I’ve been meaning to make my own soap for a while. In late June I finally tried it out. I used the Crock Pot Shampoo Bar Recipe from Skin Care Naturals. Following is the recipe and instructions in my words. Later today I will show photos of the final product, how much it actually cost, and my opinion!
Before you get started:
- 2 plastic bowls and plastic spoon to stir
- Small bowls (for measuring the individual oils)
- A large bowl or pitcher (to pour all the oils into to verify the weight)
- A stainless steel pot (for melting the oils and later mixing in the lye)
- 2 thermometers (one for checking the temperatures of the lye and oils)
- Weigh all ingredients!
- Do not use aluminum – lye eats right through it!
- If you get lye on you, rinse the spot with vinegar. If the burn is anything but very mild, seek a doctor.
Ingredients
- 3 oz Canola Oil
- 12 oz Castor Oil
- 14 oz Coconut Oil
- 2 oz Hempseed Oil
- 2 oz Jojoba Oil
- 11 oz Olive Oil
- 16 oz liquid (can be a mix of water, tea, and lemon)
- 6 oz lye
- .8 oz eo (I used lavender, rosemary, and tea tree)*
Lye
1. Measure 8 ounces water in a big bowl. Go outside. Sprinkle in the lye and stir. Be careful – it gets very hot (around 200 degrees F) and smelly.
2. While this is cooling outside, I went back inside to mix the other 8 ounces of liquid.
3. In a glass measuring cup, I squeezed the juice of one lemon (2 tbsp-1/4 cup), then poured in apple cider vinegar to equal 1/3 cup liquid. I then added enough peppermint tea to equal 8 oz of liquid to be added after the oils have cooked together.
The oils
1. Pour all oils (except hemp) in a jug on a scale to make sure that the weight is correct. It should equal 42 ounces.
2. Melt all oils except hemp and e.o. in the pot. (Hold back the hemp until after the soap is cooked).
3. Mix in the 8 ounces of lemon/vinegar/tea from above.
Mixing
Measure the temperatures of both the lye water and the oils.
When both have reached 110 (+/- 10) degrees F, mix the lye water with the oils. Stir until mixed. Add hemp and essential oils. Stir (or use an immersion blender) until trace.
[Trace is when the the soap solidifies just enough to hold it's shape slightly meaning that the lye water and oils have mixed completely. To test for trace, dip your spoon into the soap and let it dribble back into the pot. If the dribble leaves a mound before disappearing back into the soap, you've reached trace. (I was tired and forgot to get a photo, but will remember to take one the next time I make soap.)]
I used 4″ pvc that you can find in the plumbing department as a mold. I put plastic wrap on the bottom and secured with a rubber band, then lined it with wax paper. Slop the soap into the mold. You’re supposed to insulate with towels around the soap molds to make sure the soap cools very slowly – I didn’t.
24-48 hours afterward, I popped the soap out of the molds and cut into slices. I placed the slices on a cooling rack for good circulation. Every evening i flip them over. I’ve been trying out the soap for about the past week (after 3 weeks of curing).
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If you need more information please visit the following resources:
I too make my own shampoo but just use whatever bar happens to be in the shower. I am a home soap maker and am always trying different recipes. I love the freedom and simplicity of one bar of soap for everything and everyone.
http://fimby.tougas.net/homemade-shampoo-and-conditioner
Comment by renee @ FIMBY — July 16, 2009 @ 6:01 AM
Thanks for stopping by my blog! Interesting stuff on all the homemade products. In Hawaii I’ve found that a lot of items that are made with oils of any kind tend to go rancid if you don’t use them up very quickly. Do you have a problem with that, or do you know of any oils that hold up particularly well to heat and humidity?
Comment by Dreamybee — July 17, 2009 @ 8:04 PM
[...] a week ago, I wrote about my first experience making soap and included instructions. I was curious if it was more economical to use the homemade soap. I [...]
Pingback by Cost of homemade soap shampoo bars | Prudent and Practical — July 28, 2009 @ 12:18 AM
I’ve been making soap for six years and am intrigued that this recipe uses lemon juice and vinegar in the recipe. Since vinegar is an acid, it neutralizes lye. I always keep a bottle of it on the counter when I’m making soap. When I splatter lye on my skin, the vinegar neutralizes it. It seems like putting vinegar (or lemon juice) in the soap would mess up the saponification process.
Comment by Deborah — August 10, 2009 @ 9:21 AM
If you know you’re not going to use up your oils soon, you can store them in the refrigerator.
Comment by Deborah — August 10, 2009 @ 9:23 AM
You have a typo in your recipe. I was shocked to see that it called for 8 ounces of essential oils, when I only use 2 ounces for a similarly-sized soap recipe. I found the original recipe online, and it calls for .8 ounces, which is less than one ounce. I hope you didn’t actually use 8 ounces, since EOs are so expensive. But it would be a good idea to correct the recipe so that no one else makes that mistake. If you did use 8 ounces and your bars a little soft, that would be why.
Comment by Deborah — August 10, 2009 @ 9:56 AM
Yes, that is a typo – it’s 0.8 ounces of essential oils. Thanks for pointing that out.
Comment by K — August 10, 2009 @ 11:23 AM
Yes, thanks for the tip. I’ve got mine in the fridge too.
Comment by K — August 10, 2009 @ 12:19 PM
It turned out ok – looks and feels like soap. I thought the lemon and vinegar had something to do with conditioning your hair, so I went ahead and tried it since it was included in the original recipe at Skin Care Naturals.
Comment by K — August 10, 2009 @ 12:32 PM
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Pingback by Creating Lye - The Blog Planet — September 16, 2009 @ 5:30 AM
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Pingback by Creating Your Own Lye | What's Hot Today? — September 22, 2009 @ 8:26 PM
This is very cool!! I was wondering where you got your supplies from?
Comment by Sandy — January 31, 2010 @ 1:49 PM
I have been making soap for 10 years, never heard of vinegar or lemon juice in soap either. Sounds interesting though. I just might have to give it a try. I do think you might have a typo or misinformation about using water to rinse off lye. NEVER use water to rinse lye from your skin, it reacts with the lye and makes it worse. You always use vinegar to neutralize the lye without further damage to your skin. Just had to point it out, wouldnt want anyone to get hurt using the water.
I have also never heard of adding liquid other than the lye mixture. I guess you learn something new everyday . I hope you keep soaping, it is great fun.
Comment by Rebecca — March 10, 2010 @ 4:01 PM
I have been looking at this recipe for awhile and have been looking and looking for somewhere where it mentions using vinegar in a soap recipe. This will be my first attempt at making soap and I wanted to use this one because of the lemon juice and vinegar. I have just gotten so fed up with shampoos, I wanted to make my own. I do like using vinegar rinses, so seeing it in a shampoo bar recipe caught my eye. I am really glad to know that it worked well.
It looks like you basically did the cold process for this recipe, but I was wondering if you had tried doing the hot process, since it is in the crock pot. Both yours and the original writer do not talk about the self-churning and volcano effect that the hot process can have, and I was wondering if that was because of the vinegar keeping this kind of reaction from happening? Other crock pot recipes that I have looked at talked about this.
Thank you!
Comment by Pinky — April 22, 2010 @ 4:03 AM
Do you need to use a conditioner when you switch to using shampoo bars? My hair is very damaged.
Comment by Kate — November 8, 2010 @ 2:56 PM
I’ve been looking for a couple of months now in having a homemade shampoo recipe that really works. I will try this stuff and I’m hopeful that this will really work. Thank you for this information.
Comment by Sustainable Luxury Boutique — December 28, 2010 @ 10:52 PM
I have never made soap at all before, but I’m hoping to learn after having tried the Godiva shampoo bar made by Lush (lush.com). The stuff smells amazing. It has jasmine in it among other things. Showering or bathing with a simple old-fashioned soap instead of hyper-engineered chemical cocktails is a kind of back-to-nature experience, but at $10 a bar it’s a luxury I can’t easily afford. So I need to figure out how to make a knock-off shampoo bar.
Next, to figure out how to recreate their Jungle conditioner. The scent of that stuff perfumes your hair ALL DAY and it smells SOOO good. Anyone tried it?
Comment by Erin — January 19, 2011 @ 3:46 PM
I can’t wait to show this to my friend
Comment by Robin — January 28, 2011 @ 7:52 AM
Instead of jasmine try Ylang Ylang. It smells a lot like jasmine but is better priced – if you are looking at essential oils.
Comment by Sally — December 4, 2011 @ 4:23 AM