Learn how to make soap using these step-by-step instructions. I’ve also included a free printable checklist to help you navigate the entire soapmaking process from start to finish!
Making soap is one of my favorite pastimes. There are so many ways to personalize a single recipe, that I rarely make the same soap twice! Once you get the hang of it, you’ll never want to go back to store-bought again!
Before We Begin
This method of making soap from scratch involves handling lye (sodium hydroxide). In the past, lye was traditionally made with wood ashes, while today we use a standardized product. No matter what it’s made from, lye is a caustic substance that requires careful handling by responsible adults only.
If you’re not comfortable working with lye yet, or want to make soap with kids, you may want to consider starting with melt and pour soap first. This type of soap making uses a pre-made soap base, manufactured in a factory where someone else handles the lye part for you. If that sounds more your speed, check out my article: How to Make Soap Without Handling Lye.
A Perfect Beginner Soap Recipe
If this is your first time making soap, may I suggest a reliable recipe to try? Over the years, I’ve received countless emails from brand new soap makers who have successfully made my for their first batch of soap, and have been very pleased with the outcome.
What makes it perfect for new soap makers is that it:
- Requires just two oils: olive oil and coconut oil, which can be purchased from local grocery stores.
- Includes a nourishing combination of oatmeal and honey. (Or agave, if you’re vegan.)
- Historically, has an incredibly high success rate. If you follow the directions precisely, and have quality lye, you will undoubtedly succeed!
You can find that recipe here:
Here’s a video of me making a batch of !
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Soap Making Tips & Notes
- Many people are afraid to make soap because it involves handling lye. I know that feeling, because I was the same way! I had my husband do that part at first until I got more comfortable with the idea.
- Lye requires caution, but you also just need to employ the same common sense you’d use for any potentially dangerous situation such as cooking with a hot stove, or handling a strong household chemical such as bleach.
- Handle the lye with proper protective gloves and eye wear along with a healthy dose of respect. Do NOT involve children in this activity and make sure pets are closed out of your work room.
- Always add lye to water and other liquids. (Not the other way around.) You can remember this by thinking of snow (the lye) falling on a lake (the water).
- Lye solution gets hot fast and puts off strong fumes for a few moments that you should avoid breathing in.
- An ideal place to work is your kitchen sink, near an open window. If lye spills on your skin, wash it off with copious amounts of cool water.
- An accurate digital scale is essential! Don’t measure soapmaking ingredients by volume (cups, tablespoons, etc.) as it’s just not accurate enough.
Helpful Articles for New Soap Makers:
Here are some articles that will be helpful for beginners as you start making homemade soap from scratch:
- List of Equipment to Make Soap at Home
- What’s Wrong With My Soap? (an ultimate troubleshooting guide)
- Why Do You Need Lye to Make Soap?
Okay! Now, we’re ready to start learning how to make soap step by step!
Soapmaking Checklist
FREE PRINTABLE
Subscribe to Soap Tip Tuesdays and I’ll send you my helpful Soapmaking Checklist. Each Tuesday, you’ll receive one of my best natural soapmaking tips, recipes, or printables.
Be sure to grab a copy of my printable Soapmaking Checklist above. It’s indispensable to have a checklist for at least the first several times you make soap, to make sure you don’t miss an important step along the way.
It’s yours completely free when you sign up to my Soap Tips Tuesdays email series. Each week, you’ll get an email sharing one of my best soap tips, tricks, recipes, or more free printables. By the end of the series, you’ll have accumulated a great deal of knowledge about making natural soap!
12 Steps to Make Cold Process Soap
1. Choose a recipe and check it with a lye calculator.
I’ve included a beginner soap recipe suggestion for you above, but there are tons of other soap recipes out there to choose from! You can find many dozens of tried and true natural soap recipes in my published print books, ebooks, and soapmaking course.
No matter where you get the recipe from, it’s a good idea to run the ingredient list through a lye calculator to make sure the amounts are correct. Typos happen, even with the best editors! You’ll also need to recalculate the lye amount if you’re changing the oil types or amounts.
Some links on this site are affiliate links; I only recommend products I personally use and enjoy. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
2. Assemble ingredients and safety gear.
You’ll need:
- Lye (sodium hydroxide) – sometimes hard to find locally, but check local small hardware stores. From Amazon you can buy ComStar, Red Crown High Test Lye, or Essential Depot Food Grade Lye. If buying locally, shake the bottle and if you hear lumps and clumps rattling around, it’s past its prime and won’t weigh out correctly.
- Other Ingredients – oils, butters, and additives such as essential oils for natural scent. Be VERY careful buying from Amazon, there are many mislabeled ‘essential oils’ that are really fragrance oils will make your soap misbehave. I recommend trusted suppliers such as Wholesale Supplies Plus, Bramble Berry, Soap Goods, New Directions Aromatics, and Bulk Apothecary.
- You’ll also need a scale to weigh ingredients, a thermometer, an immersion blender, mixing containers (heavy duty plastic, or stainless steel), rubber gloves (or nitrile or latex gloves), safety goggles, and a soap mold. Read through myList of Equipment You Need to Make Soap at Home for a complete overview of the gear you’ll want to have on hand before you begin.
3. Prepare the mold.
If using a wooden loaf or box mold, line it with freezer paper. If your mold is made of silicone, you do not need to line it.
I use a Crafter’s Choice Regular Silicone Loaf Mold or similarly sized homemade wooden soap molds for my recipes. I’ve also seen soap makers successfully use rubbermaid containers, heavy duty cardboard boxes, and silicone bread loaf pans.
If you want to make your soaps extra pretty, check out my list of 15+ Pretty Silicone Molds for Making Handmade Soap.
4. Weigh the water.
First, weigh out the water into a stainless steel or heavy duty polypropylene plastic (recycle symbol 5) container. [NOTE: In the past I’ve used glass or Pyrex, but it sometimes shatters, so I no longer use it for this step.] Mark this container clearly with a symbol such as a skull and crossbones and don’t put it in your fridge or on the counter where someone might mistake it for a beverage.
5. Weigh the lye.
(Be sure you’re wearing those gloves and goggles!)
I use an old plastic cup, labeled “Lye” in several places all over with a Sharpie. I pour slowly and carefully then immediately re-cap the lye container and place it far from the reach of children and pets. Wipe up the area with a damp paper towel to make sure you catch any stray grains that spilled when you poured.
6. Sprinkle the lye into the water.
(You should still be wearing gloves and goggles!)
I do this in my kitchen sink in order to catch any splashes, drips, or spills. Make sure you pour the lye into water that is cool or no warmer than room temp. (Never add lye to a hot liquid or it will “volcano” out of the mixing container.)
Always add the dry lye to the liquid and not the other way around. Lye + water shoots up to over 200 degrees F quickly, so use caution when handling.
Turn your face away to avoid directly breathing in the fumes. I keep the window over my kitchen sink opened during this step or work outside on my back deck. If you don’t have proper ventilation, consider wearing a mask.
Stir with a heavy duty plastic spoon or rubber spatula until fully dissolved and set in a safe place, out of reach of children and pets, until it cools to about 90 to 115 degrees F.
7. Weigh and heat the oils, butters & fats.
Do this while the lye solution is cooling.
You can either heat everything together in a stainless steel soaping pot and then let it cool to 90 to 115 degrees F.
Or, I like to melt the solids (coconut oil, babassu oil, tallow, cocoa butter, shea butter, etc), then combine them with the liquid oils. This usually warms everything up enough, but if needed you can heat the mixture a little longer until the combined oils reach 90 to 115 degrees F.
8. Monitor the temperatures & combine.
Your oils and lye solution do not have to be the same temperature. It’s completely fine if they’re 10 or even 20 degrees different from each other. I sometimes add an ice cube or two to my lye solution to cool it faster (it’s fine to adjust the water amount by this small amount) or set my pan of oil down into a sink filled with a few inches of water and ice cubes if it needs quicker cooling.
Temperature is a subjective, personal preference that varies between soap-makers. Some will only mix at higher temperatures than I list here, while others let everything sit overnight and mix the next morning at room temperature. Both ways are fine to use!
Once the desired temps are reached, slowly drizzle the lye solution into the container of oils and butters.
9. Blend until trace.
Using a stick blender (also called immersion blender), blend the soap in short bursts of a few seconds at a time, stirring by hand with the motor off in between times. Don’t run the stick blender continuously or you may burn out the motor and your soap will thicken up too quickly. It should only take a few minutes for most of my recipes to reach “trace”.
It’s a good idea to use a dedicated stick blender just for soap making and not for food use. (Not all soapmakers agree with this thought though.) Once trace is reached, add any extras such as honey, oatmeal, natural colorants, and essential oils and hand stir/blend for just a bit more until they are all incorporated.
10. Pour the soap batter into the mold.
Working quickly, pour the soap into your prepared mold, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon if needed. Pick up the mold and give it a few sharp raps on the table or counter surface to help get rid of any little air bubbles that may have formed.
The soap is still caustic at this point, so keep your gloves on and be aware that raw soap batter can burn your skin. If that happens, rinse thoroughly with cold water.
11. Cover and insulate the mold.
This keeps the soap warm so that it can go through gel phase and finish saponifying.
(If making soap with milk, it needs special treatment and won’t need covering. Read “How to Make Soap with Milk” for more information.)
Leave undisturbed for about 24 to 36 hours. (It’s okay to peek at it every now and then though. If you spot a crack forming on top, it means the soap is getting too hot and should be uncovered.)
12. Unmold and slice into bars.
You can cut the soap into bars right away or later. I like to do it fairly soon after making, so that the soap is still easy to cut.
Use a knife or you can use a wire soap cutter like the one shown above. (My soap cutter is homemade, but you can buy similar wire soap cutters on Etsy.)
Let the bars of soap cure in the open air on pieces of wax paper, turning occasionally, for at least 4 weeks.
Cure time is very important so that your soap is mild and pleasant to use. This includes hot process soap too! Please read this helpful article over at Classic Bells: Curing Soap.
And that’s how to make soap, from scratch! 😊
