Soap Making 101

As part of this zero waste journey, I am experimenting.  Today, I took a soap making class.  I registered for the class in January when I wasn’t sure that I could find un-packaged soap.   Now I know that I can buy “naked” soap at the bulk store!

I took the three-hour class at Noblessence on St-Denis street in downtown Montreal.

Our teacher was Sarah Milon, a registered aromatherapist.   She explained that the story goes that soap making started in Rome at Mount Sapo, Sapo being the latin word for soap.  Animals were apparently sacrificed at the top of Mount Sapo and their fatty remains combined with ashes (alkali) and rain water to produce soap.  This story is considered an unfounded legend as there is no trace of this documented anywhere and this process would produce a very small amount of soap, if any.  In any case, this is where our soap making class begins. There are three ingredients needed to produce soap:

• Fat – vegetable based in solid (coconut oil, cocoa butter, shea butter) or liquid (olive oil, sweet almond oil, avocado oil, etc) form.
• Alkali (or base) – Sodium hydroxide (potassium hydroxide is only used for liquid soap)
• Water – deionized, filtered water is best

Combining these three ingredients in the correct proportion and at the right temperature allows us to produce soap.   I had read about soap making on line and I was intimidated by the handling of caustic or sodium hydroxide.  Sodium hydroxide has a pH of 14, making it capable of burning through your clothes and your skin rather easily.  That being said, Sarah showed us how with the appropriate personal protection, we can easily produce soap.

She recommended that we wear long sleeves, rubber gloves, a face mask and safety glasses.  An excellent idea, given the danger and toxicity of soap.  She further recommended to keep vinegar nearby.  Vinegar, an acid, can be used to neutralize the alkali solution of sodium hydroxide and water.  She also recommended that we prepare all of our ingredients ahead of time as the process moves quickly.

There are two critical steps:  weighing and heating the fat mixture and weighing and mixing the water and caustic.  The water and caustic blend causes an exothermic reaction i.e. heat is produced and the temperature rises.  She suggests leaving this blend to reach the target temperature (between 50 and 60 C) outside and then bringing it inside to mix with the fats selected.  A handheld mixer is used to mix the fats and the alkali solution to achieve “trace”.  This is the point where the oil-water emulsion is starting to thicken.

At this point, a variety of other ingredients can then be added to the mixture (clays, colorants, essential oils) to create the soap that you would like.  One of my classmates and I were talking about the soap that we would make as Christmas gifts:  cinnamon scented, pine scented and green colored.  Lots of fun options to explore!

After the addition of lavender flowers, red colorant and lavender fragrance, the soap is mixed one final time:

The soap is then poured into a silicone mold to be set:

Another option for beginners is to use an old milk carton and then cut the bars once they are set.  It takes 24 hours for the bars to set and then they can be removed from the mold.  They are still alkaline at this point and need to be handled with care.   Once removed, the bars should be covered with a dishtowel (to prevent dust) and left to set for 4-6 weeks.    At that point, the bars will harden and be ready for use (pH 8-9).  Our teacher gave each of us a lavender scented bar:

and a desire to further experiment with soap making on my own.

Challenge for the Week:  Is there a product that you want to try and make on our own?  Making your own products will allow you to reduce the packaged products that you buy and also be lots of fun!