I love this recipe because it only requires three oils which you can find in the grocery store, making it an easy recipe to satisfy a quick soap making fix!
Ingredients:
- 8 oz. olive oil
- 8 oz. coconut oil, 76 deg.
- 9 oz. vegetable shortening like Crisco
- 9.5 oz. water
- 3.6 oz. lye
- 1 oz. Pumpkin Patch Premium Grade Fragrance Oil
- Soap mold – I used a Silicone Soap Mold for this soap, my favorite type of mold because the soap always slips out easily for me and I don’t have to use tissue
- Soap cutter (optional)
Directions:
- Prepare the lye solution. Note that you should wear goggles and rubber gloves while working with the lye as it is very harmful to the skin and the water/lye solution gets very hot! To prepare it, measure out the water first, I like to use a Pyrex measuring cup for the lye solution, and set it aside. Then measure out the lye precisely on a digital scale. Slowly pour the lye into the water, mixing it with a spoon. Be careful not to stand directly over the solution so you don’t breathe it in.
- Measure out the vegetable shortening and coconut oil and then melt them in the microwave (just until it’s melted – don’t overdo it).
- Pour the melted vegetable shortening and coconut oil into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the olive oil to the other oils.
- Slowly pour the lye solution into the oil mixture (wearing safety goggles and rubber gloves), mixing it with a spoon.
- Once the lye solution is mixed in with a spoon, use an egg beater to beat the mixture on low, with intermittent spurts on high, until you have a nice trace (meaning it is well mixed, but does not have much of a whipped texture).
- Pour it into your soap mold.
- Let stand for about 20 hours.
- If it looks like it has hardened, then take it out of the mold and cut it. If it still looks oily, keep an eye on it and cut it when it looks like it has hardened, however you don’t want to wait too long or it may become hard to cut.
This mixture makes a nice, creamy soap. I did not color mine, but you can add a bit of yellow and red food coloring to make them more orange if you like. Also, I thought it would be nice to wrap some in washi paper to give away as fall gifts.
Enjoy!
