Homemade Soap
As much as they sell it to us under different colors, brands and formats, soap is soap and fulfills its basic functions, whether homemade or industrial. It is based on the mixture of caustic soda and oil, which generates a chemical reaction known as saponification and which gives as glycerin products and salts of fatty acids and sodium, which are soaps themselves. Although saponifition is traditionally caused at high temperature, it can also be done without the need to heat the mixture and with basic cooking instruments. However, since caustic soda is highly corrosive and gives off a lot of heat and toxic fumes when reacting with water, it is convenient to take maximum protections while making soap.
homemade soap
By: @Carlos Rangel (Yoors Blogger)
- a pair of wide-mouth glass jars.
- a blender.
- 600 grams of vegetable oil, preferably olive oil, although it can also be mixed with coconut oil, which is aromatic, for example.
- 80 grams of caustic soda in granules purchased in drugstores.
- 200 milliliters of water.
- Silicone molds for making cakes or cupcakes, but may also be worth small tuperes.
HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE SOAP
- After putting on our gloves and lenses, we take one of the jars and pour the 200 milliliters of water.
- Then place the jar under the kitchen hood and turn on the extractor to the maximum. Then we add, already heavy, the 78 grams of caustic soda very carefully, little by little and very gradually, so that it reacts, catching heat and dissolving soda. The fumes generated will go through the extractor. Before we add another little soda again, we will wait for the already poured to dissolve. If we do not have a stove, we can put a wood under the jar or do the operation in the open air if you have a terrace. On the other hand, we will never do the operation backwards; that is to say, pour water on soda: it is extremely dangerous.
- Let the mixture of water and soda stand until the temperature drops to about 40ºC. We can use a thermometers to measure it, as long as it is made of glass.
- Once the soda is diluted and cooled, we pour 600 grams of oil into the other jar, previously heated to 40ºC, and then pour soda solution and water from the first jar. We'll see that the oil becomes somewhat pasty and opaque. We will now use the blender, but initially with the arm off we will remove as if we were doing it with a spoon, gently so that the mixture is complete.
- Once we have the contents of the two jugs properly mixed, we will activate the mixer motor for normal use, as if we were making gazpacho or mayonnaise, for example. We will see that during this smoothie the mixture thickens to the consistency of sauce and after puree. When it's at the puree point we'll have to stop.
- This point is optional, but it is the one that allows you to make soaps of different smells and textures. It consists of adding some essential oil, which can also be purchased in herbalists or drugstores even, so that the future soap picks up aromas. Poppy seeds or lavender grains can also be poured to give it exfoliating virtues; also ground coffee to give it smell and color. A good trick is to grate a lemon or orange peel and add it to the puree. Once we have added the desired components, we will remove to homogenize the mixture.
- Next we will put a table in a way on a surface and on top a towel. On top of the towel we place the cupcake molds and fill them with the paste of the mixture to the edge. We will then wrap the set with the towel and, taking it by the wood, we will take it to a place where it can rest for a whole day, so that the saponification is complete.
Within 24 hours we will remove the already formed soaps from your molds and leave them outdoors or wrapped in kitchen paper so that they dry completely, harden, lose the remains of water and the soda completes its neutralization. They must remain dry for one month, during which time the pH of the soap will be regularized.
