News

Jun 25, 2023

Local soap makers explain process

Intern SHERIDAN — Finding a perfect base recipe and executing that recipe to hand craft soap can be a daunting challenge, Righteous Soap Company Owner Stephen Mullins said. The first step in the

Intern

SHERIDAN — Finding a perfect base recipe and executing that recipe to hand craft soap can be a daunting challenge, Righteous Soap Company Owner Stephen Mullins said.

The first step in the soap-making process starts with a combination of oils to create desired qualities.

“With every base oil, there are different fats in the oils and they have different properties whether they are lather or hardness for the bar,” Sheridan Soap Company owner Beth Music said.

LemonMoon owner Alexandra Johnson chooses to use olive, grapeseed and coconut oils for all of her soaps. Grapeseed oil, for example, helps form the lather and softens the soap.

Once all the oils are combined, lye, or potassium hydroxide, is added. Lye can be added to any liquid, including wine, water and goat milk.

“You have to mix it [lye and the liquid] outside because it puts off these noxious fumes and can burn your lungs,” Music said. “It can get to up to 180 (degrees) fahrenheit just in that chemical reaction so you have to let that cool down.”

After the oils and lye water are combined, this is where the soap-making process diverges into two roads, hot process and cold process soap-making.

With hot process soap, all ingredients are melted together on a stovetop. When heated, the mixture goes through saponification, where the lye and oils are converted to what is known as soap.

Cold process soap uses hot lye to melt oils, not requiring a stovetop. For saponification, the mixture is left in the mold for roughly four to six weeks.

Before either hot or cold process soap is poured into a mold, fragrances and dyes are added to the lye and oils. With hot process soap, any color and fragrance can be used. Cold process soap is harder on the fragrances and color, especially citrus scents. Music said she found citrus scents disappear through the curing process.

Other ingredients can include coffee grounds or cornmeal as exfoliants.

Music prefers to keep her bars a neutral white, choosing not to use artificial dyes. All of her colors come from natural ingredients that she places in the mixture.

When all ingredients are added, the soap maker must trace the mixture. Trace is the point where the oil, lye and water can not be separated. To test the trace, Mullins tries to write his name on the top of the mixture, and as soon as he can, the soap is ready to pour.

A variety of molds can be used to make soap. Mullins creates individual blocks while Music takes a more industrial approach and creates 50-pound blocks of soap at a time. Hot process soap typically takes 24 hours to cure, while cold process soap takes four to six weeks. After the soap is unmolded, Music uses a large press to cut the soap into loaves, then hand cuts them into bars.

“It is very labor intensive,” Music said.

While soap making comes with its unique challenges, Johnson, Music and Mullins said they find the craft to be an enjoyable way to spend their time.

Marly Graham is an intern with The Sheridan Press.

Intern