Hot Process Soap Making in a Crock Pot Recipe #3

By Roma Christensen

This is my favorite recipe so far!  It turned out beautiful.

Please read the safety instructions before trying this or any other soap making project using lye.  Gather together the items you need to make soap and cover your work surface with butcher paper before you start.  You will need a crock pot (never to be used for food again), a good scale that will weigh in ounces or grams, safety glasses, rubber gloves, long handled spoon, candy thermometer, various bowls and containers to weigh your oils and lye and fragrance oils and other additives in.  Please refer to the safety directions and MSDS before you start…  AND… have a bottle of apple cider vinegar close at hand to neutralize anything that may get on your skin or on your cupboards.  Better yet: DO NOT GET IT ON YOUR BODY OR YOUR CUPBOARDS… LYE (chemical name: sodium hydroxide or NaOH) WILL BURN YOU or destroy your nicely varnished cupboards.  (Don’t ask me how I know).   However, if you do get it on you… rinse with water for 15 minutes and pour apple cider vinegar on it immediately.  Ready… here goes!

Important note: Each oil has its own saponification value.  Therefore, you can NOT substitute just any old oil for the ones on the list.  You have to match the saponification value.  The saponification value is what is used to calculate the amount of Lye (NaOH sodium hydroxide) and water needed to make the recipe work.  Do not use aluminum.  Aluminum will corrode and ruin your soap too.

A large crock pot will hold 66 oz of oils comfortably along with the water needed to make the soap.  Do not make the recipe larger than that or it will boil over.  Do not substitute other oils for the oils in the recipe because each oil has its’ own saponification value and you soap may not work if you change the oils used.

Favorite Vegetable Soap by Roma Christensen

Here is the recipe:

Weigh the distilled water into a pitcher and put it in the sink.  Open the window by the sink for ventilation (or mix your lye solution outside).  Then weigh the lye in a container that will not be used for anything else. 

The chemical name for lye is NaOH or sodium hydroxide.  “Red Devil” brand lye used to be in the drain cleaner section of the grocery store but, it is not available there anymore.  You will need to order it from a chemical supply company online.  It is very caustic and will burn you if you get it on your skin. 

Weigh the oils and melt them in the microwave on medium heat.  Pour the melted oil in the crock pot and turn it on low temperature.  Slowly pour the lye solution into the oils in the crock pot and stir with a long handled spoon.  Next, use a hand held electric blender and blend until light trace was noticed… about 5 minutes. 

(You will recognize the “trace” when your mixture looks more like the consistency of cream.)  Put the lid on the crock pot.

The soap mixture is not starting to gel.  Stir it to keep the temperature from being too hot around the edges and not hot enough in the middle.

Notice the gel phase and the change of consistency of the soap.

You can add the fragrance or essential oils and other additives at this time. 

If you choose to color your soap... remove about a cup full and add the coloring. 

Stir the colored soap back into the pot (quickly) and spoon the finished soap into the mold.

Check out the mashed potato consistency.

A plastic shoe box or small plastic containers make great molds. 

Awe… isn’t it pretty? 

The photo on the right is the large bar of soap that I poured into the shoe box.  I sliced it into bars. 

This soap is awesome!

Copyright © 2010   Roma Christensen