As I promised today’s post is all about soaps once more. In my previous post, you’ve learned all about how to make soaps from scratch using lye. Using lye has a lot of safety rules to keep in mind, takes time and can’t be crafted with the help of your children.
But there is another, more safe way to craft your own homemade natural soap without the use of lye. Hand milled soap aka melt and pour soap or rebatching is another alternative you’re about to discover.
So if you’ve never crafted lye-based soaps and my previous post was too intimidating and scary, you can use this recipe and take the benefits of making your own homemade natural soap.
Making this type of soap allows you to experiment while bypassing the complexity of making soaps from scratch. You can even reuse old bars that didn’t meet your expectation to craft a new bar and they take less time to craft.
How To Make Your Own Hand-milled Natural Soap
Equipment
- Glass microwaveable bowl
- Cheese grater
- Wooden spoon
- Container or mold
- Baking rack
- Cooking spray or plastic wrap
Ingredients
- plain white unscented soap or melt and pour soap base or glycerin soap (sold at craft stores or Amazon)
- Additives of your liking such as essential oil, natural fragrance oil, colloidal oatmeal, jojoba beads, lavender, herbs, grated lemon zest, etc.
Directions
- Grate the soap bars over a stainless steel or glass bowl until you have approximately 2 cups of grated soap. The grating will help you to melt the soap evenly without chunks, but cutting it up into smaller pieces will also work. Melt the soap in the microwave in intervals, stir to melt evenly. Break up bigger chunks if the soap was not grated.
- Prepare the additives. Puree the herbs and squeeze out the excess water with a paper towel. If you use lemon, zest the peel. You’ll need approximately 1 tablespoon for each cup.
- Prepare the molds, you can buy those at the craft store or use any plastic container, cake pan or even yogurt cups. Spray with cooking spray and remove excess or place plastic wrap into the mold.
- Once the soap is melted, cool down for a few minutes.
- Add the additive to your liking.
- Keep stirring until well combined.
- Pour into the mold or container
- Set aside for about 1 hour and then put the mold in the freezer for at least another hour.
- Pop the soap out of its mold and cut into bars.
- Use within the 3 months.
Experimental tips
- Add small seeds, such as raspberry seeds, or plant leaves to have a scrubby effect.
- Add colorants to give your soaps a great look.
So as you can see, making homemade natural soap is even easier if you follow this recipe! No lye or safety rules to keep in mind. Go ahead and start experimenting, you may even want to engage your kids in this fun and safe project.
Thanks for reading. I hope this information was helpful. Until next time!
Amy Goodrich
Crazy cat lady, life and food lover, certified biologist, and holistic health coach.
