100% Coconut Oil Soap
Making only one oil soap is simple and only requires two ingredients. All you need is coconut oil and sodium hydroxide (lye).
Soap recipes usually use distilled water, but if your tap water is drinkable, you can use tap water to make soap.
It is essential to protect the eyes and hands while making soap. The lye solution (lye is sodium hydroxide) is very corrosive and can cause burns. The soap is usually caustic during the first 24 hours. After that, the lye is no longer in its original state, which means it is no longer corrosive.
Coconut oil in soap is the most cleansing oil. When making this type of soap, we use a high percentage of super fat. Super fat is an oil that will not turn into soap and add extra moisture to the final soap bar.
If you live in a hot climate, your coconut oil can be liquid. In this case, there is no need to melt it.
Although the recipe only requires two ingredients, it is a very creamy soap with perfect lather.
Ingredients:
- Distilled water 62.40g
- Sodium hydroxide (lye) cosmetic grade 33g
- Coconut oil 240g
- Lemon essential oil (optional) 7g
Method:
- In a suitable container, add the water.
- Add the sodium hydroxide (lye) to the water.
- Mix the sodium hydroxide (lye) in the water until it is completely dissolved (the solution will be opaque at first but will become clear after some minutes).
- Measure the coconut oil and place it on medium heat to melt.
- After the coconut oil has melted, move it to a mixing bowl.
- Check the temperature of the oil and the lye solution. The recommended temperature is around 35-40 degrees celsius.
- Pour the lye solution into the melted oil and mix with an immersion blender.
Keep mixing for a minute until you reach trace. Trace is when the oil and water combine, it makes a thick emulsion. Don't use the blender for too long because you don't want to reach over trace (when the emulsion is too thick to pour).
If you want to add essential oil, add it now and mix to combine.
- Pour the mixture into molds (you can tap the mold gently, to release air bubbles) and leave it to harden for 24-48 hours.
- After 24-48 hours, unmold the soaps.
- Let the soaps cure for 3-6 weeks before using. Curing is when some of the water evaporates from the soap and it becomes harder.
- If you want to check the PH of the soap, wet one side of the soap, then place a PH strip on the damp side of the soap.
