olive oil, 50%
coconut oil, 25%
palm oil, 25%
distilled water at 38% of total fats by weight
lye: 0.129 x olive oil + 0.175 x coconut oil + 0.135 x palm oil
essential oil at 1.8% of total weight
To make three 3.5 oz bars of soap:
4 oz olive oil
2 oz coconut oil
2 oz palm oil
3.04 oz distilled water (8 x 38%)
1.13 oz lye (0.129 x 4 + 0.175 x 2 + 0.135 x 2)
0.22 oz essential oil blend (8 + 3.04 + 1.13 = 12.17 x 1.8%)
All the measurements are by weight. Be sure to use distilled water. Be sure to use organic oils and essential oils (not fragrance oils) for the highest-quality, gentlest non-toxic soap. Follow the cold-processing instructions. In the old days, soap was poured into trays lined with cloth; these days a Tupperware makes a good soap tray and there is no need to line it. The weight of this soap before curing is 12.39 oz (8 + 3.04 + 1.13 + 0.22). It will lose about 15% of weight due to water evaporation (drying) while curing, so your finished soap weight will be about 10.53 oz, or three 3.5 oz bars. Each bar should last one month, give or take, in the shower, if you keep it on a tray that drains water and do not let it sit in water. Why make small batches? Then you can try different essential oil (fragrance) blends. If you love the fragrance in the bottle, but hate the fragrance of the soap after curing, well, you are not stuck with a year’s supply of soap to slog through. But once you find an essential oil blend you like:
To make twelve 3.5 oz bars of soap:
16 oz olive oil
8 oz coconut oil
8 oz palm oil
12.16 oz distilled water (32 x 38%)
4.54 oz lye (0.129 x 16 + 0.175 x 8 + 0.135 x 8 )
0.87 oz essential oil blend (32 + 12.16 + 4.54 = 48.7 x 1.8%)
Total weight = 49.57 oz, 15% shrinkage = 42.13 oz, or twelve 3.5 oz bars. When the bars have finished curing, wrap the soap in cellophane or shrink wrap to preserve the scent — plastic wrap will not preserve the scent. To give the soap as gifts, make a paper “sleeve” out of wallpaper, wrapping paper, or artists’ paper scraps, slip the paper sleeve over the shrink-wrapped bar, and affix a pretty label.
Cold processing soap instructions
Making soap with James Hershberger
Soap qualities and soap fats calculator
Lye calculator
Essential oils: blends, safety, and blending how tos
Coloring soaps (coming …)
