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Black Spruce Hot Process Soap Recipe

This refreshing handmade soap smells like walking through a spruce forest on a winter day! Made using the hot process method, it has a lovely lather and fresh, clean hand feel.
Prep Time10 minutes
Active Time40 minutes
Cooling time8 hours
Total Time8 hours 50 minutes
Yield: 10 soap bars
Author: Anna Chesley

Equipment

  • Crock Pot
  • Soap mold
  • kitchen scale
  • Immersion blender
  • safety glasses
  • long latex gloves
  • non-reactive stirring spoon
  • non-reactive measuring containers

Materials

  • 12 ounces coconut oil
  • 12 ounces olive oil
  • 4 ounces shea butter
  • 4 ounces castor oil
  • 12.16 ounces water
  • 4.61 ounces lye (sodium hydroxide)
  • 1 ounce black spruce essential oil
  • .75 ounce fir essential oil
  • 4 capsules activated charcoal (or about 1tsp)

Instructions

Prepare your workspace

  • As with all soapmaking sessions, prepare by clearing your workspace and ensuring that you have more than adequate clear counter space. Don't allow pets or children to wander through your work area.

Making this hot process soap recipe

  • Start by putting all of the oils/butter into the crockpot. Set it to LOW, and allow it to warm until all of the oils are melted. The shea butter will take longest to melt, and you can give it an occassional stir to help it along.
  • Weigh your water into a heat-safe, non-reactive contatiner, with plently of additional room to mix in the lye.
  • In another non-reactive container, weigh out the correct amount of lye.
  • Slowly pour THE LYE INTO THE WATER (never the other way around), stirring slowly until all of the lye is fully disolved into the water. The lye mixture will immediately begin to warm up.
    (Unlike with cold process soap, you don't have to wait for the lye mixture to cool to a certain temperature. As long as all of the oils are fully melted, you can actually pour the lye into the oils as soon as it's mixed.)
  • Carefully pour the lye mixture into the melted oils.
  • As soon as the lye is poured into the melted oils, use an immersion blender to bring the lye and oil mixture to trace.
    When the mixture reaches trace, you'll know, because it will look like vanilla or butterscotch pudding. When you lift the immersion blender, it will leave a gentle peak in the mixture, and any drops will linger on the surface as little blobs. It REALLY looks like pudding.
  • Put on the lid of the crock pot, and let the mixture cook. You'll see the mixture start to get translucent around the edges and start to "crawl" up the side of the crock pot. Definitely give it a stir if it threatens to flow over the edges, and it doesn't hurt to give it the occassional stir even if it doesn't.
  • The soap needs to cook until until it's no longer caustic, which takes about 40-50 minutes. It will go through several phases - translucent around the edges, then lumpy and cloudy looking (I've hear this called the "mashed potato stage" and it's really what it looks like!) Then the soap will start to get translucent again. It's a good idea to give the whole thing a stir about once every 10 minutes, to keep it all cooking evenly.
  • When the soap starts to get evenly translucent again, you can go ahead and test it. I use the "zap test", recommended by Heidi at Healing Harvest Homestead.
    Take a little bit of soap between your fingers, and rub it around. Does it feel waxy? If it's feeling waxy, go ahead and touch your tonge to it. If it "zaps" and tingles your tounge, it's not quite done yet, and needs to cook a little longer. If it just tastes like soap. You're ready.
  • Once the soap is done, go ahead and turn off the crock pot and remove the lid. Let the soap cool for 5 minutes. You want a little of the heat to escape before adding those wonderful essential oils.
  • Add the essential oils. Still well until the mixture is evenly blended.
  • To make the darker swirls (Optional. Skip if you don't want swirled soap):
    Scoop out about ¼ of the mixture into a 2-cup measuring cup. Add the activate charcoal and mix well until the soap darkens evenly. If you want even darker swirls, it's ok to use more charcoal - just add slowly. A little goes a long way!
  • Now, spoon ⅔ of the lighter, main batch of soap into your mold.
    (This 2lb recipe fits perfectly into a 2lb loaf mold. This is the one I use and love)
  • Using a spoon or spatula, add all of the darker soap in blobs onto the soap in the mold. Use the remaining ⅓ of the light soap to fill in around the dark soap.
    Take a knife, and swirl through the soap--back and forth and accross, until the soap looks nicely swirled. This is really a lot like making a chocolate and vanilla marbled cake, but thicker!
  • THEN, lift the soap mold and firmly tap it on the counter several times to release any bubbles, and make sure the soap is well tamped down into every corner of the mold. (I honestly THUMP it really hard on my countertops - it's not very graceful, but does an effective job at getting good solid bars of soap!)
  • Now, let the soap just sit and cool for at least 8 hours, before unmolding it. If you really need to rush it, you can put it in the fridge, and get away with unmolding after about 4 hours.
  • While the soap is technically read to use right away, I like to let it sit and harden for a day or two after it's unmolded, before slicing the soap loaf.
    Then, once it's sliced, I usually let the bars of soap sit for another day or two to harden up a little more, before I package them.
    That said - there's no rush to cut your loaf of soap, and it's actually a great way to store the soap if you're not using right away. You can just leave it as it is, and slice of bars of soap as you need them.
  • To make your bar soap last well, be sure to use a well-draining soap dish that lets your bar dry in between washings. Sitting in a puddle of water drastically reduces the life of your soap.
    Enjoy!