Once you find your perfect recipe you can start getting creative with the designs. Making everyday chemistry public how does soap work. All lye is the same make sure it is 100% lye which cannot be found in liquid form all lye is crystal and the brand does not matter. The result is a chemical process called saponification, where the composition of the oils change with the help of the lye to create a bar of soap. How temperature affects cold process soaps, july 22, 2015. You get to choose the oils, colorants, scents, and more. Double check your recipe with a lye calculator and make. Make sure you look at the label and it is 100% sodium hydroxide. Running the recipe through a lye calculator is important if you decide to make changes since each type of oil. The ph scale runs from 0 to 14, with acids at low ph, bases at high ph, and neutral. I heat my oils up on the stove and then pour them into a container that i only use for soap making. If a weak lye is used, more lye can be added during the process. The lye water was too hot or too cold when it was poured into the oilfat mixture.
The miller farm guide to cold process goat milk soap makin drawingofthemillerfarmdairygoatsbybaileyhoward. Sodium hydroxide naoh, also known as lye or caustic soda, is a. Find moisturizing oils, butters, and waxes to make soap from scratch. This is a general overview of some of the tools you need to make cold process soap. My first year teaching chemistry, i was looking for a soapmaking lab or activity that i could run in my chemistry class with 2530 students working at the same time. Cold process soap is soap made using no external heat source to speed up the. The chemistry of soap making turning coconuts into soap. Practical and artistic chemistry for the waldorf school. As a part of our organic chemistry unit, i decided to have students make soap. Cold process soap collection of recipes offered through from nature with love. All soap is made with lye and oils, whether made at home or commercially. Making everyday chemistry public jump to how does it work. The chemical reaction continues, heat is generated, and your soap turns into. For soap recipes that include lye, please be sure to check lye calculations prior to trying the recipes.
Then the next step in the production process is to bond the lye to the. Dont take them off until you are completely done with all the cold process soap making steps. As the lye is added near the overflow pipe the washed soap is about 20% fresh lye, giving the soap unacceptably high water and caustic levels. Although there are similarities, and they are both methods for making handmade soap, there are important. Also scientifically debunks some common misconceptions in other soap making books regarding lye. Soap and detergent manufacture royal institute of chemistry. I usually do this activity right before spring break, as it provides enough time for the soap to harden and cure high school students are impatient to use their soaps right away, which you should not do with cold process soap. How to make soap at home with recipes, techniques, and stepbystep instructions purchase. All of our life we have been told that we need to use soap. Using your long handled spoon or spatula, slowly pour your lye mixture into your oils, stirring at the same time. Cold process soapmaking is the act of mixing fixed oils common oils include olive, coconut and palm with an alkali sodium hydroxide or lye. Making soap is a straightforward process that uses ingredients and tools you may already have in your kitchen.
Cold process soap tutorial and troubleshooting makes 4 lbs of bar soap making cold process soap isnt as easy as a simple melt and pour soap, and it can be overwhelming at first. Cold process soap making for soap sodium hydroxide scribd. If it doesnt contain lye, at any point, it is a detergent. Gained an understanding of the saponification process.
How to make cold process soap will walk you through the process of making natural soap from. The basic method of making soap from scratch is called cold process. The most popular soapmaking processes today is the cold process method, where fats such as olive oil react with. Soapmaking in chemistry class reflections of a science. When making cold process soaps you may have initially melted your solid oils down to a liquid form so that you can adequately mix the lye solution with the soap. Chemists now refer to the chemical reaction for making soap as. Production of soap using locally available alkaline extract from millet stalk. When lye is added to water the chemical reaction quickly heats the water. It explains the chemistry of fats, oils, and soaps, and it teaches sophisticated analytical techniques that can be carried out using equipment and materials familiar to makers of handcrafted soap. And im not spinning the whisk continually too, just in short burst mixed with manual stirring. The objective of this laboratory is to make lye soap via the saponification reaction. As the author of this pdf book, i will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the. This is the digital pdf thats included with ruths cold process soap making 101 video eclass. This tool makes formulating cold process recipes easy.
Cold process soaps uses the exothermic heat reaction that is created from the acid and base reaction of the fatty acids soap making oils and the lye solution. However, once i finally dove in and made cold process soaps for the first. The coconut oil soap s lye solution is too concentrated. This article is a comparison between hot process and cold process soap making. Then we head to the kitchen and lab to make some organic coconut oil and soap. If you have experience with hot or cold process soap making not that premade melt and pour stuff, then this is a decent book for you. Saponification is a process in which a fat molecule is broken down by sodium hydroxide lye. Theres also a lot of chemistry involved that, while not overly difficult to understand, may throw a lot of people. Theres hotprocess, cold process, crockpot soap lots of different techniques and recipes. And there you have it all the factors you need to look at when controlling trace in cold process soapmaking. If you were to make this soap, it would be lye heavy and unevenly saponified, with free particles of lye. Customize your homemade soap with any scents or colors you like.
Cold process soap making for free download as word doc. Cold process soap is made by combining oils and sodium hydroxide lye. You will see an immediate reaction as the lye starts to bond with the oils and it becomes white or cream colored. A soap is a salt of a compound known as a fatty acid. Remove the cheesecloth from the funnel, and twist it to remove excess water from the soap. A soap molecule consists of a long hydrocarbon chain. Lye cannot dissolve into a solution with less liquid than its own weight.
You make a lye water solution and mix it with the oils to begin saponification. Why are people drawn to making their own soap from scratch. It isnt cooked in anyway, and, in my humble opinion, has the nicest texture and lather of any soap made. The lye is added at the top of the washing column, and the soap removed from the column as overflow. Week 1 of soaping101 and we are discussing the chemistry of soap. Scientific soapmaking answers that call by bridging the gap between the technical and craft literatures. The difference between hot process and cold process soaps. Therefore, i researched every single way possible to make soap without lye. Once you have all your ingredients and equipment prepared, you can begin the lye soap making procedure.
You should have a basic understanding of making cold process soap before you begin this tutorial. Overview a brief history on soap making the basic chemistry of soap making mold choices and preparation soapmaking tools. Anything you dont have is available from soap making suppliers online or some craft stores. Find out how to get around using lye in hand made soap. When you make soap, you mix an oil or fat which is your acid with. When i first became interested in learning to make my own soap, i did not want to mess with lye. The first episode in our cold process series covers lye safety and the most common ingredients used to make cold process soap. Soap making has remained unchanged over the centuries. If you want to customize soap down to the last ingredient, cold process is a great option. How to better understand lye solution when you make soap. This is the easiest way to make soap without using lye and its safe to do with kids. The ancient roman tradition called for mixing rain water, potash and animal tallow rendered form of beef or mutton fat. If you have never made cold process soap, please acquaint yourself with cold process soap making.
That causes a chemical reaction called saponification. Perfect for engineerlike people who want to truly understand how soap is made and how the chemistry works. Cold process soap is made by combining oils and sodium hydroxide lye, which causes a chemical reaction called saponification. We have the resources you need to become an expert. Double check your recipe with a lye calculator and make youre using the correct amount. Cold process soap making by dee bellini cold process soap is soap made using no external heat source to speed up the saponification process. Soap water cleansing faces history of soap consequences alternatives in antibacterial soaps how is soap made. Wash the collected soap twice with l0 ml portions of ice cold water. Sodium hydroxide na oh, also known as lye or caustic soda, is a. I wanted to do this activity because it connects chemistry to real life, but the last time i tried it i had not felt successful with it.