Low Cost Good Quality Natural Soap Recipes

Low Cost Natural Soap Recipes

These are perfectly good natural soap recipes.  I will try and give a variety to cover different oils as price and availability vary according to location.

They wont be so bubbly as other recipes but still very good for your skin and superior to what you would buy at your local supermarket.

Tallow and Olive Soap
640gm  Beef Tallow (if you can get this free)
160gm  Olive Oil
107gm Lye (Sodium Hydroxide - Caustic Soda)
280gm Water

There is nothing wrong with beef tallow, it doesn't smell and is excellent for your skin.  The only reason not to use it is if its against your religion.  It is not an inferior oil to use.

Lard and Coconut Soap
704gm  Pig Lard
96gm  Coconut oil
111gm  Lye (Sodium Hydroxide - Caustic Soda)
280gm Water

Single Oil Soaps
These could be very cheap depending where you live and availability of oils.

Coconut Oil
800gm Coconut oil
117gm Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) 20% Super Fat (needed for conditioning on skin)
280gm Water
This is an excellent soap. It cleans really well and bubbles like nothing else.  Very good shampoo soap, shaving soap and just a nice soap.

Lard 
800gm Pig Lard
108gm Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) 4% Super Fat
280gm  Water
This will be a very mild soap, with few bubbles but creamy.

Beef Tallow
 800gm  Beef Tallow
 107 gm  Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) 6% Super Fat
 280gm  Water
This is an all round good soap.  Moderate cleaning and bubbles but gentle and creamy.  The super fat is increased a little to compensate for the just under recommended conditioning level.

You can use Olive Oil as a single oil soap but I don't know where it would be exceptionally cheap.  Also it takes a long time to blend and a very long time to dry and harden.

Nice pets, nice to eat, nice to wear, but smelly soap.

Sheep Tallow would make a good laundry soap as it is higher in cleaning quality, but too low in conditioning for skin.  It isn't hard enough to have a high superfat to compensate for that.  It smells like sheep.





Use http://soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp to make your own recipe.  It is an excellent resource.  For first time users, just work through the boxes.  There is a beginners guide to using it.  Read the instructions before jumping in.

While the charted "resulting characteristics" of the oils in soap is accurate, there is a little bit more to it and you can work with some characteristics outside of the range.  Eg, Using Coconut oil soap is too harsh on skin but by having a very high superfat it prevents the skin drying  It is not recommended you have such a high superfat with soaps under normal circumstance but it works with coconut oil because of its extreme hardness..
Another example is Olive Oil as a single oil or high percentage oil soap (Castile).  It doesn't have a particularly high hardening rate, but it will harden given enough cure time. It may take 6-12 months to stop it being slimy when wet but it will work and make a very nice soap, especially for sensitive skin.

Use your own herbs to make an oil infusion

Because most of these oils are solid, you could use a slow cooker or double boiler to melt your oils and gently warm them.  Thoroughly mix your finely cut herbs into the oil.

You can use fresh herbs, just make sure they are clean and dry.  For citrus peel, have as much of the white rind removed.  Rosemary and Lavender are good for you.  Try and use a 2-1 ratio, oil - herb.  Its not important so just use what you have.

Do not boil the oil, just keep it warm/hot up to 6 hours, then strain out your herb "bits".

If you have a tree or plant in your area known to be good for your skin, try that. An example is Birch bark.  It has many wonderful healing properties.

If you live where is is warm enough for you tallow to be liquid, I would be reluctant to do a cold infusion with tallow for 6 weeks as you may find your tallow goes rancid.  This would be fine to do with Olive and Coconut oil.