One of the first “homestead-y” tasks I added to my repertoire once we moved to our cabin was soap-making. Matt and I love goat’s milk soap, but were tired of buying bars at the grocery store when it was something I KNEW I could do myself.

I was really apprehensive once I started scouring the internet for recipes and how-to’s because milk-based soaps all called for lye. Lye is a harsh chemical, it even has fun warnings all over the container that it will poison you or burn your skin off, and I honestly think the fear of it is what keeps a lot of people from making their own soap. I have since gotten over this fear. The first few times I wore gloves to make myself feel better, but found they were difficult to work with, so I have ditched the gloves, work slowly and carefully when working with the lye, and keep a bottle of vinegar on the counter nearby in case any lye was to get on me (really or in my overly paranoid imagination). Vinegar will neutralize the lye, so I just pour it onto my skin where it has touched (or I think it has). (For details on the chemical process and why you need to use lye to make soap check out this post by The Nerdy Farm Wife – it is really interesting and full of great info and safety tips!)

I found a recipe that has been my go to now for four batches. It is from www.DIYnatural.com and a full list of ingredients with amounts and the instructions I follow can be found here.

READ: I highly suggest you read this recipe (and the safety info in the above post) through once or twice before starting to make sure you know what you need and what the process looks like.

Gather Your Supplies and Ingredients

The ingredients needed for a batch are:

• Coconut oil
• Olive oil
• Other oil – such as lard, sustainably-sourced palm oil, tallow, vegetable shortening, or another comparable oil
• Goat’s milk
• Lye – also called 100% sodium hydroxide
• Essential oils and/or additives, like oatmeal or lavender flowers, if desired

We usually have coconut oil and olive oil in the kitchen 24/7, but the other oil choice was something I had to decide on. I ended up using organic vegetable shortening from Spectrum Foods and have had success with it, but I would not be opposed to using lard or tallow if I had it available. (I like to use all organic products when possible.)

Tools/supplies needed are:

• Kitchen scale
• Glass/stainless steel bowls (I have finally perfected the bowl situation and will explain my method below, but I use one large stainless bowl from Crate & Barrel, one 4 quart glass Pyrex bowl, and one 2.5 quart Pyrex bowl)
• Immersion blender
• Stainless Steel Potato Masher
• Spatula (I use silicone)
• Thermometer
• Glass/stainless measuring cup(s)
• Ice cube tray with small cube sizes (I use silicone)
• Soap molds (I use silicone with a wooden box/support, but you can get creative)
• Knife or soap cutting tool

My Experiences Along with Some Tips/Tricks/What Works for Me

I am a definite rule/recipe follower, so for the first few batches I have followed the instructions on DIY Natural’s site to the letter. I have slowly started to find out what works best for me as I have continued making it – this info is not contradictory to her instructions, it’s more like tips that have made it easier for me.

Initially, I measured out the goat’s milk into freezer bags to freeze until I needed it. This worked great for keeping it cold and ready to make soap, BUT I found it was hard for me to squish the lye into the frozen milk without splashing/sloshing when the milk was in one big lump. This led to me worrying that it was not fully mixed before combining with the oils and I usually made a mess. My last batch I tried a new method for freezing the milk – pouring it into a small ice cube tray and freezing. Now I have small cubes bagged and can measure them out as needed. These small cubes melted with the lye more easily and I feel like I finally got them well blended.

The other tricky thing I ran into was how to keep the milk/lye mixture in an ice water bath. Our sink is too big/deep for me to comfortably smoosh the two while the bowl floats around in the ice water. I had previously used bowls that nested, but the inner bowl still floated and some water accidentally sloshed into the mixture. I finally figured out a solution – using a glass pyrex nesting bowl on top of a stainless steel Crate & Barrel mixing bowl. The lip of the glass sits perfectly on the edge of the stainless one and no water can seep into the top bowl. I suggest playing around with your options BEFORE putting lye and milk in the top bowl.

I use an older immersion blender to blend everything, it works great and I have not had issues bringing my mixture to trace. It felt like magic the first time I made it and it actually thickened to pudding consistency! I usually microwave the oils and check the temp with a meat thermometer to be sure it is as warm as DIY Natural advises, then pour in the lye/milk mixture and blend blend blend. I use an old silicone spatula for the first five minutes and then the blender for the rest. I have toyed around with different essential oils for fragrance, I added oatmeal once, and most recently I added a sprinkle of lavender flowers on top (do this immediately after pouring into the molds to help it stick – mine had already started to set and they are EVERYWHERE now). Let your preferences and imagination guide you!

Once I have everything mixed, poured into the molds, and am ready for clean up,  I usually let the items I used sit until the soap mixture hardens on the supplies. This way I can scrub it off and then wash everything in the dishwasher without there being soap goop or an oily residue everywhere (please be careful, it’s still has lye in it and can burn your skin unless you have waited a full 24 hours). I do have a few items dedicated to soap making, but the bowls are all washed well and then put back into the cupboards for later use – everything is washed very thoroughly and I have not run into issues with this since they are glass. (I did notice an oily film after using a stainless bowl once, so keep that in mind if you are not using a dedicated soap making bowl set.)

I remove my soap from the molds after a day or two and cut it into pieces for curing. When I was just getting started I used one actual mold and one small glass baking dish, since the batch was always just a bit big for my mold, and would use a kitchen knife to cut the pieces. Now that I have been doing this for a bit I decided to purchase another mold and a set of cutting tools (one smooth and one ridged for finished options). I flip the bars every day or so and leave them to cure for around a month. The last batch I made I was able to get 20 bars, which is equivalent to $100 worth of store bought soap bars. I cannot promise that this will save you money up front, since you will need to purchase supplies, but I get such satisfaction out of knowing this skill, seeing a finished product that I made in my own kitchen, and knowing I have a stock of soap for quite some time.

Do you make your own soap? What is your favorite method? Do you have questions before you get started? Feel free to share/ask away!