How To Make Your Own Soap
In the video below I demonstrate a very simple homemade soap recipe using lye, lard, coconut oil, peppermint oil and food coloring. Homesteaders used to get lye from dripping water through wood ashes, and lard from butchering and/or cooking animals. Although I’d like to try it the old-fashioned way eventually, we’re sticking with store-bought lye and lard for now.
I goofed up a few times during the video because I was trying to remember everything I’d learned from the homesteading class we hosted the previous week, while also trying to convey that information to anyone watching the video. Click here to see the video from that class. This being my first time making soap, I look forward to sharing more with everyone as I get better at the process myself.
But don’t let my goofs make you think making your own soap is difficult. It’s actually really easy – especially compared to making your own cheddar cheese which, I must admit, is sort of a pain in the butt. Now without further digression…
How To Make Your Own Soap
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Category: Arts & Crafts, How-To, The Transplants, Videos
We believe that humankind has lost some important things in the march toward progress. That is not to say progress and simplicity are mutually exclusive. We believe we can have both, and this site catalogs our journey as we try to do exactly that.
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[...] easier than my cheesemaking adventures, and I quickly decided to try my own batch of soap (seen in this video on my other site). But I have to admit we had the benefit of store-bought lye, store-bought lard, [...]
Kuddos. Very cool…
Everett thanks so much for stopping by my blog. I still have 8 days to go before the ginger beer is ready to taste test!
I’ve added your blogs to my Bloglines subscriptions. You all have lots of interesting things going on here. I’ll be back soon to look around.
I am so impressed by your video intro! I may have to come up with something like that for our videos. It looks so professional.
I have made soap for many years.
Its fun to make and better than store bought.
One of my favorites is either a honey soap or a jewelweed soap that is good for poison ivy.
Thanks! This is great!
[...] did we do? We failed, but failed happily. While we were able to give most of our friends and family homemade soap, homemade lip balm, and homemade hats + scarves, I didn’t give myself time to make homemade [...]
[...] into relatively harmless component elements once released into water or moist soil. We even make our own lye-based soap, but the lye is rendered inert as it combines with the fats to saponify. Without saponification, [...]
You should sell it i would buy some. I just dont think i could do it myself. i dont have the tools
[...] of the old-timey crafts and skills that are close to being lost in time, such as soap making (I’d like to be better), cheesemaking (better), blacksmithing, beekeeping (better), [...]
[...] learned how to make my own soap and was surprised that it wasn’t as time-consuming or difficult to make as I had thought. [...]
[...] – home made! Love it! Unless we run out then I buy Canus Goat’s Milk Soap Fragrance Free – very [...]
My husband I are avid followers of your blog and we are in the very beginning stages of living a more simple life. I make my own laundry soap and household cleaners and would love to make my own soap, but the cost of everything is kind of weighing me down. Would you mind sharing where you get your materials and about how much you spend on a batch of soap?
Hiya guys! First off, Love the YouTube videos!
I just have a couple questions about additives.
I would like to add buttermilk powder, and oatmeal powder to your lye soap recipe.
I followed your recipe, it traced extremly quickly! I was curious about why. Anywho, after I got a good trace, I added a half cup of oatmeal powder, and a half cup of buttermilk powder, and 4 oz of scent. I ended up with an extremly firm & smooth product. The product was almost too firm to pour into my pvc pipe mold, and seemed to kinda seperate. So I figure I will have to hand mill it, and then remold it.
The second batch I poured into a rectangular mold. It it was also still, but did not seperate upon pouring, and seemed to turn out quite nicely.
I used your 80/20 ratio for fats, following your recipe. I wanted to add the buttermilk powder because I saw on other YouTube videos that it really added a sudsy ascpect to the soap, and the oat meal for the extra moisurizing effects.
So what are the proper ratios for adding dry products, ie…. buttermilk powder, oatmeal powder, coffee grounds/powder, ect….
I am a organic soy candle maker at the time, wishing to expand my product and offer lye soap.
Thanks for your time,
Josh
Hello Josh,
Thanks for commenting. I’m glad you found our video useful and that you are experimenting on your own. However, I can’t tell you what the proper ratios are for those other products because we don’t use them. We stick to the recipe we have here because it’s easy and it works every time for us. Maybe some day when we have more time we’ll experiment too. Feel free to let us know if you find a good recipe that works every time and gives you the soap you want. Good luck!
Everett
Everett,
I used your recipe, and added the additives listed in my first post.
The soap turned out awesome! It produces a very firm bar with a very sudsy and moisturizing efftcts.
It turned out to be a perfect combination of materials.
[...] Works The weather is turning so we won’t be doing as much outside work. But we have another soapmaking batch coming up and I am looking for cheesepress designs so I can begin making cheeses that are [...]