I started by scouring the internet for recipes, I wanted something I could make from ingredients that I mostly had on hand and something that was rather simple for my first go of it. I found a fantastic tutorial here from mommypotamus.com. She made it look so simple I thought that "I can do this!"
I was only missing one ingredient, the lye. It really wasn't hard to find and it was only around $4 if I remember correctly. However, the crunchy side of me now wants to make my own lye much like our great grandparents would have done (Lye is made from wood ash and water) though my grandmother has warned me extensively about how dangerous this can be with little children around (lye will burn your skin on contact...to combat this, keep a bottle of vinegar on hands to pour over any spot that you would splash your skin as Lye is a base and Vinegar is an acid so the two cancel each other out)
Okay, I had my supplies and mommypotamus said I could do this in a crock pot. For a moment I was worried about this but then I remembered, the end result is....soap. So far as I have read it would still be safe to use my crockpot for cooking after, still not sure if I will or not.
The ingredients are: Coconut oil, Lye, Distilled water, and essential oil of choice.
- 33 oz coconut oil
- 4.83 ounces lye (NaOH)
- 12.54 oz water
- .5 – 1 ounce essential oils (optional)
This was the original recipe but since I was worried and didn't want to use up all my ingredients I decided to make a very small batch and use 1/3 of what the recipe called for. I busted out my kitchen scale and my old mixer that is missing one arm and went to town.
After you reach this point you let the soap cool just a bit and then add your essential oils.
So, what have you been holding off on trying? Comment below and let me know~