GLI:N Midweek Tip: how to design your own vegan CP soap recipe

Now that you have got addicted to your own soap, you are thinking about to make a new batch. Maybe you have a favorite scent or color combination or even more important you would like to try other oils and/ or butters, so you are searching for ideas already.

You remember, that on the GLI:N Vegan Soap Making Workshop you heard, every added ingredient has an impact on the Cold Process (CP) soap batch.

So what to do? How to choose? Where to start to design your own soap recipe?

Here are some pro tips that will help you take your first steps.

These are the questions to be answered before you start to look for your ingredients. Feel free to use as a check list.

-Who will use this soap? (Man, Woman, Baby...)
 It has an influence on the scent.
-What kind of skin has the person got? (Normal, Dry, Sensitive...)

 It has an influence on the essential oils and hard ingredients
-Do I like hard or soft soap to use?
 It has an influence on the basic ingredients
-Do I like to make a liquid soap from the batch?

  It has an influence on the lye that you should use

-Do I want to use ingredients out of my kitchen or buy new things?
 It has an influence on timing.
-Do I have a special purpose to make this soap? ( Gift, Health issue, Daily use)
 It has an influence on the timing.
-Do I want to make different textures?
 It has an influence on the hard ingredients and techniques
-Do I want to add extra colors?
 It has an influence on extra ingredients.
-Do I want to have patterns or not in?
 It has an influence on the pouring technique

So now, you know already, what kind of soap you want to hold in your hand after you are ready. You imagine your own, scented, colored, shaped, pimped up soap. 

Let`s collect the rules.

In general:

• Buy quality ingredients.
• Assign your equipment for soap making . Or use the old ones for soap making and surprise yourself with new kitchen tools. You will definitely need a stick blender and some heat-proof plastic containers in different sizes and spatulas:) 
• Store the soap ingredients and tools apart from food and out of reach of children or pets.
• Check the expiry date of the ingredients.
• Assign your working space and keep clean.

Let`s talk about coloring your soap:

• beige, sand and brown tints: cacao, coffee, cinnamon
• orange, pinkie, redish: chilli, beetroot powder
• pink: calamine 
• yellow: curcuma,
• greenish yellowish: chamomile , parsley powder
• purple: rose hip powder
• blue , grey: indigo

For soap recipe design:

• You always need to add coconut butter. You should not exceed of 30% of the total butters and oils in the batch.
• You always count in grams. Also for the liquids.
• If you want to use herb infusion, replace the distilled water with the herb infusion.

• The lye is a dangerous material. But did you know that your drain stopper contains minimum 70% NaOH? So if you are following the safety rules you are ok.

• Don`t forget the 1 table spoon rules for the extra hard ingredients. If you split your basic batch, and plan to have 2 scents  or 2 colors, split your extra hard ingredients as well. (half & half table spoon per batch).

• Don`t forget there are materials that will heat your batch up. (cacao, chilli, calamine)

• Lye changes the colors of the ingredients.

• Limit the essential oil in your batch if you are making soap for babies or people with sensitive skin.

• In case of superfat, the extra nourish for your skin you can follow two methods: either you calculate the recipe with 5% of the oils being left as super fat ( so you use less lye solution),  or you calculate with 0% and add extra oil as 5% of the weight of the oils used for the batch and blend it when reaching trace phase.Better to follow the first option that is using less lye concentration, as the trace phase is still very alkaline, so no real characteristics or benefits it gives to your soap.

• When soap is curing, your soap is getting harder. But the final hardness can be adjusted to your liking. The oils you use determine the soap's consistency, creaminess, etc.                                               More to come in details as a series of posts to reveal the secret of a perfect vegan soap designed and produced in your home.

P.S. You want to be sure, that you will succeed in soap making? Come and join to the GLI:N Vegan Soap Making Workshops here.

Have a GLI:N Week
Rita