Making Soap

After some consideration, I have decided to include my adventures in soapmaking here on this blog. I contemplated whether it would be better as a separate topic, or on my own personal blog, but I have decided that it really fits better here. I want to make my instructions here suitable for the complete novice, so I will be introducing the basic concepts and terms, including the underlying science. We will go from understanding the basic process to how to develop your own recipes, and we will see some sample recipes along the way.

Basic Chemistry

Ok, I am going to start with some basic soapmaking chemistry. If you are not interested in the chemistry, you can skip over this section, but if you are curious I will try to break it down for the lay person and it will probably help you understand the soapmaking process better.

The two key ingredients in soap are fats and lye. The fat could be a vegetable oil (like olive), or an animal fat (like lard or tallow), or a “butter” (like shea butter), or a blend of these. But all of these fats are basically composed of triglycerides. Each molecule of fat consists of a glycerol (glycerin) with three fatty acids attached. These fatty acids all have carbon chains of varying length and it is the variation in these fatty acids that contributes to different properties in your soap from different fats that are used. We are all familiar with the basic properties of these compounds — they are slick and oily, they do not mix with water and they can adhere to fabrics and be difficult to wash off the skin. Basically the opposite of what we want in soap! In fact, the main purpose of soap is to wash away oily or hydrophobic substances that can not be readily washed away with water.

It is the next key ingredient that resolves this ironic dilemma. Lye is a strong alkali or base, either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. Chemically, you can think of it as the opposite of an acid. It is very reactive and used in a huge variety of applications. The reactive nature of lye makes some people scared of it, and of products made with it. But remember that table salt is composed of sodium — a reactive metal that bursts into flames when exposed to water — and chlorine, which is a toxic gas. Yet table salt shares neither of these properties and is safe to consume (in moderation). Similarly, lye is used to make bagels and olives, and even to balance the pH of eye drops, yet all of these things are quite safe. Similarly, properly made soap is also quite safe. Indeed, you can not make soap without lye (most people who claim to do so are either using a pre-made soap base that was made by reacting the lye and fats before they got it, or else synthetic detergents which are not soap at all).

The lye actually splits the bond between the glycerol and one of the fatty acids. Since there are three fatty acids in each triglyceride, it takes three molecules of either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide to split them all off. One of the products of this reaction is glycerin. Although glycerin is nice and moisturizing to the skin, it is not the main product we are after in soap making. The other product is salts of the fatty acids. What I mean by forming a salt of the fatty acid is that the end of the fatty acid that was previously attached to the glycerol is now negatively charged and ionically bonded to a positively charged ion (either sodium or potassium, depending on the lye used). In this way, it actually is similar to table salt where the sodium and chlorine are attracted to one another because the sodium is positively charged and the chlorine is negatively charged (called chloride). They are not bound together by shared electrons like organic molecules, so they can separate when dissolved in water, but are attracted to one another like magnets.

Now, here is where the magic happens. What makes water different from oil is that it has a slight negative charge on the oxygen and a slight positive charge on the hydrogens. The opposite charges are attracted to each other like magnets! This is called being polar (think of the poles of a magnet). But since oil has no such charges for the water to be attracted to (it is non-polar), it simply gets pushed out of the way as the water molecules are drawn to each other. But these salts of fatty acids are a different beast altogether. The long carbon chain is basically non-polar and thus hydrophobic — it is drawn to oil and not water. But the other end has an electric charge, so it is hydrophilic — drawn to water. So the hydrophobic carbon chain embeds itself in oil that is adhered to fabrics or our skin, but the polar end is drawn to the water and so it pulls the oil into droplets in the water, surrounded by the hydrophilic ends that are now facing outward to interact with the water. So this dual nature of these salts of fatty acids is what allows us to wash away oily substances with water and this is the essence of what soap is.

Now, there is one more important ingredient in making soap: water. The water does not participate in the soap making reaction (which is called saponification, by the way), it is used merely to dissolve the lye. However, the amount of water can have a big influence on the soap making process. We will learn more about this role as we get into the actual process of soap making. Obviously, the water we are dissolving our lye in does not readily mix with fats, so vigorous mixing is required initially. But remember that soap has a way of bringing these two very different components together, so as the reaction begins the soap that is forming will begin to stabilize the mixture.

Now, that we have gotten a basic understanding of the chemistry behind soap making, I think we are ready to get into the actual process.

Equipment

The first step is, of course, to assemble all of our equipment and make sure we have everything we will need in the process ready, so let’s begin by going over exactly what equipment we will need.

Almost all recipes will measure most or all ingredients by weight, so we will need a scale. An ordinary kitchen scale will do. I prefer one that measures grams because it is more precise, but a lye calculator will generally give you measurements in both grams and ounces. You may sometime find additives measured in teaspoons or tablespoons “ppo”, which means “Per Pound of Oil”, so you may use ordinary measuring spoons for this. You may also find measurements for fragrances or essential oils in ML, for which you can use a syringe or graduated cylinder.

You will also need containers for all of your ingredients. The containers that you use to measure your lye, to mix your lye solution, and to mix your lye solution with your oils, must all be lye safe. So what materials are acceptable for this? Your best options are plastics HDPE ♴ and PP ♷ or stainless steel. Other plastics may buckle under heat, become brittle, or break down in the presence of lye, so make sure you check for the appropriate recycling codes. Aluminum reacts with lye, so make sure that you have stainless steel and not aluminum. Glass can be used, but with caveats. Ordinary glass (soda lime glass) is gradually etched by lye and can shatter due to thermal shock or break when you accidentally tap it with steel spoon while stirring. Glass is not the most preferred material, although you will see soap makers using it in videos online, for these reasons. If you want to use glass, borosilicate has good resistance to lye, as well as to thermal and mechanical shock. Lab glassware is often made of borosilicate. Even borosilicate will eventually etch and should be replaced when you see visible signs of etching. The older PYREX was made of borosilicate, but the newer pyrex (note the capitalization) is not, leading to considerable confusion.

You will also need utensils for mixing. I like using a silicone spatula to scrape oils out of the container I weigh them in, and for scraping soap batter out of the container it is mixed in. Stainless steel spoons are also good for mixing and scooping. A stainless steel whisk may also be helpful for mixing in certain additives.

Then you will need some kind of mold to pour the soap batter into to saponify and harden. There are many options for this. You can purchase loaf molds that make a long “loaf” of soap to be sliced into bars. These are commonly made of wood or acrylic or silicone, or they may be wood with a silicone liner. If you use a wooden mold that does not have a silicone liner, you will need to line the mold with freezer paper or wax paper. You can also get silicone or plastic soap molds that have individual cavities for each bar, in a variety of shapes. A silicone baking pan can be used as well. Other options include any container that is made of a lye safe plastic, or even an empty Pringles can!

The last thing we will need is a way to slice the soap, if we did not use molds with individual cavities. You can buy a variety of sophisticated soap cutters, but you can also cut soap with an ordinary large kitchen knife, or a wire cutter like a cheese board. Wire tends to make cleaner cuts than blades, so I recommend a wire cutter if possible.

The Soapmaking Process

The first step is to separately combine all of your oils in one container and your lye solution in another. (Well, unless you count formulating your own recipe with a lye calculator, but I will save the details on that for another post.) In order to combine your oils, you will want to melt those that are solid (such as coconut, lard, tallow, shea butter, etc). I like to use a stainless steel bowl nested in a pan of water on the stove top, but you could use a stainless steel pot directly on the stove top or a Crock-Pot, etc. You just want to melt the oils. Of course, you will weigh each oil before adding it to the common pot, so you will need a separate container for weighing them in. The hotter your oils are when you add the lye solution, the faster it will move so you may want to let them cool a bit before adding the lye. (By contrast, if you try a Castile recipe this soap moves so slowly that you will want both your oils and lye hot and may even keep the heat on until the soap traces, which we will discuss shortly.)

To make your lye solution, you will first weigh both your water and your lye separately. This is the stage where you will need to exercise extra caution as the lye is very caustic. You may want to wear gloves, eye protection, even an apron, to protect yourself from spills and splashes. You always add the lye to the water, never the other way around. Some say to remember that it snows on the lake (it never lakes on the snow). The general rule in chemistry is that you add the more reactive substance (lye) to the less reactive (water). The dissolution of lye produces a lot of heat, and if you pour water on the lye it could heat so rapidly that the water begins to boil, causing the caustic mixture to erupt in your face. If you are using delicate liquids like milk for your lye solution, you will want to keep the temperature down to avoid scorching. You can actually freeze the milk and you can nest your lye container in an ice bath. Add the lye slowly and stir it into your liquid. If it is very hot, you may want to let it cool a bit before adding it to the oils. (Again, if you are making Castile, you may actually want to add the lye while it is still quite hot because it tends to move so slowly anyway.) Remember not to test the temperature with your finger, the lye solution is caustic!

Once both your oils and your lye solution are ready, it is time to combine them. Pour your lye solution into your oils and then blend them using a stick blender (sometimes called an immersion blender). It is possible to make soap without a stick blender, of course, but it may take a very long time. To avoid overheating and destroying your stick blender, use it intermittently, maybe 10-15 seconds at a time. You can stir in between with a spoon, whisk, or spatula. Initially, the lye solution will sink to the bottom, but once you begin blending the mixture will take on a more opaque or milky appearance. Generally what you are looking for at this stage is for the soap batter to begin to thicken. This is called tracing. At a light trace, you can just see the pattern if you drizzle soap batter across the surface. As the batter progresses to a medium or thick trace, it will begin to take on a more pudding-like consistency. If you were trying to make patterns or swirls with two or more colors, the pudding-like consistency of thick trace would be too thick to work with, but for a basic beginning recipe it will be fine if your batter is on the thick side. Actually, it is not necessary to even bring the batter to trace as long as it forms a stable emulsion. Soapers often do this when they are working on intricate swirls and such, but it can be difficult for the beginning soap maker to tell when it has reached this stage and you don’t want your soap to separate in the mold.

Once your soap batter has reached the right consistency, you are ready to put it in your mold. (The process I am describing here is cold process, which I recommend for beginners. If you were making hot process, you would continue cooking it until saponification was complete, but I will save that topic for another post). This is also generally when you would add your scent, just before putting it in the mold. Other additives, like activated charcoal or clays, are also commonly added at trace. Many colors can also be added at this stage (multi-colored soaps are often made by dividing the batter at this stage and adding different colors to each portion), though others need to be infused in an oil or put in the lye solution. But for a beginner recipe, we can simply put the soap in the mold.

At this point, the soap needs time to finish saponifying and set up. As the soap saponifies, it continues to produce heat. As it does so, the soap may take on a translucent quality. This is the gel phase. Many soap makers insulate the soap (with a towel, for instance) to ensure that it gels fully. If the soap is kept cool enough, it is possible to avoid the gel phase. Sometimes this may be desirable, but what we want to avoid is a partial gel. If the soap gels in the center, but not all the way out to the edges, there will be a difference in the coloration when the soap is cut. This is a purely cosmetic issue (the soap is perfectly safe to use), but generally considered undesirable. If the batter is warm enough when it is poured, you might not need to take any steps to ensure complete gelling. It may also suffice to put the mold in a warm place. The soap needs to sit at least over night and perhaps longer. At this point, you just want to make sure the soap is firm enough to cut.

Now you will need to take the soap out of the mold. Some molds have sides that come apart to make this easy. If you used a Pringles can, you can either tear it apart and peel it off, or try to get the soap slide out. Giving it some extra time to allow the soap to lose some moisture and draw away from the sides may make it easier. You can also put the soap in the freezer before trying to remove it. Once the soap is out of the mold, you will will want to cut it into bars. I recommend a wire cutter, if available, but a knife will work.

It may seem like the soap is finished at this stage, but it is not. The soap should be safe to use within 24-48 hours as saponification will be complete and there will be no lye left to burn the skin. But this soap will melt quickly and not have a desirable texture or lather. Soap typically needs to cure for at least 4-6 weeks to develop these desirable qualities. During this time, excess water is evaporating and the soap develops a crystalline structure inside. The soap will lose weight, fairly rapidly at first, then taper off. This is where patience comes into play. You can try a bar early, if you want. But please give your soap the time it needs to cure properly. After all, what is the point of going to the trouble of making it yourself, if you are not going to put in the time and effort to produce something of superior quality? All it needs at this stage is to be stored in a dry place. Separate the bars so that air can circulate between them. A rack that allows air to circulate under them is desirable as well.

Recipes

Now that you understand the process, let’s take a look at how to formulate a recipe. I am not going to get into all of the math here, instead we will use a lye calculator. You can plug in some basic information, like the total size batch you want, the amount or percentage of each oil you want to use, the desired lye concentration, and the superfat, and the lye calculator will give you the amount of lye and liquid (as well as the amount of oils, if you gave it percentages as I normally do). I recommend Soapee. It is a free, online lye calculator that allows you to save recipes. (If you want to be able to share your recipes, make sure you sign up with a social media account.) You will notice that the steps are numbered, so let’s take them one at a time.

1 - Liquid or Solid soap recipe?

This one is really simple. We are making solid soap using NaOH. 

2 - Select recipe units of measure

I like to specify the oils in my recipes in percentages because this makes comparison between different size batches very simple and recommended usage rates are typically expressed in percentages as well. But for the total batch size, I like to use ounces or pounds because this is the common weigh of expressing the size of a mold, based on the pounds of oil in a batch that will fill it. A Pringles can holds about a 24 ounce batch.

3 - Amount of water in recipe

Here is one case where I feel the default leads us astray. I do not recommend using the “Water as a percent of oils” setting at all. (Read “Understanding Water Discounts and Lye Solution in Soap Making” on modernsoapmaking.com to understand why.) Use lye concentration or water to lye ratio instead. These two options are equivalent, they are just expressed differently. For the beginner, I recommend starting with 2:1 or 33% lye. The lowest you can safely go is 1:1 or 50% lye, and you will see this is what I use for the Castile (100% olive oil) recipe. If you wanted to do intricate swirls, etc, you might want to use more water so that the soap moves slower, giving you more time to work with it.

4 - Oil superfat

For soap that is used on skin, you generally want at least 5% superfat. This is because one of the purposes of the superfat is a margin of safety, to ensure that your soap does not wind up lye heavy. This can happen due to minor errors in measurement and natural variations in the saponification values of the oils (the amount of lye needed to turn them into soap). If there is excess lye after all of the oil is saponified, the soap will be harsh and can burn your skin. A higher superfat can also make a soap that is strongly cleansing (potentially harsh and drying) milder, which is why you will see that the 100% coconut oil recipe uses 20% superfat. This, however, is an exception, not the rule. Most soaps will have only 5-7% superfat, perhaps as high as 10-11%, but not 20%. You will notice my basic recipes are 7%, while the Castile is 5% (pure olive oil soap is already very mild). Another exception here would be a laundry soap, which might have only 0-1% superfat (if it is a bit lye heavy, that is ok because it is not meant to be used on your skin).

5 - Fragrances

We won’t really bother with this one for now. It only gives a suggestion on how much fragrance to add, but this varies depending on what fragrance you are using. Essential oils, especially, each have different recommended usage rates, and if you are using several in combination you may not even find this feature very useful. It does not, however, affect any other aspect of the recipe. You can set it to 0 if you like, or just ignore it when you make the soap, nothing else will change. If you use a fragrance oil, make sure you check the recommended usage rate from the manufacturer.

6 - Select Oils

This is really the main thing that sets a recipe apart. When you select an oil from the list, you will see a box pop up to the right showing the properties of that oil, including its fatty acid composition and “properties” like bubbly, cleansing, etc.

The “properties” in your soap calculator are really just a way of grouping together fatty acids that have similar properties. The fatty acids that make up the oils in your recipe are the main factor in determining the qualities of your finished soap. For instance, saturated fatty acids with shorter carbon chains (like lauric and myristic acid) produce a soap with a stronger detergent action, so these count toward the total “cleansing” percentage, as well as “bubbly”. They make a soap that is better at cleaning and stripping away oils and produces a bubbly lather. Saturated fatty acids with longer carbon chains (like palmitic and stearic acid) make a soap that is less soluble and thus last longer, so these count toward the “longevity” percentage, as well as more “stable” lather with a creamier texture. Both contribute to the “hardness” of the bar.

Unsaturated fats (such as linoleic, linolenic, and oleic) contribute to the “conditioning” property of the soap. Unsaturated fats tend to make a mild and gentle soap. However, these oils are prone to rancidity, which can manifest as Dreaded Orange Spots or DOS in a finished soap. The best measure of this is actually not the “conditioning” property, but the iodine value. This is a measure of the total number of places that the fatty acids are unsaturated (some fats — polyunsaturated fats — are missing more than one pair of hydrogen atoms), and each of these places is a point where an oxidation reaction can occur, leading to rancidity.

Ricinoleic acid, found in significant amounts only in castor oil, is unique. It is an unsaturated fatty acid that also has a hydroxyl group on the carbon chain. In soapmaking, it enhances and stabilizes lather in small proportions. It contributes to both the “bubbly” and “stable” properties, but not to “hardness” or “cleansing”. It is also considered to be part of the “conditioning” property.

Note that the recommended ranges for these properties are only suggestions or guidelines. You may prefer a soap that is less cleansing and therefore milder. These numbers are also based only on the proportions of the fatty acids in the oils that you are using and will not take into account other factors. For instance, the 100% coconut oil soap would appear to be very cleansing, and thus potentially harsh and drying. But the higher superfat makes it milder and the “properties” of your recipe does not take the superfat into account, only the proportions of the fatty acids in the oils.

Once you have selected an oil, you can click on the plus button at the upper right of either box to add it to your recipe. Another box will appear further to the right with a list of all oils in your recipe. Here you can type a percentage for each one (or whichever unit you selected). As you do this, the full recipe will be generated (and continuously updated for any changes) below. You will be able to see the properties for your recipe as a whole as well, along with the recommended ranges.

Below this, you will have an option to input a name, description, and notes. You can even include pictures. Then you can save your recipe, print it, share it, etc.

Now that you have a basic idea of how to use the lye calculator, let’s take a look at a basic recipe as an example:

Grocery Store Soap

I call this recipe “Grocery Store Soap” because you can typically find the ingredients at the grocery store. This is also the recipe I used in my instructional video. For this recipe, you will notice that the properties mostly fall within the recommended ranges. The cleansing is on the low end, making this a fairly mild soap. The coconut oil is the main contributor here, so if I wanted a stronger cleansing soap I could use more coconut oil and if I wanted a very mild soap (some prefer cleansing below the recommended range or even down to 0) I could reduce the coconut oil even further. If I wanted a harder and longer-lasting bar, I could increase the lard, substitute tallow, or add a harder oil like cocoa butter.

It is also sometimes helpful to consult other sources regarding the recommended usage rates of your oils. For instance, castor oil should not be used at more than about 5-10% in a bar soap. Too much castor can make your soap rubbery and will not actually give you the bubbly lather you expect. This is a case where the numbers in the lye calculator can be misleading. Castor oil contributes to the bubbly property, so you would expect a 100% castor oil soap to be very bubbly. But it is not, it actually produces little to no bubbles. A small amount of castor helps to boost the lather, but more is not necessarily better in this case.

For simplicity, you might want to start out by trying a single oil soap recipe. Not all oils are suitable to use at 100%, but I have a few examples here using the same common ingredients used in my “Grocery Store” soap.

Castile

This is a traditional soap made with 100% olive oil. You will notice that for this recipe I reduced the water to 1:1. This is because olive oil is slow to trace and to cure. The water discount helps to speed things up a bit. Even for a beginner, this recipe should not move too fast. In fact, it may still take a long time to trace. I also cut the superfat back down to 5% because this soap is already very mild. You will notice the bubbly and cleansing properties are both zero. This does not, however, mean that it will not make any bubbles or that it will not clean. It just does not have any of the fatty acids that contribute most to those qualities, so it will be very mild and not very bubbly. This soap will also be harder than the numbers might suggest. The other big difference to note with Castile is that it needs a very long cure time, probably a year or more. Otherwise, the soap will have an unpleasant slimy texture. Many people, however, love Castile soap and consider it worth the wait.

Lard Soap

You will notice that a 100% lard soap is surprisingly balanced. All of the properties are in the recommended range except bubbly and cleansing. This also makes a very mild soap. The stable property indicates a stable, creamy lather. So while it will not make big fluffy bubbles like coconut oil produces, it will lather but with much smaller bubbles and a creamy texture. You can make a similar soap with just tallow, it is harder and longer lasting, a bit more cleansing and bubbly, but not as conditioning as lard. However, tallow is generally harder to find.

Coconut oil soap (20% superfat)

This soap is another exception to the rules. The cleansing is very high which would tend to be harsh and drying. But the unusually high superfat balances this, making the soap milder on the skin. You will notice that the hardness is very high, but the longevity is low. This will make a hard soap, but it will melt fairly quickly and not last very long in the shower. Hard soaps tend to last longer, but coconut oil is again an exception, making soap harder but not longer lasting.

To help you get a better idea of how the process actually works, I also made a video of making a basic grocery store recipe. You can watch it here:



At this point, you have several recipes to try and you should have enough of an idea of how the lye calculator works to begin tweaking your own recipes. You can adjust the proportions to suit your own needs, or add other ingredients like shea butter, etc. Hopefully, this give you a good introduction to the world of soapmaking.

Making Herbal Ointments (and infused oils)

An ointment is a thick, semi-solid oil-based preparation, typically for medicinal or cosmetic purposes. An herbal ointment is typically made by infusing the herb in oil. Much like making a tea or tincture, active constituents from the herb diffuse from the herb into the surrounding liquid, but instead of water the liquid is an oil. Olive oil is a popular choice, but other oils can also be used. A oil with a long shelf-life is preferable.

Infusing the herbs into the oil requires time, heat, or a combination of the two. The herbs can be either fresh or dried, but caution must be used with fresh herbs because moisture can cause allow dangerous organisms like botulism to grow. This can be avoided by infusing at a high temperature and them ensuring all moisture is removed. Alternatively, you can ensure the herbs are thoroughly dried before infusing.

You can infuse dried herbs for a period of several weeks. Or, you can heat them in a hot water bath on the stove top or in a crock pot for several hours.  Since there is no concern about spoilage, the temperature can be kept quite low and you can leave the herbs continue infusing for a few days at room temperature, if you desire. For fresh herbs, a hot infusion technique is needed to prevent the growth of dangerous microbes, so the temperature needs to be kept at or near boiling and the herbs and any residual moisture must be removed promptly after infusing.

Here, we have dried comfrey leaves to be infused. For coarse, loose herbs like this, I fill the container almost to the top before covering with oil. With powdered herbs, I would use much less.

Here, I am using a gentle hot water bath to accelerate the process.

You can see the oil has now taken on the green color of the dried comfrey leaves.

Here, we have dried calendula petals infusing in oil.

Here is an example of infusing fresh herbs. These broadleaf plantains have been freshly harvested from the yard.

First, we coarsely chop the leaves.

Then, we put them in our jar and cover them with oil.

Again, I am heating the mixture in a hot water bath, but in this case I will quickly heat it to a low boil to prevent nasty microbes from growing.

Here, you can see the color is beginning to leave the leaves as it is drawn out into the oil.

As you can see, the plantain makes quite a dark green infused oil, nearly black.

Water and oil do not mix and water is heavier than oil, so you may find moisture at the bottom of your oil. Let it settle out and then carefully decant the oil, leaving any droplets or debris behind.

An herb-infused oil can be applied directly to the skin. They also have other uses, such as coloring in home made soap recipes. But if you want to produce an ointment, you need something to thicken and harden the oil. The most common ingredient for this purpose in herbal ointments is beeswax. A good texture can be obtained with about 1 part beeswax to four parts oil. So simply measure your oil, divide by four and use about that much beeswax. This doesn’t have to be terribly precise.

I like to use a double boiler set up (or bain-marie). Here, I have simply nested a steel bowl in a pot of water on the stove top. I am using yellow beeswax that has been fashioned into pastilles for easier handling.

Once the beeswax is melted, you add the infused oil (comfrey pictured here).

Then pour the liquid into your ointment containers.

As it cools, the ointment will harden and become opaque.

Here you can see the same process with calendula ointment.

And here is a finished ointment made from plantain. Although it lightens as it cools and hardens, it still makes a rather dark colored ointment.

You can purchase dried herbs to infuse, or you can grow or wild-craft your own. The broadleaf plantain (Plantago major) depicted here is commonly found growing as a weed. Here is an example of the plant growing in a yard.

The narrowleaf plantain (Plantago lanceolata) can be used similarly.

Another common wild herb used to make an ointment is chickweed (Stellaria media).

You can also add essential oils to ointments. Since essential oils are relatively volatile, allow the oil and wax mixture to begin cooling before adding the essential oils. Keep in mind that essential oils are highly concentrated and you should be careful that you are always using a safe dilution.

If you are interested in buying pre-made herbal ointments, I currently offer several on my Etsy store:

Plantain Ointment

Comfrey Ointment

Calendula Ointment

 Cayenne Ointment

Making Lip Balm with Honey

Today we are going to be making lip balm. Lip balm is a fairly simple proposition, much like other balms the basic ingredients are fats hardened with beeswax. It needs to be fairly firm to work in lip balm tubes, or a softer balm can be put in small tins, etc.

But the idea I found particularly fascinating was using real honey in a lip balm. And this requires a bit of a trick, because honey is water-soluble, not fat-soluble. If you pour honey into a pot of melted fats and oils, it will immediately sink to the bottom. If you try to stir it in, it will soon separate and sink to the bottom again. But with some research I found a technique to incorporate honey that works well and was able to make the most delightful honey lip balms, and I am going to share that secret with you.

In order to combine water-soluble and fat-soluble components, what you need is an emulsifier. Contrary to what some claim, beeswax alone is not an emulsifier. It may contribute some stability by physically hardening the mixture, but this is not a true emulsifier. The confusion probably stems from a very old technique of creating an emulsifier by combining beeswax with borax to produce creams, etc. In this case, it is the reaction between the beeswax and the borax that produces an emulsifier, not either component alone. However, this technique is not suitable for our application where we only want to incorporate a little bit of water-soluble components into an otherwise fat-soluble base.

There are a variety of emulsifiers available, but many are synthetic and I wanted to keep my formulas as natural as possible. The solution I found was lanolin. This product is derived from the natural coating of sheep’s wool and serves as a natural emulsifier. In a lip balm, it serves double duty, as it is also a marvelous skin-protectant in its own right.

Now, let’s get down to the actual steps to making this amazing lip balm.
As with other ointments, we will melt and combine the ingredients using a double boiler set up (a bain-marie, if you want to be fancy). Here, I have simply nested a metal bowl into pan of water on the stove top, which is really all you need. I begin by melting the hardest ingredients first.

2 tablespoons of shea butter and 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of beeswax. This recipe has a pretty high proportion of shea butter, both because of its skin conditioning properties and to help keep the lip balm firm so that it melts onto your lips, but hopefully not in your pocket.

Once the shea butter and beeswax are melted, we add 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of coconut oil.

Now we add the secret ingredient, 1 tablespoon of lanolin. Besides its skin-protectant properties, this is the ingredient that will allow us to mix in the next two ingredients.

In addition to honey, I also like to use glycerin, a skin-protectant and emollient that is also water-soluble. It is naturally derived from vegetable oil and has a sweet taste, too. So now we add 1 teaspoon of glycerin.

And 1 teaspoon of honey!

You can see that both of these ingredients sink to the bottom and bead up. Although the lanolin will stabilize the emulsion, it still takes vigorous mixing to create it. You can see a whisk here, but I would actually suggest an immersion blender.

I like to get all of my lip balm tubes lined up neatly in advance, before I get ready to start pouring.

Now, before we add the aromatic essential oils, we remove the bowl from the hot water bath and allow it to cool until it just begins to harden. This way, we won’t lose volatile essential oils by overheating them. If it begins to harden too much, set the bowl back on the hot water bath briefly and stir it back in. Once the essential oils or other flavors are mixed in, we are ready to pour it up in the containers. I like to use a syringe, like the kind used to measure medicine, to fill the lip balm tubes.

Here you can see what the hot liquid looks like in the tubes. As you can see, the first tubes have already begun to set up while I was pouring the rest.

And here you can see what they look like once they have cooled and hardened. As you can see, each batch makes about 16 tubes. This is part of the reason I also sell some of my lip balm, after all, who really needs 16 tubes of lip balm, all of the same flavor!

Base Recipe

• 5 parts Beeswax
• 6 parts Shea butter
• 4 parts Coconut oil
• 3 parts Lanolin
• 1 part Glycerin
• 1 part Honey
• a small amount of essential oils or flavoring

The best flavorings are fat-soluble, such as steam-distilled essential oils, CO₂-extracts, and cold-pressed oils. However, with the lanolin you may be able to incorporate some water-soluble flavorings as well. Here are a few of my favorite recipes.

Sweet Cinnamon

• 0.7 ml cinnamon bark essential oil
• 0.7 ml clove bud essential oil

I love that this one is different from what you get with most lip balms. It produces a bit of tingly warm sensation on the lips. You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

Honey Vanilla

• 1 ml vanilla CO₂-extract

This one is just sweet and soothing. The vanilla only enhances the natural sweetness of the honey. You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

French Vanilla Latte

• 1 ml vanilla CO₂-extract
• 1.5 ml coffee CO₂-extract

This one has the robust flavor of coffee balanced with fragrant vanilla and that sweet hint of honey, for the flavor of a delightful coffee beverage! You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

Merry Mint

• 0.4 ml spearmint essential oil
• 0.2 ml peppermint essential oil

Mint is popular flavor for lip balm, but I wanted to do it a bit differently. I find some mint lip balms overpowering and I wanted something a bit milder. I also decided to use a blend of peppermint and spearmint. It has a cool, tingly sensation with a light, balanced mint flavor. You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

Lavender Vanilla

• 0.7 ml lavender essential oil
• 1 ml vanilla CO₂-extract

Lavender has been a common request, so I developed this blend. The lavender gives it floral and herbaceous notes, rather unique for a lip balm. The vanilla helps to round it out. I find this one soothing and pleasant. You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

Making beard balm

Today we are going to be making our own beard balm. The process is basically the same as making ointments. “Balm” is often used as a synonym for “ointment” and that is basically what a beard balm is, being composed mainly of fats hardened with beeswax. Of course, the purpose is different from most balms or ointments, as it is intended to condition, style, and protect facial hair.

As with other ointments, we will melt and combine the ingredients using a double boiler set up (a bain-marie, if you want to be fancy). Here, I have simply nested a metal bowl into pan of water on the stove top, which is really all you need. I begin by melting the hardest ingredients first.

2 teaspoons of beeswax will harden the balm and provide a protective coating to the hair and a bit of hold to control scraggly beard hairs:

2 teaspoons of shea butter also helps harden the balm and provides extra conditioning qualities:

1 teaspoon of lanolin provides a superior protective coating (lanolin is basically the natural protective coating from sheep’s wool):

Here I stop and let it melt before moving on (I could probably have waited on adding the lanolin, as well):

Now that it is good and melted, I can proceed with adding softer ingredients:

1 tablespoon of coconut oil, which is solid at room temperature but melts quickly at only about 76°F, helps make the balm firm as well, but is also a conditioning oil rich in antioxidants:

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil provides even more antioxidants than coconut oil and has a long history of use on skin and hair:

1 teaspoon of castor oil, which is well known for its beneficial properties for hair, also provides a bit of a healthy shine:

Now, before we add the aromatic essential oils, we remove the bowl from the hot water bath and allow it to cool until it just begins to harden. This way, we won’t lose volatile essential oils by overheating them. If it begins to harden too much, set the bowl back on the hot water bath briefly and stir it back in.

Once the essential oils of your choice are blended into the mixture, you are ready to pour it up into tins, ointment jars, etc. This tiny batch is enough to fill a 2 fl oz container:

Now, we let it sit until the liquid cools and hardens:

And here is the final product:

Base Recipe

• 3 parts Coconut oil
• 3 parts Olive oil
• 2 parts Beeswax
• 2 parts Shea butter
• 1 part Lanolin
• 1 part Castor oil
• a small amount of essential oils for fragrance

The base recipe here is pretty simple, it is the essential oils you choose to add at the end that make each batch unique. You can experiment with this to find the combinations you like best. Be careful, however, to make sure you are aware of any safety concerns for the oils you use and their maximum concentrations recommended for topical use. Using the wrong oils or exceeding their recommended concentrations can cause irritation or other adverse effects.

Here are some guidelines for safe dilution of essential oils (2 fl. oz. is 60mL). Another source you may find useful is AromaWeb, which has essential oil profiles that include safety information as well as descriptions.

Now that you have the basics down, here are a few of my favorite recipes to get you started. The amounts of the essential oils shown are the amount for one 2 oz. jar, like I made in the instructions above. The measurements are in milliliters, but remember there are about 20 drops per ml, so 1 drop = 0.05 ml, 2 drops = 0.1 ml, etc.

The Outdoorsman’s Blend

• 1.6 ml cedarwood essential oil
• 1.4 ml patchouli essential oil
• 1 ml balsam fir needle essential oil
• 0.6 ml rosemary essential oil
• 0.4 ml frankincense essential oil

I wanted to create a blend that was reminiscent of the outdoors and I wanted it to capture different aspects of the outdoors recreate a fuller experience. The cedarwood and fir needle capture different aspects, combining a woody scent with the fresh crispness of evergreen needles. But to really round it out I needed a rich, earthy note, and for that I turned to patchouli. Rosemary and frankincense are both known for their cosmetic benefits for skin and hair and they help to round the blend out as well.

The Woodworker’s Blend

• 3 ml cedarwood essential oil
• 0.6 ml myrrh essential oil
• 0.6 ml rosemary essential oil
• 0.4 ml patchouli essential oil

For this blend, I wanted to focus on particular note. Since the cedarwood is so dominant, it is more reminiscent of a carpenter’s workshop than the outdoors. It smells like a freshly carved cedar chest. I found myrrh to be more complimentary to this scent, as it has a woody note as well. I like the rosemary for its cosmetic benefits and it works well in this scent, too. Finally, just a little bit of patchouli helps to anchor the scent and give it an underlying earthy musk.

Cup O’ Joe

• 2 ml coffee CO₂-extract
• 0.1 ml cinnamon leaf essential oil
• 0.1 ml clove bud essential oil
• 0.1 ml vanilla CO₂-extract

This one is obviously intended to smell like a cup of fresh brewed coffee, and it is awesome! Just a hint of cinnamon, clove, and vanilla help to round it out without detracting from the rich coffee aroma.

Spice Master

• 0.2 ml clove bud essential oil
• 0.2 ml cinnamon leaf essential oil
• 0.1 ml clary sage essential oil

I liked the idea of a spicy fragrance based on cinnamon and cloves, but I needed something to round it out. Clary sage proved to be perfect for this and I had found a masculine scent that my wife also found attractive. As it turns out, all three of these scents are reputed to have aphrodisiac properties.

If you would rather buy pre-made beard balm or want to try it out before investing in the ingredients yourself, all four of these scents are available from my store on Etsy: