Here's a video.

1. Preparation:

1) First of all, there must be 2 ~ 3 hours of complete uninterrupted time, because to use alkali, we must be very attentive for the safety of the process and the success of the result. Therefore, it is suggested that there must be complete and continuous time, and it is best to unplug the phone and relocate the children and pets to other places to create an environment and time that no one can disturb. Some soap processes will be faster, about *** 1 hour, but it is best to prepare enough time in advance so as not to disturb the plans of other things. I once didn't leave enough time, so I didn't have time to cook dinner. I'm terribly sorry.

2) Clear out the countertop where you plan to work, and put away the necessary instruments and materials one by one, such as formula tables, pens and molds. In order to deal with the aftermath conveniently, newspapers can be used to lay out a range, one for protecting furniture and the other for sorting.

3) Wear rubber gloves, masks and aprons. Long-sleeved clothes and trousers are safer. It is best to wear goggles. If not, at least wear glasses. In short, you must do a good job of protection.

4) The surface of the model is thinly coated with oil, so that the soap can be demoulded after molding.

5) If there is a ready-made formula table, be familiar with the formula table first. If not, a suitable formula should be calculated and configured.

★ Note: Don't put snacks, drinks or drinking water on the work table, so as to avoid the danger of drinking or eating by mistake.

2. The amount of water:

Take out the prepared containers, heat-resistant glass containers or stainless steel containers, but don't use aluminum pot or the like, because alkali will be added later, so be careful to use containers that won't be corroded by alkali. In addition, high temperature will be generated in the process of alkali dissolution, so it must be heat-resistant. Take water according to the weight of water in the formula. It is best to use distilled water and pure water, not tap water or mineral water, because it contains too many impurities or minerals, which will affect the result of saponification reaction. Water can be cold or ice water, never warm or hot water.

Practice: 1) Put the container on the electronic scale. 2) Zero the number of the electronic scale. 3) Pour water into the container until the weight to be measured is reached.

3. Add solid sodium hydroxide into the measured water:

Take solid sodium hydroxide according to the weight in the formula, and the solid sodium hydroxide must be measured correctly, because if there is a slight difference, the finished soap will be used subtly. Although the preparation of sodium hydroxide solution may not be so tense, it is best to treat sodium hydroxide as soon as possible. Because it is easy to absorb moisture and become sticky, it is difficult to handle, so immediately after adding alkali, stir it with tools such as glass rods, stainless steel rods and spoons that are not corroded by alkali. Zixin once ignored this problem and didn't want to waste it. As a result, it took about 20 minutes to treat the alkali sticking to the plate with a soap cutter.

note:

When sodium hydroxide and water are mixed into sodium hydroxide solution (or alkaline water), the temperature of the solution will rise, and white smoke and steam will be emitted, giving off a unique irritating smell. It is suggested that this mixing action should be carried out in a ventilated place. If it is operated in the kitchen, remember to start the range hood and be careful not to inhale these gases. It's better to put on a mask. Don't make handmade soap in a closed space. When using the range hood, we should also pay attention to the direction of ventilation. If the air circulates from the direction of the container to ourselves, deliberate ventilation will have the opposite effect. If the container has a cover, just stir it immediately after mixing, and quickly cover the container before the white smoke steam is produced. After a few minutes, the smell will disappear.

After stirring, sodium hydroxide will completely dissolve in water, and the sodium hydroxide solution is transparent. Once the mixing is completed, the temperature is about 80-90℃, and it cannot be mixed with oil until it is cooled to about 50℃. Please pay attention to put your sodium hydroxide solution in a safe place, so as not to knock it over or drink it by mistake and hurt innocent family members.

When sodium hydroxide is mixed with water, it will produce a high temperature of about 80-90℃, so don't use hot water or warm water to mix sodium hydroxide even when the temperature is very low. If you put distilled water in the refrigerator in advance, it will reduce the high temperature after mixing sodium hydroxide with water, so you must never use hot water or warm water.

4. Measure the oil in the formula:

Then weigh the grease in the formula and pour it into a large stainless steel pot for soap. Be sure to use stainless steel pot, and you need to add lye in the back!

5. Mix grease and sodium hydroxide solution:

There are many ways to measure the temperature of sodium hydroxide solution and oil, some say 50 ~ 55℃, others say 35 ~ 40℃, and there are other different ways. I feel that they are all ok. The key is that the temperature of the two is the same, but not too low, otherwise it will take a long time to stir later. Pour the sodium hydroxide solution slowly and evenly into the oil container, and stir slowly while pouring, and you will find that the turbidity of the oil has changed.

When measuring the temperature, it is important that the thermometer should be placed in the center of the liquid for measurement, instead of directly reading the scale of the thermometer by throwing it into the pot, and stirring it several times (note; Don't use a thermometer as a stirring rod, lest it be troublesome to deal with the aftermath after being accidentally interrupted, so that the measured temperature is more accurate.

Be careful not to let the sodium hydroxide solution spill and touch the skin. If it does, rinse it immediately. So be sure to do all the protection work in advance, and be careful in the process!

6. Stir:

In order to completely mix sodium hydroxide solution with grease, stirring is an important work.

Practice:

1) Use a blender, such as a rubber scraper, an egg beater, or a stainless steel bar. Zixin uses a 24 cm rubber scraper, which is more convenient. I put the picture of the rubber scraper in the photo album for your reference. The key is that the material must not be corroded by alkali. If you have an electric stirrer made of stainless steel, you can certainly save some energy, but manual stirring is essential. Only by manual stirring can all lye and grease be fully mixed, and the progress can be controlled so as not to be excessively stirred. Therefore, you can manually stir for a while, and then use the electric stirrer and manual stirring for 5 seconds each, and manually stir when it is almost trace.

2) When using the electric stirrer, be very careful to place the front end of the stirrer completely under the liquid level of the soap liquid, so as not to splash out the soap liquid and cause injury.

3) Keep stirring until the soap solution is mixed evenly. You can draw an obvious figure 8 on the soap solution with a rubber scraper, and it is better if it does not disappear immediately.

7. Additives:

Generally, the added ingredients are added after trace. Zixin said that it is general, because there are so many changes in soap, so different soaps may have different processes.

Color: Friends who like environmental protection and natural health will choose to use natural colors, such as leaves and flowers of plants. But natural colors will fade. If you want bright and beautiful colors for a long time, you should probably add pigments. Look at your friends' own preferences to decide.

Aroma: As mentioned in Why to make handmade soap, you can add essential oil or essence. Like pigment, essence can give off fragrance for a long time, but it is not natural after all. Essential oil is natural, but it will volatilize, so even if a certain proportion of essential oil is added to handmade soap, after a period of time, most of the flavors will still evaporate. Of course, essential oil has other functions besides fragrance, and different essential oils have different functions, so these ingredients will still be retained.

Other additives: such as flowers and plants, fruits and vegetables, stone mud, powdered functional additives, etc., are added according to your expected soap function. Don't expect a soap to have multiple functions. Too much and too much is not good. It is still more effective to specialize.

SF: There's a saying that soap is overweight, which is called SF for short. Its main function is that soap is more moist. Generally, there are two different ways to reduce alkali and add oil. Alkali reduction is to deduct about 5% from the amount of alkali that should be used in the formula, so that the oil does not have enough alkali effect after the final reaction and remains to play its role. Refueling means making it in normal proportion, but adding about 5% of some grease of your choice after trace, which has no alkali solution to react, so its efficacy can be left in the soap. All the friends who make soap use these two methods, and they all feel good. Zi Xin doesn't want to evaluate which is better, so friends can choose their own preferences.

8. Into the mold:

Moulds are usually made of plastic or silicone. Silicone feels better, but the price is more expensive. You can also buy silicone to make your own mould. I won't discuss how to make a silicone mold here. Zixin usually uses ready-made plastic molds, such as moon cake boxes, yogurt cups and so on. I also used a paper yogurt cup, because it would be difficult to demould the soap with castor oil, so I specially used a paper yogurt cup and remembered what a soap friend said: "I'll kill it before it leaves the mold!" " Ha ha. No matter what mold you choose, it must be convenient to die, such as thinner and softer walls. It will be helpful to brush the mold with oil. Be careful when pouring soap solution, and pour it slowly to avoid the outflow of soap solution. Finally, the residual soap stuck on the pot wall is scraped into the model with a rubber scraper.

It is best to cover the mold or seal it with plastic wrap, and then keep the soap warm with towels, blankets and quilts. But it doesn't matter if you don't do this. It's just possible to produce soap powder easily, but this is a normal phenomenon, and it won't have any effect on soap, so don't worry.

After entering the mold, you can start to clean up the mess and clean some utensils. In order not to hurt the jade hand, you'd better wear gloves when washing. Zixin prefers to leave it for a few days, let the soap attached to the equipment be completely saponified, then add water to heat it, and use a pot of soap to clean the used equipment. Because the alkalinity is still high, you can finally wash the pool and so on, and the effect is quite good. I often clean all the pools in my house very clean a few days after making soap, so my family said that they should support me to make soap because of this, haha. However, whenever cleaning, you should clean up the scene immediately after the soap enters the mold, so as not to affect other things and others.

9. Forming, demoulding and dicing:

Under normal circumstances, the mold can be released in 24 hours, and some soaps need a little longer, such as castor oil soap, which takes at least 48 hours, and it doesn't matter if it is left longer. Be careful not to put it where children can get it.

If you gently press the surface of the soap with your hand, it will probably be as soft and hard as Cheese. If it is still soft, don't worry, you might as well leave it for a few more days. If it really doesn't come out, you can put it in the freezer for several hours and then take it out, which is generally easier. If it's not enough, take it out of the freezer and rinse it with hot water from the bottom of the mold. It should be easy to buckle it out. This still doesn't work, so we have to destroy the mold.

It will take another1~ 2 days for the demoulded soap to be cut into pieces. If you want to cut it beautifully, you must first measure the thickness of the cut with a ruler and mark it with a knife. If you use a small mold, you don't need to cut soap.

The soap cutter is thinner, which is convenient to cut and will not affect the soap. This tool used by Zixin is really very thin and easy to use. Zixin also has many such tools. If any friends want it, you can reply to me at the bottom of the log.

You'd better wear gloves when cutting soap, because the alkali number should not have dropped yet. The cut soap should be placed in a cool, dry and ventilated place until the soap is mature. Generally, it takes four weeks, but some special soaps, such as castor oil soap, may take eight weeks. Be patient! It can only be used after maturity!

Because there are no chemical ingredients such as stabilizers added, mature soaps should be used as soon as possible. Generally, handmade soaps can be stored for one year, and the best place for storage is in a dry and ventilated place.