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Earlier this year, I posted about making soap using the melt and pour method. Well, I am happy to say that the hubs and I made soap differently this time. We made hot pressed soap and cold pressed soap! Because coal pressed soap takes a few weeks to cure, I am dedicating this post to the hot pressed method.
I’ve been wanting to make this type of soap for a while and my family really gave me a push. As I’ve stated before, there are many skin sensitivities in my family. While I normally buy two different types of soap for us all, I really wanted to learn how to make my own with a bit more moisture. Like many people, I was nervous about working with lye, but the hubs was not; therefore, we teamed up and got the job done.
The recipe that I used was from The Prairie Homestead, but just know that I did tweak it. Like my recipes, I often look at the main directions of a recipe and then, as my mother would say, “doctor it up.” So, I’ll list all of the ingredients that I used to create this version of soap. The ones with the star beside an ingredient serves as my addition.
Now, there are some tools you’ll want to have.
- Immersion Blender
- Metal bowl or Pyrex Bowl
- Soap Molds
- Digital Scale
- Durable Gloves (don’t want lye solution to touch your skin)
- Goggles (good to have just in case)
- Crockpot (we’re cooking the soap in this)
Ingredients
- 10 oz Olive Oil
- 20 oz Coconut Oil
- 9 oz Distilled Water
- 4.78 oz of Pure Lye
- 1 oz of Shea butter*
- 0.5 oz of Castor Oil*
- 0.5 oz of Aloe Vera Gel*
- 0.25 oz of Vitamin E Oil*
- 1 oz of Jojoba Oil* (I used my infused oil)
- 1 oz of beeswax*
Directions
- Measure all of your ingredients. I measured mine in separate containers. In a crockpot, pour in your oils to melt completely. Once they are melted, blend your lye and your water in a metal bowl or pyrex bowl.
*Disclaimer: Every soap making article that I have ever read said to pour the lye into the water, not the other way around. This was supposed to prevent a volcano like situation from occurring. My husband (former engineer) was dead set against this and said to pour the water slowly into the lye. So, I let him and (at least for us) nothing crazy happened. No heavy fumes occurred and nothing boiled over-thank goodness. Everything blended beautifully. This is not to say that the other way is wrong, but this is simply an admission hat we did this step differently.
- Stir the lye and water solution until the lye is dissolved. Then, slowly pour the mixture into the crockpot with the other ingredients.
- Fun part: Get out that immersion blender and start pulsing the mixture. Don’t do this fast. You’ll keep blending until the mixture resembles a pudding like substance.
- Once it resembles pudding, put the cover on the crockpot and let everything cook on low for about 50 minutes. *Multiple posts also say that the soap may puff up and you’ll need to stir it to deflate it. We had to do this twice and then everything was calm.
- After 50 minutes of cooking, the mixture should no longer look opaque. My version actually looked like a gemstone color to me.
- Next, pour the mixture into your soap mold. This mixture was enough to fill one soap mold.
- Let everything cool for 12-24 hours. Cut and use.
We absolutely love the results! The lather is great and there’s no one is scratching their skin after using this soap. It’s also pretty moisturizing. In a few weeks, I’ll post our cold pressed soap recipe.
Happy Crafting!
