One of the English teachers that I work with is a real hand-artsy kind of person. She likes making clothes and things. And soap. She recently gave me a slice of soap that she made, and told me I should try making soap as well.
She lent me her soap making book, which was all in Japanese, which led me to ask my other English teacher to translate, which led to her wanting to make soap as well, and that's that.
Step1:
Materials
Empty paper milk/juice carton
Glass jar with cover
scale
pouring glass (or cup you can easily pour liquids out of)
180g distilled water
500mL olive oil
53g sodium hydroxide, NaOH (also known as lye or caustic soda)
rubber gloves
chemistry eye goggles
thermometer
bowl
whisk or electric mixer
plastic wrap
essence oil (optional, preferred scent)
cookie cutters (optional)
Measure 180g distilled water in pouring glass.
Put on goggles and rubber gloves. Some real dangerous explosions about to happen now. Not really, but there's fumes from the NaOH, never can be too careful right.
Step 4:
In the glass jar, measure 53g of NaOH. I have no idea where to buy NaOH, my teacher said she found it at an old hardware store. It looks like slices/chunks of sugar? Lick a little, if it's sweet, it's sugar. If it's not sweet, call your emergency hazard line, and probably wash out your mouth.
Which reminds me: When I was younger and living in Yokota, Japan, my little (but now tall) brother chewed the glow-in-the-dark necklace we got at some festival and his tongue and the inside of his mouth was glowing. Mother was freaking out (I don't remember, but I'm guessing she would have been) and called the hazard line. They told him to eat some Oreos. In conclusion, take some Oreos with you to your next chem class.
Don't leave the spoon in the glass when weighing like shown in this picture. DUH. But you know, it happens sometimes.
Which reminds me: When I was younger and living in Yokota, Japan, my little (but now tall) brother chewed the glow-in-the-dark necklace we got at some festival and his tongue and the inside of his mouth was glowing. Mother was freaking out (I don't remember, but I'm guessing she would have been) and called the hazard line. They told him to eat some Oreos. In conclusion, take some Oreos with you to your next chem class.
Don't leave the spoon in the glass when weighing like shown in this picture. DUH. But you know, it happens sometimes.
Pour distilled water into glass jar with NaOH.
Note: Always add water to NaOH, do not add NaOH to water.
Stir NaOH and water until the temperature reaches between 45-60 degree Celsius.
Measure 450mL olive oil, pour into bowl.
You may use the same pouring glass that the water was in.
Heat the olive oil slightly until it reaches the same temperature as the NaOH and water mixture.
To heat the olive oil, place bowl in a slightly larger pot filled a few inches with water. Put the stove on low heat and check the temperature of the oil.
Step 9:
Poke two holes (using a nail or something) on opposite sides on the cover of the glass jar.
Cover the jar and pour the NaOH mixture into the bowl of olive oil.
Mix using whisk or electric mixer for 20 minutes.
I think the electric mixer is more arm-friendly and will produce better results.
Step 11:
The mixture should thicken a have a pudding-like texture.
To be honest, ours was a bit watery, but it still came out OK-ish.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for 24hours.
The next day the mixture should be a little thicker.
If you choose, you may add scented oils. The recipe calls for essence oil, but all I could find was fragrance oil so that's what I used.
Add about 35 drops into the mixture.
After adding the oils (nor not adding the oils) have a cute boy mix the mixture for about 10 minutes using a whisk. If your mixee is not a cute boy, you will not be able to create awesome soap.
Cut the milk container like shown in picture. I will let you figure out how to close the open end shut. Pour into the milk container.
I am pouring a batch into a pan covered in plastic wrap. The plastic wrap makes it easy to pull the soap out after it hardens. This one will be the batch that we will cut with cookie cutters.
Tie the milk carton at about three places with a string. This allows the carton and mixture to keep its shape as it hardens
Store in a cooler for one week or longer.
Peel the carton off and cut the soap in desired thickness. If you want pink soap, move your fingers a little to the right if you are right-handed and to the left if you are left-handed.
I think wax paper would be better, but we didn't have any so we used plastic wrap. Layer a box with wax paper (or plastic wrap). Place the slices of soap like so.
If you also made a thinner layer of soap, you can make desired shapes with cookie cutters. Make sure the cookie cutter is taller than the soap so you can cut it through all the way.
Also, make sure the cookie cutter isn't too small, or else you will not be able to get the soap out (see "S" and "R" in box)
The soap at this point is still not completely hard. It was still a bit soft in the middle areas, just like Dad's belly.
Leave the boxes in a cool, dry area for about (according to the recipe book) 6 weeks, or until you feel like it, it's a free country.
Step 20:
Don't forget to wash up! Brush your teeth and wipe your butt.
**Well, I hope your soap comes out lovely!**
Some other information:
There are two main ways of making your own soap--cold process (CP) and melt and poor (MP).
CP soaps are made by mixing NaOH and oil together (as I did). This process takes a total of about six weeks to completely finish.
As for the MP method, this is basically done by buying a block of soap and melting it down and pouring it into your molds. This is a fun and easy way to make your own shapes and designs. You can make layers of different colors, blend colors, etc. It's probably easier to be creative using the MP method.
**Well, I hope your soap comes out lovely!**
Some other information:
There are two main ways of making your own soap--cold process (CP) and melt and poor (MP).
CP soaps are made by mixing NaOH and oil together (as I did). This process takes a total of about six weeks to completely finish.
As for the MP method, this is basically done by buying a block of soap and melting it down and pouring it into your molds. This is a fun and easy way to make your own shapes and designs. You can make layers of different colors, blend colors, etc. It's probably easier to be creative using the MP method.
