SOAP! Yes I'm doing that now

Making home-made soap isn't something I thought I would ever do. From a money perspective, it’s hard to look at savings on soap to justify the effort if you don't have any extra time. Furthermore, it isn't easy to get the sodium--- to make lye at home thanks to the meth heads (whom we can also thank for not being able to buy enough Sudafed to last the winter). It's the Congresspeople who took away our rights to these things, not the meth producers, I know, but it pisses me off, whoever is responsible. I even didn't write the whole word because I've heard the web bots are out looking.

Not that you need lye to make soap anyway. It's much less messy or time consuming to let the industrial manufacturers deal with that step and skip right to using glycerin, which is what you have if you make candles and soap using lye. Skip the lye and in the time it takes to make jello, you could also have a six-month supply of soap, that feels and smells just how you'd like it to. (Jello is made with gelatin, not glycerin, btw. Just want to be clear! Do not make jello with glycerin unless you need a laxative, badly!)

Have you ever looked at a label on a natural home-made soap where it read "saponified coconut"? That's vegetable glycerin, which for soaps, usually is made from coconut oil and lye.

Glycerin is a great moisturizer for sensitive skin. I buy liquid glycerin to put into rose water for a home-made skin refresher, and am chipping away at a huge 25 lb. block of clear, solid glycerin make my own soap. In the end, what I spent for the supplies in bulk, is what I figure I would spend in a year on soap. Except these supplies will last 3 to 5 years. (The white glycerine blocks have goat's milk in them, which I can add myself.)

I like the look and feel of glycerin soap, too, it has a candy-like quality. The main reason I like to make my own soap, though, is because I want charcoal in it. It removes any odor -- such as, from petting cats and dogs, and leaves my skin feeling exceptionally clean.

This recipe also has anise oil, goat milk powder, organic avocado oil and shea butter in it. Basically, what you can buy in a health food section at a good grocery store or online.  It’s a great way to use up what oils might be sitting around unused. And the clean-up, well -- everything is just covered with glycerin, which is soap! So, just rinse and you’ll see it form a nice lather and then it will be clean…any dried glycerin sticking to anything can be removed with a damp sponge or just gently scraped off.

This recipe would work without the charcoal and you could add herbs and flowers and oats too, whatever you’d like in your soaps. 

Charcoal and anise soap

What you need:

Cleaned yogurt and cream cheese containers or other small containers/molds you like.

Clean, sharp knife

Clean cutting board

Clean plastic storage bag or container for storing extra pieces of glycerin if you cut too much

A spray bottle with rubbing alcohol in it (make sure you label this so no one thinks it could be water!)

Pyrex four-cup measuring cup.

Microwave

Paper towel

Soap Ingredients:

2 lb block of vegetable glycerin

1 Tbsp Charcoal powder

2 Tbsp Goat Milk Powder

Olive oil for coating containers

I Tbsp shea butter

1 Tbsp cocoa butter

1 or 2 cups of avocado oil 

   (You can use any food-grade oils that are great for skin like Avocado, coconut, olive, and almond – I add a cup of Apricot kernel oil in the winter for extra moisturizing)

20 drops of a scented oil - I prefer anise with the charcoal. It's a classic combination, for soap and even taken internally for heartburn relief!

Procedure

1. Coat inside of cleaned containers with olive oil and spread out onto a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.
2. Fill a 4-cup measuring cup to the top of the cup with 1” sq. pieces of glycerin (about 2 lbs).
3. Cover with paper towel and melt in 30-second to 1-minute increments in microwave, removing to check and stir when it starts to melt.
4. When the gelatin is nearly done melting, add 1 Tbsp each shea and cocoa butter, cover with paper towel and continue melting and stirring until done. This should give you around 3 cups, melted.
5. Add some avocado, apricot kernel and/or almond oil, up to 4-5 cups to finish. You may wish to heat again for 30 seconds to mix.
6. Add 20 drops of anise oil. 
7. Sprinkle ½ to 1 Tbsp charcoal powder and 1 scoop (2 Tbsp) goat milk powder over the top of the oil/gelatin mixture, and stir to combine. Note: if it's your first time, 1/2 Tbsp charcoal in this recipe with 4 cups of the glycerine/oil combo will give a nice scented soap, that smells and feels like commercial charcoal and anise soaps. 
8. Pour mixture into containers to the height you want for your soaps, and spritz with rubbing alcohol (this will prevent bubbles from forming).
9. Let cool for 2 hours. When ready to remove, gently push on the bottom of the plastic containers to pop them out.