Multi-batch cold process soap making session - three recipes
This blog post is written to provide the ingredients for the three recipes I shared in my July 2022 ‘multi-batch’ soap making video.
Please refer to the video demonstration for the methods and techniques used to make these soap batches.
If you are new to soap making, please visit this page and watch this video before you attempt any soap recipe for the first time.
Please also note that I am a hobby soap maker and am not professionally trained in chemistry or cosmetic formulation. I do my best to ensure that my recipes are correct and well researched, but I am learning too, and we always make soap recipes given by other people at our own risk (full disclaimer here).
I strongly encourage my readers to always check soap recipes in a soap-lye calculator before you make them.
Important points about these recipes:
I used a citric acid solution in each of these soap recipes. Citric acid consumes some of the lye/sodium hydroxide in soap recipes and therefore the sodium hydroxide amounts in these recipes have been adjusted to account for this. You can make these recipes without the citric acid, however you will need to recalculate each recipe using a soap calculator for the correct sodium hydroxide amount.
Why citric acid? When citric acid is added to bar soap recipes, it reacts with the sodium hydroxide to produce sodium citrate. Sodium citrate is a chelator which binds minerals in hard water, reducing soap scum and improving lather. It can be especially useful in hard water areas. I don’t have particularly hard water, but I wanted to try it out!
I used citric acid at the rate of 1.5% of oils for each of these recipes (with double the water amount added to make into a solution).
This page is an excellent resource for understating how citric acid works and how to calculate it for your cold or hot process soap recipes. I also love this video by Dawn Organics about the use of citric acid in cold process soap recipes.
I used sea water for the lye solution for each of these recipes. You can use plain water if you don’t have access to clean sea water, or you can make your own brine solution by adding 3% salt to plain water. For example, if you need 100g of salt water add 3g of salt to 97g of water and stir until dissolved.
I added sugar syrup to each of these recipes at a rate of 2% of the base oils. This is an optional ingredient that is added to boost the soap lather (beware sugars can also accelerate saponification). To make a simple sugar syrup, dissolve 2 parts sugar into 1 part water (by weight) and heat gently on the stove, stirring until dissolved. Pour into a clean jar and refrigerate when cooled. I mix my sugar syrup into my oils prior to adding the lye solution.
Soap No. 1
Rose Geranium with Pink Clay
Mould:
Small bamboo drawer liner (Kmart)
Volume total capacity: 820g / 28 ounces
Water to lye ratio:
1.8 : 1
(however extra water was used for sugar syrup and citric acid solution, increasing ratio to approximately 2:1 water to lye ratio).
Superfat: 5%
Sea water: 136g
Sodium hydroxide: 80g (includes extra to accommodate use of citric acid)
Base oils for recipe:
Olive oil 385g (70%)
Coconut oil 110g (20%)
Shea butter 55g (10%)
550g total
Citric acid solution:
8.25g citric acid (from supermarket or soap supplier) dissolved into 17g of water
Sugar syrup:
11g
Essential oils:
14g rose geranium
2.5g rosewood (this is no longer a sustainable EO to use, but I have a large bottle I am slowly using up. Cedarwood might be a nice alternative).
Colourants:
Approx. 1 tsp white Kaolin clay
Approx. 1/3 tsp pink Australian clay (use to your liking)
Soap No. 2
Creamy Oats with Lemon Myrtle and Lavender EO
Mould:
Long bamboo drawer liner (Kmart)
Volume total capacity: 1420g / 50 ounces
Water to lye ratio:
1.8 : 1
(however extra water was used via sugar syrup and citric acid solution, increasing ratio to approximately 2:1 water to lye).
Superfat: 5%
Sea water: 237g
Sodium hydroxide: 140g (includes extra to accommodate use of citric acid)
Base oils for recipe:
Olive oil 523g (55%)
Coconut oil 190g (20%)
Palm oil 190g (20%)
Shea butter 48g (5%)
950g total
Citric acid solution:
14.25g citric acid (from supermarket or soap supplier) dissolved into 30g of water
Sugar syrup:
19g
Essential oils:
I used 29g total essential oils for this recipe:
23g lemon myrtle
6g lavender
Colourants:
1-2 tsp white Kaolin clay
Approx. 1/2 tsp Brazilian gold clay (use to your liking)
Ground and sifted rolled oats (or oat flour)
Soap No. 3
‘Straddie Soleseife’ (basic recipe is the same as Oats and Lemon Myrtle-Lavender soap)
Mould:
Long bamboo drawer liner (Kmart)
Volume total capacity: 1420g / 50 ounces
Water to lye ratio:
1.8 : 1
(however extra water was used via sugar syrup and citric acid solution, increasing ratio to approximately 2:1 water to lye).
Superfat: 5%
Sea water: 237g
Sodium hydroxide: 140g (includes extra to accommodate use of citric acid)
Base oils for recipe:
Olive oil 523g (55%)
Coconut oil 190g (20%)
Palm oil 190g (20%)
Shea butter 48g (5%)
950g total
Citric acid solution:
14.25g citric acid (from supermarket or soap supplier) dissolved into 30g of water
Sugar syrup:
19g
Essential oils:
The EO blend I use for this soap is very special to me! It’s also quite complicated. I’ll share the total amount of EO’s and the oil combination I used. You can devise your own blend or use the more simplified blend I shared in this Soleseife video.
For this recipe I used 38g total EO’s made up of: eucalyptus, lavender, peppermint, rosemary, tea tree and patchouli.
(This video shows how I develop my more complex EO blends).
Colourants:
This soap batch was divided into three parts:
1. Neutral/creamy white: kaolin clay
2. Green: French green clay
3. Blue: white kaolin clay and a small amount of blue indigo powder dissolved in water.
I do not measure my clays or colourants. I use small amounts and adjust as I go if needed.
Thanks everyone, did you enjoy this kind of video?
I was reluctant to share it initially (just me making soap like nobody is watching 😉) but I thought it may be of interest or use to some of you, so decided to share it. It was a pretty epic editing job, but I’m glad I did it now!
I’d love to hear your feedback if you have any, and of course let me know if you have any questions at all.
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