Making Soap from Sharee’s Cupboard

For the “What is in your cupboard? Challenge.”, Sharee asked me to help her with a new soap making recipe since she is a new soapmaker. She wanted help with a recipe that work well and not have any issues. Let’s check out her cupboard.

Papaya Coconut Fragrance
Oatmeal, Milk, Honey Fragrance
Vanilla Fragrance
Energy Fragrance
Sandalwood Fragrance
Lavender Fragrance

Lilac Fragrance
White Tea and Ginger Fragrance
Relaxing Fragrance
Plumeria Fragrance
Island Coconut Fragrance
Almond Fragrance
Yuzu Fragrance

As Sharee has just a few ingredients, I put together a simple recipe that is similar to ones that we use when teaching classes. Have fun with this great recipe!

Collect needed items:

Ingredients
Castor Oil
Olive Oil
Coconut Oil
Sunflower Oil
Sweet Almond Oil
Sodium Hydroxide
Water
Oatmeal, Milk, Honey Fragrance Oil
Oat Flour (Finely Ground Oatmeal)

Equipment
Scale
Soap Spoon
Gloves
Mold of your choice (I will be using a Rubbermaid Drawer Organizer #2915.)
Immersion Blender

Time spent:
Weighing time: 8 minutes
Adding lye to water for each batch: 20 seconds, followed by 60 seconds of stirring
Heating of oils time for each batch: 2 minutes
Pouring lye solution into the fat mixture for each batch: 15 seconds
Using immersion blender to mix soap solution for each batch: 3 minutes
Pour into mold (total time): 90 seconds approximately 30 seconds for each batch
Allow soap to rest: 24 hours

Recipe:

Recipe in ounces:
1 ounce Castor Oil
5 ounces Olive Oil
5 ounces Coconut Oil
3 ounces Sunflower Oil
2 ounces Sweet Almond Oil
2.29 ounces Sodium Hydroxide
6 ounces Water
0.25 ounces Oatmeal, Milk, Honey Fragrance Oil
2 teaspoons Oat Flour (Finely Ground Oatmeal)

Recipe in grams:
28.35 grams Castor Oil
141.75 grams Olive Oil
141.75 grams Coconut Oil
85.05 grams Sunflower Oil
56.7 grams Sweet Almond Oil
64.93 grams Sodium Hydroxide
170 milliliters Water
7.09 grams Oatmeal, Milk, Honey Fragrance Oil
2 teaspoons Oat Flour (Finely Ground Oatmeal)

Recipe in Percentages:
6.25% Castor Oil
31.25% Olive Oil
31.25% Coconut Oil
18.75% Sunflower Oil
12.5% Sweet Almond Oil
q.s. Sodium Hydroxide
q.s. Water
1.5% Oatmeal, Milk, Honey Fragrance Oil
q.s. Oat Flour (Finely Ground Oatmeal)

*q.s. = Quantity Sufficient. This is an ingredient that needs to have the amount calculated to match the size of batch that you are making.

Weigh fixed oils on your scale. Warm the fixed oils on the stove or in the microwave. I melted the oils in the microwave. Add sodium hydroxide to the water. Mix well. Combine the scent blend in a beaker and set aside.

Combine the fixed oils and lye solution. Stir until thin trace. For me, this took almost 90 seconds to reach the thin trace. After the soap reached this point I added the fragrance and oat flour and mixed well. Once the fragrance was completely mixed into the raw soap, I poured the soap into the Rubbermaid Drawer Organizer #2915. I allowed the soap to sit until was firm.

The next morning the soap was cut into bars. Stack to allow good air circulation. Allow to cure for several days before using. Longer curing will result in a harder bar.

Enjoy!