2 Coconut Oil Soap Recipes

I've been making my own soap for almost a year now. I'm not even close to being an expert but have a pretty good understanding of the process. I keep my soap extremely basic and colour free because this is for my personal use and colour is just so that your bars look nice. I can close my eyes and pretend they're pretty. Haha So the easiest and best cleansing soap I've made to date is from straight coconut oil. I make 2 different coconut oil recipes. One is for laundry which is superfatted at 1% and the other is to wash hair and body which is superfatted at 20%.

Recipe #1 for laundry

33 oz coconut oil

5.9 oz lye

12 oz water

0.5-1 oz essential oil (optional, I don't use any scent)

Recipe #2 for hair and body

33 oz coconut oil

4.8 oz lye

9.6 oz water

1.5 oz essential oil (my favourite is lemon or peppermint bars)

Both of these recipes are made the same way. If you have never made your own soap before I would do some research on it first. The reaction between lye and water can be extremely dangerous if not done correctly. Always add the lye to the water to avoid this type of reaction and always wear protective gear such as goggles, gloves, long sleeves and mask. Safety first!

1) Measure out all of your ingredients. Make sure that the containers that you are using are for your soap making only. You don't want to cross contaminate with food.

2) Pour your lye into your water. I normally do this outside as the initial gases created can be quite strong. Once mixed I bring it back in the house. The reaction between the lye and water will make the liquid extremely hot so be careful.

3) Melt your coconut oil on your stove. Place a thermometer in the container to keep track of the temperature. You don't need the coconut oil so hot as coconut will melt quickly but you want the lye mixture and coconut oil to be about the same temperature when mixing. I heat my coconut oil to about 130-140° and then remove from the stove to cool.

4) Place a thermometer in the lye mixture and wait til the temperatures of both cool down to about 110°-120°. Some soap makers mix at different temperatures but this works just fine for me.

5) When the desired temperature has been reached mix the coconut oil and lye water together.

6) With a stick blender you will mix them together until you reach something called trace. You will know it has been reached when you mixture looks like pudding. This is the point where I add my essential oil. Do some research as every essential oil reacts different and might need to be added at a different step or temperature. Now back to tracing. It can take 5-10 minutes to reach but you will know when you get there. A blending stick is about $12 so please invest in one. I tried doing this with a mixer and it took about 45 minutes. Go buy the stick blender! lol

7) Pour in soap mold.  If you don't have a soap mold you can place parchment paper inside a loaf pan. 
8) Place in the oven at 165° for about an hour.This step will speed up the curing process. Normally you would let your bars cure for about 4-6 weeks to let the lye cure out of your bars before use. This oven hot process will speed up the curing process and could be used the next day or within a few days as long as the pH levels test normal.

8) Let your bars cool overnight and then take them out of the molds.

9) Test your bars with pH papers, the zap test or red cabbage test that I mentioned in my previous post 100% coconut oil soap recipe.

Voilà! Ready to use soap bars for laundry or for the shower. There are many on-line tools for soap making. I use the website The Sage to help with my lye, water and fragrance calculations when making a new recipe. Create your own recipes and have fun with it! :)