This was part of the Christmas gifts for some of my relatives. Lavender-Rosemary Soap. I used the All-Vegetable, No Coconut or Palm recipe on Kathy Miller’s page (scroll WAY down.)
1. Sprinkle the lye crystals into the measured amount of water for the recipe. Swirl gently.
2. Weigh out the shortening and melt it over med-low.
3. Pour in the other oils.
4. Add lye (if it’s no longer screaming hot) and mix with immersion blender to trace.
5. This page said to use about 4 T of lavender oil and 2 T of rosemary oil. WHOA! I couldn’t bring myself to do that, so I did 3 T and 1T respectively. Then, I blended again. This went to SUPER TRACE, which I do not recommend as it’s like spooning mashed potatoes into the mold. Next time, I would put them in at BARELY TRACE-ESQUE.
6. Fill freezer paper-lined mold and cover with a towel. (If you make a smaller amount of soap, you can use empty household containers for your mold, like I did in this and this post.)
7. Cut into bars in the next day or so and allow to sit for at least a month.
Notice that mine were still in the BIG bars. Go ahead and cut them to the actual bar size you intend. It was NOT EASY to cut these babies after they cured for a while.
Also, to make sure they were as dry as possible come wrapping time, I set them in the dehydrator for a few days. That’s not typical soaping behavior as far as I know, but it worked well for me and my house smelled AWESOME.
Ivory
Questions regarding soap-making: do you use equipment dedicated to this purpose and not general household equipment? I wondered if anything, such as the pans and the immersion blender, that contacts lye would be fit to go back to food.
Also, have you made any shapoo bars?
Love your site. Melinda
Lye is dangerous in that it reacts strongly with water. If the implement were licked before washing, it would react with the water in the mouth and burn. However, once the instrument has been immersed in water or run through the dishwasher, the reacting is all done, so it’s safe to use on food.
Any bar with castor oil gets to be a shampoo bar ’round here. That super creamy foam is the only distinction between hair care bars and not here. We’re head to toe folks. Check out our post on Quick, Natural, Head to Toe Clean on how to use bar soap from top to bottom.
Where can I buy lye for soap making?
@Edith Cruse-We get our online. I last got mine from Snow Drift Farm.
Where do you get the purple paper you wrap the soap in? I looked at craft stores and I can’t find any. Also, does the oil seep through the paper and make it look splotchy? I think I might try adding some dried rosemary to this recipe, any suggestions on that?
Man, I’m needy.
So are you doing that in a double boiler, or is the pan directly on the heat? I’ve been looking around online and through books and have seen conflicting things.
What effect does rosemary POWDER have in cold processed soaps. Does it maintain it’s green color?
Kathy–It does turn it a bit green/brownish. Flecks of visual texture.