using this method, try reading Catherine Failor’s book ‘Transparent Soapmaking’.

Liquid Soap Making

The process for making liquid soap is very similar to that of transparent soap making except instead of using sodium hydroxide you use potassium hydroxide. Potassium hydroxide is always used when a liquid or soft soap is being made.

Liquid soap making can be made in two different ways, the paste method and the alcohol lye method.

The paste method follows the hot process procedures until it is a mashed potato paste which is then diluted, neutralized and sequestered for a couple of weeks.

The alcohol method involves mixing the oils with the lye solution to which alcohol is added and the mixture is brought to trace.

The soap is then gently boiled for a couple of hours, then diluted, neutralized and sequestered for a few weeks.

This method of soap making is best tried after you are familiar with cold and hot process soap making.

For more information on how to make soap using this method, try reading Catherine Failor’s book ‘Making Natural Liquid Soaps’.

How to Make Homemade Soap

Whip up a batch of handcrafted soap with a few ingredients

David Fisher is a highly regarded professional soaper with over 15 years of experience, sharing his knowledge of the craft, science, and chemistry of saponification. He currently owns Bath Rabbit Soap Company and is the author of «The Complete Photo Guide to Soap Making.»

Making soap at home is a practical and satisfying skill to learn. Whether you’d like a natural alternative to store-bought soap or you’re a crafty person looking for a new creative venture, making soap is fun and not always as difficult as you might think. There are four methods of making soap, two of which are the most common.

Making Soap: A Basic Chemical Reaction

Soap is the result of a basic chemical reaction between fats or oils and lye. The process of achieving the chemical reaction is called saponification. By carefully choosing a combination of quality oils, adding your favorite fragrance or essential oils, and swirling in a lively colorant, your handmade soap suddenly takes on a charming, rustic character.

Watch Now: How to Make Your Own Soap

Basic Methods of Making Soap

There are four basic methods for making soap at home. Two of the most popular methods are the «melt and pour» and cold process. The hot process and rebatching are more advanced methods.

Each method has pros, cons, and variations. Review the two most popular methods to select your method.

Melt and Pour Soap Making Method

Making soap with a melt and pour base is safe, easy, and convenient. The base has already gone through the saponification process, so you won’t need to handle lye. First, purchase pre-made blocks of uncolored, unscented soap “base” from a craft store or soap supplier. The soap base is then melted in a microwave or a double boiler. When the soap is fully melted you can add fragrance, color, and additives. Pour the mixture into a mold and the soap is ready to use when it hardens.

Easy and inexpensive

Few ingredients needed

Great for beginners

A quality base is best

Ingredients not always natural

Usually contains extra glycerin

To get started with melt and pour soap making, you’ll need a few tools after you purchase a soap base.

The most popular soap bases are white or clear glycerin. For a more luxurious soap, try a base made with goat’s milk, olive oil, or Shea butter. You’ll cut the soap base up into chunks to help it melt faster. If you use a microwave to melt the chunks, put the base in a microwave-safe bowl and stir at 30-second intervals until the chunks are liquid and smooth. Or melt in a double boiler over low heat, stirring until liquid and smooth. Then, allow the base to cool to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, then stir in colorants, fragrances, and additives of your choice. Finally, pour the mixture into your soap mold, wait a day until the soap is hardened and dry, remove from the mold, and your creation is ready to use.

There are a few tricks to know about when making melt and pour soap. The melted base will be thin, which means additives may sink to the bottom unless you wait until the base cools a bit before adding in. Melt and pour soap cools and hardens quickly so you’ll have to learn to time it right when using additives. If the base is too hot, it can burn and become gloppy and tough to work into a mold.

Some additives work better than others in melt and pour soaps. Try sandalwood powder or dried calendula flower petals for best results. Many herbs tend to change color in the soap. Other additives include exfoliants, fruit seeds, and milk powders.

Cold Process Soap Making Method

The cold process method is a little more complicated and takes longer than melt and pour soap. It also involves using lye, which is a caustic substance. To make cold process soap, you’ll heat your choice of oils in a soap pot until they reach approximately 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, you’ll slowly add a lye-water mixture and blend the soap until it thickens to trace. After the mixture reaches trace, add fragrance, color, and additives, then pour it into a mold. The raw soap takes about 24 hours to harden and a few weeks to cure before it’s ready to use.

Made from scratch

Ingredients can be customized

Technique allows for greater creativity

More tools and clean up required

Need to safely work with lye

Technique requires 4 to 6 weeks for soap to cure

To get started making cold process soap, be prepared to need more equipment and clean-up time than you would with melt and pour soap. Work where there’s a heat source and access to water. There are several tools you’ll want to have on hand for this method of soap making, but begin with the basics:

You’ll need to have a cool, dry place where the soap can cure. Since this method of soap making includes the saponification process, you’re able to use fresh additives such as milk and fruit. Fresh additives can be included because the high pH environment of the saponification process preserves the ingredients and prevents the formation of bacteria or mold. The texture of cold process soap is also thicker, which means you can use heavier additives that won’t sink to the bottom.

Take note that any vanilla ingredient might not be a reliable additive in cold process soap making because of the potential alcohol content, and it may turn your soap brown. Once you learn how to make cold process soap, take your talents to the next level and make homemade shampoo soap bars.

Warning

Lye is a caustic ingredient. When working with lye, wear protective gear including eye goggles, gloves, long sleeves, and pants to fully cover any exposed skin from spillage.

21 Creative Handmade Soap Recipes for Beginners

RUSS ROHDE / Getty Images

Learn a practical skill, create gifts, and let your creativity run loose all at the same time by taking up the art of soap making. DIY soap is loaded with natural and aromatic products that are better for your skin and the planet. We’ve gathered 21 easy homemade soap recipes for beginners, including shampoo soap bars.

Before you begin, here’s a quick tutorial about the chemistry behind making soap. To make soap completely from scratch (as opposed to melt and pour with premade soap bases), you’ll need to use lye, which is a caustic salt known as sodium hydroxide. The chemical reaction between lye and oil ingredients is called saponification, which creates soap (and leaves no lye in the finished product).

Warning

Wear protective gear (eye goggles, gloves, long-sleeved tops, and pants) when working with lye.

Once you understand how to work with lye and experiment with the ingredients, tools, and equipment that it takes to make soap, you’ll have learned a valuable skill.

Watch Now: 3 Ways to Make Your Own Soap

Popular Soapmaking Methods

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The Spruce / Catherine Song

There are four common methods you can use to make soap: melt and pour, cold process, hot process, and rebatching. Before diving into your first batch of homemade soap, familiarize yourself with the four most common methods of soapmaking. Some of these processes are easier than others. Knowing how each one works will help you decide which tutorials you want to tackle.

A Woodsy, Earthy Blend

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Tweak and Tinker

This recipe for a handsome, heavenly-scented cold process soap is ideal for a beginner to tackle. From this recipe, you can learn how to use other additives. A base of coconut, canola, castor, sesame oil, Shea, and kokum butter is blended with lime, vetiver, and cedarwood essential oils. The result is a smokey marbled soap with distinctive and deeply masculine scents that you’d find in the most delicious men’s colognes. Make a batch for gifting the men in your life.

A Fresh Citrus Soap

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This melt and pour soap recipe is simple since it’s pre-mixed, but with a little customization, it becomes an artisan item. There’s no need to work with messy chemicals like lye with a melt and pour base. Dried citrus slices are key because they aren’t fresh, but they do have quite a refreshing scent. The slices are heavy, so add them after the base has cooled down slightly so it’s not as thin and watery or else the slices will fall to the bottom of the mold. For this recipe, find a goat’s milk melt and pour base, then add citrus essential oil and dried orange slices.

Skin Nourishing Soap

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This double butter luxury soap recipe pairs two quality butter ingredients with a dash of creativity. Aside from being nourishing for the skin thanks to the cocoa and Shea butter, this soap has flecks of gold and brown mica (a colorant for soap) in it to give it texture and golden, glittery color. The mica is a bit of a heavy additive, so add just as the soap is starting to thicken so the colorant doesn’t fall to the bottom.

Fun Exfoliating Loofah Soap

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A Pumpkin and a Princess

Who says you can’t be creative with a melt and pour soap base? Loofah soaps are easy to make with this technique. Melt the base, add extras, and cut the loofahs in the color of your choice so they fit in the mold. Then pour the soap on top of the loofah. If you’re making a rose soap, add rose essential oil and a bit of rose mica colorant to your base.

Tea Time Soap

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komargallery / Getty Images

Once this homemade green tea and lemongrass soap is ready to use, the fragrance will make you feel like you just stepped into a spa. To might be able to make this simple soap with items you already have in your kitchen pantry. For instance, this soap is made with steeped green tea leaves. Add eucalyptus and lemongrass oil for an extra fresh and healing fragrance.

Relaxing Spa Day Soap

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Turner Forte / Getty Images

We love this lavender dream soap recipe because it’s perfect for a relaxing spa day ambiance. Use this type of soap for instant stress relief. Add in lavender buds plus orange, patchouli, and lavender essential oils for a more complex blend. It may be a challenge to use fresh flower petals in a soap. They don’t retain their color very well and they tend to look like little brown or black dots within the soap. The trick is to lightly shred them before adding, and it may take a few experiments to get it right.

A Little Poppy in Your Soap

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Humbebee and Me

This soap looks like a yummy loaf of lemon poppy seed cake. Poppy seeds are excellent for exfoliating because they remove dead skin cells, moisturize, and improve blood circulation. The color of this soap comes from a blend of essential oils, such as litsea cubeba and orange, rather than colorant. Poppy seeds are a bit heavy, so wait until the soap cools a bit before you add them in so they don’t fall to the bottom.

Delicious Candy-Style Soap

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For a soap that looks and smells like dessert, use cinnamon cocoa fragrance oil and cocoa powder. This melt and pour recipe calls for vanilla color stabilizer. Typically a vanilla color stabilizer turns soap tan or brown, but in this case, it enhances the cake-like color. The key to this recipe is the patience and skill required to create the even layers.

Handmade Bath Bombs

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These easy fizzy bath bombs are simply a mixture of baking soda, citric acid, cornstarch, food coloring, and essential oils. They don’t need to be cured like soap, so you can use them right out of the mold for your next bath.

Carved Crystal Soap

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A Beautiful Mess

These beautiful, magically shaped soaps also sparkle because of the mica and glitter additives. The beauty of this soap recipe is that it embraces imperfection. Every crystal is supposed to look lopsided when they’re cut. This recipe is a bit involved, but if you love the look of small crystals and clusters of gemstones in the shape of soap, this is a perfect project.

Gummy Soap for Kids

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Kids love anything gummy, so why not make some jiggly soap to make washing hands more fun. The key to this soap is the unflavored gelatin. Add some glitter and soap coloring to entice your kids to use the soap. Add in an extra packet of the gelatin to make the soap less wiggly. You don’t want the soap to squirt out of your child’s hands and on to the floor. Make a huge batch because gummy soap dissolves quickly and doesn’t last as long as regular bar soap.

A Pure Honey of a Soap

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Happiness Is Homemade

This soap recipe is so simple that it only requires four main ingredients, including a goat’s milk melt and pour base, raw honey, soap colorant, and fragrance. Honey in any soap naturally benefits skin thanks to its antibacterial properties that can also brighten up a dull complexion. For a most charming milk and honey soap, use a honeycomb mold.

The Gift of Basic Bath Salts

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Basic bath salts make an easy gift because they’re fun to make and customize. All you need is a mix of Epsom salt, sea salt, baking soda, essential oils, and coloring. It all goes into festive mason jars for gift-giving or display in your home. Experiment with different essential oil blends and soap colorants. One trick, however, is to keep match the color with the fragrance. Or experiment by layering various colored and scented bath salts within one jar for a rainbow effect.

Soap With an Unexpected Ingredient

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Offbeat and Inspired

Many soap making recipes use common ingredients like milk, honey, and essential oils. However, many food products work well in soap recipes made from scratch, such as milk and honey. But you can also be creative and use nuts and coffee beans for a gourmet touch. If you opt for a coffee-infused homemade soap, add used coffee grounds for its excellent exfoliating value. Though this recipe results in a soap with a light scent of coffee, the oils balance out and often overpower the fragrance.

Simple Lemon-Kissed Soap

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It’s tempting to want to add a ton of ingredients to your soap recipe, but sometimes simple is the way to go. If you’re giving soap as a gift, consider a fragrance that most people would enjoy, such as lemon essential oil. Add a little yellow soap colorant to a Shea butter melt and pour soap base for a pretty, softly tinted, and creamy soap.

Sugar Scrub Cubes

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A Cultivated Nest

These sweet and adorable sugar scrubs look good enough to eat. But they’re actually luxurious exfoliating soaps. You may have a few ingredients already on hand, such as the sugar. The recipe also calls for some regular soap shredded to add some texture. Add in lime soap coloring and lime essential oil for a refreshing treat. It’s one of the easiest «soap» recipes to make and these little cubes last for up to six months.

Soap for Acne-Prone Skin

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An important benefit of making your own soap is that you can tailor the recipe to your skin’s needs. If your skin is dry, try a moisturizing milk base. On the other hand, if your skin is acne-prone, consider adding clay to help remove impurities. This soap is ideal for problem skin; it’s not harsh and it’s soothing at the same time. Try bentonite clay in this recipe. It’s an ancient medicinal clay that many say has cleaning and healing powers.

Soap to Soothe Sensitive Skin

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Oatmeal-infused soap is popular for soothing dry, itchy, and sensitive skin. It’s also easy to make at home with a goat’s milk melt and pour base. Oatmeal doesn’t have a fragrance, so it’s nourishing and lovely paired with honey, almonds, and a sweet almond fragrance.

Muscle Relief With Epsom Salt Soaps

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Dream a Little Bigger

Why just pour Epsom salt into a tub when you can make muscle relief more fun with Epsom salt soap. It’s an easy and unusual treat for a soap that you can also use in the shower or a soaking bath. You can add this muscle-relieving ingredient to a melt and pour goat’s milk soap base. Add colorant and essential oil to make it pretty as well as healing.

Gentle Aloe Vera Soap

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The Nerdy Farm Wife

This cold process soap recipe is gentle enough to use on your face thanks to the aloe gel and nourishing oils. Find a juicy aloe plant so you can extract fresh aloe for the soap. When you prepare the extracted aloe in a blender or food processor to make soap, it’ll become fluffy like egg whites. If you have extra-sensitive skin, substitute the coconut oil for babassu oil in this recipe.

Bubbling Bath Bars

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A Beautiful Mess

Make these pretty little soap bars for gifts or to inspire your bath routine. The trick to the bubbles is in the ingredients of baking soda and liquid bubble bath (but use a name brand bubble bath for extra fizz). Together, the recipe adds loads of bubbles while soothing your skin. Look for floral soap molds to make these bath bombs gift-worthy.

How to Make Soap

Soap Making for Beginners

This post may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure here.

Soap making is a fun craft that’s easy to master, provided you have good attention to detail and know-how to carefully follow directions. Once you learn how to make soap, you can begin experimenting with your own homemade recipes, and truly make it your own!

Homemade soap is a real pleasure to make, and once you experience all-natural homemade soap I doubt you’ll ever go back to store-bought.

Making your own soap allows you to have complete control of the process, and knowing the exact ingredients gives you the peace of mind in our modern world of chemical additives.

The process may seem overwhelming at first, but once you’ve made your first few batches it’ll be second nature. In truth, learning how to make your own soap is simple and only has a few steps from start to finish.

The following is reprinted with permission from The Big Book of Homemade Products for Your Skin, Health and Home by Jan Berry, Page Street Publishing Co. 2020. Photo credits: Jan Berry where noted.

Soap-Making Basics

Before you jump into the process of making soap, there are a few things to know.

In order to make soap, you need to combine a caustic substance with oils or fat. In days past, our grandmothers used potash, made from wood ashes and animal fats. The problem was that there was no way to know how strong or weak the potash was and how much fat should be used in ratio to it. The result was often a harsh bar that did well for cleaning laundry, but didn’t feel so great on skin!

Today, we have one standardized chemical for making bar soap. It’s called sodium hydroxide, or more commonly, lye. Because it never changes, we can use online lye calculators and figure out exactly how much we need to make a perfectly balanced bar of soap every single time.

In order to do this, it’s important that all ingredients, even water and oils, are measured by weight instead of volume, as inconsistent measurements will yield unreliable results.

Some people fear that because lye is a caustic substance, some might be left over in the soap and will hurt your skin. That’s an understandable concern, but it’s completely untrue.

Every single molecule of lye reacts with corresponding molecules of oil and they both turn into something new—soap plus glycerin. There is no lye left in a properly made bar of soap.

Store-bought soaps either contain chemical detergents or lye. Look on the label of your favorite soap. If it has the words “saponified,” “sodium cocoate,” “sodium tallowate” or “sodium palmitate,” that’s just another way of saying oils that have been reacted with sodium hydroxide, or lye.

Lye is a strong chemical that does require utmost caution and respect when handling. For safety, wear a pair of goggles, to protect your eyes from splashes, along with rubber or latex gloves and long sleeves.

Always add lye to liquids, and not the other way around, or it may have a volcano effect and make a mess. When mixing lye into water or another liquid, it gets very hot fast, and strong fumes will develop for a few moments.

Don’t breathe these fumes in directly. The ideal place to work is in your kitchen sink, with the window open for fresh air.

Handling lye is for grownups only. Make sure small children and pets are out of the area. Lye solutions should be clearly marked with both words and danger symbols for non-readers.

If you get lye on your skin, rinse repeatedly with copious amounts of cool water. For large-area burns or if you get it in your eyes, rinse and seek medical attention right away.

I know that all of these safety warnings make lye sound pretty scary! Keep in mind, though, that soap is made every day by many people without incident. If you can safely handle bleach, another potentially harmful chemical, you should be able to handle lye with the same amount of competence.

Soap-Making Supplies

There are a few basic things you’ll need for making soap.

Digital Scale—It’s important that soap-making ingredients, especially the lye, are measured precisely in order to make a balanced bar of soap. An accurate digital scale is a must. Check at your local big-box store, near the kitchen accessories section, for a reasonably priced one.

Thermometer—A candy thermometer works well to measure the temperature of lye solution and oils. Save it just for soap making, though, and get a separate one for making candy.

Small Measuring Container—This is for measuring dry lye. Mark it clearly with the words “LYE” and a symbol for nonreaders. I use a plastic cup.

Heatproof Pitcher—Use this for mixing the lye and water together. Use stainless steel or heavy-duty plastic. Some people use heatproof glass, but over time the inside develops weaknesses that make it prone to breakage, so it’s not recommended.

Soap Pot or Large Bowl—This is for mixing the entire thing together. It should be stainless steel, high-density plastic, enamel-lined or ceramic. Don’t use aluminum or nonstick surfaces; they will react badly with lye.

Rubber Gloves, Long Sleeves, and Safety Goggles—Use these to keep hands, arms and eyes protected.

Stick or Immersion Blender—This shortens stirring time considerably and is highly recommended. Don’t use a regular handheld mixer with beaters; it doesn’t work in the same way.

Heatproof Mixing Utensils—Use heavy-duty plastic or silicone spoons and spatulas for mixing and scraping soap into the mold.

Soap Molds—The soaps in this book will fit a Crafter’s Choice regular loaf silicone mold 1501, or approximately a 3-pound (1.3-kg) mold.

Parchment Paper or Plastic— For lining soap molds. (See notes on lining soap molds below)

A wooden soap mold lined with parchment paper (Photo Credit Jan Berry)

How to Make Soap

Now that you have the basics down, you’re ready to make soap! Remember that all measurements are by weight, even the water portion.

STEP 1

Assemble your ingredients and don your safety gear of gloves, goggles and long sleeves. I like to lay several sheets of wax paper over my work area, to make cleanup easier. Prepare your mold by lining it, unless it’s silicone. (See more details below)

Lining a wooden soap mold (Photo Credit Jan Berry)

STEP 2

Weigh out the water or herbal tea part of the recipe in a heatproof container and set it down into your kitchen sink or another spot near a source of fresh air.

Weigh out the lye in a separate container.

Weighing out soap making ingredients (Photo Credit Jan Berry)

STEP 3

Pour the lye into the water or tea and stir gently with a heatproof spatula or spoon until the lye is fully dissolved from the bottom of the container.

Always add the lye to water and not the other way around, to avoid a potentially dangerous, and messy, lye-volcano. Avoid directly breathing in the strong fumes.

Set the solution aside in a safe place out of the reach of children and pets, and let cool for 30 to 40 minutes. The temperature should drop to 100 to 110°F (38 to 43°C) during that time.

Combining lye with water (Photo Credit Jan Berry)

STEP 4

While the lye solution is cooling, weigh out the oils and butters you’ll need for your recipe. Melt coconut oil and any solid butters in a double boiler before adding to the other oils in your bigger soap-making pot or mixing container.

Heat the oils more, if necessary, until they’re 90 to 100°F (32 to 38°C).

Weighing oils and butters for soap making (Photo Credit Jan Berry)

STEP 5

Pour the lye solution into the pot or mixing container of oils. Hand stir with an immersion blender (powered off) for 15 to 20 seconds, then turn on the immersion blender and mix the soap batter, alternating every 15 to 20 seconds or so with hand stirring to prevent the immersion blender’s motor from burning out.

Continue mixing until trace is reached. This could take anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes. “Trace” means that the soap batter is thick enough to leave a faint, fleeting imprint when it’s drizzled across itself.

A batch of soap that has “reached trace” meaning that it’s been stirred until thickened so that lines trace across the surface. (Photo Credit Jan Berry)

STEP 6

Once you’ve reached trace, you can choose to make either cold process soap or hot process soap.

For Cold Process Soap

Stir in any extra ingredients, such as essential oils, oatmeal, honey and such, then pour the soap batter into the prepared mold. At this stage, the soap is still caustic, so be sure to have your gloves on while handling it.

Pour the soap into your choice of soap mold, then cover the mold with a sheet of wax paper and then the mold’s top or a piece of cardboard. To retain heat, tuck a quilt or towel around it. Make sure it’s in an area where it won’t get disturbed or knocked over, then allow it to stay in the mold for 24 to 48 hours.

After that time, remove the soap from the mold and slice into bars. Let the bars cure in the open air on sheets of wax paper or a coated baking rack for at least 4 weeks before using.

Cold Process soap making allows the soap to cure at room temperature for several weeks (hot process, on the other hand, cures the soap faster with heat.) (Photo Credit Jan Berry)

For Hot Process Soap

Pour the soap batter into a slow cooker turned on low heat. Cover with the lid and let cook for 1 hour, checking and stirring every 15 minutes. The soap will go through many changes during the process.

At times, it will rise up higher and then fall back in on itself. Parts of the soap will turn dark and gel-like. This is all normal.

After 1 hour of cook time has passed, give the soap a final stir. It will have a thickened consistency reminiscent of mashed potatoes.

Hot process soap at 15-minute intervals through the one-hour cooking process. (Photo Credit Jan Berry)

At this stage, stir in any extras such as essential oils, oatmeal, honey and such.

Spoon the cooked soap into the prepared mold. Allow it to firm up overnight, then remove from the mold and slice into bars.

You can use hot process soap bars right away, although it makes a longer-lasting bar if it cures in the open air for a few weeks.

Hot process soap in a lined soap mold, note that the finished texture is very different from cold processed soap. (Photo Credit Jan Berry)

Lining Molds

This is a step that can be done several ways. One method is to use two long sheets of parchment or freezer paper, one cut to the exact width of the mold and the other cut to the exact length.

Lay the sheets across each other so they hang over the sides of the mold. This makes it easy to lift the finished soap out of the mold by the paper.

Lining a wooden soap mold with parchment paper (Photo Credit Jan Berry)

For a quick and easy liner, buy a bag of unscented store-brand trash bags. Make sure they’re not the thinnest, flimsy kind that tears easily, but they don’t have to be expensive either.

Open the bag and press it to fit neatly into the bottom of the mold. You’ll find that you have a lot of bag left over when you’re done. You can tie it up, out of the way, or trim off the excess.

You can bypass the need for lining your mold in the first place by buying silicone molds or wooden ones with silicone liners. While they have the advantage of being nonstick, they often hold in moisture longer, so your soaps may have to sit in them a few extra days before they can be unmolded.

Unmolding & Slicing Bars of Soap

Soap often can be unmolded 24 to 48 hours after being poured into the mold. It should be completely cool and feel solid when pressed. Some silicone molds or very deep ones will hold in moisture longer, so they may take several extra days before the soap is firm enough to unmold easily.

If you continually have problems with unmolding soap, try reducing the water in your recipe by 0.5 ounce (14 grams) or adding around 1 1⁄2 teaspoons (7.5 ml) of sodium lactate (a salt, naturally derived from corn or beets). Both of these techniques will help the soap harden faster.

Once your soap is firm enough, remove it from the mold and place the loaf on a sheet of parchment or wax paper. Slice evenly into bars using a soap cutter or sharp, non-serrated knife. How thick you slice the bars is a personal preference, but many soap makers like to cut them 1 to 11⁄4 inch (2.5 to 3 cm) thick.

Adding Natural Fragrance and Color

Essential oils can be added to soap for natural fragrance, although it does take a fairly significant amount, around 2 tablespoons (30 ml) per batch, to create a noticeable, long-lasting scent. (Use half as much for a lighter scent.)

If you plan on scenting your soaps with essential oils, you’ll find that online vendors of soap supplies are significantly more economical than local health food stores, where tiny bottles are often expensive.

Many citrus essential-oil scents fade too quickly, while other essential oils are too cost-prohibitive to use in soap. Some that I’ve found to work well include lavender, rose geranium, peppermint, spearmint, lime, 10x (ten-fold) orange, lemongrass, and eucalyptus.

To color soap naturally, try adding clays and botanicals, such as annatto seed powder (for yellow and orange), purple Brazilian clay, French green clay, rose kaolin clay and indigo powder.

*The preceding was reprinted with permission from The Big Book of Homemade Products for Your Skin, Health and Home by Jan Berry, Page Street Publishing Co. 2020. Photo credits: Jan Berry.

Beginner Soap Recipes

I’m so happy that I was able to share the basics of soapmaking with you from Jan Berry’s new book. Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of all the steps in the soapmaking process, and you’re ready to pick your first soapmaking recipe.

As you get started, I’d strongly suggest that you use tested soapmaking recipes from trusted sources.

Soapmaking can be tricky chemistry, and the balance of lye to oils is very important. Even when using established recipes, I’d strongly suggest putting the ingredients into a soap calculator to double-check the recipe before starting.

Jan’s book includes more than a dozen beginner soapmaking recipes, as well as recipes for shampoo bars, herbal salves, lotions, bath melts, scrubs, soaks, and salts. It’s the perfect introduction to making all your own body products, and a great place to start for beginner soap crafters.

Beyond that, here are a few beginner soapmaking recipes to get you started right away:

All Natural Yarrow and Witch Hazel Soap (Photo Credit Jan Berry)

If you’re still not ready to take the plunge and work with lye, no worries. You can always start with melt and pour soap.

Gardeners Soap with Spring Weeds (Photo Credit Jan Berry)

Other Soap Making Resources

Want to learn more? Here are some other wonderful soap making resources:

More Easy Homemade Body Products

Looking for homemade body product tutorials? Read on…

7 Ways How to Make Soap (Easiest Method to Most Advanced)

This page may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

An introduction to seven creative ways how to make soap at home including cold process, hot process, liquid soapmaking, melt-and-pour, and rebatching. Use one or all of these methods to make homemade soap from the comfort of your own kitchen.

Before I made my first batch of homemade soap I studied up different methods to see which would be best for me. What I found is that there are two main ways to make soap but quite a few other methods too! I eventually settled on cold process as my favorite, but I use the others when I need them. It’s important to understand that there are a number of soapmaking methods and you can choose whichever suits you.

Your choices could be based on your budget, ethos, interest, accessibility, and/or time. You could start from scratch, and choose every single ingredient down to the scents, color, and design. You could also make homemade soap using a premade base that you melt in the microwave. Each soapmaking method has its pros and cons and I go through each below. Which type(s) you use are personal preference but some are easier than others.

As you read through the methods, check out other resources such as the Lovely Greens Guide to Natural Soapmaking, and don’t feel that you have to choose just one method. You can experiment with several or all of them if you wish. Each way is like a tool in your soapmaking toolbox.

An Introduction to Soapmaking Methods

I mainly share cold-process soap recipes here on Lovely Greens, and we’ll get to that further below. The other ways to make soap can be much different. However, all will result in bars or liquid that you can use to clean your skin, dishes, or home. One method isn’t better than the others though you will of course end up with a favorite! We all do.

It’s also important to know that some methods of making soap are better for certain purposes than others. That means that you could use a number of them in your hobby or business. So even if you’ve been making soap for years, you may want to try another method and see what you think. You could even creatively combine one or two of them together!

Before we continue on the methods, there’s one thing that I need to emphasize. ALL real soap, at some stage, has been made with lye. It’s just what soap is! I have a piece explaining more about it if you want to read more. There are ways to make it without handling lye if you’d like to avoid fumes and safety concerns. Saying that, making soap from scratch is like magic and I don’t want you to miss out on it from a fear of lye. Lye can transform with fats into the most natural and gentle cleanser on the planet.

1. Melt and Pour Soap

The absolute easiest way to make soap is by using pre-made bases. Melt-and-pour soap comes in either cubes or blocks and you can choose from clear (glycerin), goat milk, and standard bases. All of the chemistry is finished for you before you even open the package which means less to be wary of. Also, more to have fun with!

To use it, all you do is cut it into small pieces and melt it either in the microwave or over low heat. When it’s melted you can add scents, flowers, exfoliants (like pumice or oatmeal). You can also add color at this point and then pour it into molds. Spray the tops with alcohol to reduce air bubbles and create a smooth finish. As soon as it’s hard, pop the bars out of the molds and use them immediately.

Use a microwave or double boiler to melt M&P soap

Pros of M&P Soap

Melt and pour soap has a lot going for it. It’s GREAT for beginner soap makers or if you’d like to make soap with kids. That’s because there’s no lye handling step to be cautious of and you can use the bars right away. You don’t need to wear safety gear when you make it and you don’t need extra equipment like an immersion blender. I also have a melt and pour soap recipe that you might want to try.

Cons of M&P Soap

One of the downsides to m&p is that you can’t use fresh ingredients with it, like milk and purees. Raw ingredients don’t preserve well in m&p soap and will eventually begin to rot. You also cannot choose the oils that go into m&p bases. The ingredients used are a mix of natural and synthetic materials and palm oil is usually present in some amount. Though you can add very small amounts of extra oil to m&p, it can cause the bars to sweat. Melt and pour soap can also be overcooked and burned and once it begins to cool it hardens quickly.

Rebatched soap can feel smooth but grated pieces can still be visible, like in this parsley soap recipe

2. Rebatched Soap

If you have soap scraps or a box of ‘ugly soap’ you can salvage it by transforming it into a new batch. It could be bars that have lost their scent, scraps of bars you’ve made or purchased, or batches that went wrong in some way but are still safe. Using previously made cold process or hot process soap to make new bars is called rebatching. With this method, it’s important to not use soap that has Dreaded Orange Spot (DOS) and/or that has gone rancid as this method will not save them.

If you rebatch lots of different colors together, you can make confetti soap

How to Rebatch Soap

There are two main ways to rebatch soap — a full rebatch or a partial rebatch. In a full rebatch, you grate the soap bars up then melt it gently with a little distilled water in a slow-cooker. When the soap batter is liquid enough, you add any extra fragrance or color that you’d like then pop it into a mold (I recommend a loaf silicone mold) and let it harden. After that, you cut it into bars, cure it, and use it as you would any other bar of soap. I share the entire process in my recipe for rebatched parsley soap.

If you rebatch bars that have already been fully cured once, you can technically use the new ones right away. The water content of rebatched soap means that it can disintegrate a lot quicker though so it’s best to cure it.

When rebatching soap you can only add ingredients that are shelf-safe. That means you cannot add milk, juice, fresh plant material, or anything else that would rot or go off if left in an open container. You can use hydrosols, essential oils, clays, dried flower petals, and dried herbs.

Some of the many cold process soap recipes on Lovely Greens

3. Cold Process Soapmaking

My favorite way of making soap is by using the cold-process method. You begin with whole ingredients including oils, essential oils, lye, and water and through the wizardry of creative chemistry, they’re transformed into handmade soap. It involves a series of steps but the main one is stirring liquid oils together with the lye solution. Some people are hesitant about using lye, also called sodium hydroxide, which is one of the drawbacks. However, what I love about cold process is the aspect of making soap from scratch and that there are so many ways to naturally color, naturally decorate, and scent your bars.

How Cold Process Soap Making Works

In cold process soapmaking, you combine oils and butters, such as coconut oil, olive oil, castor oil, and shea butter, with a lye solution in a stainless steel pan and bring it to trace. Usually with an immersion blender, but some recipes only take mixing with a spoon or whisk.

Trace is the stage where the ingredients begin to saponify, a chemical reaction that results from combining fat and lye. It’s still semi-liquid at this point you can scent, color, swirl, and create intricate designs. You pour the soap batter into a mold either before or after you color it then allow it to harden. The result is bar soap that you can use to clean your skin and sometimes even your hair. It will need four to six weeks of curing before you can use it though.

Trace is when the lye and fats thicken to a pudding-like consistency

Cold process soapmaking is my hands-down favorite way to make soap since you have complete control over ingredients and soap additives. You can also use fresh plant material such as pumpkin puree to naturally color soap. While adding liquid milk to m&p and rebatched soap is not feasible, you can to cold process and it gives the bars luxurious creaminess. Heck, you could even add coconut milk, honey, or calendula flower petals to your cold process recipe if you’d like. For a full walk-through on this soapmaking method check out the free series below.

Free Natural Soapmaking for Beginners Series

4. Hot Process Soap

Some might disagree with me placing hot process in a more difficult ranking than cold process. To be honest, they’re on par with one another but different. What I like about hot process and cold-process soapmaking is that you can use nearly the same recipe for both. The only main difference is that you use more water in hot process than in cold.

Unlike cold process, hot process is cooked, typically in a crockpot, after you bring it to trace. This extra cook time completes the saponification process by the end of the cook. With cold process, it usually takes 48 hours for the majority of the lye and fats to saponify. When the cooking phase of hot process soap is finished, you can add extra ingredients then pour the soap batter into molds. After it hardens you cure it just like cold process.

In hot process you cook the soap batter until it’s saponified

Pros of Hot Process

Two major bonuses with hot process soap are that you can 100% control the superfatting oil and, if you’re working with a good recipe, there is zero lye left in the soap after you spoon/pour it from the pot. In cold process, saponification takes a couple of days and during that time the lye reacts with whatever oils it wishes to. In the end, the extra oil left in the soap is a combination of all the oils used. Not so with hot process. In hot process, you can add the superfat oil after the cook, and all of that oil will stay in the final bars as the superfat.

Though many sources say that you don’t need to cure hot-process, you should really allow it to cure for the same amount of time as cold process (4-6 weeks). It’s because the water in hot process soap needs quite a bit of time to evaporate out and also the crystalline structure needs that much time to fully develop. Though technically usable the day after making it (in that you won’t get a chemical burn), hot process soap has better lather and is more gentle if given the full time to cure. Here’s a hot process recipe to try.

Hot process soap can have a rustic look, especially to the tops

Cons of Hot Process

In hot process, you need to work with lye just as in cold process. Another potential downside is that the look of the bars is generally rustic and textured — if you want truly smooth bars, stick with cold-process or melt-and-pour. There is a soapmaking technique called fluid hot process soap that soap makers use to create colored and patterned soap. It’s not comparable to cold process in my opinion with the results of fluid HP being comparable to a design made with crayons compared to one made with markers (cold process).

5. Partially Rebatched Soap

In a full rebatch, all of the soap is made from previous soap batches. You can also do a partial rebatch where only some of the soap is old, and the rest is fresh new ingredients. When you partially rebatch soap, the finished bars can be much more homogenous than in a full rebatch.

In this method, you measure out the ingredients needed for a new recipe of cold process soap. You will also need finely chopped or grated old soap in a quantity that is no more than forty percent by weight of the base oils used in the new recipe. For example, if you’re going to make a partial rebatch with this 1-lb (454 g) honey soap recipe, then the amount of grated soap you’d use would be no more than 6.4 oz (181 g).

Partially rebatching soap involves grating old soap and adding it to a new batch

Recycling Old Soap into New

Making partially rebatched soap is exactly the same as making cold process with one difference. You blend the soap pieces into the liquid oils before you add the lye solution. You need to spend several minutes doing this since the more liquified the pieces become, the smoother your bars will be. Use an immersion blender but do let it rest every now and again since you don’t want it to burn out. After you introduce the lye solution and stick blend, pour the traced soap into molds and then cut and cure as if it were all new cold process soap.

6. Liquid Soapmaking

True liquid soapmaking uses a crockpot/slow cooker just like hot process but the process and ingredients are a little different. The most obvious differences are the type of lye that’s used and that the end product is a paste-like soap. It’s neither a solid bar nor liquid at that stage so it can be a little confusing.

First off let’s chat about the different types of lye. In cold and hot process soapmaking you use sodium hydroxide (NaOH) but in liquid soap making, you use potassium hydroxide (KOH). Both are caustic substances that make soap but different types of soap.

In the case of KOH, it creates a paste after the cook that you can store in a jar until needed. KOH is also less pure than NaOH so you have to add 10% extra into the recipe. It’s an awkward one! Also, for liquid soap to be clear you have to work with a low superfat of about three percent. Any more than that and the liquid soap will turn cloudy.

There’s a way to transform bar soap into liquid soap

Two Ways to Make Liquid Soap

To make fully liquid soap you dilute the paste in warm water, and sometimes other liquids such as glycerin, and put it into a dispenser. I have a recipe for how to make liquid hand soap if you’d like to see how to make it from start to finish.

There’s also a hack for how to make liquid soap that begins with a bar of solid soap. It’s really easy but the soap isn’t as good as recipes made from scratch. In the hack method, you grate a bar of pre-made cold or hot process soap and heat it in distilled water. It eventually disintegrates into an opaque soapy liquid that you can use in dispensers.

Some plants contain soapy extracts called saponins

7. Make Plant-based Saponin Cleansers

There’s another way to make a natural cleanser but not through the saponification process. It’s not true soap, which is why I’ve saved this last method for last. Wild and even partially domesticated plants around the world contain soapy compounds called saponins. Also called triterpene glycosides, they can produce foamy bubbles and mild cleansing properties for textiles, surfaces, and skin.

You usually extract the soapy qualities from the plant material in warm water and then use that liquid to clean surfaces, textiles, skin, and hair. Soapwort is the most well-known of the soap plants. If you’re interested in it, I include a recipe for soapwort cleanser in my book, A Woman’s Garden. Other soap plants include English ivy, horse chestnuts, clematis, and wild native plants around the world. Learn more about saponin-rich soap plants over here.

Learn More About How to Make Soap

These seven ways to make soap are simply an introduction. You can learn a lot more about them though, especially cold process, here on Lovely Greens. I believe that beginner soap makers need to focus on technique rather than formulation so have loads of easy soap recipes to get you started. Using a lye calculator and understanding fatty acid profiles can be daunting and the recipes make that part easier.

If you are a beginner, I do encourage you to read through this series to better understand the cold process method. It’s the best way to make soap in my opinion! However, just as in hot process soapmaking, it’s best to understand the caution around handling and using lye. The second part of the series, equipment, and safety, covers more on that but if you wear long sleeves, rubber gloves, and safety goggles you will be geared up and safe. If you’d like to have a guide that you can print out, get a copy of the Lovely Greens Guide to Natural Soapmaking.

Homemade chamomile soap in a 1-lb silicone soap mold

Further Soapmaking Inspiration

Another fun thing that you could read up on is different soap molds. It’s one of the easiest ways to customize a batch, especially if they’re single-colored. You can use a loaf pan lined with waxed paper, silicone molds, and stylized cavity molds. Even embeds to place on the top or bottoms of loaves for beautiful patterns. Learn more about all the different types of soap molds you can use here and check out these other ideas too: