Fun and exciting Coffee soap making at home
In college, you most likely had done soap making in your Chemistry class. The whole process is Chemistry guided. In a typical laboratory, the crude soap is made through base hydrolysis of the fats and oils producing glycerol and the anionic surfactant soap that is composed of potassium and sodium salts of fatty acids and oils. It is made by reacting vegetable oils and/or animal fats to a strong alkaline solution of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide (both commonly known as lye). The whole soap making process is called saponification.
Soap ideas are now creating different approach to the process of soap making. Two general process involves in soap making are the hot process and cold process. Cold process is the widely used one especially at home. It uses the saponification value of the fats and/or oils to be used so that the amount of lye is analytically prepared to be right in the process. Excess lye can cause skin burns or irritation and lower lye value can cause greasiness in the soap.
Equipped with the right knowledge, soap making is now made easier and exciting at home. For those who want to make a coffee soap for the first time, you will need the following items; 113 grams each for coconut oil and olive oil 227 grams of soy bean oil, 142 grams of coffee (instead of the typically used water) and 57 grams of lye (take precautions as sodium hydroxide is a caustic solution, it is better to wear protective eye glasses and gloves)
After you completed the required things, it's time to make basic white soaps.
%u2022 Weigh the desired mass of the coffee and lye in different pitchers. %u2022 Remember that adding water or coffee in this case to the solution of lye is harmful. %u2022 Gently stir the mixed solution using a wooden spoon, then cool to approximately 100° - 110°F. %u2022 Heat all oils, melt if some of them are solid, and cool to 100° - 110°F. %u2022 Make sure that the temperature readings for both lye solution and the oils are similar or with very slight difference. Pour the lye solution in a thin stream fashion into the oils; don't forget the continuous constant stirring. %u2022 Maintain a constant swirling until the mixture thickens and 'trailing' is evident at the sides. Continue swirling for about less than an hour. Try adding essential or fragrance oils and coffee at light trace if you want. %u2022 Pour the liquid crude soap into a plastic mold, cover and wrap with towel. %u2022 Place in a warm surroundings for 48 hours. %u2022 After that, take out the soap from the plastic mold and you now have the coffee soap block. Cut to blocks into bars with a knife.
Soap making really consumes large amount of time. However, it's worthy to try this to create that coffee soap for home use of hand cleansers.
Jen Hopkins has worked in the skin care industry for years. She maintains websites about how to make homemade soap, and how to make soap. If you want to contact her, you can use the contact form at one of her sites.
Published February 19th, 2010
Filed in Hobby
