Making homemade soap is one of those creative activities, all be it messy, that makes me feel as though I am helping Mother Earth and all her passengers maintain their health. Because I find soap making so fulfilling, I will share my secrets with you.

The Cold Process Method

The process we use to make soap at Violet Essentials is called the Cold Process Method. The cold process method of soap making, as the name implies, involves mixing the ingredients of the soap at low temperatures to insure the healing properties and nutrients of the herbs and essential oils remain potent and beneficial to your skin. Just as we know when we cook, the closer we stay to the natural state of the food we eat, the more nourishing food is for our bodies; the same principle applies in making soap.

Supplies Needed to Make Soap

Cooking Utensils: Stainless Steel pots & Spoons, Plastic pitchers, Soap Molds, Towels, Thermometer, Electric hand Mixer, Blankets

Ingredients: Lye, Purified Water, Essential Oils, Solid Vegetable Oils, Organic Oils, Butters, Herbs, Natural Scents

Safety Equipment: (This equipment is a must because the ingredient that makes our soaps luxuriously smooth is sodium hydroxide or lye. Raw lye is a natural base that can burn exposed skin in a hurry)
Eye protection, Rubber gloves, Protective Clothing.

Steps to Making Homemade Soap

1. Assemble all ingredients you will need for the recipe.
2. Zero the digital scale. Accuracy in measurement of the ingredients is critical to producing a smooth textured and mild soap. Soap making allows little room for experimenting in the beginning. Take our word on this, we know.
3. Measure all of the ingredients: lye, water, solid fats(I recommend natural, organic vegetable fats), butters, exotic oils, essential oils, herbs and botanicals so they are ready when you need them.
4. In a stainless steel pot mix the lye with purified spring water.
5. Immediately you will feel the solution giving off heat, as the lye and the water continue to mingle the solution will heat to nearly 200 degree in just a few minutes.
6. Set the lye and water solution aside to cool to about 100 degree.
7. Measure and mix all solid fats and butters in an stainless steel pot.
8. Heat to about 100 degree just to melt the fats and butters enough to blend them.
9. Add any exotic oils to the melted fats and butters.
10. Once the lye and water solution reaches 100 degree carefully pour the solution into the melted fats and butters
11. Grab your hand mixer and carefully, but quickly, blend the mixture. The goal here is to bond each lye molecule with a fat molecule and create a brand new bond of two fatty acids with one glyceride, otherwise known as glycerin.
12. At the thickening or trace stage, the mixture will set up to be the consistency of thin pudding. The process will take between 15 and 20 minutes.
13. Add the herbs, botanicals, and essential oils, the mixture will continue to set up to resemble real pudding.
14. Pour the mixture into the soap mold.
15. Cover the mold with blankets to insulate the soap.
16. Let the mold rest for 24 to 48 hours as this transformation of pudding into creamy soap(saponification) takes a lot of energy.
17. After the saponifcation is complete then remove the block of soap from the mold.
18. Hand cut the block into the desired shape and weight (our bars weigh approximately 4.5 to 5 oz).
19. Place the cut bars in a cool and dry place to cure for a month or so. Curing allows the soap to dry, harden, and mellow with age.
20. Label and package the soaps for sale or take a bath and enjoy your creation.

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