Questions re: soapmaking.

I know nothing about soap, but online it says that Marseilles soap is made with olive oil. as much as 99% of it can be oil.

Here is a link to my source. http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-make-olive-oil-soap/

Sorry I can’t be more helpful, I don’t know anything about soap, I just always love an excuse to say: “To make soap, first you render fat” and “With enough soap you can blow up just about anything”.

I used French green clay in my soapmaking. They clay is a fine, dry powder.

The French do make a version of savon de Marseilles which has had clay added to it, but this is used as a household cleanser (the powdered clay gives it a mild scouring properties) or by gardeners for their hands. Savon de Marseilles doesn’t always, or even usually, have clay in it. Some French recipes use green clay, some use white (kaolin). It’s sometimes used for scrubbing stubborn laundry stains before washing, in which case the white clay would be de rigueur.

PM me… I’m a professional soap maker.

As for general knowledge…

oil IS fat… it’s simply in liquid form. I luvs me my long chain fatty acids. Let me show you my home movies sometime.

The clay does not so much go to harden the soap, depending on how much you use…but a bit of plain old SALT goes a long way to harden the soap so that it will release from the form and be firm enough for cutting after 24 hours.

100% olive oil soap is pretty special stuff. It’s not the definition of savon de Marseilles, per se, but known as Castile, after the place in Spain. The savon de Marseilles, (used to be 100% olive but is now allowed to be from other veg oils) comes from a purity directive from the French Government circa. 1688. The purity was more pointed that the content of the bar was at minimum of 98% derived from the saponification of veg fat/oil and not full of ‘bulkers’ like ash, clay and other impurities.

And of course, the alkali of choice these days is not pot ash, but lye. (pot ash is actually a different chemical known at Potassium Hydroxide and is actually used in the production of a true liquid soap) Lye, or Sodium Hydroxide, is manufactured to be quite pure and so its effect on a chemical reaction, like saponification, can be better controlled and predicted. Lye is an extremely dangerous chemical and anyone unfamiliar with it or the safety procedures required when handling this type of chemical MUST read all warnings and information before proceeding. Use the recommended precautions, follow precautions and you’ll be fine.

Soaping is fun! ;o) I should write a proper book about this one day, I think.

Clay also makes quite a fine lather. I used to make soap as a hobby.

I wish I knew how to make soap. It makes great gifts! I spend a lot of money on fancy soap, prettily packaged, and I would love to be able to do it myself. I have seen kits but they are always for glycerin soap.

@jca

It is pretty easy and quite inexpensive (for basic soap), but it involves accurate measuring and using lye.

This is the recipe I used- I used to have dairy goats and made a lot of soap! Forgive the typos- it’s from a mailing list I was on and the writing is not mine :>)

Basic Goat Milk Soap

12 oz Coconut oil
16 oz Olive oil
20 oz vegetable shortening (criso)
6 oz distilled water
10 ounces of frozen goat milk
6.5 ounces of lye

This makes about 3 pounds of soap, a good soap mold to use if you
don’t have alot equipment is drawer organizers that you can get at
any department store for about 99 cents. Just spray to Pam to grease
and your soap will drop right out.
Use only stainless steel and plastic, the lye will react with other
metals

Basic Soapmaking Instructions
While wearing safety goggles and gloves, combine solid lye and
liquid very slowly, stir well. Set aside and allow to cool (100° F
to 125° F). make sure that you have some ventilation, as the fumes
can be harmful to your lungs

Combine oils and heat gently. Once the fats and oils are melted
allow the temperature to drop to 100° F to 125° F.

Combine lye solution and melted oils. Be careful not to splash while
combining the mixtures. Stir until the mixture traces. If tracing
takes more than 15 minutes, which it often does, stir for the first
15 minutes, then stir for 5 minutes at 15 minute intervals. Tracing
looks like a slightly thickened custard, not instant pudding but a
cooked custard. It will support a drop, or your stir marks for
several seconds. Once tracing occurs…

Pour raw soap into your prepared molds. After a few days the soap
can be turned out of the mold. If the soap is very soft, allow it to
cure for a few days to firm the outside.

Cut soap into bars and set the bars out to cure and dry. This will
allow the bar to firm and finish saponification. Place the bars on
something that will allow them to breathe.

I should mention, since this recipe doesn’t make it cear, that you always add the lye to the water- never the water into lye! You add it slowly, while stirring constantly to dissolve it- it gets VERY hot. I used a quart-size canning jar to mix it in.

@crisw and others Goat milk soap is rather a special case and I encourage beginners to only use water their first few times out. Goat milk, if not carefully prepared and used, will burn and give off a very unpleasant ammonia smell, even when it’s cut for soap. If any one REALLY wants to try goat milk soap making, I can give a few tips, but, I don’t advise that one for a first timer. I should really be writing a book, rather than giving this stuff for free. LOL

The process of soap making that @crisw gave a recipe and directions for is called Cold Process. There are other processes of soap making, like Hot Process and even something called CPOP. Also, stirring doesn’t work fast enough for me, especially if it’s and Olive Oil soap because the thickening so extrememly slow, so I use a stick blender.

I also suggest curing your soaps, depending on the water to lye ratio, for at least a couple of weeks. I use what is called a ‘water discount’ and even then, I cure most soaps 4 weeks and my olive oil soaps are much better after 6 weeks of curing. Olive oil soaps are special, as I’ve said, and they have an extremely high glycerine content. Sometimes when I unmould my olive oil soap, it looks like it’s sweating, but it’s just the glycerine oozing out. Soap left to cure longer will feel milder on the skin and last longer because it’s water content has been minimised. The pH process is quite finished after the first 48 hours or so.

There are also tell-tale signs when something has gone wrong and the soap either needs to be ‘rebatched’ or ‘hot processed’ to be saved, or if it’s best if the lot right in the bin.

Here is a fellow soapmakers website where she explains things in imperial and Fahrenheit:

http://www.engsoc.org/~taellison/soap/soapmaking.htm

with further teaching sites.

This is the soapmaking book that helped me the most.

@laureth : i read the Amazon stuff and now I want to try it!