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Simple Beginner Soap Recipe


Crafty1_AJ

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Castile soaps are not generally noted for their abundance of lather. They are known for being extremely gentle and non-drying though. The addition of castor yields a creamy, dense lather, but you're typically not going to get big fluffy bubbles from a castile, although lather does improve with a lengthy cure time. :)

hth!

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  • 5 months later...
Here's a simple soap recipe with easy measurements. And the best part is, these ingredients are readily available in many grocery stores. I can get them all at my Super Wal-Mart. :)

50% olive oil (no need to get extra virgin; light olive oil is great!)

25% coconut oil (Lou Ana brand at Super Wal-Mart is perfect)

25% lard*

Hope this helps someone get started. And if you've tried this recipe above and would like to branch out and tweak, here's a lather booster; subtract 5% of the olive oil and substitute with 5% castor.

Well, I did it. I found lye and mixed it with water and the above oils and... I think it's soap... :)

First cp ever for me. I think I let it get too cold as trace took f-o-r-e-v-e-r. It zapped me a bit last night but today it just tastes soapy (and a little like Lovespell). Not only that, but if you use it with water, it seems to wash your hands. My baby bars are cut and drying now. When they're a bit older I'm sure I'll be hacking slivers off to test.

Thanks so much for a recipe that used locally available oils! :yay:

I'll post pics in the gallery:bliss:

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I just bought lard and coconut just so I could try this recipe. For any of you who have made it, how long did it take your bars to harden up? I know olive oil recipes take longer than non-castile soaps, so I was trying to get a round-about idea.

Darbla

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It's funny, but I have the lye and no other ingredients. I'm a soaping wannabe, but I'm also a scaredy cat about lye. That was before I got pregnant. I've wanted to make soap forever, and now am wondering if I should wait until after I have the baby? (Not that I'll have any more time to do anything then...) I know that I could mix the lye & water outside, but what if...and am I just being too paranoid? Lye is scary!

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A healthy fear of lye is a good thing. A fear of lye that prevents you from making soap is not healthy. :smiley2:

Lye fumes are toxic, but so is car exhaust, chlorine and petrol fumes. If you feel safe driving in rush hour traffic, swimming in a public pool or filling your car's gas tank while pregnant, lye is not going to be any better or worse for you than those fumes are.

Mixing outside is good as long as you can make the trip to and from your sink without splashing. I just mix it up in my sink with the kitchen window open. When the fumes get strong enough to smell, I take a step or two back for a minute or two until they clear, no big deal.

Personally, speaking as the mother of 3, I wouldn't soap with a newborn, toddler or young child in the house, unless there was someone else there watching them who wasn't going to say, "Baby wants you..." and expect me to leave my soaping before it was put to bed. It's not a good hobby to start when you need to be looking after littles, IMO.

Now, I didn't bead after my kids started coming either, so I may be overly cautious too. :rolleyes2

I'd start today if I were you. If you do find a trustworthy babysitter, soaping can be a very relaxing creative outlet, perfect for giving you a sense of achievement and accomplishment, something mothers often need more of in their lives!

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  • 8 months later...

*If you are opposed to using animal fats, you can subsitute 25% palm oil for the lard. Be advised, however, that palm oil is not as readily available for many of us. You may have to order it online or get it from a specialty/ethnic grocer.

I am wondering what I can use to substitute Palm Oil and Lard?

I would have thought that I could sub Coconut Oil for Palm Oil but it is already in the recipe.......

What is a good safe sub for Lard?

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I am wondering what I can use to substitute Palm Oil and Lard?

They are pretty much interchangeable

I would have thought that I could sub Coconut Oil for Palm Oil but it is already in the recipe.......

you could sub Palm Kernel Oil for the Coconut but NOT for the Palm

What is a good safe sub for Lard? Palm

Maybe try:

50% Olive Oil

25% Coconut Oil

20% Sunflower Oil

5% Castor

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I am wondering what I can use to substitute Palm Oil and Lard?

They are pretty much interchangeable

I would have thought that I could sub Coconut Oil for Palm Oil but it is already in the recipe.......

you could sub Palm Kernel Oil for the Coconut but NOT for the Palm

What is a good safe sub for Lard? Palm

Maybe try:

50% Olive Oil

25% Coconut Oil

20% Sunflower Oil

5% Castor

SYR - thanks. Will keep this for next trial......

;0

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Bea, have you perused the millersoap.com site? tons of recipes.

Hi Care Bear

Yes - that is a site I refer to often and have saved lots of information on to my computer for reference.

My main problem seems to be lac of recipes which do not have palm oil or lard.....

:(

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Hi Care Bear

Yes - that is a site I refer to often and have saved lots of information on to my computer for reference.

My main problem seems to be lac of recipes which do not have palm oil or lard.....

:(

bummer, but they are kinda backbone oils and ones I use often.

you can play to your heart's content on soapcalc.com - get wild and try something YOU create!

Or, on soapcalc, enter the oil you want to replace as 100% of the recipe, then click down the list of oils and see if you can find one that matches either on fatty acid profile or on soap qualities and try replacing it with that one. For example lard and cocoa butter seem pretty close, except in stearic, emu oil seems close too - so then you play around.

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Hey, thanks so much for posting this recipe. Hoping to get my TOG molds in this week and have tons of cp recipes I have gotten online, but didn't know which to start with. Think I will start with yours.:yay: :yay:

Rae

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