olive and coconut oil soap body wash recipe

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Ingredients:

1lb organic coconut oil
1lb organic olive oil
12.16 oz. water
4.844 oz. Lye
1 quart sized glass mason jar
Soap molds

By mama_mia / shutterstock.com

 

Instructions:

Begin by ensuring that you are working in a well-ventilated area and that your work area is sanitized. Also be sure that there are no children close by since you are working with lye which is caustic until it reacts with the other ingredients in this recipe.

Don’t be afraid of this recipe because of the lye though, it is an ingredient that has been used for a LONG time in soap production and the lye is neutralized during the soap making process.

Take your slow cooker and pour in your essential oils. Heat your slow cooker on high heat to warm up the oils. When the oils are warmed, turn your heat down to low.
While the oils are heating up, you can measure out your water and your lye without mixing the two. It is best to use disposable clearly labeled cups to do this to avoid contamination with lye. Also be sure to wear gloves!

With your lye and water measured out and your slow cooker now on low, take the lye and water cups outside along with your mason jar and a metal spoon that reaches to the bottom of the mason jar.

Be sure that the area outside is well ventilated and again, away from children. Now, carefully pour your water in to your mason jar.
With your gloves on and making sure to protect your eyes with safety goggles, carefully and slowly add the lye in to the mason jar with the water.

DO NOT add the water in to the lye, this is extremely dangerous! Stir the water and lye together using your metal spoon. Be careful not to spill!
As you stir your water and lye mixture the contents of the jar will get quite hot and you may want to set the jar down on the ground.

You will also see the mixture turn cloudy and white. When you have mixed together the ingredients well, leave it to cool down for 10 minutes. This cloudy white color will vanish when the lye and water have cooled completely.

Once cooled, take your water and lye mixture inside and check the temperature of your essential oils.
The oils should be around 120 degrees.

Now, carefully add your lye and water mixture in to the slow cooker and use your metal spoon to stir.
As quickly as you can, rinse out your mason jar to cleanse it and use white vinegar to make sure that there is no un-neutralized lye in the jar.

When your ingredients are mixed well, use a handheld stick blender and blend for 5 minutes until your ingredients thicken and turn opaque in color.
Now put the lid on your slow cooker and allow it to cook on low heat for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes check your slow cooker. If you see bubbles at the side of your slow cooker and your ingredients are almost boiling, your soap is almost done.
Continue to cook your soap ingredients on low at 15 minute intervals until you have ingredients that are all bubbling and the sides of your ingredients are turning inwards.

Turn the heat off on your slow cooker and take the inside pot out of the cooker.
If you want scent added to your soap, add essential oils of your choice in to your soap now.

Now carefully (because of the heat) use a ladle to pour your soap in to your soap molds.
Cover the molds with parchment paper and put them in a dry and cool place (not the fridge!) to set.

Your soaps will take around 24 hours to set to where you can take them out of the soap molds.

After you remove them from the molds, set them aside and allow them to rest for two days before using.