Make your bath ritual that bit more special — create a homemade soap with Himalayan salt with us.
Are you also interested in homemade soap making? Be aware that even in your own kitchen it is possible to make beautiful homemade soaps using the traditional technique without soap bases, i.e. directly from lye and a blend of fats and oils. You do not need to worry that homemade soap is difficult to make; thanks to the detailed procedure, you will manage it too!
Why you will love this soap
- Nourishment thanks to the superfat
A superfat was included when the recipe was created: the oils are present in 8 % excess relative to the lye, and it is this fraction of unsaponified oils that provides care and nourishment for the skin.
- An eye-catching two-layer look
The pink and white layers are separated by gold Gold Sparks mica, which the soap is also dusted with on the surface.
- A hard soap and a creamy lather
Coconut oil gives the soap hardness and lather, while castor oil supports the creaminess of the lather.
- Decoration with a function
Himalayan salt granules decorate the soap and at the same time help care for the skin.
Raw materials
The list of raw materials is given in grams and not in percentages, because each oil requires a different amount of lye for its saponification — therefore, when you substitute a given oil or change its ratio, it is necessary to recalculate the recipe. You will find out the correct amount of lye for homemade soap when you enter your selected oils into a soap calculator, for example Soapcalc and others that are available on the internet.
| Name of raw material | Content in (g) |
|---|---|
| Grapeseed oil | 80 g |
| Coconut oil | 94 g |
| Shea butter | 6 g |
| Castor oil | 20 g |
| Distilled water | 56.82 g |
| Sodium hydroxide | 28.41 g |
| Mica colour – Gold Sparks | As needed |
| Mica colour – Fiery Fusion | As needed |
| Titanium dioxide colour, oil | As needed |
| Himalayan salt, granules | As needed |
Step-by-step procedure
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Prepare the tools and protection
All containers and tools that come into contact with lye must be made of plastic, stainless steel or laboratory-grade glass. Lye is corrosive, and higher temperatures could cause ordinary glass to crack.
Put on gloves, protective goggles and a respirator, or work in a well-ventilated room (the fumes released from the lye solution are irritating).
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Dissolve the lye in the water
Slowly add the lye to the weighed water while stirring continuously; the mixture will start to heat up by itself. Once the lye has dissolved, let the mixture cool to the target temperature out of the reach of children and pets.
36 – 38 °C -
Melt the oils and the butter
Melt the oils and the butter by gentle heating, making sure the temperature does not exceed the target range. It is good if the oils are one to two degrees cooler than the lye solution.
36 – 38 °C -
Blend to trace
Pour the lye solution into the oil mixture, stir and blend to trace with a stick blender, i.e. the blender or spatula leaves visible trails in the mixture.
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Divide the mixture and colour it
Divide the homemade soap mixture into two halves.
- into one, mix titanium dioxide to the desired shade
- into the second half, mix pink Fiery Fusion mica to the desired shade, stir well, using a blender if necessary
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Pour the layers into the mould
Pour the pink homemade soap mixture into the mould and dust it with gold Gold Sparks mica using a sieve. Then carefully pour in the white mixture so as not to smear the gold mica.
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Decorate and leave to set
Finally, dust the homemade soap with gold mica again and decorate it with Himalayan salt. Cover the mould with cling film, optionally also with a blanket, and put it in a warm room. After roughly two to three days, the homemade soap is firm enough to cut.
2 – 3 days -
Leave the soap to cure
The soap is left to cure before use.
at least 6 – 8 weeks
Safety when working with lye
Working with hydroxides requires a degree of caution as well as the necessary use of protective equipment, especially goggles and gloves. Find out more about how to handle lye and how to check that the finished homemade soap is safe.
Working with lye
First aid: if the homemade soap does get on your skin during production, rinse it off immediately with cold water. You can also apply lemon juice or diluted vinegar to remove unreacted lye.
Containers and tools used for soap making must not be used for food afterwards.
Proceed in the same way when cleaning containers and surfaces – soak the containers and tools in diluted vinegar and let it react with the remaining lye; then wash the containers.
Checking the pH
Checking the pH of homemade soap is important, so that you can verify the soap is safe and that no errors occurred during its production. It may happen that there was a mistake in weighing or that the homemade soap mixture was not stirred thoroughly enough. Areas with a higher concentration of lye can then form, which can damage the skin.
Check the homemade soap after about 3 weeks using a litmus strip. Moisten the strip with distilled water and place it on the soap. You need to test several spots on the soap to make sure the homemade soap does not contain pockets with an increased concentration of lye.
Safe pH: the pH of the soap should be 9 – 10. If you measure a higher value even in places, such homemade soap is not safe to use.
You can also use a pH meter, or a phenolphthalein solution or strips containing it. When using phenolphthalein strips, proceed in the same way as with litmus strips: the strips should not turn pink. If you use the solution, drop it onto various parts of the soap; it should likewise not turn pink. A pink colour indicates high pH values and thus unreacted lye, and such homemade soap is not safe to use.
Tips and tricks for making it
There are small tricks you can use when making homemade soap to make the work and the handling of the soap batter easier. This includes choosing a suitable mould. Silicone moulds are very suitable for homemade soap, because the soap is easy to unmould. You can also use moulds made of other materials, but line them with baking paper so that you can remove the soap more easily.
When making homemade soaps with several layers, as in this case, it is good to thicken the bottom layer slightly by extra blending compared with the top one, so that it can support the weight of the upper layer.
Colourant tip: for better dissolution of colourants in the soap batter, it is good to set aside a small amount of oil at the beginning, for example two tablespoons, and dissolve the powder colourants in it. Then pour this oil into the homemade soap, which makes it easier to dissolve the colourant and helps you avoid clumps.
Over time, homemade soap can develop a white surface, forming so-called soda ash. This is an aesthetic defect that you can prevent by spraying the soap with IPA – isopropyl alcohol.
The composition of the soap
Below we present the individual active components of the homemade soap and their effect on the skin.
Coconut oil
In soap making, coconut oil is one of the popular oils, because after saponification it gives soaps hardness. At the same time, such homemade soap lathers well and dissolves easily in water. An advantage is that coconut oil is very stable and contributes to the shelf life of the soap. On the other hand, its strong cleansing properties can over-strip dry skin, which is why it is combined with other oils.
Castor oil
Thanks to the high content of ricinoleic acid in its fats, castor oil helps to soften homemade soap and, in small amounts, supports the stability and creaminess of the lather. However, if it were present in the recipe in large quantities, the soap would lather poorly and have a short shelf life (the residual oil would oxidise quickly). That is another reason why it is worth using castor oil in homemade soaps in small amounts.
Grapeseed oil
A very useful all-purpose oil is grapeseed oil — it is well absorbed by the skin and helps care for it thanks to the superfat in the soap. It is an alternative to olive oil in recipes. On its own it gives a softer homemade soap and a mild lather, which is why it is combined with oils and butters that provide harder homemade soaps and a richer lather.
Shea butter
Among butters, shea butter is a great choice for homemade soap, because it contains a relatively large amount of unsaponifiables that contribute to skin care. Since it is a solid fat (at room temperature) with a high content of stearic acid in its triacylglycerols, it provides a firm, hard homemade soap and contributes to its durability.
Himalayan salt
On the surface of homemade soap, Himalayan salt is not only a decoration — the soap also contains it for its positive properties, which help care for the skin. The pink colour of this salt is caused by its high mineral content, including iron. In addition, it has detoxifying and antibacterial properties.
Variations on the recipe
Although homemade soap with Himalayan salt has a given list of raw materials, it can be varied to a certain extent. Find out how in the lines below!
Vegetable oils and butters
First of all, before changing the type or proportion of an oil or a butter in the homemade soap recipe, you need to realise that each fat (oil or butter) requires a different amount of lye for its saponification. This is why soap calculators exist: you enter the amount and type of the oils used and the calculator gives you the amount of water and lye needed for saponification.
Important: if you are going to substitute the type of oil or butter, or change its amount in the homemade soap recipe, always recalculate the recipe. Otherwise you risk making a soap that contains too much lye and is therefore dangerous for the skin — or, conversely, a lack of lye will mean insufficient saponification, and the homemade soap will not harden and will remain greasy.
On the other hand, practically any oil or fat can be saponified.
Colourants
When choosing colourants, definitely let your imagination run free. Popular colourants for soaps are mica powders, because they provide bright, long-lasting colours. Use as much mica powder as you need to achieve the desired shade.
The vivid white colour in this recipe was achieved by using titanium dioxide dispersed in oil. You can also change the colour of your homemade soap in these ways:
- use activated charcoal for a black colour
- your homemade soap can gain other interesting colours thanks to different colouring oxides; ultramarines have similar properties to oxides
- there are also colourants intended specifically for soaps, in liquid or powder form
- you can also colour homemade soap with various natural substances such as turmeric, coffee, cocoa or fruit powders
- another option for homemade soap is to reach for clays — you can use pink or other clays, for example; herbal powders or ground algae are also used for colouring
- likewise, some CO2 extracts can cause the soap to take on colour, for example paprika CO2 extract
Salts
Himalayan salt is not the only salt you can use to decorate your soap. If you do not have Himalayan salt to hand, reach for ordinary coarse sea salt, which can make homemade soap that bit more special. You can also try salt from the Dead Sea, or leave it out entirely.
Flower waters
The distilled water in the recipe can also be replaced with flower hydrolats. Part of the water can be replaced with carrot or beetroot juice, which can serve as a colourant at the same time.
Watch out for scent and shade: there is a risk that the high pH and the strength of the lye will destroy some valuable components in these waters, and their scent may also disappear. Again, though, during saponification the lye may cause a partial change in colour.
Warning
As mentioned, you can experiment with homemade recipes to achieve the properties you want. However, the final result can be influenced by many factors, such as humidity, temperature, the quality of the raw materials or their storage.
Before you use any raw material to make a cosmetic product, familiarise yourself with its properties, recommended dosage, storage conditions and safe handling.
Every raw material can have the potential to trigger an allergic reaction in sensitive individuals, so before using the product we recommend finding out whether you are allergic to any of the raw materials or to the product as a whole, for example by means of a patch test.
If you have very sensitive or very acne-prone skin, or you have other skin and health problems, consult a medical professional before applying a new product to your skin, whether it is a homemade cosmetic product, a pure raw material or a commercially available product.
In conclusion
Hands up, everyone who makes homemade soaps. Here at Handymade we really enjoy soap making, and we are always delighted by a new creation from our soap-making friends at Musk.sk.
We always look forward most to the creative process of blending coloured soap and decorating it, and we can hardly wait for the soap to cure.
Do you enjoy making soap as much as we do? Have you ever tried creating a natural soap bar at home? Show off your creations here in the comments, or on Facebook. Let’s inspire each other.
We wish you wonderful creating. Until saponification, friends.
You will find the sodium hydroxide and the oils from this recipe in our e-shop.
