SHEA BUTTER MELT AND POUR BASE
Recipe Instructions
Directions to Make Soap Base from Scratch
Step 1 – Melt the butters, wax & oils.
Turn your crockpot or slow cooker on high. Add the wax and butters, making sure the butters are broken up in small pieces first, for ease of melting. Add the coconut oil, olive oil, and castor oil, and any other liquid oils (like sweet almond) that the recipe calls for.
Cover the crockpot with its lid.
Step 2 – Make the lye solution.
After the wax, butters, and oil mixture have been melting for about 10 minutes, start the lye solution.
Wearing gloves and goggles and using proper safe soapmaking procedures (see Soapmaking 101), carefully sprinkle the lye into the water, using heavy duty plastic or stainless-steel containers. (Glass can shatter, and aluminum or cast iron can react negatively with the lye, so are not recommended.)
Stir until the lye is completely dissolved. Avoid breathing in the momentary strong fumes and use caution when handling lye. Set the lye solution aside for a few moments in a safe spot, such as your kitchen sink.
Step 3 – Blend in arrowroot & zinc oxide, if using.
Check the wax, oils, and butters mixture. If needed, use a fork to break up any unmelted bits, to help them melt faster. They may need another 5 or 10 minutes to finish melting.
Once those are melted or almost melted, add the arrowroot powder and zinc oxide if using, then blend into the oils with a stick blender.
Step 4 – Combine the lye solution and oils.
Turn the crockpot to low.
Pour the lye solution into the oils/butters/arrowroot mixture. Using a combination of hand-stirring and brief pulses with your stick blender, bring the mixture to trace.
Step 5 – Cook.
Cover the crockpot with its lid and set a timer for 15 minutes. Keep an eye on the soap, between the 15 minute intervals, since it may expand up to the top of the crockpot. If that happens, just stir it down until it behaves again.
After 15 minutes, check the soap and stir it.
Set a new timer for 15 more minutes, then check and stir again.
Set the timer for 15 more minutes of cooking.
At this point, your soap has been cooking for around 45 minutes. You might notice it turning more translucent and Vaseline-like because it’s gelling, though it will be harder to see with zinc oxide added to the batch.
Because crockpot temperatures vary widely, your soap may reach this stage sooner, or later than 45 minutes. These photos just show how my crockpot runs.
Cook for 15 more minutes, for a total of 1 hour cook time.
Step 6 – Add the vegetable glycerin.
Weigh out 14 to 16 ounces of glycerin and stir into the hot soap paste in the crockpot.
Mix well.
Glycerin is what makes the soap base able to be remelted. If you live in a humid climate, you may want to use less glycerin, but the less you use, the less easily the soap will melt. It’s a bit of a trade-off!
Step 7 – Dissolve the soap paste into the glycerin.
Cook for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
If needed, sparingly use your stick blender to gently and briefly pulse floating chunks of solid soap so that they blend into the glycerin better. Don’t overuse your stick blender here, or you’ll get lots of unwanted bubbles and foam on top of your finished soap base.
Cook until the soap paste has completely melted into the glycerin. This depends on your recipe and crock pot temperature and might take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or longer.
Tip: You can spritz the top of the soap generously with rubbing alcohol to help decrease bubbles & foaming on top while melting the glycerin and soap together.
Step 8 – Finishing up.
Pour the finished soap base into a soap mold and generously spritz the top with alcohol.
Tip: The mold I used for this project is Crafter’s Choice Regular Silicone Loaf Mold 1501.
Leave the soap base undisturbed and uncovered overnight or for 12 to 24 hours, to allow the soap time to completely cool and harden.
Remove soap base from the mold.
If you added zinc oxide to the oils for a whiter soap base, you may notice a thin whiter layer of soap on the top of the soap base. That’s normal for these recipes and will melt together nicely when you make your projects.
As mentioned above in the tips section, I let my soap base cure for a few weeks in the open air before using, but that’s optional. You may also use the base right away if you wish
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Soap Properties
Highlighted gray ranges represent recommended ranges for each property.
100
80
60
40
20
0
INS: 154.71 (ideal)
iodine: 47.8 (ideal)
Calculated Values for Oils and Preferences
| Superfat % | 5% |
| Saturated | 247.85 Gram(s) |
| Mono-Unsaturated | 200.70 Gram(s) |
| Poly-Unsaturated | 36.12 Gram(s) |
| Saturated:Unsaturated Ratio | 48.86:51.14 |
| Lye concentration | 99% |
| Weight Unit | Gram(s) |
| Soap type | solid |
Fatty Acid Profile
| Oleic | 29.58% |
| Linoleic | 6.76% |
| Linolenic | 0.39% |
| Ricinoleic | 10.16% |
| Lauric | 13.78% |
| Myristic | 5.34% |
| Palmitic | 6.28% |
| Stearic | 23.68% |
Recommended Additive Amounts
Swipe on table to see all values
For Advanced Soapmakers
| Sodium Lactate (60%)
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| Recommended Essential/Fragrance Oil | 22.09 Gram(s) | ||||||
| Ascorbic Acid
| 5.05 Gram(s) | ||||||
| Extra Lye to Neutralize Ascorbic Acid for A.A. | NaOH: 1.03 Gram(s) | ||||||
| Lactic Acid
| 3.79 Gram(s) | ||||||
| Extra Lye to Neutralize Lactic Acid for L.A. | NaOH: 2.26 Gram(s) | ||||||
| Tetrasodium EDTA
| 3.94 Gram(s) | ||||||
| Sodium Citrate
| 6.57 - 19.70 Gram(s) | ||||||
| Potassium Citrate
| 8.08 - 24.24 Gram(s) | ||||||
| Rosemary Oleoresin (ROE)
| 0.20 - 0.25 Gram(s) | ||||||
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Citric Acid Powder (anhydrous) |
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Extra Lye to Neutralize Citric Acid Powder for C.A. |
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