Soap Making
by Tyler on October 21, 2011
Last year, my wife and I decided to make some of the gifts we gave away at Christmas. I had so much fun making the soap, that I’m doing it again.
The plan was to replace the lard from last year’s recipe with palm oil. This would let me call it vegan soap. But truly, it doesn’t matter to me if it’s vegan, and palm oil has bee hard to find locally. So, back to my previous recipe… this time with colors and scents!
I’ve been researching and thinking about what to color the new batch of soap with. Beet juice might end up staining as you wash! So, I was thinking minerals, aka dirt. But ultimately, day to day, our trees provide another source: lichen. So, I plan to grind it up into a powder, and perhaps it will make a nice light green soap. This variety is called fruticose lichen.
Also, at the request of my lovely wife, I’m going to be using some wintergreen essential oils. She tells me that it makes her hungry. Basically, the little bottle smells great.
I have no idea of the proportions for colorant and scent. So, I’m guessing from things I’ve read. For lichen, I’m planning to use 1 Tbsp. per pound (olive oil being 800-920 kg/cu.m) and my 1 gallon recipe is approx. 7 1/8 lbs. We’ll say 7 lbs. As for the oil scent, um… I’ve read everything from 15-20 ml per lb. of soap, or 6-9% maximun usage. Either way, we’re talking 3-7 oz of scent! I’ll use the whole 5 ml bottle that I bought tonight which is about 5/32 of an oz.
Here are my ratios: 65% olive oil, 17.5% coconut oil, and 17.5% lard.
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