Soap
http://www.colebrothers.com/soap/blender.html
Very Simple Soap
Olive Oil 600g
Shortening 100g
Lye 88g
Water 200g
At trace add 1 tsp vanilla
Umm, just incase this doesn't make sense like this; here's a quick direction for blender. I set a glass (Vision ware) pan on the stove, turn on the fan and open the window, pour the water in then with a long handled spoon, pour lye into water while stirring. (When you buy lye, squeeze the container to make sure it isn't crunchy which means there will be hard lumps that make it difficult to use.) Then, while the lye is cooling, I measure and pour oils into blender. In this case with the shortening, use another pan (even microwave) to melt to liquid state. Add all your oils to the blender, stir for a few seconds to mix, then carefully pour in the lye water, place lid on tight, pulse for 30 secs. Watch the top of the mix when you turn it off. You will know it is ready if there is a burp bubble or you can dip a spoon in mix and pour it back in while watching for a trail of the liquid to be visible on the surface. If it doesn't, keep pulsing for 10 to 15 second intervals until it does. Add the vanilla and pour into mold. Cover and wrap in a towel and place in a warm area for 15 hours. (Top of refrigerator works great, I use my closet) Remove soap and cut bars, place in an area where they can dry for at least 3 weeks. I use those picnic wicker plates to stack them on so all surfaces are exposed.
Here is a recipe that is also very simple and uses lard
Lard Soap
16 oz lard or beef tallow
2.2 oz lye
3/4 cup water (6 fluid oz)
No matter what recipe you use for soap, the bars need to dry for at least three weeks before using. This helps to harden the bars and prevent lye burns.
The absolutely wonderful thing about making soap is the smallest additions (from the pantry) can really enhance your enjoyment. The biggest one is milk. From dried milk, 2 % out of the fridge and goat milk from a can or fresh if possible does amazing things to your soap. It nearly doubles the volume and adds a smoothing creamy quality to the bars. Used at the beginning in place of or in addition to the water before adding lye. After milk, I believe that adding coconut oil to the food storage for use in cooking too but it really makes a difference to soap. It hardens the soap so it lasts longer and makes the bubbles very creamy; too much though will tend to dry out sensitive skin. (I buy coconut oil at Wal-Mart Opps, maybe I need to add another note here. The cheaper the grade of oil the better the soap it will make, so don't use that expensing virgin olive oil in your recipe, get the heavier stuff. Besides Canola oil and sunflower oil there is also caster oil that is wonderful in soap. Most of the recipes that I have seen for shampoo soap use caster oil. All soap can be used for shampoo but the caster has tremendous moisturizing qualities. Ok, back to the food storage, a 1/2 tsp of honey added at trace adds wonderful emollient properties, be not too much or the bars will be too soft. Vitamin E oil is another lovely thing to add at trace (I just use a few capsules and squeeze them out) also ground oats (whole rolled oats, just run through the blender) add texture and exfoliate properties; dried flower petals, cornmeal, bran and wheat germ all add texture to your bars. If you have any interest in colors there are several common spices you can use. Cayenne pepper gives a salmon color, Cinnamon powder will turn it beige, cocoa powder is of course brown, curry powder is a peachy/yellow, paprika is just peach, and turmeric is a golden yellow.
So I will make the first recipe today and hit it hard tomorrow with the extras. If you have something specific in mind please let me know soon. I was thinking of a shampoo bar (with powdered egg!!) and a couple of ones scented with lavender, spearmint, and maybe a chamomile tea one... so. I kind of make them then write down what I put in on the recipe then I will email the recipe to you and mail the bars next week. Hopefully by Wednesday, let me know if this is soon enough or not. When you get them, they will need to be set out to dry for as long as possible. Love, Paula
Egg Shampoo Soap
Powdered Milk mixed with rainwater 300 ml
Lye 115.34g
Sweet Almond Oil 56g
Castor Oil 100g
Coconut Oil 190g
Olive Oil 300g
Palm Oil 190g
At trace I added:
1/2 tsp Mayan Gold perfume
1/2 tsp Spearmint Essential Oil
1/2 tsp oatmeal
1 tsp honey
2 eggs (the powdered equivalent, stirred into the afore mentioned honey)
Canned Goat Milk Soap
Canned Goat Milk 274ml
Lye 101g
Coconut Oil 190g
Olive Oil 250g
Palm Oil 190g
Shortening 100g
At trace I added:
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp tea tree oil
1 tsp lavender essential oil
2 vitamin oil capsules (snip and squeeze)
Aquarius Blender Soap
Liquid Combo:
Garden herbal tea 154ml
Canned goat milk 85ml
2 o/o cow milk 30ml
Total 269 ml
Lye 100g
Sweet Almond Oil 56g
Cocoa Butter 87g
Coconut Oil 192g
Olive Oil 191g
Palm Oil 191g
At trace:
Rosewood essential oil 1 tsp
Cinnamon 1/4 tsp
Oatmeal 1/4 tsp
Vitamin E capsules 2
This last recipe is based on one given to me by a soap supply store in Canada called Aquarius. They had tested the relationship between oils (saponification charts) and this makes a beautiful bar of facial soap. I use this one all the time and just play with the scents and extras for what suits me. A good bar of soap should feel slightly oily to the touch.
On occasion I add coffee (hotel packages) because it gives the bar a deodorant quality.
Soap Making
Hot water, cold water, hard water: homemade soap is good for washing if you are able to wash in hot water. It isn't good for washing dishes or clothes in cold water, though, because it doesn't dissolve easily, even if you make it into soap flakes. If you use it to wash dishes in hard water, it leaves a ring around the sink. Hard water contains calcium, magnesium, and iron, which, with soap, form compounds, or "curds," that resemble sticky gum. Use borax or washing soda to soften hard water before adding soap. Make sure the soap is dissolved before you add clothes or dishes. Otherwise you risk having little particles of undisclosed soap left among your clothes. A really good had rinse will easily get rid of those particles, but automatic washers aren't built to handle that. You’ll have to agitate the water to dissolve the flakes into solution and produce suds. Use water as hot as your hands can stand- or hotter. Great-grandmother literally boiled her clothes with homemade soap in a big iron pot over a fire in the backyard on washday. But then, practically everything her family wore was cotton.
Soap jelly: you can solve the dissolving difficulty by heating, or adding hot water to, a concentrated soap mixture, stirring it into solution, and then cooling. The old-timers called this dissolved soap "soap jelly" and made it ahead. They used it in washing machines and for washing dishes because soap jelly easily melts in hot water and makes thick suds. To make soap jelly, you cut 1 lb hard soap into fine shavings and add 1 gal water. Boil about 10 minutes and then cool. Keep soap jelly covered to prevent drying out. A reader told me an even easier way. She puts homemade soap bars into a few gallon glass jars and pours hot water over. Every day or so she drains off the liquid into a plastic pail, and that liquid is soap jelly.
Buying lye. You can buy lye from the cleaning agents section of a regular supermarket. If they don't carry it, ask. They can order it for you. It may be called sodium hydroxide or caustic soda. Store lye is sold in cans, usually containing about 13 oz, under several different brand names. Note the sodium hydroxide content. It should be 94-98 percent. Lye for soap is different from the lye used for drain openers, which has nitrates and other additives. There is usually a soap recipe on the lye can. Most lye companies will send you further information on soap making upon request.
Making lye. Use ashes from hardwoods, if possible, such as oak, walnut, or fruit wood, since they make a stronger better lye. Pine, fir, and other evergreens are soft woods. Put the wood ashes in a barrel with a small opening near the base to let the water "leach" through. Set the barrel so that you can put a container under the hole. If your wooden tub or barrel doesn't have a hole, bore one with a drill on the side near the bottom of the barrel. Before putting in your ashes put several clean rocks or bricks inside the container by the hole and then add a generous layer of straw, if you have it- hay or grass, if you don't. Then you can add your ashes. You can just let them accumulate until you want lye or until your container is full. The most efficient way of proceeding is to then add soft water to your barrel until water begins to run from the tap. Then plug the tap hole with a cork plug or something, and let it soak a few days. If you have extra ashes, you can add more ashes and water as the first layer settles in the barrel from the wetting. In 3 days, open the plug and have a wooden tub, crock or glass container ready to catch the trickle of lye water emerging from the opening. If an egg or a potato floats that a piece about the size of a quarter is exposed on the surface, the lye is about right for soap making. If it sinks the lye water needs to be leached another time through fresh ashes or boiled down until the concentration is strong enough. If your lye isn't' strong enough, you'll make soft soap as the pioneers did. Excess lye makes a coarse, flinty soap that will crumble when shaved and burn you when used. Soap should have a smooth, velvety texture that curls when shaved. If any free lye is present, the soap "bites" when touched with the tongue.
Tallow must be pure, clean and fresh (or frozen) to obtain soap with a clean, wholesome odor. "Toilet" soap meant soap using fat from butchering rather than drippings; it was a whiter, better-quality soap. "Saddle soap" meant an all-mutton or beef tallow soap. Such soap is valuable as a cleaner and preserver of leather.
Six pounds of fat and 1 can of lye will make about 9 lbs of soap. Mutton or goat tallow is the hardest of all animal fats, having the highest melting point. Used alone, mutton or goat fat makes a hard, dry soap unless you add extra water or mix the hard fat with a softer one like lard, goose grease, or chicken fat. Beef tallow is next in hardness and also should be mixed with a softer fat. One pound of untrimmed beef fat will get you 1 cup of tallow. Lard makes fine soap, giving you 2 cups fat for every pound of meat, although it may be a little soft. Poultry fat is too soft when used alone, so it should be mixed with harder fat. Meat frying, crackling, meat trimmings and other refuse fat must be first clarified and desalted. You can use any animal or vegetable fat, even salad oil, but not mineral oil. Tallow alone produces a hard soap without much lather, Adding vegetable oils improves the texture. The best vegetable oil by far is coconut oil which produces a fine sudsing soap similar to a shaving soap.
Store your fat in a cool, dry place while you accumulate enough for soap making. Render fat from butchering or fatty trimmings from cutting up. Grind the fat or cut it into pieces. Put into a large kettle on the top of the stove or in a large pan in the oven. Add about 1 qt. water for each 10 lbs of fat. Use a moderate temperature and stir occasionally. When the fat is liquefied and the solids are brown and settling, carefully strain the fat. You may want to do this more than once. Your soap will be as white as your fat is. If you fat is not pure enough, you may end up with yellow soap with an unpleasant odor. If you do not want to strain the fat, scrape the sediment off its bottom, pour off the liquid and repeat as necessary.
To clarify drippings and remove salt, put the leftover cooking grease into a kettle with an equal amount of water. Use a large pot so it won't be likely to boil over. Bring to a boil, stir and add 1 qt. cold water for each 1 gal of drippings. Stir to break up any lumps. When the water boils, let it set and settle. Then cool and skim fat from surface with skimmer, or refrigerate and clean the cake of fat or strain. Repeat these procedures until you are satisfied with the condition of your grease.
To remove rancidity boil the sour or rancid fat in a mixture of 5 parts water to 1 part vinegar. Cool and skim fat or refrigerate and remove fat cake. Remelt the fat; for each gallon of fat, add 1 qt cold water. Stir slightly. Cool and skim fat or remove fat cake. Repeat as necessary. Fat that is rancid is fine for soap making but not for eating ever again.
Water is a basic ingredient of sop making you need pure water, free of chemicals that can combine with the lye. Don't use hard water unless you neutralize the chemicals in it with washing soda. Hard water means water with minerals dissolved in it. Rainwater isn't hard, but almost all water from spring, wells or rivers is in varying degrees. Measure the water into enameled wooden or crockery container that are easily handled.
Perfumes like oil of sassafras, oil of lavender, and oil of lemon may be added to soap.
Borax quickens the sudsing action of soap because it helps to hold down homemade soap's tendency to curd in the hard water and it's a natural fabric softener.
Soap making is a chemical process. When lye and fat are brought together under the right conditions, they react to make soap, with is an alkali salt of fatty acids and glycerin. The process is called saponification. It may take several weeks for complete saponification to take place. This is one reason that aging is so important in soap making. Soon after it is made, soap actually contains some free lye, but the longer it ages, the less likely it is to contain any free lye. Soap made from lard or soap that has been boiled requires longer aging before it becomes hard and ready for use.