Monday, December 5, 2011

Homemade Lemon Lavender Oatmeal Soap



You first have to get the water really cold. We used ice to accomplish this.

Then we added in the lye crystals slowly while mixing. We did this outside with gloves on as you have to be very careful when working with lye crystals. The mixture gets very hot very quickly.

While the lye mixture was cooling, we melted the fats in a big pot on the stove over low heat.

Once we got the lye mixture to the right temperature, we slowly mixed it into the melted fats and then used a stick blender get it to trace. This took us around 10 minutes, but I also didn’t have a clue what I was doing and my sister had to coach me a lot on what it meant for the mixture to “trace”.

We finally got it, and then we added in the essential oils, oatmeal, and lavender and poured it into the soap mold to cure (the mold was a cardboard box with a plastic trash sack in it!). I left it on the kitchen table with a piece of wood and a blanket over it for two days and then cut it up tonight. It needs to cure for a few more weeks and then it will be ready for use.
I cannot tell you then sense of accomplishment I felt from cutting up the bars of soap tonight! It’s hard to describe, but there’s just such a deep feeling of fulfillment from putting forth the effort to make items from scratch. And I can’t wait to actually use the soap once it’s ready!

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