From Crow:
Easy soap recipe--don't eat it, yup, it's soap!
All ingredients by weight.
16 oz lard or vegetable shortening
6 oz 76 degree coconut oil
8 oz cold water
3 oz lye (sodium hydroxide)
1 bottle Lorraine Oils lemon or peppermint oil (about a tsp--don't use flavorings, use oils--you can buy these at most drug stores)
1 oz olive oil.
Melt the lard or vegetable shortening and coconut oil together in the microwave. While oils are melting, place cold water in a clean plastic pitcher that you don't intend to use for food, add lye, (always add lye to water, and not vice versa or it will splatter) and stir with a stainless steel spoon. Don't breathe the fumes! You can do this under the range hood with the exhause fan on or outside. It will get hot.
Pour the lard and coconut oil into a blender. Pour the lye-water mix into the oils, cover tightly, and blend in 5-10 second bursts on low until it takes on the consistancy of pancake batter. Add the olive oil and the lemon or peppermint oil and blend a few more seconds until this is all incorporated.
Pour the resultant mix, which should be about like a thick gravy--pourable but not totally runny--into a plastic pan. I use silicon bakeware, but throw-away take along stuff works fine too. Let it set for a week then cut into bars with a knife and use. "Cooked" soap recipes can take as much as 3 months to cure, but with the blender method the lye and fats are incorporated much more thoroughly and result in a much quicker cure time.
Please remember--lye is dangerous. Don't get it on your skin, don't get it on your clothes, and wash it off immediately if any of the lye mixture or uncured soap splashes on you. You should wear gloves. I don't, of course, which is why I occasionally whine about lye burns. Even I am not crazy enough to make soap without wearing eye protection--I wear glasses anyway, and this works fine.
This recipe makes about 6 nice sized bars of good soap.
All ingredients by weight.
16 oz lard or vegetable shortening
6 oz 76 degree coconut oil
8 oz cold water
3 oz lye (sodium hydroxide)
1 bottle Lorraine Oils lemon or peppermint oil (about a tsp--don't use flavorings, use oils--you can buy these at most drug stores)
1 oz olive oil.
Melt the lard or vegetable shortening and coconut oil together in the microwave. While oils are melting, place cold water in a clean plastic pitcher that you don't intend to use for food, add lye, (always add lye to water, and not vice versa or it will splatter) and stir with a stainless steel spoon. Don't breathe the fumes! You can do this under the range hood with the exhause fan on or outside. It will get hot.
Pour the lard and coconut oil into a blender. Pour the lye-water mix into the oils, cover tightly, and blend in 5-10 second bursts on low until it takes on the consistancy of pancake batter. Add the olive oil and the lemon or peppermint oil and blend a few more seconds until this is all incorporated.
Pour the resultant mix, which should be about like a thick gravy--pourable but not totally runny--into a plastic pan. I use silicon bakeware, but throw-away take along stuff works fine too. Let it set for a week then cut into bars with a knife and use. "Cooked" soap recipes can take as much as 3 months to cure, but with the blender method the lye and fats are incorporated much more thoroughly and result in a much quicker cure time.
Please remember--lye is dangerous. Don't get it on your skin, don't get it on your clothes, and wash it off immediately if any of the lye mixture or uncured soap splashes on you. You should wear gloves. I don't, of course, which is why I occasionally whine about lye burns. Even I am not crazy enough to make soap without wearing eye protection--I wear glasses anyway, and this works fine.
This recipe makes about 6 nice sized bars of good soap.
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