| Prepare double boiler, bring water to
a gentle boil. Once boiling~ place in your pot of the
measured oils and butters to melt the coconut & cocoa
butter~( around 160 degrees). As soon as the oils are
melted, mix your lye and water together and stir till
clear, then immediately stir lye water into your melted
oils. I keep my main pot of oils in the larger pot of
water as I do this, it seems to help achieve trace more
quickly. Achieving trace can take some time~ generally
around 30 - 40 minutes or longer ~ so BE PATIENT! Continue
to stir and use stick blender(s) if desired. Trace looks
like Elmer's glue~ a tad bit thicker. Once trace has
been reached, cover the entire double boiler, it does
not need to seal tight, you just want it covered. After
about 10 minutes, take the soap pot out and check for
lye separation, which will appear as a water layer at
the bottom of pot. Stir again to mix and return pot
to double boiler and continue to cook. The CF book claims
that the soap puffs up as it cooks, stir down if that
happens, however I have never had the soap puff up in
the cook time.
Remove soap pot every 30 minutes or so and "stir",
cook a total of three ours or longer if necessary.
The soap will become translucent after about an hour
or so and will continue to get more translucent through
the 3 hour cook time. (Note) It may become to thick
to stir, so just mash down the paste to release any
trapped air. Once you have cooked it down to a translucent
looking glob of paste, your ready to begin the next
phase.
In another pot, bring 6 pounds and 2 ounces of distilled
water to a boil, once boiling add 3 Tbs. of Borax(
20 mule team) to the water and dissolve. Hopefully
you used a large enough pot for your paste so you
can just add the borax solution to your soap pot.
If not, you will need to add the paste to your borax
solution pot. Turn off your burner~ this is where
I add a Tbs. & a half of what ever preservative you
have on hand. Germaben II, Germall Plus, GSE and 1/4
cup of liquid glycerin~ stir in, cover and leave sit
for a few days. The paste will eventually dissolve
on its own. I usually stir mine a couple of times
a day to make sure no paste is stuck to the bottom
of the pot, make sure you keep it covered. The paste
generally dissolves within 3 - 4 days. Once dissolved,
you will notice a thin white layer on top of the liquid
soap, I skim that off and now you have a very nice
golden amber translucent liquid soap. This recipe
yields approx. 1 gallon and 1 pint of liquid soap.
I store my soap base in the empty gallon jugs from
the distilled water. Now all you need to do when your
ready to use~ pour out the amount you need for one
bottle or more, (warm) the base slightly in the microwave,
color if you desire and scent with your favorite aroma
and pour into your foamy bottles. Some scents will
tend to thicken your base slightly or cloud it. You
have to be careful using some EO's like sweet orange,
this will cloud your soap. Most everything I have
used so far with FO's has blended wonderfully. |
