Some of you may have noticed that I have not posted in quite a while.  We have a new addition to our family.  Rachel Elaine Marie Smith was born Oct 23.  I am once again feeling up to making soap and posting about it. 

Our website avalonsoapoworks.com is not up and running right now, so please check out our etsy story for some great Christmas gift ideas.  I will be listing more soaps, lotions, candles, and some great new crocheted items as well. Check back often :)

The Easiest Cold Processed Soap I Ever Made

    The first soap that anyone should attempt to create should be simple.  It should have very few ingredients, and those ingredients should be as inexpensive as possible.  Soap making is a science, measuring accurately and following a recipe is foolproof.  Well, not really foolproof.  Soap making may be a science, but it is also an art.  It took me a few tries to perfect even this simple recipe.  So if you are interested in soap making try this recipe.  It is the first soap I ever made.

Basic Soap
48oz Crisco or other vegetable shortening
6oz Food Grade Sodium Hydroxide Lye Micro Beads, 2 Lbs. (Buy 5 get 5 off)
15oz  distilled water

Create using standard cold process procedure.
1) Melt the shortening and cool to 100 degrees
2) Mix the lye into the cold water then cool to 100 degrees
3) Mix the lye solution into the oil and mix with stick blender until "trace", it will look similar to pudding.
4) Pour into mold and cover. Wait 24 hours.
5) You should be able to unmold and cut your soap at this point.

** You could use fragrance oil in this soap at the rate of 1/2 oz per pound.
***This recipe makes great laundry soap bars. Just follow my instructions on making laundry soap.

How to Make Cold Processed Soap

     Making your own homemade soap is not only providing your family with a great natural product, but it is also really addictive.  I love making soap. The only thing I love more is teaching other people how to make soap for themselves.  So I am going to try and teach you how to make a very basic soap. It is really simple.

**Always wear disposable gloves to protect your hands, sodium hydroxide is dangerous.
**Keep vinegar around to neutralize the sodium hydroxide (lye)


Step 1
              Measure your water and lye accurately.

Step 2    Mix the lye into the water, carefully.  This solution will get very hot and will burn you badly if it gets on your skin.  Use the vinegar if you spill on yourself..

Step 3     Measure you solid oils, (coconut oil, shortening, palm oil, shea butter, etc.) and melt in stainless steel pan over low heat.  Remove from heat when barely melted.

Step 4     Measure liquid oils, (olive, sweet almond, castor, apricot kernal, etc. ) and mix with melted solid oils.

Step 5     Allow all oils and sodium hydroxide (lye) solution to reach the same (100 degrees) temperature.

Step 6     Mix the lye solution into the oils.  Stir with stainless steel wisk or stick blender until soap reaches trace, (trace is when the soap becomes a pudding like consistency)  You will know that it has traced when a drizzle over the surface will set on top of the soap and not sink down inside.  Add any additives ( fragrance, herbs, etc.)

Step 7     Pour soap into a prepared mold ( anything will do, I have used pvc, a new kitty litter box, disposable rubbermade containers, soap molds, wooden molds).  If you use a plastic type mold make sure you spray it with Pam. If you use wood make sure you line it with waxed paper, a white garbage bag, or butcher paper.

Step 8     Place a cover over the soap and insulate with a warm blanket. If you use wood it usually does not need to be insulated.

Step 9     You can unmold in 24 hours.

Step 10    Cut into bars and allow to cure for 4-6 weeks.

Step 11    Enjoy great natural soap that you made yourself.

High Grade Sodium Hydroxide Lye Micro Beads, 2 Lbs. (Buy 5 get $15 off)
GARDEN BUG SOAP BARS Animal Soap Mold

LARGE LOAF Miscellaneous Candy Mold Chocolate

My Green Cucumber Melon Handmade Soap Turned Out Awesome!

     I am very grateful that my green Cucumber Melon Handmade Soap didn't turn out quite as bright as it was when I made it.

After 24 hours I unmolded it.  It is a nice pale green, and smells yummy too.

  I can't wait for it to get done curing. 

Food Grade Sodium Hydroxide Lye Micro Beads, 2 Lbs. (Buy 5 get $15 off) 

Soaper's Delight Organic Coconut Oil, 2 Gallon 

My Weigh KD 8000 Digital Weighing Scale 

How to Make Natural Handmade Cucumber Soap Green

When I received my brand new batch of soap making supplies in the mail the other day it felt like Christmas.  I have been making natural handmade soap for over 10 years now and their is still nothing like the feeling of tearing into a brand new box of supplies. Every batch of handmade soap is an adventure.
Most of the time I make soaps that are very natural colored, they turn out off white or brown of some sort.    I thought maybe I would try to put some color in this batch of handmade soap.  I wanted to keep it natural so I decided to make Cucumber Melon soap and add some cucumber puree to make it green.

I made a small batch just to see how it went.

Cucumber Melon Cold Processed Soap

6oz Vegetable Shortening (I use generic, make sure it is soybean and cottonseed oil. If it has palm in it you will need to run it through the soapmaking calculator again)
6oz Coconut Oil
4oz Shea Butter
5oz Palm Oil
2oz Castor Oil
1oz Sweet Almond Oil
8oz Cucumber puree and water
3.4 oz lye
Use basic soapmaking procedure.


I cut up the cucumber and blended it in my blender until it was liquified, then added enough water to make 8 oz.  I could not believe how green the puree was.  I was expecting it to be pale green, but it was very bright.

When I added the lye to the cucumber puree it didnt change color at all.  It stayed bright green, and smelled horrible. Thankfully the odor didn't last long.

After melting the oils and getting them to the proper temperature ( I like to mix around 100 degrees),  I mixed the lye and cucumber mixture into my oils.

  Unfortunately, my trusty stick blender failed me..  I havn't stirred soap in like 9 years, but wasnt so bad, the soap traced in like 5 minutes.






To my suprise the soap remained a very bright green.

  I added 1 once of Cucumber Melon fragrance oil and  poured it all into a mold.

  I cant wait to unmold it tomorrow and see if that bright green color has remained.


  Making handmade soap is so much fun!


          I wonder what other things I have in my kitchen that I can use to color soap. Maybe baby food would work, strained carrots? 
Any ideas?

Soapmaking 101-The Different Types of Handmade Soaps

The 4 basic types of soap that you can make at home:

Melt & Pour
Re-batched or Milled Soap
Cold Process
Hot Process


Melt & Pour

This type of soap is ussually bought pre-made into large blocks. It is often clear and made out of glycerine, though it can contain many other things as well.
This is ussually considered the easiest form of soapmaking because you simply melt the block down , add any scents, colors , or herbs that you choose and pour into a mold. When it is hard it can be unmolded and is ready to use. The ease of use with melt and pout allows you to make rather intricate and beautiful works of art out of your soap.

Re-Batching or Milled Soap

This is ussually a cold processed soap that is made into "noodles", melted, and remolded. This method is slightly difficult, but produces a harder bar of soap as well as a truer scent and color in the final product.

Cold-Processed

This is by far my favorite type of soapmaking. It is how I started and it just seems so simple and elegant to me.
In order to make soap with this method you must measure and mix accurately . The mixture of oils and the mixture of lye and water need to be mixed at the right temperature. At this point saponification starts to occur and the soap and oil mixture will "trace" or become pudding like. It is then molded and insulated and saponification continues to occur. In 24 hours you can ussually unmold and soon after cut into bars. This product then needs to cure for4- 6 weeks or so to complete the saponification process, become hard and no longer have any lye in the bars of soap.

Hot processed

Hot processed soap is made similarly to cold processed soap, except that it is actually cooked during the saponification process. This reduces or eliminated the need for the product to cure after mixing, however, it also seems a bit more dangerous to me. With so many little ones around my house, its really not something I want to try. If you do choose to try it Ive heard that you can use the oven to do this rather successfully.



Dont Forget to check out all of our soapmaking ingredients at www.avalonsoapworks.com
and check back here often for recipes, tips, and instructions on how to make great handmade items yourself!!