QSI Homestead Series 2: Soap Making 101 (April 19, 2024)
[Music]
so hi everyone today is Friday April
19th and this is our second episode of
our homeing series today’s topic is on
soap making 101 and we’re excited to
have Heidi from the South African quum
here today to teach us and this is
another interesting topic because I know
that many of us we have family members
who have skin issues or even yourself
who have skin issues and we’re looking
for a product that works on our skin
instead of having to buy store-bought
soaps so I am interested in learning how
to make my own soap and so that I don’t
have to worry about buying products that
are toxic and havex ingredients in there
and that are safe for my own family so
before we get started I’d like to turn
it over to Nicole to see if she has any
comments and go ahead over to
[Music]
you hi um yes this is a topic that I’m
very interested in um since I have made
my own
toothpaste um face mask Etc I love all
the natural remedies and so I can’t wait
for Heidi to teach us how to make soap
okay so now we’re going to turn it over
to Heidi Heidi you are with the South
African Quorum please introduce yourself
and tell us how and why you started
making your own
soap hi everybody good morning evening
wherever you are around the world so why
soap making um my journey started well
over 20 years ago on the soap story I
used to actually be involved in the
organic industry and specifically
organic agriculture so i’ obviously got
very involved in learning what you put
in your face and and food and that sort
of side of things but started realizing
that obviously your skin is the largest
organ of your body so whatever you put
on your skin is what affect you probably
in an even bigger way than what you’re
putting in your
face and I also had even younger as a
child experienced um allergies to soap
and sort of was was curious you know why
what causes it what is what in soap what
yeah what are the
ingredients and I started going down the
rabbit hole and I loved doing the whole
soap thing because it really feeds the
mad scientist in me it’s it’s actually
quite scientific but it’s also fun and
creative so that’s where I ended up
going down the soap hole and I I know
one of the biggest questions and you
just brought it up now as well is an
allergy to soap and most people would
probably be shocked and some would know
that unfortunately there’s a difference
between soap and detergent and most
people don’t realize that the majority
of your products that you’re actually
getting now that we we call soap or not
soap they’re actually
detergents so soap allergies are
generally because a a it’s not actually
soap or the commercially made soap is
like I said it’s
detergent very often an allergy will be
caused by fragrance they use a lot of
synthetic fragrances in um the Soaps so
it could be the fragrance and then it’s
also the ingredients so what oils or
what is the actual base of what the soap
is made from and it’s like everything
else it’s only as good as what you put
into it so it very much is the
ingredients and what causes it what also
happens is um a lot of your allergies or
skin reactions will be because your skin
is actually being over cleansed and it’s
too dry and that is again caused by
detergent so that is what actually
causes most of the problems and it was
quite interesting I’ve never gone down
the Tor Road Route and doing animal fats
purely because a lot of my customers and
friends were ve vegan vegetarian and so
on so I never went down that road but in
my research recently I discovered that
that Tallow has a lot of um elements in
it that when you saponify you’ll get
I’ll get into the saponification or what
it is just now but when the chemical
process happens not everything is broken
down and it’s actually often What’s Left
Behind that’s not broken down that
actually can cause acne and skin
reactions as well so a large portion of
your commercially available soaps use
Tallow because it’s a waste product from
meat process ing so they obviously it’s
a cheap easy product they have access to
and then of course like I said it could
be
detergent so with soap making there’s
many benefits and there are a few
challenges but for me the benefits have
always been you never have to face
another horrible bar of soap I literally
I’ve used my own soap for many many
years and I have probably quite a
following and friends that won’t use
anything else now they will s spot them
so there’s that side and it’s creative
it’s fun you can literally create
anything that you want you can create
your own fragrance your own look um
whether it has exfoliant additives Etc
so it’s it’s actually a fun
process and I’ve also never got a
shortage of gifts it’s always one of
those really nice easy grab a bar of
soap for for a gift um so there’s always
that around your challenges to soap
making are it’s it is dangerous and I’m
not going to sugarcoat the dangerous
side but like everything if you do it
properly carefully and use the right
equipment it’s not
dangerous um the other challenge is it
is addictive like I said I’ve done it
for over 20 years and you need a few
basic tools but it really is a few
Basics you you can start with without
having to spend terribly much money on
it so with that I’m now going to go
ahead and share my screen and go into
the
presentation okay so when I mentioned
soap and a lot of our soaps are not soap
if you think of what’s in your household
you’ve got your um your dishwashing
liquid your shampoo
your um body soap a lot of those are
actually detergents and not
soap so it’s it is quite um it’s quite
interesting many people don’t realize
that so what is the difference or what
is soap versus detergent so soap is made
from lie water oil and fragrance it uses
natural ingredients it’s
biodegradable so sodium hydroxide is
your active chemical it has a pH of 9.5
to 10 and it has a gentle cleansing
action detergent on the other hand is
chemically
manufactured it’s a petroleum byproduct
with surfactants and a surfactant is a
chemical product that breaks the
meniscus or this the surface tension of
your water it’s made from synthetic
resources it’s mostly not
biodegradable a lot of it has Laurel
sulfate in it it mostly has a pH of 4.5
or lower and it has a strong cleansing
action so this is a a um picture which
really depicts exactly what it is so
real soap or Li soap is lie plus oil
plus liquid Glycerine soap which is your
clear soap you it comes in your natural
version and a synthetic version so your
natural version again is real soap plus
alcohol plus Sugar Plus Glycerine and
your synthetic version is um detergents
plus chemicals more chemicals and
Glycerine um just to give you a
background as well you’ll see that it
says Glycerine melt and Poe a lot of
people have a perception that if they
making soap they talk about melt and
pore melt and Poe soap is is something
that has already been soaped so it’s
already gone through the saponification
process and you’re then taking a product
and either grating it or warming it you
can use other normal commercial proper
like not commercial proper homemade
soaps and do what we call
rebatching where you actually are
remelting it adding water and then you
can add colorance different fragrances
and so on so melt and soap is not you’re
not really making soap you’re just
recreating the soap that’s already been
done there’s also always a question
about um lie and can you make soap
without lie the short answer is no
because you have to have lie for the
actual saponification process to happen
and then we get our synthetic soaps or
our
detergents which are actually lie plus
chemicals plus more chemicals just to
give you an interesting history or
background of soap soap has been around
it was used by the Sumerians and as we
all know I we don’t really know our
history it probably goes way back to
even further back than that so soap has
been around for a very long
time and when we got to World War I
which is really where the Warfare
against
humankind went to a totally different
level that is where they started making
synthetic fertilizers from um the bomb
sort of
chemicals and many assaults against us
and that is when synthetic soap or
detergent was also created and it was
actually created by German scientists
because the story being there was a
shortage of oil so the oil wasn’t
available to actually make soap and that
is how the synthetic or detergent soaps
came
around so now just getting into making
the soap safety is always your first and
primary um thing that you need to look
at so you can’t have any distractions no
pets no
children um you always add Li to the
water and never the other way around you
work in a well ventilated area you need
to wear gloves and goggles or I use
glasses so I don’t do
goggles your costic soda is extremely
dangerous but it’s dangerous because it
has a very high pH it is actually a
natural
product um but if it gets onto your skin
or onto organic materials it actually
can eat flesh and it does burn and the
easiest and quickest thing is vinegar
which will neutralize it so in soap
making you always need to have vinegar
on standby or vinegar run in case you
have a spill you do not breathe the
fumes in you are working with heated oil
so you obviously need to be careful you
don’t get burnt and you never reused
containers so a container that had um
sodium or calcium uh potassium hydroxide
in must always be disposed of
responsibly and I always have dedicated
equipment so in other words my large
stainless steel pot I do not use for
cooking as well as soap those are purely
my soap um pots and my soap
equipment so what kind of equipment do
we
need um an electronic scale which has
got to be accurate gloves goggles or
glasses a hand
blender stainless steel spoons silicone
spatulas a stainless steel whisk
stainless steel pot or crock pot we
never ever use aluminium or glass
aluminium the um lie will eat into and
glass also your extreme change in
temperature when the saponification
process starts happening it’s it will uh
break or shatter glass e a candy or a
meat
thermometer um I use plastic jugs for
lie and water your vinegar and your
molds and molds it can be anything from
milk carttons drain Pips I’m going to
show you just now what my molds look
like so I’m now going to play a video
for you which just shows you what
equipment I use and what it actually
looks
like this is a selection of the
equipment I use when I’m making soap
here’s my large stainless steel pot I
use a very large pot cuz I do large
batches of soap at a time with its lid
this is the hand blender or my yeah my
electric blender that I use when I’m
doing cold process soap my electronic
scale which is used for weighing the
fats and oils as well as their essential
oils these are my plastic containers I
use when I’m weighing the essential oils
out those are my plastic jugs which are
used when I mix the lion
water I occasionally will use a
respirator mask normally when I’m
weighing out my lie because I do large
batches at a time and I pre- weigh them
or occasionally when I’m putting the LIE
into the water it does give off a gas so
it depends where I’m working I sometimes
would wear a
mask those are my gloves I use nital
gloves cuz they’re much nicer than latex
they’re also slightly thicker and
reusable and these I just buy from my
motor spares
shop that is my thermometer which is
more essential when you’re doing cold
process because your oils and your line
need to be a similar temperature before
you blend them I kind of cheat with my
hot processed soap because I’ve done it
for for so long I can feel the
temperature in the
pot these are my oh that is my stainless
steel whisk which I use when I’m
blending the Li and soap in the large
pot in the hot
process that is my stainless steel spoon
I occasionally
use these are my silicone spatulas which
are great for scrapping the um the the
soap out which is already made in the
hot processed soap and I occasionally
use it o for
mixing that is my ruler which I use when
I’m cutting or measuring my large slabs
of soap into
logs these are my Cutters that I use the
larger one is actually just a commercial
tool that’s used in bread making and And
Pastry cutting and the smaller one is a
serrated cutter which is used for
veggies but it makes a nice pattern on
soap so I sometimes use that and then
finally my extremely Hightech cutting
equipment it’s actually a cheeseboard
which I use for cutting the slabs or
slices not the slabs the slices of soap
this works fabulously anything that has
a wire so that is a guitar wire works
really well for cutting soap and that’s
the selection of equipment I
use okay then just to show you guys the
difference in the molds um on the left
it’s actually just white PVC drain pipes
they make fabulous molds if you doing
cold processed soap and the wooden thing
in front is actually just a plunger that
I made to push the Soaps out cuz the
pipes are quite long that I use the rest
of the colored molds are silicone molds
that again you will use in your cold
process so the cold process you’ll see
later is a much thinner batter so it can
be poured into a mold and what I use
which is the front picture is literally
a cardboard tray that they put under
beer cans or Cool Drink cans and I line
it with cling foam because I mostly make
hot processed soap so it’s easy to put
it in there and I also make quite big
batches but you can really use milk
carttons there’s many different things
you don’t need to go
fancy um especially if you’re doing hot
process because you’re going to actually
cut your soap up um yeah so you don’t
need fancy m at
all so with that are there any
questions yes let me pull them up real
quick
sorry
um so one cath from Kathy Johnson she
says what if you have sensitive
skin okay your sensitive skin I covered
a little bit of it earlier so
since your soap quality or or getting a
nice soap that is not harsh on your
skin is all about what oil you use and I
will get into that a little bit later
but for sensitive skins each oils are
fascinating or soap making is actually
very fascinating each oil has got a
different quality so when you make or
when you start playing with the whole
chem chemistry process of soap making
you choose your oil because of their
qualities and what they actually give
you whether it’s cleansing or gentleness
or
foaminess and you there’s there’s only
really one oil which is coconut which I
get into later which kind of gives you
everything but otherwise it’s a
combination of what oils you choose as
to what your quality of your soap is and
again like I said if you’re raking real
soap it’s not going to affect sensitive
skin and you can then also exclude any
fragrances perfect and I heard coconut
oil coconut oil is my go-to that’s what
I use as a lotion every single day I
can’t live without it um also put it in
my toothpaste so coconut oil is is
wonderful um the next question is what
is the best place to purchase the
ingredients that you need um source of
said ingredients is it
organic okay I have got at the end of
the these slides there is a resour
little resources page and I actually
purchase from an essential oils point of
view it’s actually a South African
company that do International sales and
they do have an American Branch as well
so I’ve shared that so people would be
able to purchase from them um that’s
mostly from the fragrance side although
they do sell the carrier oils as well
which I get into later I’m lucky because
I’ve I’ve got an olive farmer around the
corner from me so again you would choose
your recipes or make your oils according
to what’s easy um and I’ll get into that
so that’s yeah the ing the ingredients
are really you can go as basic as only
needing coconut which is where I would
suggest most people start and after that
you can start getting fancy and adding
fragrances and colors and all the rest
of it to it as far as organic goes
because your sapon ification process is
a very it’s obviously got a high base so
the pH is very high and it also heats up
extreme into extreme temperatures
obviously if you can get organic and
it’s not silly expensive it’s great but
I’ve and I actually come from the
organic industry I have realized that
specifically in soap making I don’t
really sweated over using organic versus
non-organic because of the process it
it’s going to burn off most any or
anything that’s kind of
detrimental so I will use conventional
if I have to and if it’s cheaper in the
so
making perfect and um as far as shelf
life they’re wanting to know is there a
shelf life to it will it go bad um ran
it
Etc
your soap making is actually fabulous
and if I’ve got oils that might be sort
of heading down the end of their their
life I’ll throw them into soap and and
turn them into soap because that’s
actually a good way of re of using it or
preserving it but again keeping in mind
different oils are got different
qualities so there are some oils that
you can make soap out of and they make a
great soap but the soap doesn’t have a
very long shelf life it’s sort of a year
or two down the line starts becoming a
slightly sticky bar so again your
coconut is the dream Oil and Olive
follows closely behind or the two the
two are really the same um they give you
different qualities but they are
fabulous as far as shelf life goes I’ve
actually got a bar that I show later
which is well over 10 years old and it’s
a bar of Castile soap which is the Olive
soap so again your ingredients depend on
your shelf
life so heid um I saw that you had some
equipment in there but that just seems
like regular household equipment that
you have in your kitchen cuz it looks
like I have most of those equipments
right now so I really don’t have to
spend a lot of money um buying any of
those
equipments yeah that’s exactly right you
can I I don’t didn’t have a Crockpot in
the picture but that’s why most people
will really have that and you’ll
probably find in your drawer that you
have some sort of old dodgy equipment
that you can repurpose and put into the
soap side
um the only specul the only sort of
specs like I said is it has to be
stainless steel and or silicone or
plastic um but other than that yes
you’ll probably find 99% of what you
need in your kitchen already so it’s
really not an expensive
exercise um let’s see we’ll do one more
question since there’s quite a
few um said I have very poor damaged
skin from a lifetime of spin spent in
the sun I bruise and tear easily other
than soaps that clean are there
therapeutic soaps that can help with
damaged
skin yes most definitely they are again
it gets into your quality of your soap
and I will in through the process later
you’ll also see what I explain with the
soap so I get into explain what super
fatting is so the the person who asked
that question needs to focus very much
on when I mentioned super fatting and
again keeping in mind a synthetic soap
or a detergent strips all the oils off
your skin a natural soap that is not
highly cleansing is not going to strip
your skin of its
oils um a very interesting thing is I’ve
not that recently funny enough started
using my 100% coconut soap as my shampoo
bar and it’s one of those sort of big
scary transitions that people always
can’t decide you know do we go go off
the shampoo rout or don’t we and if you
think about shampoo most of us suffer
from the syndrome of having to wash your
hair every day or every second day
because it just becomes so oily so
quickly but what your body is actually
doing is going my hair is dry I need to
moisturize it and exactly the same thing
applies for your your skin so again if
you are using something that’s harsh and
stripping the layers off your skin your
body’s either going to not be able to
regenerate that oil so that’s when you
get your your dry cracked damaged skin
so the minute you stop using detergents
on your skin and you’ll find a big
difference
already perfect um Can want to go on to
carry on okay fabulous
right so we’ve done the um the or the
the molds and the
equipment so next lie what is
lie lie is actually traditionally
obtained from leeching wood ash with
rain
water and it was common used or in still
is commonly used for washing soap making
and food production it’s actually used a
lot in pretzels and I I’m not sure all
the foods but it’s yeah pretzels it’s
also used in um Olive processing when I
do olives I only use the the normal
water process but they actually to speed
it up actually use a um a light process
as well with olives so it’s the it’s
generally comes in a solid form which is
called sodium hydroxide and your your
both both of them the the chemical
versions now are a powder so whether
it’s sodium hydroxide or potassium
hydroxide which is your liquid version
for liquid soaps your lie has a pH of 14
so that’s again where it gets into being
dangerous and that’s why it burns um and
will eat through flesh it has a melting
point of 64° F and a boiling point of
2530 de F so once again this is your
danger factor that is really what makes
people scared of lie and that’s your
scary part with
lie okay I’m now going to play you
videos with me working with the lie and
how to actually work with it and what I
do when I’m working with
it sorry here we go this is where we get
to the most dangerous and the your most
crucial part of making and it’s the one
time when I’m now totally locked away
there no dogs or children underf foot or
anything else so I’m just going to show
you the process as to what I do when I’m
actually mixing my li so I’m going to be
weighing my
ingredients the water as per my recipe
is40 so we first going to do that and
just measure the amount of water I need
in my recipe
what I do as well with my soap is I add
salt to it and a teaspoon of
salt gives you a slightly well it’s a
teaspoon to my recipe let’s put it that
way what it does is it makes my soap
harder because the specific soap tends
to be a little bit soft and I also need
it to be a available already quickly for
my customer so I add salt to it so there
we now have the measurement of water
that I need to add the LI too this is
also critical that you only always add
the lie to the water and not the other
way around otherwise you will end up
with an
explosion okay so I’m just going to move
my scale out the way I’m using this jug
here because that one I’ve pre-measured
for the B as I’m going to do
now I’m then going to just add my
salt so that’s my teaspoon of salt that
I’m going to add in all my lie I preway
as well so the LIE is here I pre- weigh
batches of it for my my two specific
recipes so it’s much quicker and easier
for me so I literally just take my lie
like that out of the
bag very
carefully and please note again like I
said you always use gloves in this
process because this does boo so I then
very carefully and
slowly put the LIE into the
water like
that and I throw those bags
away and I then also slowly and gently
stir my line that’s in the water until
it’s
dissolved you can feel when it’s
dissolved so I do that I normally I see
there’s a little float and that’s
probably from the salt or something
that’s not a big issue what I normally
do is I will put this
outside so it cools a bit quicker and
that
the um the fumes don’t affect me indoors
or the animals indoors as well there we
have it it is now fully
dissolved when I finished with my spoon
I have a separate container that I
always keep that has vinegar water in
and I put my spoon into the vinegar
water and that is as easy as it is for
mixing the LIE the next step is letting
it cool checking the temperature and
adding it to your
oil okay and I’m now just going to also
show the process of adding the LIE into
your your your warmed oil
already I’m now going to add the LI to
the warmed or the heated oils when
you’re doing cold process your lie and
your oil needs to be at 110 F which is
about 43 C with hot process it’s less of
a issue but just I’ll show you how I add
it in you just add it in slowly while
stirring at the same time
a
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
so the light is now Incorporated in with
my oil mixture and I’ve now got to go
through the process of cooking it
because this is a hot process
soap okay so that’s me that’s me playing
with the lie or the the dangerous side
and just a side note epic fail my last
video I’m not wearing gloves because I’m
so used to working with um the soap I
tend to get a little bit slack sometimes
and only after I shot the video I
realized I wasn’t wearing gloves when I
was pouring the line into the hot oil so
that is again when you have to be
wearing gloves okay are there any
further
questions yeah I found a question here
and it says I like to make soap with
kids but I have concerns about their
safety previously when making soap with
adults we had to mix soap with lie which
was quite D hazardous so it also has a
strong smell and we needed to wear
safety goggles I think this could be too
J dangerous for children and teens is
there a way to make this process safer
or is this the only method to make
soap okay so getting back to one of my
first statements was can you make soap
without lie short answer no you have to
have the the lie and the oils canceling
each other out to actually make soap but
that said the melon PO process
especially for children or teens would
be the better option so where you’re
taking a GC you you can buy Glycerine um
slabs or logs of of Glycerine soap
obviously just checking that it is the
um environmentally friendly soap version
versus the detergent version or you can
do what’s called rebatching like I said
where again you can have maybe as an
adult you can make a big batch of soap
and you grate it up or chop it up and
that gets then re batched which means
you’re taking the base soap adding a
little bit of water warming it up and
then playing and adding fragrances and
um colorance or herbs and so on with it
to it so yeah it is one of those sort of
Fine Line things it’s also the kind of
thing you can never leave somebody
unattended or you you you would have to
be there the whole time I wouldn’t do it
with small children definitely not
teenagers possibly yes but again not big
groups you know you’d have to make them
very aware of the fact of how dangerous
it is so yeah it’s a difficult
one I also know that you said that you
have to
do like create your um soap in a well
ventilated area so over here in the US
we have garages so can we do that in a
garage yes definitely what I do when the
I I’ve got sort of an outdoors area with
a with a roof cover so I’m I can take it
outside and put it outside but again
garage is actually perfect as well so
you just need a spot that’s that’s Airy
and and quite open because anyone who
works so that it yeah it’s got a a
really pungent smell and it’s also
obviously not advised to breathe it in
because it will affect your lungs so you
do need to when when I actually stir I
mostly hold my breath um again if you’re
stirring very gently it’s not that much
of a problem but that’s really the two
part or the two times when it’s the most
dangerous is when you’re stiring the lie
and when you are um actually adding it
into the
water so that’s when it’s the D the
dangerous pot so yes has to be a well
ventilated
area okay any more
questions no
more okay then we carry on to the next
section
sorry I ended up going down the wrong
road here there we go Okay so we’ve done
the we’ve added the LIE into the the
oils I’m now going to get into
explaining what is
saponification so saponification is the
process by which the triglycerides are
reacted with sodium or Podium hydroxide
which is your lie um to produce glycerol
and a faty acid salt called soap so the
triglycerides are most often animal fats
or vegetable fats and when sodium
hydroxide is used you get a hard soap
and when you use potassium hydroxide it
results in a soft or liquid soap
um so your saponification that is the
chemical process so that is why when
when people ask can you do it without
lie no because your lie and your oils
cancel each other out so when people
that make soap talk about super
fatting what what it is is if you in the
old days every single oil has got a
different saponification value so
coconut for example M use 10 G and Olive
match is
15 each oil has it has a different point
at which or yeah the whole chemical
process is extremely
complex and making soap in the past was
actually quite a a mathematical
experience and you had to know what you
were doing to calculate so when we talk
about super
fatting it’s normally done at about 5%
but depends on your recipes and your
oils and that’s the amount of excess oil
or not saponified oil that gives
additional
moisturizing so getting into those
questions again when people asked about
um soaps that are not harsh on your skin
or moisturizing or gentle this is the
part where you get to play and do your
super
fatting um so super fatting is is
literally just leaving excess oil that
is not going to be canceled out by life
so to give you an idea this is my
coconut only soap
recipe so I’ve got the super fat in the
front and then the amount of coconut oil
the amount of water and the amount of Li
now what happens with coconut oil cocon
coconuts the the sort of the strange
creature in the house where it doesn’t
behave like most other Wells it’s one of
the few oils that you can use totally on
its own to make soap with with and as
long as you’re super fatting the right
amount you don’t need to tweak around
and use other oils to get a
balance
so if you coconut is extremely
cleansing but if you super fat it really
high it gives you that balance of a a
cleansing soap a beautiful bubbly soap
but also not excessively drying or
cleansing when you’re super fatting it
by high amounts so so my shampoo that I
do for dry hair is super fatted at
25% and if you look to the right you’ll
see the LI is 2.42 O when I go down to
15% which means there’s less superfat
you’ll see the LIE goes up so it’s
2.75 um if I’m making for oily hair I do
it at 10% and then it’s a 2.9 l so the
more the more um how can we say
cleansing or stripping the more lie
you’ve gotten the more cleansing it is
as well it’s it’s kind of a a Play
Between the fats and the lies um a
coconut body bar I do also to
25% and then the coconut is also in my
opinion one of the best to use if you’re
making laundry or kitchen soaps so I do
share a recipe much later but for a base
soap and it goes back to the the
question as well when they the previous
person asked about working with children
I would make a a base soap out of
probably the body bar and then just
rebatch that uh for later use so the
kitchen or laundry soap I do the super
fatting on a 3% leaving a little bit
extra so that it’s there’s not a chance
of it being um excessively heavy and Li
but it is an extremely cleansing soap
so my laundry soap or my laundry block
is what I’ll use to rub on clothing
that’s maybe got a grease Mark or um I
use it in my my dishwashing liquid when
I make a dishwashing liquid so that is
the difference in your super fatting or
how super fatting
works this is a site that I use and it’s
on my resources as well it’s a free site
called soap cal.net
it’s a fabulous site and you really need
to fiddle around and play around with it
but on the left hand side is the
calculator for you to calculate your
soaps so it gives you your option of
putting in your your type of lie um the
weight of the oil so how much how big a
batch are you working with my big
batches that you see I’m working with 3
kilog um you’d have to convert down to
to pounds or or or um ounces for a a
nice sort of small family portion a
kilogram would be fine so that is I
think 2 uh two uh yeah 2 but so you you
put in how much oil you want to use um
then obviously your water I leave that
as a percentage I don’t fiddle with um
the other ratios there you’ll see on the
right you’ve got your super fat the
calculator automatically set at five so
that is where when you start getting a
bit more advanced you start playing with
your amount of super fatting it Al also
automatically gives you a fragrance of
0.5 and then going further down on the
left you’ll see all the different soap
qualities or the the qualities of a bar
of soap or or a liquid soap in the
middle it’s got your choice of oils or
or um fats and it’s an extremely long
list you’d be amazed at what oils you
can use but again keeping in mind when
you really start playing around you’ll
see some are better than others
obviously um and then on the right it’ll
give you once you’ve put in your your
oils that you’re choosing for your
recipe you then go to calculate the
recipe and on the right it’ll give you
your recipe so that is what the recipe
looks like when you finished calculating
it so that is my coconut one which gives
me how much water I need and it’ll break
it down in pans oun or grams my line
my oil and my fragrance so that is
really the easy cheat for anybody that
wants to make soap and it it just gives
you a really easy way of doing
it so what are bar qualities so this
also again refers to the different
qualities again going into people’s
questions your hardness refers to how
hard the actual finished bar of soap is
so the higher the number in this in the
calculation is the harder the bar
cleansing is your soap’s ability to grab
onto oils so soap made with too much
lauric or mistric acid can irritate the
skin by washing away not only your top
dirty layer of oil but also the
protective layer on the surface and the
surface oils of your skin conditioning
refers to the soap’s em emolient content
so a soap simoon content is what’s left
on the skin and that helps to retain the
moisture in your your skin a bubbly
lather is like I said the coconut gives
you these very big bubbles so that’s
that’s when people talk bubbles that’s
bubbly lather and a creamy lather is um
the stability and creaminess of the
lather so that’s usually like if you’re
playing with coconut and Olive together
the higher you go with coconut the more
big bubbles and the higher you go with
olive you’re going to get sort of a a
very low
bubble um it’s it’s almost sort of a
slimy slippery soap if it’s Olive only
so that is your bar
qualities and this is the bar values
that I was talking about so again
working with that the soap cal um your
these are your ideal ranges when you’re
playing with recipes and you want to
create a recipe so your ranges um if
anyone wants to get into that I suggest
over over the many many years I’ve
literally played with lots and lots of
different oils and I’m now down to two
recipes and my one recipe is the 100%
coconut and the other one is what’s
called a
bastil which is 70 to 90% Olive and the
the remaining oils that you put in which
I will show you shortly as well so what
are the ingredients in your soap making
your carrier oils which is your B it’s
the the term for your oils or what’s
what is in it um carrier oil is anything
from Olive to Coconut to Casta to yeah
whatever oils you choose then you’ve got
your fragrance oils you’ve got your lie
which is sodium hydroxide for bar soap
and potassium hydroxide for liquid soap
you’ve got colorant I also only use
natural colorant as you will see later
dried plant materials or flowers Kalin
or bentonite clay which is not an
essential it’s it’s something I use and
distilled water I also we’re lucky in
our country our water is not really hard
so when someone terms a water is being
hard it has a high mineral content if
you’ve got a high mineral content water
then distilled water is preferred
because you don’t want those minerals
reacting within the sort of whole
chemical
process so oils fats and
butters all oils or fats are measured in
weight and not volume
and I know when you buy your commercial
stuff off the shelf it’ll have a 750 mes
or or whatever it is but in Comm in soap
making and even in essential oils
everything is done in weight and the
reason is that every single oil or fat
has got a different weight so it makes
sense that you’re working in weight and
not in volume oils are liquid at room
temperature and are mostly plant-based
and fats are solid at room temperature
which are mostly animal based your
Butters are hard at room temperature so
shea butter and cocoa butter they they
are hard at room
temperature um you asked earlier about
shelf life what oil you choose is
obviously that is a factor so what is
your shelf life of your oil or when it’s
been made into soap and how quickly does
it go rancid or off another factor for
your oils and is the availability and
the
cost um for some people for me examp for
example I’ve got an olive Farm around
the corner from me and I actually make
soap for that specific farm so olive oil
for me is obviously cheap within your
olive oils you you get various presses
so you get first second third your first
is your always your extra virgin that
again goes into the question do you need
organic you don’t need to use extra
virgin you can use pomus which is the
last press it’s going to give you the
same qualities in your soap and it’s
going to be cheaper um and obviously the
cost of the oils I’m also lucky my
coconut oil I’ve got a factory also near
nearby that presses coconut oil so I get
what they call their flush oil and that
is when they switch the machines from
organic to Conventional and they’ve
actually got to flush the machines out
with excess oil
that oil they obviously can’t sell as
specifically organic or conventional and
that is what I get at a greatly reduced
cost to use for my my coconut soap so my
favorites are coconut only or coconut
Olive Casta and Shea
Butter um environmentally or sustainably
grown or produced oils also become a
factor a lot of people are sensitive to
palm oil because they are have been
stripping vast areas of Virgin Forest to
plant um for production of palm oil so
some people don’t like it I actually
don’t use it purely not even from the
whole environmentally side it’s not that
easily available and yeah I don’t see
why I need to use it I’ve I’ve got
coconut and then your other choice is
whether you want to use animal or plant
or combination of um from what I’ve read
as well and like I said I’ve never used
animal fats just because I’ve not really
had access to them obviously if you’re a
farmer that has access to teller you’re
going to want to use that but from the
literature A Tallow only soap is is
great for laundry and and so on forth
but to get a nicer soap as a body soap
it actually works better to add add a a
vegetable fat to it all the combination
so it obviously gives you different
qualities so now we get to fragrances
and fragrance oils this is again your
big factor that causes um
allergies so you’ve got essential oils
which are a concentrated plant extract
that retain the natural smell and flavor
or Essence of their Source high quality
oils only use Pure Plant compounds
extracted by distillation or cold
pressing distillation is when they take
your the vegetation and it’s steam
distill so they actually steam the oils
out of the the vegetation and cold
pressing is where the actual vegetation
is pressed by um high high impact you
want to call it that to get the oils a
standardized oil contains specific
ratios of active to inactive ingredients
they are altered from their natural
state to maintain
consistency I use a combination of
essential and standardized oils the
reason and O A Reason the oil is
actually standardized is if you think of
let’s just say Coco
Chanel anybody who’s in the perfume
industry or possibly furniture polish
that has a specific fragrance when they
manufacturing it they want it to smell
the same every single time and because
plants are grown in different climates
uh different sunlight different
soils they will always be different and
that is obviously the difference in your
essential oils a standardized oil
they’ve taken or tweaked the oil so it’s
not really it’s not a synthetic they’ve
actually just played with the ratios in
the in the oils I and the standardized
ones are normally quite a bit cheaper
than using a full essential oil they
also are not going to cause any kind of
allergy at all a fragrance oil is a
synthetically produced oil also because
I’ve played with essential oils I
actually used to grow essential oil grow
lavender many years back I find a
fragrance oil extremely harsh on my nose
it literally makes my nose start itching
and I start sneezing and I can’t be near
it those are synthetically produced if
it’s an if it’s something that cannot be
extracted naturally um the ones that
come to mind would be Ginia for example
or Carnation it’s going to be a
fragrance oil and it’s going to be
synthetic
so again it’s very much your choice but
it’s something I steer totally clear
from I once bought Carnation and tried
it and it it’s horrible it’s just this
strong clawing fragrance that it’s it’s
not something I enjoy at all and like I
said that is what’s going to cause a lot
of
allergies So within fragrance and it’s
exactly the same for the perfume
industry you get what’s called a top
note which is the most volatile oil
which evaporates the quickest you get a
middle note which is the body so that
lasts longer than the top note but not
as long as a base note and then you get
the Basse note or the fixative which is
the full body of the fragrance and they
are heavier oils which evaporate the
slowest and are usually the most
expensive So within perfume the perfume
industry and within this me making
soap I play with with a mixture of the
different oils and the different
um qualities that they have because then
that is going to give me my fragrance
that I actually want I very seldom use a
single
fragrance um Lavender is one that I
mostly use a single but then I will
add um Peru Balsam to it to hold the the
fragrance and I will show you or get
into what I use when I when I do the
additives later but with with your
fragrances you can play around a lot and
it’s actually great fun as well doing it
so within my choice of of oils and
fragrances as I said my favorites are
coconut and Olive you use cine soap as
well it gives you a lovely texture to
your soap but never more than 5% cuz you
get us it makes it sticky and slimy I
use shea butter again going back to the
organic or not question you get shea
butter which is organic which has
actually got quite a strong smell I love
Shea butter and I only use that pure
organic when I’m using anything on my
skin for for a lotion or creams but when
I make the Soaps I actually use the uh
the de the de perfumed one if you want
to call it that again it’s slightly
cheaper and it keeps the soap fragrance
more neutral but that is really it’s
either or it doesn’t really matter and
cocoa butter also will give you a harder
soap and it gives you a lovely
chocolatey smell soap I used to make a
chocolate and Orange Soap again with the
fragrances they sort of fall into main
category so you’ve got floral um Citrus
spice and your sort of menal
oils and within the florals the ones I
use are rose geranium lavender and Lang
Lang obviously I have yeah if I if you
guys had to see my shelves of oils you’d
probably be severely jealous I have a
big range but these are the ones I’ve
narrowed down that work fabulously for
soaps your citrus fragrances are very
difficult in soap they known as being
flighty which means it doesn’t hold so
it it doesn’t matter if it’s lemon
orange whichever they they just
disappear out of soap quite quickly so
there there are various ways to cheat or
to hold it my lemon soap for example is
not actually even lemon it’s got
lemongrass lemon Verina and citr Vana in
it which still gives you the lemon
fragrance but it’s a it’s a more stable
fragrance um you also get within the
citruses what they call folded oils so
they concentrate it by five times or 10
times or 20 times that sometimes helps
as
well and then your spicy oils I use
cinnamon pachuli pimento vanilla Peru
balsom those are my common ones Puli is
one of those loved or hated fragrances
it’s not my favorite I really don’t like
it but it’s an
extremely useful oil for holding
fragrance so I use it in a very small
amount in my recipes it is something
everyone always knows of knows of it as
the hippie fragrance you can make stuff
with pul but like I said it’s a very
clawing strong fragrance and then you
get your menly sort of almost medicinal
oils which are your peppermint
eucalyptus rosemary tea tree those kind
of um oils
okay so when we get to adding texture or
color into the soap my colorance I use
are turmeric for the yellow red clay um
for the pink and Spirulina for the green
there are many others that you can use
you only use dried plant material not
wet if you put in wet you end up the LI
reacts to you end up with sort of dark
orange
splodes so leaves I use olive dried
Olive ol leaves lavender leaves there’s
many things you can use um I use oats
poppy seeds used coffee grinds used
pressed hem seed the used coffee grinds
when you’ve made percolated coffee
whatever I just dry them out first
before I use them to add in and then you
can use dried flowers lavender rose
petals Cula the list is
endless so I’m just going to play a
video now showing you what I use and and
what the results are with
additives this is where we get to the
fun creative part of soap making where
you can add colors and um herbs and
spices and bits and pieces and
exfoliants and so on so I’ve got just an
array of what I use here we’ll start
with the colorance first this is a red
Kalin clay which will give you a lovely
soft pink soap so that is my rose soap
that I I use obviously less is more the
more you add the more chance you’ve got
of dying people’s face cloths and towels
and so on so you don’t really want to do
that then we have turmeric so the
turmeric is there that gives you this
lovely soft yellow color the turmeric I
I most of them I start on about A4 or
half a teaspoon keeping in mind again I
do bulk batches of 3 Kg of of oil so you
really need to start with a pinch this
is spirulina I unfortunately haven’t got
a spirulina soap around at the moment
that gives you a beautiful soft pale
green also not done in excess that is
just my you can use kin or bentonite
clay this I use as my fragrance fixer
which I do explain
later and then you get to your different
exfoliants or textures that you can add
to your soap so over here that is oats
which is um liquidized or ground a
little bit so it’s not too
rough that is um lav lavender leaves and
branches it actually becomes really soft
and fluffy when you’ve liquidized it you
don’t want your branches or your leaves
to be uh spiky and tough um so that they
again to scrape you that is lavender you
can see the pretty purple
color this is my lavender soap here so
you get to see a slight tinge I try and
put a little bit of flowers on the top
this one doesn’t really show it but
that’s the soap with the lavender in
that is my vanilla latte soap so that is
vanilla fragrance and it’s got coffee
grinds in it that dark color is only
from the coffee with all of my soaps I
only use natural ingredients I do not
add artificial colorance or fragrances
into my soaps at all so that is the
coffee vanilla latte and then just some
other oops sorry guys I didn’t sorry I
muted and I don’t know what it’s decided
to play now
sorry examples that is one of my besle
soaps you can just just to show you the
colors that is actually a olive base
with coconut shea butter and Casta so
that’s plain with no coloring this here
is a bastil sorry not a bastil a Castile
soap this piece of soap is probably at
least 10 years old and it is beautiful
it’s going to proba be the one of the
better soaps actually cuz it is rock
hard and it’s got absolutely nothing
left in it that can be chemically
harming so all the lies long gone and
your Olive soaps your casels will depend
very much on the color of your olive oil
so that one you can see is a light
color this here is my cold process
Rosemary soap but it is done with a
olive base so when they press the olives
you get a sludge at the bottom when they
drain or or separate the oil from the
flesh this is just adding the flesh back
in so it gives you that really pretty
color again depending on how much I add
is dep depends on how dark I get it this
is my olive leaf soap so you’ll also see
the bits of olive leaf on the top and
the olive leaf in the inside that is
also use you use dry leaves um to add
into the soap when it’s
ready this is my cinnamon soap or spice
soap you can actually see the cinnamon
on the top of the soap I just do a
sprinkling and it also has a bit of
cinnamon in it so it gives you that
cinnamon color that comes up the ground
cinnamon and finally that is my hemp
soap the coloring is also purely from
the hemp seeds I get from a local
Factory that presses hemp seed oil so I
get the what we what we term it as the
sludge but it’s basically the pulp from
the seeds that’s left also has a fair
amount of oil left in it so your choices
are really endless you it’s all about
creativity and what you like doing with
it so go ahead and play
okie dokie I’m sure you got a whole lot
of questions
again uh yes let me pull them up let’s
see well you touched on a little bit of
the process of adding the dried flowers
um but this one specifically says that
they would love to know more about the
process of adding dried flowers or
Evergreen Twigs from a spruce or cedar
tree to the soap to help with
exfoliation I feel it would also add
color variation and wonderful scents so
is it just as simple as just literally
adding it to the soap
mixture yes it is as simple as that but
like I said it does need to be dried if
it’s not dried you’re going to have the
um material reacting with your soap and
it leaves these funny sort of dark
orange spots so I pick my lavender or or
My Rosemary put it into a box and let it
dry strip it off and then liquidize it
slightly again like I said just to get
it slightly softer you don’t want
something that’s exfoliating that’s
going to scratch you um so yes it is
just as simple as that it is very
simple
perfect um is there a next
question is there a way to make an
abrasive soap that doesn’t stain the tub
like activated charcoal
and pinear soap does which I know I’ve
used activated charcoal in my detox bath
and it is extremely it it will stain the
tub so is there anything that they can
do that to avoid
that yeah again I find the the coffee
grinds are are really nice it’s it’s not
they’re not harsh but things like poppy
seeds um oats depending on how Co you
make it there there are quite a few
things that you can use as exfoliants so
it depends again on how sort of how
exfoliating do you want it and how much
do you put in it’s it is varies but yeah
t anything with um obviously charcoal is
g to to color that is also why I make
the comment about less is more because
things like turmeric or even the
bentonite clay if you put too much in it
is going to stain some if you’re using a
white towel or face
cloth so those are the challenges of
using the natural stuff you have to play
around a bit but there are there many
ways poppy seeds are actually
interesting they’re quite nice in
soap and the hemp the hemp seeds are
also nice but that’s obviously they
they’ve already been crushed so it’s the
crushed
version perfect okay so I have a
question um you mentioned several oils
that cast oil and olive oil but I have
avocado oil now is that can I use that
to make
soap yes most definitely it actually
makes a really nice soap but if I
remember correctly it doesn’t have a
very high cleansing um uh yeah in its
profile so you would need to add it to
something so again if you go back to the
soap Cal and you put um the avocado oil
in it it’ll actually give you its
qualities so it’ll give you the
breakdown as to its hardness its foaming
it’s cleansing and so on forth and
looking at that like let’s say you’ve
got access to that and it’s cheap and
there’s a lot of it then you sort of
need to look at what else can you add
I’m
guessing um coconut and and avocado
together would be fabulous it would
probably make a really really nice so it
would just be about getting your ratios
correct
um regarding essential oils what are
there any essential oils that you don’t
recommend
using for any of
those yeah there’s actually lots and
working with essential oils it’s the
same as doing aroma therapy you need to
really research every single essential
oil there are some that are I think it’s
called phyto sensitive so if you use it
and it’s on your skin if you get into
the sun it’s actually going to burn so
there’s again actually getting into the
whole how do I make my soap amazing and
how do I get it to have additional
qualities your essential oils are
fabulous so for example if you’re
looking at shampoo bars you’d be wanting
to add Rosemary or
eucalyptus um Lavender is always healing
and
gentle so if you’re looking at essential
oils yes I would research ex every
single oil and make make sure that
you’re not using something that’s toxic
or going to have a negative effect CU
some of them are not advised for skin
contact for example so yes everyone you
need to look at very carefully and also
do not ever exceed the amount there’s a
recommended percentage and that is why
even on the soap Cal you don’t go over
and some oils you can use higher ratios
than others so an example for me would
be cinnamon oil cinnamon is absolutely
amazing it makes the most beautiful soap
but I’m certainly not going to be using
cinnamon only because it’s it obviously
will burn so it’s something that you’re
going to use a fraction of so yeah you
have to play around and you definitely
need to do your research on what oils
and which essential oil to
use okay and then you showed that you
had a soap that was 10 years old um how
did you store them
store them in a container or you wrap
them um you can wrap them and I it’s
okay you’ll see a little bit later when
I actually get into my cutting and
drying and and whatever so when you are
drying soap it should be dried in a sort
of cool dark place and same sort of
applies for saving it you don’t want it
exposed to the Sun so you’re going to
lose your
fragrances if it’s got a fragrance
France it’s preferable to wrap it cuz
it’s obviously going to keep the
fragrance longer as well and I get into
the wrapping and what to use later um
that Castile soap is is one of the O the
soaps or the oils that will last for 30
years 40 years it just doesn’t it
doesn’t get old and it’s something you
can always keep so yeah keeping it in a
in a dry cool place would be where you
would keep your
soap and that is then going to keep its
qualities
oh I also sorry I mentioned that is
Castile let me tell people what the
difference is between Castile and
bastile you’ll often see and I know you
get it a lot in in the US we don’t get
it as much you get a liquid Castile soap
and you get a solid Castile Castile is
just a name which is a town in Spain so
it’s the same as champagne it’s actually
named after where it originates from and
if it’s a Castile soap it’s supposed to
be 100% Olive if it’s a bus steel soap
it’s a 70 to 90% Olive with other oils
mixed into it so that’s just the
technical
differences okay any other
questions that it right let’s carry on
soaping
okay so now we get into cold process
versus hot process and what is the
difference with the Soaps so your cold
processed soap is a creamier smoother
soap
it can be poured into a
mold I find it messy and Oily to clean
up the equipment and it take 6 weeks to
cure before it is safe so your cold
process okay within soap making there’s
actually the three there’s the
Glycerine which is kind of different but
it would still be done either in a cold
or a hot process so cold process you’re
leaving the soap to cure on on its own
and you’re putting a a batter we call it
a batter it’s when it’s re just trace
and you’ll see it in my videos just now
that you cannot use that is dangerous
when you take it out of the the mold you
need to use gloves because it hasn’t
finished saponifying so that is your
cold process
soap and I’m now going to show you what
it looks like and the the cold
process when you’re making cold process
so soap this is the stage that we call
Trace you’ll see it actually makes a
trace in the batter and it’s it’s thin
but it’s not watery as it is when you
add the lie and the the oils together
this is the stage where you’re now going
to add your fragrance oils your
essential oils any herbs um
exfoliation seeds and so on forth into
it you’re then going to very carefully
put it into a jug and from The Jug
you’re going to to pour it into your
molds whatever mold you’ve
chosen after that I normally depending
on your container will seal it with
cling formam and you need to keep that
the the molds warm so you can either put
blankets over or towels for it to
continue through the the night and
probably the next day with its Aon
ification process keeping in mind it’s
also going to be at least 6 weeks before
you can actually use that soap and
that’s your cold process batter
okay then we get to Hot processed soap
which is what I mostly do I love it um
yes it does go into the now now um
category but it can be used straight
away so hot processed soap is a rough
chunky soap it can be used immediately
it’s easy to clean up the equipment
because the pot is actually it has soap
in it and it takes a much longer time on
the stove um or in heat so you can use I
use the stainless steel pots I use I’ve
got a heavy base so I literally only
warm my oils and obviously the light is
at the right
temperature and depending on the weather
I occasionally might need to warm it up
slightly but literally the heat that
that pot maintains and putting the lid
on is actually enough for it to cook a
hot process through slowly or you can
actually cook it viciously or it can be
done in a crock pot so let me show you
the video what the hot process soap
looks
like here you can now see how the soap
has turned from sort of Milky color and
it’s starting to gel you can see that um
translucent gel sort of look that is
when the saponification has fully uh
finished so when it gets to this stage
I’ve obviously just need to whip it
properly but this is when I’m going to
add my dried plant material so I’m
putting in my lavender
leaves which will just give it texture
and and a nice look and my lavender
flowers you can’t really see it and it
smells absolutely fabulous okay so that
I’m now going to mix in into my
soap and along with that I’m also going
to to mix in my Essential
Oils you see it’s sort of a jelly
translucent texture I obviously have to
make sure that I’m blend it all in
correctly which I will do just now and
then I’m going to add my Essential Oils
which also need to be Blended in and
stirred properly so that’s my essential
oils with the bentonite clay
in I’m just going to pull that in as
well
make sure that I’ve got everything
out and I’m going to blend that all in
properly and then I will show you how to
put into the my mold which is actually
just a box that’s lined with cing
foam I’m now ready to pour my soap into
the box it is extremely heavy these
batches weigh 4.8 kg when I pick up the
not to mention the weight of the pot so
I’m going to tip it in and you’ll see
what I do with
it okay so that’s my soap in I’m just
going to make sure I scrape my pot out
properly and get everything into the box
so you can imagine my house always
smells delicious because there’s always
other oils lurking around or soaps that
are busy curing or
drying so they smell
fabulous okay that’s everything out the
box the hot processed soaps are rustic
or rough by Nature so it’s very
difficult it’s not impossible you can
smooth it and make it look smooth in the
Box
um I like it tastic and I have the
client who soaps these are specifically
wants them to look rough and homemade as
well so they don’t want them to be in
molds and perfectly shaped and so on
forth so I just make sure that my soap
is more or less evenly
distributed throughout my
box and I then
actually use a
spoon and you can pretend you’re busy
working with cake frosting cuz that’s
literally what it looks like when you
finish do
it so
I just make peaks in the
soap and that’s basically what I do with
it at this stage as well I’m going to
add some more
flowers so that you can actually see
it’s a lavender soap so I will do that
now
so that
is that is the lavender
Soap by tomorrow morning these soaps
will have totally hardened it is already
soap so there are bubbles if I add the
water into the pot now it does foam I
can wash my hands with it it is soap but
it’s obviously preferable for it
to dry for at least another 2 weeks cuz
the harder your soap is the longer it
lasts but it’s not necessary the whole
process of being hot soap is actually
cooking the LIE out of the the soap you
can also get pH
strips and test your soap when when it’s
ready before you pour it to double check
that you’re happy that it has actually
saponified and all the LIE has worked
its way out of the
soap and there you have it that is a box
of lavender
soap okay so when we get into the curing
of the soap your hot
process and uh well curing and pouring
out the hot process soap the coconut
only I cut while it’s warm because the
coconut gets extremely extremely hard so
you actually have to cut it before it
sets and um in the hot process then I
tip it out the following day and then I
dry and cut a day or two later it
depends on the on the soap cuz it is a
little bit sort of
tacky a cold processed soap you have to
work with gloves it’s a sof as soap and
you need to leave it for at least a week
or two before you unmold it so you
obviously can take off your towels and
your your blankets or whatever once it’s
finished the ponying overnight or the
next day and it has to be left for a
minimum of 6 weeks to cure before you
use it and then all soaps last longer
with age and sufficient drying and to
dry in a dark pool
place right are there any
questions let me give me just a second
let me look through
here we’re almost done
um yeah here’s one best base for
homemade soap which you’ve already
covered is it cow or goat milk or not
milk at all which we’ve also covered
could homemade soap double as a natural
deodorant um no because well you yes and
no but deodorant you’re putting you’re
putting on to keep yourself Fresh So
once you’ve showered no it’s not really
a deodorant because you going to be
clean anyway so it has a lovely
fragrance but it’s not really going to
linger that long and sorry as far as
milk goes it’s the one thing I haven’t
really played with that is another in a
different range of soaps entirely I know
there guys that do obviously amazing
milk soaps and I know you need to
actually freeze the milk or that’s the
better way of doing it otherwise the
milk burns when you add it in but it
honestly is not something I’ve pled with
so I can’t really comment on the mo soap
side that’s all the questions that I
have are any of the Soaps that you’ve
made so far are they are they safe for
not only humans but also for
pets um yes um the only thing is you
need to make sure for pets or bet even
for humans that you don’t have a high pH
it needs to you need to know that it’s
been really properly saponified I would
definitely put super fatting in and
again with pets make sure that you’re
not using an essential oil that could be
hazardous or dangerous there are some
oils that we can use that um are not
good for pets but I would also just keep
it simple with a a really well super
fatted coconut or Olive soap um for
using with pets
that
it okay we’ll get to the last little bit
of cutting the
Soaps okay so I’m now going to show you
in the video how I cut the soap and what
it looks like when we cut it I’ve now
unboxed or un molded the the soap or my
big slab of soap so I just want to show
you what I actually do with them this
ruler is perfect because it exactly fits
my soap three times so I cut the soap
into what I call
loaves like
that and another
one okay
between each stage I tend to let it dry
off a bit cuz it’s it’s quite sticky
when you actually working with it you
can probably see it’s sticks to the
pastry
cutter quite a bit like that so I tend
to just flip it so that it can dry
out
and I will work with it the next day or
a few hours later depending on how hot
it is outside or how the weather is
somebody was asking a question about
soap and temperature or
climate um I find obviously it’s much
quicker to soap in summer than it is in
Winter because in summer you’ve got the
Heat and the just the dryness of the air
so the soap does not cure but it just
dries faster so you can use it sooner
than what you would normally do in
winter winter it takes longer for it to
be um
usable and now I’m going to show you how
I actually cut the
soap so as I showed you before my
Hightech
cutter I’ve got other loaves here that
I’ve cut before that are nice and
dry and I literally just line my soap up
with my markings that I’ve got on cuz
I’m used to it trim the end if I need
to and then go with my markings
as to how I want to cut it you really
can just you can cut your soap any which
way you like obviously the molding is
different because that is your cold
processed soap but this is my hot soap
so it’s the rougher looking soap but you
can see with the guitar wire it comes
out really nicely and that is the
finished product so that is the soap I
let it this one’s fairly dry but even
when it’s been standing for a while
it’ll still be sticky when you cut it
so I leave it for a while to to dry off
and once it’s dry I will then wrap it
it’s your drying time again depends
totally on the soap and obviously
climate and how long it’s taken again
keeping in mind the hot process soap is
available for use immediately so you
don’t have to dry it but it just makes
your soap last
longer and then finally to show you the
different ways you can cut it and the
different sort of looks of the
soap in closing you’ve seen me cutting
soap with my hands uh raw Open Hands
just a reminder please if you’re working
with cold process soap that soap is
still active it can still burn and you
need to work with gloves when you’re
working with the cold process soap I
work with my hands cuz the hot process
is already soap just to show you the
various options you you saw the
different additives and colors earlier
with my additions to the soap but here
you can see the different shapes and
sizes that you can cut your soap in
again it’s really up to you and up to
your
imagination I cut I I I like to cut a
soap that’s you can kind of hold you
know that if you look at it it’s it’s
easy to hold and easy to use so the
rectangular or the square those work
nicely this one is a little little bit
too big but it’s not impossible it’s a
much older soap that one so it really is
up to you this is a cold process soap
which was in a mold so it’s an exact
shape as are these these were also done
with the PVC pipe and that is a cold
process
soap
the cold process you can get an exact
weight cuz obviously you’re using a mold
you’re going to know what your soap
wears when you finished with it with the
hot process it’s a little more
challenging figuring out the weight you
need to keep in mind your
soaps depending on the recipe and the
amount of water used and how long you
dry them you can lose anything from 5 to
20% of the weight of your soap so if
you’re selling 100 G soap you need to
cut it at at least 120 to 130 G for your
final
usage um I
this this one is wrapped in a a tissue
paper with my customer sticker on it and
the the one I use most commonly is a
baking this is just baking paper normal
kitchen baking paper the label is also a
paper wrapper I don’t use anything
that’s not environmentally friendly so I
don’t cover my soaps with cling foam or
any type of plastic I use paper for most
of it I and I find funny enough people
like a fully closed soap we actually
changed from this one which is just a
paper wrapper because customers tend to
prefer the wrapped one but it really is
up to your clientele who you’re giving
it to what you want it to look
like my soaps I’ve also got because I’ve
got two main ranges I I do my coconut
soaps are more Square so that is a
coconut soap and my Olive soaps are the
rectangular
soap so that is kind of the difference
and then finally something I didn’t show
earlier this is
my um C licorish mint soap and just to
show you the difference that it’s a
two-tone and it’s got two colors on it
what I do is white is your OB your base
color for the coconut so I will add my
Essential Oils and take about a half to
3/4 of the base put it in my mold and
then the last little bit that I leave in
the pot I will add my my color too so
this one has got spirulina in it for
that pale green and then just put that
on top so it again just gives you
different ideas you can do swirling
there’s many things you can do uh just
to give you an example as to the many
ideas that you can have when you’re
making saap so I hope you all enjoyed it
and happy sa
making okay there were also quite a few
people asking for a laundry or a sort of
kitchen gel type soap so I’ve included
this recipe for you guys to refer back
to but it’s basically using my coconut
laundry soap so it’s the the one that’s
a 3% or a 5% um super fat and once it is
soap you can actually just grate it or
chop it into tiny little blocks and then
you’re adding hot
water and you actually just let it I
mean if you think of a bar of soap
that’s been left in water it just goes
to a thick gel and once you’ve got that
sort of thick gel a day or two later you
literally just need to use a hand
blender um add your essential oils and
blend it and it gives you a lovely a
sort of a mayonnaise looking type of a
of a a liquid it’s not a liquid soap
it’s more sort of a gel but that is
absolutely fabulous to use for laundry
um and clothing I use orange
um oil in that because it gives a lovely
fragrance and it’s also extra cleansing
your um orange essential oil and I also
don’t make large quantities of it
because I’m not using a preservative in
it there are a lot of recipes around
that will add in um soda ash or um your
washing soda or
Borax um washing soda is also not
environmentally friendly and because of
the way the soap is formulated ated it
is already highly cleansing if you’re
using the coconut only so it’s really
not necessary to have to add the washing
soda to it so that’s just a recipe for
people to refer back to um and then
finally I’ve shared my my resource which
I spoke about earlier which is scatters
oils which are the big essential oil
guys but they do also sell um carrier
oils and that’s just pictures on the
left is the one it’s actually got um a
natural sea sponge in it which again is
a rough processed soap and the one on
the right is just what my soaps look
like when I’ve cut them and I’m leaving
them to dry before I actually package
them and that is the end of the soap
story there we go I don’t know if
there’s more
questions so Heidi thank you so much for
the presentation um as far as for people
like myself and Nicole who never made
soap before um how long did it take you
to perfect making a soap because I know
that you’ve been doing this for a while
but as a beginner I know that you
probably messed up a few times how long
did it take you to actually get it
right I must admit with using the soap
Cal I didn’t I haven’t really messed up
too badly I’ve messed up more when I
experimented and decided to play Mad
Scientist if you kind of stick to the
recipe it’s the same as baking um you
can’t really mess it up it’s when I
started experimenting that I started
messing up so literally if you if you
stick to a really basic and I mean as I
always say Google’s your friend there
many many recipes out there as well that
you can find but I would advise people
to just give the the the straight
coconut soap a well first at a 5% fat
and see what it’s like I can remember my
first batch I made was was soap and it
was like this oh while moment that I’d
actually made soap and then even using
it was was amazing I was I suppose even
hooked then even though I had a friend
that made soaps I I knew what I was
getting into and how amazing homemade
soaps were so it really yeah I haven’t
like I’m saying I didn’t mess up in the
beginning I probably spent more time
messing up playing with
experimenting and formulating my own
recipes so it’s not it’s not difficult
if you stick to a
recipe that’s good to know and it looks
like you have to have a lot of patience
right because I don’t know how long it
took you to do your whole video and your
Clips my videos and clips were only a
weekend so obviously because I broke it
up but doing the hot soap is yeah yeah
you kind of I would say put aside a day
make sure that you’ve got everything
prepared and ready and all your
ingredients and once you’ve actually
made your made your lie or added your
lie to water and you add it into the oil
that that’s the the hard work done it’s
then a case of just checking on the pot
and stirring the whole time and making
sure that you don’t don’t overheat it so
you don’t end up with
volcanoes and and after it chucking it
into the box I love the the hot process
as you’ve gathered because it’s soap
straight away it’s not messy and I can
use it immediately um it obviously
benefits from drying it out a little bit
but the cold process is a longer slower
process and it it gives you a different
type of soap they’re both nice and I
would advise people who really want to
get into it to try both but I would say
as a first time bash give the hot soap a
world cuz it’s less dangerous there’s
less chance of you messing it up and
it’s more
forgiving yeah I have patience with
other things but I don’t have patience
with I probably won’t have patience
making you know soap but this is an
interesting interesting topic because my
daughter has eczema too so I know that a
lot of the store walk products and soaps
um don’t work for her and she starts
breaking out and so this is going to be
something that I need to learn and I’m
going to be rewatching this video over
and over again to learn how to make it
and I need to have patience along with
it too and then one more question have
you ever made soap that ended up having
mold or later on throughout throughout
time um no again not keeping in mind
your pH is extremely high so the chances
of anything living or growing on it it’s
not going to happen you might end up
with mold if you’d put something wet in
that shouldn’t have been in there so you
might have decided to get creative and
put raw pineapple or I don’t know raw
leaves or or or wet leaves in then I
would imagine there could be a
possibility that it could
mold um but just in its chemical process
it shouldn’t and just an interesting
side note when you talk about Eczema and
skin things or skin problem
I have a professor friend who’s a micro
she’s one of top microbiology professors
in our country and she’s been really
valuable or interesting again of
learning that whole sort of soap versus
detergent thing and the same applies for
your skin as it does for your hair like
I said where you over cleanse so your
your body overcompensates trying to
recover its moisture but the one thing
she did say is if you if you’ve got a A
dandr for example
it’s it is caused there’s various
reasons why it could be caused but
what’s happened is you’ve actually got
an over population of a bacteria or
fungi that’s basically got in into your
skin and attacking and she funny enough
gave me a really controversial remedy
but it works and she said for for three
sessions you literally just rub either
acetone which you use for for removing n
varnish or um Al um surgical alcohol
onto that area to actually kill the
bacteria or fungi that’s on your skin
and then obviously moisturize or or use
something that’s friendly coconut being
my staple and favorite as well but she
said within sort of three sessions your
skin will actually that balance will
return but it’s very much about being
aware of not using a
detergent and really starting to look at
look at your labels look at what’s in
your your soap bars and your commercial
bars it should only have water fragrance
lie and and um oil and it’s if it’s made
properly uh it it it should be gentle
and for those people that are allergic
yeah go for a a Castile soap that is
nonf fragranced and use only that to get
your your Skin’s natural moisturizing
and um it’s yeah it’s conditioned
back I don’t have any questions but I do
want to thank you for um introducing us
to soap making I love baking because it
is precision so I have a feeling that
I’m going to love the soap making
because it is it’s very precise you use
measurements which is how I operate I’m
not good with cooking when there’s no
recipe involved I like Precision exact
you know
know point so thank you for coming on
and um introducing us to this new world
and I look forward to trying it out yeah
it’s a great pleasure and yes if if you
enjoy baking you’re going to enjoy soap
making it it really is a very similar
process um yeah very similar just play
and enjoy
it and thank you very much for inviting
me it was a fabulous
course great and thank you so much and
then I hope all of you guys have learned
something from this session here Heidi
did a wonderful job doing step by step
teaching you how to make soap and so if
you have patience then this is really
good for you and then next the next call
that we’re going to do will be on Friday
May 3rd um and then we’ll go ahead and
post a topic but for everyone else
please um watch the replay and we’ll be
posting it within a couple of days thank
you all and then have a great weekend
thanks thanks
bye thanks for watching this QSI
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Quantum Stellar Initiative (QSI) is a non-profit organization with two primary objectives:
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Homestead Series 2: 4/19/24
Soap Making 101
Intro to Soap Making
6:49 Soap vs Detergents
11:04 Safety first
12:29 Equipment
26:01 Using Lye
36:56 What is Saponification
41:46 Calculator
46:16 Ingredients
1:12:15 Cold/Hot Process
1:24:19 Unmoulding
Slides: https://t.me/QuantumStellarInitiative/38088
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