How to Make Your Own Melt and Pour Soap

Hi everyone, I have a special treat for you today! I first met Zacil through Facebook several months ago, and I’ve been admiring her soaps ever since. A couple of months ago, she shared on her Facebook page (Soap&Soap) that she had made her own melt and pour soap base. I was intrigued, because unlike most homemade melt and pour recipes I’ve seen, this one doesn’t use alcohol. I asked Zacil if she would be willing to do a guest post for us, on how to make your own melt and pour soap, and she kindly agreed! So, please welcome Zacil and enjoy her post below. Thank you Zacil! :)

Where do you start when you write a Blog post?. I’ve been asking myself that for a couple of weeks. Never done this before, so bare with me please?

Hi, my name is Zacil and I am a Soapaholic!.

I’ve been soaping since 1.5 years. The reason I started?, well… I love the personal care products from a certain shop ( L****) and buying them was leading me to bankruptcy. I started to inform myself about alternatives over the internet, home recipes and then… I discover a new world!. I found a new hobby where I have tons of fun, met wonderful people and where, in terms of creativity, sky is the limit!

On my information and inspirational journey – yes, we soapers call it inspiration, not copy catting – I found Cee and her wonderful blog. I cannot tell you how much I learned from her!. So thank you very much Cee!. Anyway, that’s how my journey started and how I met Cee.

A couple of months ago I posted in my Facebook page a recipe for self-made M&P. I saw a post on Soaping 101 about it and was intrigued because I am an "embed junkie". I’ve bought M&P bases, but was not quite satisfied with the quality and "feel" about them. They have this "synthetic" texture that has no comparison with selfmade soap. By no means I’m trying to criticize people who soap with M&P bases, I just like the idea of making my own and be sure of what I have in it.

I've adapted this recipe from the recipe I saw on Soaping 101, the process is pretty simple. You need to make an HP soap, and once it is ready, add 100 % Glycerin (from your oils weight). Then you cook the soap again, mixing now and then with the spoon until everything is melted down and it looks transparent.Once it has reached this point, pour it in your mould, let it set for 24 Hours and…. Voilá!... you have M&P:

To use it, just cut as much as you need, melt it on the microwave as you would any M&P.

The recipe I used:

Coconut 32 %
Palm 32 %
Castor 32 %
Stearic Acid 4 %
SF 3 %

It's so easy!

Notes from Cee: I followed Zacil’s instructions and just wanted to add my notes from making this (so I don't forget how I did it!). I used the following recipe, which filled just over my 2-pound mold: 

Castor Oil 144 grams

Coconut Oil 144 grams

Palm Oil 144 grams

Stearic Acid 18 grams

Distilled Water 160 grams

Lye 66.04 grams

After Cook: 450 grams Glycerin

I melted the oils in the microwave before putting them in the crock pot, then I added my lye solution (I used almost the full amount of water suggested by my lye calculator) and I used my whisk to stir. It came to trace almost immediately (pic 1), most likely due to the stearic acid. I stirred the soap every 15 minutes while it was cooking in the crock pot (on low). After 45 minutes, you could see the edges start to gel (applesauce stage) (pic 2).  I cooked the HP soap for a total of 1 hour, until it was at complete applesauce stage and had no zap (pic 3). I added the glycerin (pic 4) and then stirred all together (pic 5). I stirred it every 15 minutes for another 30 to 45 minutes on low, until everything was clear and melted, as per Zacil’s instructions (pic 6). 

Of course, these times would be variable, depending on your crock pot and how big your recipe was. These were just my individual results.

I really didn’t expect much with the lather, I thought that all of the added glycerin would really cut the lather, but that wasn’t the case at all! The lather was abundant and full, as you can see in the collage picture above.

I melted down some of the soap I made and added some mica for color, you can see that it works beautifully:

I can't wait to try making some embeds with this!

This was so easy, just as Zacil said - it’s exactly like making HP soap. Thank you Zacil for sharing your recipe and technique! :)

Here is a video that Dana from New England Artisan Soaps made showing the process: 

UPDATE: Zacil was actually able to track down the original blog post, so that we could link back to it! The blog is in Russian, but the translator on Google Chrome does a pretty good job of translating it and there is a very good picture tutorial on the blog too: http://magicsoap.ru/4443-mylnaya-osnova-svoimi-rukami-s-nulya-kak-sdelat-v-domashnih-usloviyah-recept-i-master-klass.html