Soap Making evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BC in Ancient Babylon. A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC. But that’s ancient history.
There are two basic methods of making your own soap:
1. Cold Process
2. Hot Process
Cold Process quicker to make easier to pour into molds. Longer to cure (2-4 weeks). Although cold-process soapmaking takes place at room temperature, the fats are first heated to ensure the liquification of the fats used.
Then, when the lye water solution is added to the fasts, it should be the same temperature of the melted oils and both are typically between 80-90°F. The soap will continue to exothermically give off heat for many hours after being molded. During this time, it is normal for the soap to go through a “gel phase” where the opaque soap will turn semi-transparent for several hours before turning opaque again. The soap may be removed from the mold after 24 hours but the saponification process takes several weeks to complete.
Hot Process longer to make harder to pour into molds. Shorter to cure (0-3 days). The lye is dissolved in water, as this is an exothermic process, the solution will spontaneously generate heat and may even boil. The oils are heated separately (to the point of liquefaction if they are solid at room temperature).
Once fats and lye water have both cooled to 80-100°F (27-38°C), they are combined. This mixture of lye water and fats is stirred until “trace” occurs and the mixture becomes a soap batter. There are varying levels of trace: a light trace implies a thinner soap batter and a heavy trace implies a thicker soap batter. Additives, such as essential oils, and fragrance oils, are combined with the soap batter at different degrees of trace, depending upon the additive. With elapsed time and continued agitation the soap batter will continue to thicken.
