Homemade Soap Cutter

It all started with a couple sketches on a dry erase board. I guess they didn't look much like a soap cutter, but that's how it started. And then my husband looked at some soap cutters online and began creating.

He gathered some wood and a long hinge and then ordered some 6-in-a-line guitar key tuner parts and guitar strings.

There are 2 U-shaped wooden pieces on either end connected with 4 wooden bars. The front bar has guitar key tuning pieces that are used to tighten the cutting wire (guitar strings). It's hinged at the back and the guitar strings are stretched between the front and back bars.

Attached to the bottom platform is a piece of 2x4 screwed to a taller piece of wood to make an L-shape. It acts as a lip so the soap loaf doesn't slide when the bars are cut. 

You might enjoy watching the video we made showing the structure and dimensions of the soap cutter. It's not as polished as the expensive ones offered online, but it didn't cost much to make and it works great!

What I Made Tonight

Princess Rose Cupcake soaps:

These have a pink soap base, "cocoa" colored icing and pink and white soap dough flowers.

I added some pre-made green soap leaves. I had leftover green soap batter the other day and made some leaves out of it.

The tops have a sprinkle of Wilton brand pink nonpareils that I bought at Michael's or AC Moore.

The video is coming soon. The fragrance oil (Princess VS type) did not behave well -- it accelerated and riced -- so I had to adjust the original plan. 

Stay tuned for more...

Update: the video for the Princess Rose cupcake soaps stinks (missing parts, too long, etc). Here's another soap cupcake video that will show how to make cold process soap cupcakes.

If you'd like to support my soapmaking channel, I have Amazon and Essential Depot affiliate links that don't cost you more to use, but provide a small kick-back so I can justify the time spent creating and uploading videos. Just click a link and then continue with your normal purchases of any item(s). Thanks!

Tallow Soap Dough recipe

I've been playing around with soap dough recipes and created this one using beef tallow. I really did not expect the soap to be pliable since beef tallow makes a very hard, if not somewhat brittle, bar of soap. 


The roses shown to the right were some of my earlier attempts. They are not difficult to form, but do require practice and patience.




Most of the ingredients are commonly found in a soap maker's studio.

Beef Tallow, fat from cows, is a solid white fat at room temperature. The best tallow comes from the fat found around the kidneys, but with a little effort, you can save the fat when you fry ground beef, Just strain it, refrigerate it and separate the solid fat from any water. Your local butcher may sell tallow or the raw beef fat for you to render. If you need to purchase tallow for the recipe below, compare prices on Essential Depot and Amazon.


Coconut Oil can be found locally at many grocery stores these days. I try to buy non-food grade, 76 degree coconut oil. The "76 degree" means that the oil melts at 76 degrees Fahrenheit. If your local grocery store doesn't carry coconut oil, check out these links on Amazon  and Essential Depot.


Palm Oil, a common soap-making ingredient, is a bit controversial these days as some think palm tree farmers are destroying forests and gorilla habitats. To be safe, you may want to purchase sustainably harvested palm oil like this one: Palm Oil RBD Organic Carrier Cold Pressed Pure 32 oz



Babassu Oil, derived from the South American Babassu palm, looks a lot like coconut oil -- a whitish solid oil at room temperature that melts easily. When I melted some on my skin, it felt silky and not greasy. 




Sunflower Oil- Is it just me or did sunflower oil become more of a "specialty" oil in recent years. I used to see large bottles at the grocery store and now the best I could do locally was a $4 glass bottle of sunflower oil at Aldi. I believe the sunflower oil in this recipe makes the dough a little softer.

Castor Oil - When I first started making soap and ran out of castor oil, I found a 6 oz bottle for $6 at the local drug store. I think it was located near the laxatives. You can usually find it cheaper than $1 an ounce online. Both Amazon and Essential Depot carry it. 

Homemade Hanger Swirl Cold Process Soap - Coconut Lime Verbena with Piped Dots on Top

Have you ever searched Pinterest for creative techniques to add to your soap making repertoire? I have. While I don't spend much time on Pinterest, I do remember being inspired by a soap with diagonal dots of color on the top.

In this video, I attempt to pipe light green, dark green and black dots in a diagonal line on top of a soap loaf. The fragrance is Coconut Lime Verbena and I've used a clothes hanger to swirl the colors. The color pattern inside the soap is White (base), black, light green, dark green, light green, white, black, white.

The color pattern for the dots on top is  light green, dark green, black, dark green (repeat so that the black is surrounded by dark green on either side.)

Have you ever tried a Salt Soap Bar?

Usually I can wait for soap to cure. Yes, I might grab a sliver of freshly made soap and wash my hands. I love to see how the combination of oils blend and wonder what kind of lather the soap will create. If you don't make hand crafted soap yet, you might not realize that soap has different characteristics based on the type and quantity of oils used in the recipe.

Online soap calculators often include soap qualities such as:
Hardness
Cleansing
Conditioning
Bubbly
Creamy

If a soap is too hard, you might not be able to cut it. If a soap is too cleansing, it may dry out your skin. If it's too conditioning, it might be soft, slimy or not bubbly. If it's too bubbly, it might not be conditioning enough. If it's too creamy, it might behave more like lotion than soap. These statements are my opinion as I dislike non-bubbly, soft soaps. A balance of oils and characteristics is important.

The other day, I made a lavender soap loaded with Sea Salt and essential oils. Salt destroys bubbles. Coconut Oil, however, makes lots of bubbles and cleans really well, but it can be drying when used at more than 30%. The soap I made contained 80% coconut oil. How can such a high percentage of Coconut Oil make a good soap? Instead of the standard 5% superfat, I increased it to 10%. The soap is gentler with the addition of extra fat. I also added 20% Castor Oil which is very nourishing and creates a fluffy, stable lather. Castor Oil is thick like corn syrup. It's said to act as a humectant in soap -- helping to counteract the drying properties of the Coconut Oil. Check out the recipe below, watch the video, and make some salt bars! 

I can't wait to try these salt bars!

Here's what I selected for my Lavender Essential Oil Salt Spa Soap:

80% Coconut Oil
20% Castor Oil
(10% superfat)
Run these ingredients through a soap calculator to see how much lye (Amazon Link) Sodium Hydroxide (Essential Depot link) to use
--------- plus
75% of the oil weight in Sea Salt (added at trace)

I'd use .5 oz of essential oil per pound of oil in this soap.

Here's the video I created while making this soap:

    

DISCLAIMER: Nancy's Garden Soap Co is a participant in Amazon Services LLC and Essential Depot's Affiliated Advertising programs that provides a means to earn advertising fees through advertisements and links. 

One of my favorite fragrances is Coconut Lime Verbena, a BBW copycat scent. It's coconut-y and citrus-y in just the right combination. My first CLV soap was white with green swirls and a leaf design on the top. Unfortunately, the white slowly became a creamy off-white color due to the Vanillin contained in the fragrance oil.

When it came time to make more Coconut Lime Verbena soap, I was prepared -- or so I thought. I purchased some Vanilla Color Stabilizer from Wholesale Supplies Plus. The stabilizer is mixed in a 2:1 or 1:1 ratio with the fragrance oil 2 minutes to (no more than) 15 minutes before adding to the soap.

Little did I know that Wholesale Supplies Plus has 3 types of Vanilla Stabilizers -- one for melt and pour soap, one for cold process soaps and one for lotions. I had purchased the M&P kind. Since I had 16oz of stabilizer and I rarely use melt and pour soap, I decided to try it in my soap.

In the following video, I make CLV soap using the M&P vanilla stabilizer. I think it worked! What do you think?

Making Cold Process Soap with Lavender Essential Oil

Nighttime, it's when I soap.

The littles are asleep. The house is mostly quiet. And it's peaceful.

Tonight, I created a cold process soap using essential oils. And I'm in a generous mood, so I'm sharing my recipe. Please run your own lye calculations though a soap calculator to confirm. 

Oils/Fats:
20 oz beef tallow
18 oz coconut oil
18 oz palm oil
4 oz castor oil

17.51 oz distilled water
8.76 oz sodium hydroxide (lye)

2.25 oz fragrance oil or essential oil

1. Follow all safety precautions for working with lye. At a minimum, that means wearing gloves and goggles and keeping pets and people (especially children) away from the working area. Work in a well ventilated area or open a window while mixing the lye as it emits fumes.
2. Weigh the oils and melt to combine.
3. Weigh the distilled water and place in a suitable container (I use a Pyrex glass batter bowl, but a stainless steel and some plastic containers are acceptable.) Don't use aluminum.
4. Weigh the lye and add it to the distilled water. Stir briefly with a stainless steel spoon or silicone spatula.  Never pour water onto the lye. Remember the expression "it snows on the lake" -- the white lye flakes fall into the water.
5. Wait for the lye water to cool and turn clear. 
6. Add the lye solution to the melted oils.
7. Mix with a stick blender until it looks like thin pudding.
8. Add the fragrance of your choice and stir.
9. Pour into your mold(s).
10. Spray top with 91% rubbing alcohol to prevent the formation of white soda ash on the top. 
11. Next day: remove soap from mold and cut into slices.
12. Place soap on a non-aluminum surface to cure for 3-6 weeks.

Here's a video of the soap I made tonight:

This soap will be available for sale in about a month. (2/15/17)
Click here to go to Nancy's Garden Soap Co on Etsy.