How to make soap at home?

It is difficult to name a specific time for the invention of soap. Mentions of him are found in Ancient Sumer, Babylon, Egypt, Rome. Over the past centuries, a huge variety of soap recipes have been tried and several different technologies for its manufacture have been worked out. There is nothing complicated in any of them, and knowing how to make soap at home, everyone can try to make it on their own.

What is soap?

It is produced by a chemical reaction between fat and alkali. This reaction is called saponification. In addition to the above two components, various substances are added to the finished product - softeners, flavors, dyes and a number of others that perform the functions provided by the soap maker. If you look at the finished product through the eyes of chemists, then soap is salt according to their classification.

Why is there a large number of people ready to cook it at home, despite the fact that stores are packed with a wide variety of products of this kind? In many cases, this is due to the fact that ready-made soap on sale is no longer a soap, but a detergent. And besides, an important factor will be obtaining a product with some necessary characteristics in a particular case - soft, cleansing, moisturizing, having a certain smell, and also looking unusual, for example, like this:

Or like this:

Well, do not forget about the cost of the finished product. It is often cheaper to cook it yourself than to buy it, especially if you make it from the available waste. But whatever the properties of the soap, it will be based on fat and alkali. Today, a ready-made base is often used instead. You can learn about this and many other subtleties used in soap making from the video:

Some additional information about the components

If we consider separately the ingredients required in the soap making process, then you should pay attention to:

  1. Fat. Both vegetable and animal oils are used, but mineral oils are not suitable for soap making. In consistency at room temperature, oil is usually liquid, fat is solid. In the traditional method of soap making, beef or pork fat obtained from lard is used in this capacity. It is worth noting that this cheap animal product can in many cases be replaced with vegetable oil. For example, one of the main ones is olive, any of its varieties, including unsuitable for cooking, obtained from pomace. Oils such as corn, coconut, palm and others are widely used.
  2. Alkali. Most often, this is caustic soda. There is no need to do it yourself, it is best to purchase it ready-made, for example, in construction goods stores. But if there is a great desire to repeat old recipes, then you can get caustic potash by leaching ordinary ash. When buying a finished product, you need to pay attention that the label says "100% alkali", some cleaning products contain additives that are harmful to soap making.
  3. Water. Previously, rain was used, now soapmakers use distilled soap. This is done so that the minerals dissolved in ordinary water do not affect the quality of the soap. Water, if necessary, is replaced with decoctions of herbs, such as chamomile, they can have an additional therapeutic effect.
  4. Additives. They allow you to change the smell, color and texture of soap, including providing it with new properties. Most often, the finished product is given a new smell, for which aromatic and essential oils are used. The latter are obtained from plants using special technologies. Aromatic substances are those in which there is an artificial chemical aroma, they retain their properties better and do not lose their smell longer.

Another type of additives are dyes in liquid or powder form. But when using them, you should be careful: when interacting with soap, they can change their color. There are two types of dyes - pigment (natural) and paint (artificial). Other types of additives include, for example, oatmeal, ground almonds, poppy seeds, coffee grounds, and more.

What equipment is needed?

Nothing but kitchen utensils is needed to make soap at home. However, for the successful completion of all work, the equipment must meet certain requirements.

  1. Crockery. It is best to use not used for cooking. It can be enamelled or stainless steel, and glass bowls or something else will do. But they are by no means aluminum pans, they are not suitable for soap making. It will be better if there are containers of several different types:
    • a large one that can accommodate the entire mixture, and at the same time there must still be enough free space;
    • the usual capacity is about two liters;
    • wide (water will be poured into it for heating or cooling), serving as a water bath;
    • a large bowl;
    • a stick or spoon for stirring the solution;
    • strainer for filtering the alkali solution.
  2. Thermometer, best electronic. The soap making process takes place at a temperature of 32-43 ° С, therefore the measuring range of the device must obviously overlap this area.
  3. ​​
  4. Balance, accurate to 0.1 gram.
  5. Hand blender. It will shorten the time for mixing the components.
  6. Glasses, gloves. Ordinary rubber will do, the main thing is that the open areas of the skin are closed from the ingress of alkali, otherwise you may get burned.
  7. Cloth for wrapping soap and napkins.
  8. Molds for casting, which can be packaging from finished products or sweets.
  9. Indicators pH, which are special strips. They are needed to check if there is any alkali left in the soap.

In addition, various auxiliary items will be required, some of which are shown in the photo.

How to make soap?

Existing technologies can be divided into two main groups: with the help of one it is easy to cook soap at home from scratch, thanks to the other - to make it using a ready-made base. In the first case, you will have to use fat or oil together with alkali, in the second, you will have to purchase a finished product (base). As a last resort, ready-made soap or remnants are suitable instead.

How to Make Liquid Soap from Remnants

Remnants are an excellent base for liquid soap. Instead, you can use a bar of ordinary soap, the simplest "Baby" will do. It should be grated as shown below.

The resulting shavings are poured into a prepared bottle or special container with a dispenser, glycerin and a little lemon juice are added there. Then everything needs to be filled with hot water, and let the mixture stand for several days. You should only shake the bottle occasionally so that the chips are better dispersed in the water. And now your liquid soap is ready! This whole procedure is shown in detail in the video:

How to cook ordinary soap using ready-made or remnants

But how to make solid soap, using any other, bought in a store, or remnants as a blank? Initially, they are grated, then all this is placed in a hot liquid, which can be water, herbal decoction or milk. The resulting mixture must be placed in a water bath and kept there, stirring, over low heat until the soap is completely dispersed.

Other ingredients are added to the hot mass according to the recipe, and then everything is removed from the heat. The soap is poured into ready-made forms, the outer surface must be sprinkled with alcohol or vodka (from a spray bottle) to avoid the formation of air bubbles. The soap will harden in a couple of hours, but you can apply it after having kept it for at least two days. You can see how this is done here:

How to make soap using fat and lye

This approach is commonly referred to as “making soap from scratch”. At first, when mastering such a technology, it is better to use ready-made, proven recipes, and only then you can move on to compiling your own. The general sequence of actions should be as follows:

  • the necessary components are selected in accordance with the recipe;
  • ingredients (oils, fats) are weighed and placed in separate containers;
  • the required amount of water is measured;
  • Solid oils are placed in a water bath for melting;
  • alkali is weighed;
  • a container for dissolving it is placed in the sink (cold water poured there in advance will allow for rapid cooling);
  • alkali is poured into the liquid in small portions with stirring;
  • After dissolving the alkali, it is poured through a sieve into the oil mixture.

Thus, after completing these procedures, a soap base will be obtained. In the future, its manufacture can be carried out hot or cold. In the latter case, it will take an hour, but then the finished product will have to mature for thirty days. With the hot method, the soap is cooked for 3 hours and is ready for use the next day. Both of these options, as well as all preparatory operations are detailed here:

Soap is the product that is used in everyday life by every person. And with all the variety of industrially produced samples, you can make it yourself, achieving unique properties inherent only to your soap or giving it unusual shapes. So the soap making process should be considered as one of the forms of creativity and the realization of one's own ideas.

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