Beginners guide to cold process soap making: Episode 5 - Making a simple Lavender soap loaf

Welcome to our "Soap making for Beginners" guide! Over the next 7 days, we will be uploading a mini series of videos focusing on soap making for absolute beginners. We will cover things such as equipment, lye safety, soap making oils, terminology and how to make your very first soap.
We have put together this guide as we have had a lot of questions from people asking how to get into soap making and how they can learn to make soap. We are not the first people to put together a guide like this, but we know that when you are new to soap making it helps to have as many different resources to learn from as possible!
We have tried to cover everything that we can think of in our guide and if you watch each of our daily episodes they will hopefully give you a basic understanding of how to begin making soap safely. We will be covering a different soap making topic each days for the next seven days.
In today's episode we will be making our first loaf of soap. We have chosen to scent the loaf with Lavender essential oil, though you can scent with a different oil if you wish to (but do check safe usage rates first) or you can leave your loaf unscented.
If you are unsure about any aspect of the soap making process then it is important that you stop and do not attempt to make soap and instead research things further until you do feel confident!
If you are planning to follow our recipe, then you will need the following ingredients:
221g Water
110.5g Sodium Hyrdoxide
560g Olive Oil
200g Coconut oil
40g Castor Oil
24g Lavender Essential Oil (optional)
5g Lavender Flowers (optional)
We use the "TooGet" brand of Lavender flowers on our soap as we find them to be the brightest purple that we have found and they do not seem to fade to brown too badly.
If you have any comments or questions along the way, please do let us know so we can do our best to help you learn how to make soap!
If you enjoy our videos and soap making tutorials please do give us a like and subscribe :-)
In addition to this special, one off mini series, we also upload new soap making videos every Friday and new behind the scenes/business tips videos every Tuesday.
You can also follow us and find our soaps here:
www.sussexsoap.co.uk
sussexhandmadesoap
sussex_handmade_soap
If you do head over to our website, we offer our KZbin friends 20% off purchases if you enter code "youtube20" at checkout :-)

[@CraftySheenaa]

Great video . Very informative as always . Thank you.

[@eugeniaGienieD]

This is very detailed. Thank you so much

[@kmcsciguy]

This video series has been immensely helpful for me as a new soaper! I want those blue loaf molds so badly and can’t seem to find them (I love the color)

[@samanthamccloskey6369]

I’m beginning my soap making journey. Mostly research and equipment buying for now. Of my research your videos have been the most helpful. I’m gonna be commenting frequently to give you algorithm love. ❤️

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you so much :-) It is so nice to hear that our videos are helping others and that you find them useful :-) Thank you for the algorhithm love!

[@ahvinju]

Thanks for the informative videos and clear instructions, I really enjoy them! Using a soap calculator to make smaller (test)batches, I've made this soap loaf, as well as the coloured variations in the following videos. Works great, makes a very nice soap. However, I find the time between pouring and de-moulding needs to be far longer than 24 hrs because the soap stays rather soft, even after 48 hrs. I live in the Netherlands, so our weather is similar to yours. Any suggestions on speeding this up? Should I use salt to harden it? And if so, how much? Reaction will be much appreciated! ❤ from the Netherlands

[@CAHassell]

Very well-taught and highly enjoyable; thank you very much for making these educational vlogs! Job well done and appreciated :))

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you very much :-)

[@sadafshah2893]

Brilliant tutorial.

[@gozdetak5730]

Thank you for detalied tutorials. I will try this recipe

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Do let us know how it works out for you :-)

[@supergolfdude]

Wow! I never saw the chopstick pour tip. I’m constantly frustrated by fragrance oils dripping down the side of the bottle and onto the scale. 👍🏻

[@Keskinz]

Another amazing video. Thank you. Will you be able to do another video - curing and storing soap after cured etc. What should the humidity be? How to drop humidity? What equipment to use and so on. Once cured should the soaps be wrapped or still wait unwrapped till sold or given away?

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Hello Habibe, We can certainly add a video on curing to the list of videos we want to create :-) We have never had issues here in the UK with humidity (we store all our cured soaps inside our house, so obviously they are protected from extreme heat or cold). We do find that when we sell at outdoor events that our sample bars do feel slightly damp due to the humidity though, but when they are inside they seem fine. If you did need to drop humidity I would recommend a dehumidifier - we have actually just purchased one ourselves to help with making bath bombs (which really are affected by humidity levels!) Once our soaps have cured we prefer to wrap them at between the 6 and 8 week mark. We find that by this point they are well cured and fine for wrapping and by wrapping the scent is better protected from fading. We also store all our wrapped soaps together, one scent per box and we find that this helps prolong the scent too.

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Lena! We find that if we wrap our soap between 6 and 8 weeks after we have made it that the scent lasts pretty well. Essential oils do fade a little quicker than fragrance oils (especially citrus oils which fade quickest of all) but having the wrapping on really helps. We do say to our customers that if the soap is left wrapped it should last pretty well indefinitely, but once opened use it within 6 months maximum or the scent will fade away. Our soaps are generally sold within 2 or 3 months of being made and wrapped so we haven't yet had any bars we have had to get rid of due to the scent fading too much. Now go and get your ingredients together!!! :-)

[@DebsShipley1969]

Thank you so much

[@RS-gv2cg]

Hi, Thanks for your videos and tutorials. I just made my first soap loaf! It all went to plan apart from the mixing with the stick blender to trace. The soap batter looked ok when i poured it in to the mould at the end. I found it came to a thick trace really quick. My stick blender is pretty powerful so i wonder if it was that its pretty noisy and has a lot of vibration coming off it. Or my combined oils when i reheated them may have been a little bit too hot when i added the lye water. Parts of the batter looked to be solidifying when i'd not had the blender on for very long. Can you give me any advice for next time ? Thanks :)

[@wendyangel6534]

Thank you. Great tutorial 🙂

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Wendy

[@lianasophie]

Thanks for the video series! Does the water have to be distilled, or can it be straight from the tap?

[@leighgriffin2733]

Brilliant tutorial, thank you. Can this recipe be used as a base recipe that can be added to? i.e different frangrance oils and colourants? TIA :)

[@travelingismypassionh7486]

Really good videos! Can I use this on my baby? Can i also add collodial outmeal powder?

[@valeriapaps8854]

Your tutorials are really very helpful. Great job, thank you!!!!!! I would like to ask if outside temperature plays a role in saponification and rapid tracing.

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Hello Valeria. To be honest, we haven't found it too play too much of a part in saponification or rapid tracing, but we are in the UK, so we don't experience quite the wide range of outside temperatures that some other places in the world do!

[@_abramacabre]

Great tutorial! May I ask a question about the water? Does it need to be distilled water or is normal tap water ok? Thanks!

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

We personally use tap water, but whether distilled works better will be dependent on the type of water in your area. We live in a soft water area and after experimenting and testing we found that our water is good for soap making and doesn't cause orange spots on the bars or extra soap scum (like some tap water can). It is definitely worth testing your own tap water in soap to assess how it behaves and if it impacts on the quality of the final soap bar.

[@rebecazepeda3984]

Hi Anne! I’ve been watching all of your videos for beginners and I’m finding them super helpful. Where can I buy the lavender essential oil for this soap recipe? Any suggestions are appreciated. I live in the US. Thanks so much!

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Hi Rebeca. I don't have a huge amount of knowledge or experience of US suppliers, but I know that Bramble Berry do sell Lavender essential oil :-)

[@rebecazepeda3984]

@@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany thanks so much!😘

[@leannab3865]

How important is the temperature of the LYE and oil solution before mixing?

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Different people do have different theories when mixing the lye and oils in regards to temperature. Some say it is crucial, some say they don't really worry about temperature. For us personally, we find that we can make a good soap with temperatures anywhere between 90 and 120 fahrenheit. If we are making a standard soap that doesn't require an especially low temperature (such as Goat's milk) or a high temp (such as one with a natural colour that will benefit from gelling) we tend to go with a temperature of around 115f, which many people would say is high. One thing we do like to do is try and ensure our lye and oils are within around 5 degrees of each other as we find this helps them to incorporate better and avoid false trace.

[@eugeniaGienieD]

Why does adding fragrance oil speeds up the trace?

[@mayara6785]

Yes, 76F is 24.4 degrees Celsius, so really quick to melt coconut oil 👍🏻

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you! We always have to be careful on hot days in the UK - the first year we were making soap we had a load leak out as it was delivered to us in a card box and though the oil inside was wrapped in plastic, it had come loose. That was an oily mess!

[@Mrs_Canary]

How do we compensate the recipe if the scent can only be used at 2 %...do I add 1% of water or oil ?

[@harisrahman6259]

What would be the shelf life of the soap ?

[@relaxedandlovingit]

During curing, How do you prevent the soap from collecting dust?

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

To be honest, it is really hard! They need the air flow to cure so it is hard to eliminate dust. Aside from the obvious of keeping them in a room that is as clean as possible, we ensure that our soaps are curing on higher shelves so dust from the floor doesn't get blown up to them and we also have our curing shelves away from doors and windows where dust could get blown in.

[@relaxedandlovingit]

@@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany good advice thank you because on Monday I made the soap from this episode and after de-moulding I quickly realised that I probably wasn't ready to store them.

[@sandychow]

What will be total cost of the material used and what will be the total weight of soap made?

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Hi Sandy, This soap recipe will fill a 2.5lb loaf mould. In regards to material cost that will completely depend on where you purchase your ingredients and how much they cost to buy. I can almost guarantee that what it costs us to make the loaf will be completely different to what it would cost you, purely because we would likely purchase from different suppliers and in different amounts.

[@gozdetak5730]

Can I put white clay to this recipe? Thank you

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Absolutely, there is no reason why you couldn't add a little clay to this recipe :-)

[@leen3521]

What are the measurements of your mold?