Kerri Newbury - Know How to Make Cold Process Soap

Know How to make ColdProcess Soap

by

Kerri Newbury

Published by Moorna Publications atSmashwords

Text copyright Kerri Newbury 2011

The moral rights of theauthor have been asserted.

All rights reserved. No partof this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any means orentity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any formor by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying(except under statutory exceptions provisions of the AustralianCopyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any informationstorage and retrieval system without the prior written permissionof Moorna Publications.

ISBN978-0-9808625-8-4

Printed and Bound in Australia

Introduction.

Hi, Im Kerri Newbury, soap and candle makerof many years.

Throughout the years of my soap and candlemaking career Ive been asked the same question over and overagain, How do you make soap?

So many people love the idea of making theirown soap and/or candles at home, but they have no idea of where tostart.

Soap and candle making is actually a fairlyeasy, straight forward process that uses a lot of tools andingredients that you most probably already have in your ownkitchen.

Its a hobby/small business that just aboutanyone can get into far cheaper than they make think possible.

So, lets get started into making your veryfirst batch of soap using the Cold Process method, which means thatwe start off with everything from scratch, nothing ready prepared,not because everything youll be working with is cold.

There are other soap making methods, such asthe melt and pour method, where everything is already done for you,and all you need do is simply melt down ready made soap pellets,and pour the liquid soap into molds.

Another method is called the Crock potmethod, but we wont be looking at either of the last two methodsin this book, only the Cold Process method

Be warned though, soap making is addictiveone you get started into it.

The tools you will need to get youstarted:

• A pair of rubber gloves. Common-all-gardenhousehold washing up gloves are perfect.

• A pair of protective goggles. To preventsplashes of lye or liquid soap getting in your eyes.

• A set of digital scales. NOTE -Measurements in soap making are extremely important and can only besuccessfully conducted with DIGITAL scales. These can be purchasedquite cheaply from most large stores such as Woolworths, Kmartetc.

• An electric stick blender

• Large mixing bowls. Microwave safe plastic,glass bowls, or stainless steel.

• Measuring jugs, glass or plastic.

• Large wooden or plastic spatulas and mixingspoons

• Soap making molds. (My favorites are woodenloaf molds.)

• Mold lining paper. (If using woodenmolds)

Soap making, step by step guide.

The first thingyou'll need to start making soap is a recipe. (See section 2below)

Next: assemble allof your equipment, materials and ingredients, your recipe, andorganize your workspace.

Because ittakes time to cool, I recommend that you make you lye solution first, and set it aside in a safeplace.

NOTE Lye, or lyesolution, is the commonly accepted soap makers word for causticsoda, or caustic soda mixed with fluid.

The golden rule insoap making is that you ALWAYS add the caustic soda to the fluid,NEVER the opposite way around, as that will create a very unhealthyand unhappy volcanic result. The easiest way to remember this ruleis by using this little saying, The snow falls into the lake.

Step 1:

Put your lye measuring container onto thescales and zero it out.

Weight out the exact amount of caustic sodayour recipe calls for, and set it aside carefully.

Step 2:

Put your fluid measuring contain onto thescales and weight out the exact amount of fluid your recipe callsfor, and set that aside.

Step 3.

Pour your fluid into the mixing bowl thatyou intend using to mix your lye solution up in, and pour yourfluid into it.

Slowly pour your caustic soda into the fluidbeing sure to stir it gently as you go.

The fluid will heat up rapidly, but dont beworried as its a natural reaction.

Set your now ready to use lye solution asidesomewhere where it cant be knocked over or come to any harm.

Step 4:

Put your soap mixingbowl onto the scale and zero out the weight.

Following yourrecipe carefully, weigh the liquid oils one by one into the bowl.Be sure to zero out the weight after you've measured each oil.

Pour slowly. You canalways add a little more, but once the oil has been added to therecipe batch its part of the mix, and cant be removed.

Tip - I always reserve asmall amount of my liquid oils in a small plastic container inreadiness to mix my fragrance oil with, as this tends to help toprevent binding of the soap mixture when adding the fragrance tothe mix.

I mix this reserveof veggie oil with my fragrant oils in a small container and standit aside ready for later use.

Step 5

Weigh your solidsoap making oils like Coconut, Palm, Cocoa Butter or Shorteninginto into a seperate mixing bowl and add them to your liquid oilsafterward

Step 6

Place your soapmaking bowl into the microwave if using glass or plasic bowls, (oronto the stove if using stainless steel pot) oils using a mediumheat setting. Heat the oils while stirring gently every couple ofminutes or so.

Monitor thetemperature of your oils constantly

Turn off the heatwhen the oils get to about 44C degrees. Keep stirring until all ofthe solid oils are melted.

Step 7

This is the stagewhere things really start moving, so make sure that you have allyour soap making additives, colourants, fragrances already athand.

Also ensure you haveyour soap molds, spoons, spatulas etc. nearby because you are goingto need them.

Okay, so grab holdof your trusty stick blender and get ready for action .

Slowly beginadding the lye solution to the blended oils.

The oils willimmediately begin to turn cloudy.

Using the stickblender as a spooon - NOT turning it on - blend the lye solutioninto the oils until both solutions are combined, and set aside yourlye solution container.

From the moment thelye is added to the oils, the soap making chemical reaction begins,and youll need to keep moving at a steady pace as there is nostopping after this stage of the game until the job iscomplete.

While stirring yourlye/oil miture around with the stick blender turn the blender on inshort bursts. Start with burst of 3 to 5 seconds and then stir somemore.

Once you start usingthe stick blender you will see the soap mixture beginning to cometogether. Keep blending in short bursts while continuing to stiruntil the lye and oils are totally mixed together. One they arecompletely mixed you are nearing Trace.

NOTE. Trace is a soap makers term for the thickening stages of thesoap recipe mix. I.E. Light trace- is when you will notice themixture beginning to thicken to the consitancy of gravy, Heavytrace is the stage where your mixture will resemble theconsistancy of thick custard.

With the advent ofstick blenders this stage can be reached in a matter of minutes,whereas the soapmakers of old used large spoons to blend theirmixtures together, and that could take an hour or more toachieve.

Step 8.

Once your soapmixture reaches light trace, but before it reached heavy trace,slowly add your fragrance into the mixture.

Do this without thestick blender being turned on, just using it as a stirringspoon.

If your recipe callsfor any additives such as oatmeal, flower petals etc. add them nowby stirring them in just as you did with your fragrances.

Before moving ontoadding you colourant give the mixture a quick burst of your stickblender to ensure that your fragrances and Botanicals are wellblended into the mixture.