Making Some Actual Soap

Editor's Note: Pete Laxton has been blogging weekly about launching his own, Alameda-based soap business. You can read his . 

My soap making has come a long way in a few short weeks. I have a pretty good experimental setup going now. I can crank out a batch of solid bar soap in a few short hours. Still, though, liquid soaps haven't been so easy.

I put together my soap lab for less than $100 including raw materials. Instead of fussing with an outdoor grill as my heat source, I'm indoors now on a cheap portable electric burner that I set up on an old entertainment center. I have my double-boiler on this burner.The key purchase (second in importance only to my scale) was an immersion blender. It makes mixing a breeze.

The process goes like this: first, I mix the lye in with distilled water; next, I mix my oils and heat them on the double-boiler; finally, I add the lye solution to oils and mix over heat until its soap, about two hours.

When the reaction is done, I mold the soap. So far, as I experiment with my formula, I've been molding in a fish-shaped silicone ice tray and a small PVC pipe I had around. I like the pipe because once I de-mold the soap I can cut it into either little rounds or semi-cylinders. You can see the results in the photo.  

My new, more-convenient little soap lab has given me a chance to play with all kinds of soap recipes. I'm starting to get a feel for how different oils result in different soaps. Not surprisingly, the more solid the oil the more solid the soap, for example, coconut oil is a solid at room temperature and it makes a pretty solid bar. Olive oil makes a very soft bar. Now I'm playing around with different mixtures of olive oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil and some others to find something that I really like.  

I've been pleasantly surprised at how nice the homemade soap comes out. The main reason, from what I've been reading, is that homemade soap has more glycerin which is a natural emollient or moisturizer and by-product of the soap making reaction. Apparently, the big soap makers recover the glycerin out of their soap to sell it separately.

I've been washing with my soap and I even tried some laundry soap with some added borax and baking soda. The bar soap leaves my skin feeling clean with no odors. The laundry soap worked fine on my clothes with no strange odors and apparently clean clothes.

Next, I'll be tackling liquid soap making. My first few tries were either harsh on the skin or separated out. I have to keep working on that one.

Stay clean Alameda — and buy local.