Soap

Soap:

Start with your vision for your soap. Are you going to use it for yourself or are you going to sell it? Is affordability/accessibility important for you? Is a clean and healthy process and substance important to you and your customers? Are you going to use it for dishes, laundry or bodies? What kind of oil do you want to use? Sunflower, coconut, vegetable? Do you want to have a scent? Your own product is a reflection of you!

We made our first batch with Agape using vegetable shortening, sodium hydroxide (lye), and peppermint oil!

We started by weighing out our ingredients. The lye and the vegetable shortening. We melted the vegetable shortening in a pot over the stove and then poured it into a bucket. You want it to be at least 120 degrees. While that is melting the lye bucket should be prepared.

We added the lye into a separate bucket of ice water (do not add water to lye). The ice helps the lye to not explode. Always have vinegar handy to rinse and wash surfaces that lye crystals may have dropped. 

Once both buckets are prepared you can pour the oil into the lye mixture and blend it with an electric blender if you have one or else you will have to mix it by hand for about an hour as apposed to 20 minutes. Once the mixture starts to get denser and you can see the liquid drops tracing on the surface when you pick up the blender, you are ready to pour it into the mold. 

Oil the walls of your wooden box/mold with vegetable shortening or whatever oil you wish to use and line it with freezer/ parchment paper. One piece cut for the long walls and one for the short walls so they over lap each other on the bottom. 

Pour your soap into the mold and insulate it. You can use a comforter and just wrap it up. In a day the soap should be heated up and getting solid. The next day it should be solid. Now flip your mold upside down and bang it on a table so your giant soap bar pops out. Now cut it!