Red Clay Hill Soap Home Page

Red Clay Hill Soap

To contact me:

Pam Robinson
P.O. Box 1912
Meridian, MS 39302

Email:

HOW TO MAKE SOAP:

If I can make soap, anyone can. It's fun and easy. My soaps are made with all vegetable oils and are scented with pure essential oils,
although soap actually does smell like soap and is fine by itself.

You will need a Pyrex measuring cup, a plastic mixing spoon or two, a stainless steel pot (aluminum will be a disaster, don't use it), plastic
wrap, a thermometer (like a candy thermometer), something for a mold (I use an old cracked square Tupperware container, but a shoe box
lined with plastic wrap is fine), you really need a scale (you can get one at a diet center or Walmart), and a stick blender is a big time saver.

Put on rubber gloves and protective eyewear (sunshades will do) for mixing the lye and water. Lye is caustic soda and will burn you. You can
find it in the drain cleaners (don't use Drano). Make sure you get 100% sodium hydroxide. Weigh the lye and set aside. Measure the water in
the Pyrex measuring cup. Weigh the solid fats and put them in the pot. Weigh the liquid fats and set aside. Get anything else out that you're
going to add and have it ready

Go outside with the lye and water and a spoon. I mean it, go outside. The fumes are wicked bad if you stay inside. Put the measuring cup
down on something. (It's going to get hot.) Slowly pour the lye into the water, stirring in one direction until the water is clear. Now you can take it
all back inside. Put the thermometer in and be amazed at how hot it is.

Turn the oils on medium heat to melt them. When melted, remove from heat and add the liquid fat. Check the temperature. It's usually around
140F degrees. It has to cool to about 120F degrees.

When both the oil and the lye water are about 120F degrees, slowly pour the lye water into the oil, stirring in one direction at first. Now you can
keep on stirring until the cows come home and the soap will trace. It has taken me from 20 minutes to 2 hours stirring with a spoon. If you
have a stick blender, it's a lot quicker. Anyway, you stir it or blend it until it traces. Trace is when you drop some off of the spoon back into the
soap and it makes a little mound, like pudding. You can add some extra fat at this point (called superfatting) to make your soap nicer and this
is when you add the scent.

Pour it into your plastic wrap lined mold. Scrape it all out with a plastic spatula and spread it as flat as you can. Put a piece of plastic wrap on
top and leave it alone for a day or two. Then take it out of the mold and cut it into bars. Put the bars up for two or three weeks to finish curing,
then enjoy your soap.

There are lots of recipes to be found. Here's one I think you'll like:

5 oz lye (100% sodium hydoxide)
2 cups water
12 oz coconut oil (Walmart)
12 oz olive oil (cheapest)
10 oz vegetable shortening

1 Tablespoon castor oil for superfatting
1-2 Tablespoons essential oil (lavender is always good, patchouli is stronger)

This makes 9-12 bars.

"Within her room and her mind, she
was Joan of Arc, every heroine she
had ever read about; yet here she
was picking through produce and
mending sheets, alone, untouched,
wasted. What a chasm between the
fire in her brain and the laundry of
her life." (Marge Piercy, 1996, City
of Darkness, City of Light, pp 43,
44)