Let’s make a traditional soap!

author: Katarina Papp, Let’s go to Zero!

Usually, I have made my soap from a ready-made soap mix, simply because I already know how to make it and it is very quick. This time, however, we made the soap from scratch under the guidance of Örreke’s partner Relumee. And now, Örreke is also offering a workshop on how to make soap. The process of making such soap is definitely much longer and more thorough than with ready-made soap, but the result is worth it!

Why make your own soap at all?

“It’s a common question I ask children in the Örreke soap workshop. Usually, the first answer is “because it’s free”. So, I always explain to the kids that it’s not really free, and that good quality homemade soap can also be more expensive than regular shop soap.
I make my own soap for three reasons:

1. You have to be very careful with shop soaps and other cosmetics, so you don’t get any chemicals on yourself. Check out the ingredients to avoid in cosmetics here.
2. Reducing waste. By making my own soap, I can avoid packaging.
3. However, if you make your own quality soap at home, it will probably be cheaper than buying handmade soap.

But as I said, making your own soap from scratch is quite an undertaking and requires a lot more knowledge than just making soap from a ready-made bar of soap. So, the first time you do it, I’d definitely recommend calling in someone more knowledgeable.

Soap with soapstone

We made soap with soapstone and cold process. You have to be careful with soapstone because it has a corrosive effect if it gets on your skin or if you inhale its vapour. So, gloves on and masks on. To be honest, it’s a perfect corona workshop:)))
Hopefully you’re not worried about washing with soap that contains corrosive substances! Namely, the soap will be ready to use after 1-2 months and by that time the soapstone will have neutralised and won’t be dangerous in any way.
Making the soapstone solution was quite interesting because after mixing the soapstone and water, the solution became very hot after a while. So it was an exciting chemical reaction:) Be sure to wait until the solution cools down before mixing it with the fats.

Be precise when weighing!

While when making all kinds of creams, ointments, lip balms, it is not so important that all the ingredients are measured to the gram, you need a precise hand when making soap. The ratio of ingredients is also important. Maybe it doesn’t work here that if I put a little more of one fat, I put a little less of the other.

Melting and blending fats

We made two kinds of soap. One recipe was with shea butter and the other with cocoa butter. In both, coconut oil was added. We melted the fats at a low temperature and mixed them into the cooled soap solution. Then you have to mix with a whisk until when you lift the mixer out the mixer trail remains in the mixture. Do not mix until too thick, as this will make it difficult to pour the mixture into the moulds. Once the mixture has the right thickness, you can add various dried herbs, clay, etc., and add scents. The final step is to pour the mixture into the moulds. All kinds of yoghurt pots, salad tins, etc. can be used as moulds.

Waiting

That’s the hardest part, because you have to wait about a month. But the older the soap, the better. Young soap wears off faster and can even go flat. Since we are still waiting for our soaps to be finished, we can’t share any experience yet, but expectations are high.

Do it yourself too!

If soap making sounds exciting to you too, the Relumee website has lots of tutorials and recipes. You can also get all the ingredients there. If you want to book an on-site soap making workshop, invite Örreke’s family soap workshop.

The post Let’s make some real soap! appeared first on Örreke.

Sappo mountain

Legend has it that the soap is named after the Sappo hill near Rome. It was the site of an animal sacrifice. After the sacrifice, the animals were creamed. During this process, the hot fat dripped into the fire and mixed with the ashes. On one rainy day, the mixture of fat and ash flowed down into the Tiber River, where the women were washing their clothes. It was noted that the laundry washed close to the sacrificial site was much cleaner than that washed upstream.

A brief history of soap

In the old days, soap was made from animal fat, or seal fat on the coast and islands. Ash lime was added to the fat to make it soapy. Lye was made by mixing wood ash with hot water and letting it stand for several days. Later, soapstone was used instead of lye and bought from merchants. It is known that in the 10th century, in Castilla, Spain, soap was made from olive oil and perfumed with aromatic herbs to give the soap a good smell. The luxury of using soap in this way belonged only to the upper classes; ordinary people still used soap made from animal fat, if at all. Castille soap quickly spread to the rest of Europe’s upper classes. Many of Castille’s soap recipes are still in use and soaps made from them can be bought in small soap shops. In Estonia, the skill of making soap was probably acquired from the Germans in the Middle Ages. Soap-making was an art that was not to be watched by outsiders. In the early days, ready-made soap was so valuable that it was used only for washing the head. However, it was only about 150 years ago that soap became a common household detergent. Soap was still being made on farms and in households in the 1960s. However, soap production then shifted to large enterprises. Today, home soap making is popular again, as homemade soap is free of chemical compounds and is suitable for people with sensitive skin. There is a growing number of small soap producers, both in Estonia and around the world, and artisanal soaps offer considerable competition to shop soaps.

Why soap foams

Not all soaps lather! To make soaps lather better, special foaming agents are added to industrial soaps. SLS(Sodium Lauryl Sulphate). SLS makes soaps foam, but it is still considered to be an irritant and quite harmful additive. Of the natural ingredients, it is coconut oil that gives the soap its lathering properties. Soap lather is better at trapping dirt and grime, and the water washes it off your hands. So it’s good if it lathers, but it doesn’t need to lather too much.

A workshop on soap for the elderly

The soap workshop is one of Örreke’s first workshops. Making soap seemed exciting to us. During the first soap making sessions, we realised that it is also surprisingly easy and accessible for children. So we made our first soaps with our own children, then with our friends’ children and then in the children’s nursery and school. That was the beginning of Örrekse! But from my childhood I remember the terrible smell that filled my grandparents’ home when my grandfather was making soap. Children were not allowed in the soap-boiling room, as the cauldron was boiling with fiery fat and there was a corrosive substance nearby – soapstone. This may have been in the early 70s. I still have a couple of my grandfather’s boiled soap bars and keep them as memories! Children and adults alike love to make soap in the Ore Oreke workshops. There are two methods of making soap. The easiest is to use a ready-made soap paste and pour coloured and transparent soaps from it. The more complicated method is the old-fashioned way, i.e. using soapstone (HaOH) to soap up different fats and greases. In Örrekes’ workshops, we will make transparent and coloured soaps from ready-made soap paste. The ready-to-use soap mass used does not contain the harmful foaming agent SLS. On request, we also run old-fashioned soap making courses where we mix soap from different oils, fats and use soapstone for soaping. See Orreke’s soap making workshop here.

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