Now that we have taken a minute to discuss soap and lye safety, let's get soap making.
Fosters Fields Soaps have been formulated with specific benefits and skin moisturizing properties. If you are just starting to make soap, it is best to start very simple with no additives. These additives can be anything from color and fragrance to milk and clays or even pumpkin. A good basic recipe can be made with the 3 basic soap making oils.
1. Olive oil-makes a nice gentle bar, I find the best bars are made with higher quantities of olive oil.
2. Palm Oil-I realize there is a lot of controversy about this one but I can assure you that Fosters Fields only uses Palm from substantially sourced suppliers. Palm oil will lend stability to the bubbles as well as form a hard bar that will last a long time.
3. Coconut Oil-this oil creates big beautiful bubbles in your bar. I have touched on 100% coconut oil soap in a previous post. This isn't something I would make for skin however there are plenty of soap makers that make soap this way. The trick is using a high super fat to make it less harsh on the skin.
Lets formulate a basic recipe.
1 pound recipe-please remember to run this through a calculator. I use a soap making program to do this but you can choose an online calculator. Always check the recipe yourself with a calculator before mixing ingredients!
Olive Oil 149.85gr
Palm Oil 149.85gr
Coconut 149.85
Lye 63.55gr
H20 159.21
This recipe has a 7% superfat which is what I usually do with my regular recipe. Superfat means that there are oils left unsaponified to moisturize the skin. You don't want to much as as will effect the quality of you soap.
As mentioned, FO and EO have been left out of this recipe, we will touch on that in another blog:)
Happy soap making!