By: Fran Mcgee


MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.00

      Title: Ingredients Needed For Making Soap
 Categories: Tightwad, Soap, Crafts
      Yield: 1 servings

      1 ea Information

  You can add emolients to soap for their desirable qualities. Such
  ingredients include cold cream, lanolin, cocoa butter, or even
  powdered oatmeal.  Add emolients in appropriate amounts, so as to not
  affect the soapmaking process.  Also, you should add most emolients
  after the soap has saponified while it is still cooling, Remember to
  always add fragrances as the very last ingredient. You can also add
  special ingredients to soap, such as aloe vera, vitamin E, wheat germ
  oil, jojoba oil, vitamins A and D, and baking soda. Do not add
  cornstarch to soap. Cornstarch can leave a thin film on your skin
  that might attract bacteria.  Do not put in your soap any ingredients
  that might be poisonous. Poisons Can be absorbed through the skin.
  Some people like to add buttermilk (in liquid or powder form) to
  their homemade soaps; others like to add lemon juice.  Coconut oil is
  a favorite ingredient for people who really like suds. Do not add any
  ingredient that you are allergic to unless you do not plan to use the
  soap yourself. There are only three ingredients essential to making
  soap: grease (fat), lye and water.  Other ingredients are added to
  give certain desired qualities to the soap. Although soap making is
  fairly simple to do, it is critical that

  you follow instructions carefully.  Lye is a caustic substance. If
  mishandled, it can burn skin or even cause blindness.  Add lye only
  to COLD WATER.  Never add lye to hot water, because it might cause a
  violent chemical reaction. Most commercial lye is either a caustic
  soda, such as sodium hydroxide, or a mineral salt known as potassium
  hydroxide. Hard soaps are made with sodium hydroxide or caustic soda;
  soft soaps are made with potassium hydroxide.

  Lye is commercially available with instructions for its use on the
  can. You also can make your own lye water by soaking a bucket of wood
  ashes overnight.  The water that you pour off in the morning will be
  lye water. This is the way colonials made their soap. Use only wood
  ashes. Do not try to make lye water from coal or coke ashes. Coal
  ashes contain chemicals that might irritate or damage the skin. Some
  people add salt to help curdle the soap, but it is not necessary. You
  can add baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, to soap. It is an
  inexpensive ingredient that contributes desirable qualities,
  including deodorizing and cleansing.

  IMPROVING SOAP Most soaps made at home will need to be improved
  before they are suitable for personal use. To improve soap, you might
  wish to remelt it and add more fats and oils.  This process helps to
  harden soap and also makes it gentler to the skin.  Naturally, you
  will need to keep everything in proportion.  Too much oil might
  create a slushy, ineffective soap. The purpose of soap is to aid in
  removing grease and grime, not to leave a layer of grease on you,
  although a good soap will have a slightly oily feel to it. You must
  add perfumes only after the soap has started to cool. Add them before
  the liquid soap is poured into molds, however, so that the finished
  bars have a uniform scent.  Of course, you do not need to add
  fragrances to your soap if you prefer them to remain unscented. If
  you wish to color your soap, you can use a vegetable coloring. The
  colors will be more pastel and variable than those produced by
  chemical coal-tar dyes. The latter will produce uniform colors of a
  brighter hue. If you want bright colors, you can use food dyes. Be
  careful to not add so much color that it comes off as you wash,
  however.

  SOURCE:  MAKING POTPOURRI, COLOGNES AND SOAPS by David Webb. There
  are also candle, shampoo, bubble bath, deodorant, room freshener,
  perfume, cologne, aftershave, toilet water, sachet and potpourri
  recipes.

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