Basic Homemade Soap Recipe

Everyone needs to have a basic homemade soap recipe with which to play around. Half the fun is trying out different ingredients and creating new soap masterpieces.

Below you will find my basic soap recipe that I use to develop my cold process soap recipes with.

Due to issues with palm oil concerning deforestation and the destruction of habitats, I no longer use palm oil in my basic recipe.

If you would like to make this recipe palm free like I now do, simply switch out the palm oil for 25% shea butter and 5% castor oil.

You will need to run the recipe through a lye calculator to get the correct amount of sodium hydroxide needed due to the change.

Homemade Soap Recipe Ingredients

Coconut Oil - 270 gr.  |  9.5 oz.  |  30%

Olive Oil - 360 gr.  |  12.7 oz.  |  40%

Palm Oil** - 270 gr.  |  9.5 oz.  |  30%

Distilled Water - 326.1 gr.  |  11.5 oz. 

Lye - 125.6 gr.  |  4.4 oz.

Water as % of Oils = 36.23

Super Fat/Discount = 8%

**If you cannot find ethically sourced palm oil or would prefer to not use palm oil at all, it can be substituted with lard, tallow, shea butter, cocoa butter, mango butter, etc. Re-run the recipe through the lye calculator before making.

Homemade Soap Recipe Instructions

You can use the Room Temperature Method, the Cold Process Method or the Hot Process Method of soap making. The instructions for all can be found on the How to Make Soap page. 

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