DIY Coconut Oil Soap [Easy 3 Ingredient Soap At Home]

Make a natural coconut oil soap at home using only 3 ingredients! Coconut oil, water and lye! With all the chemical that’s in modern products, making your soap at home gives you so much control and customization opportunities. Full Recipe below: ALWAY double check soap formula on an online soap calculator.

Ingredients:
500g coconut oil
127 g distilled water
10 g citric acid
73 g lye

Melt the Coconut Oil: In a stainless steel pan, heat the coconut oil on very low heat until just liquefied. Coconut oil has a low melting point of only 76°F/ 24°C When fully melted, take off the heat and set aside.

Make the Lye Solution: Pour distilled water into a heat safe container. Add citric acid (optional) and stir to dissolve completelly. Pour the Lye into the water and stir with a stainless steel spoon. Do NOT breathe in the fumes. This will get very HOT. Stir well and leave someplace safe to cool.

Make Coconut Oil Soap: When the lye solution and oils are both around 100°F (38°C), pour the lye solution into the pan of oils. It's best to pour against a silicone spatula to reduce air bubbles. Blend the lye solution and oil together until it reaches trace. You will know you are close when the soap has thickened and is a light pudding consistency. Feel free to dip your stick blender in the pot and give it a few pulses to hurry this process.

Use silicone mold with cavities for best results. Leave the soap inside for 24-48 hours before popping it out. Cure for 10 weeks minimum.

A note on citric acid: The citric acid is completely optional, but recommended. When citric acid and lye (NaOH) mix, sodium citrate is made. Sodium citrate is a chelator in soap.

A chelator traps metal ions like calcium and magnesium that can be found in well or tap water.

These metal contaminants can cause rancidity and soap scum in handmade soap.

A chelator binds to these metals so that they can't bind to the soap molecules. This way the soap won't react with them. That being said, the soap's lather improves and shelf life increases!

Citric acid does not lower the pH of soap. Instead it consumes some of the lye and increases the superfat. Add 6 g extra lye for every 10 g of citric acid added to a soap recipe if you want to keep the superfat % at the same level.

How much citric acid should be added to soap? In bar soap you will want to use 1-2% of the oil weight.

How to use citric acid? Add citric acid to the distilled water and dissolve completely before adding the lye.

!!! This video is not intended to be a tutorial.

!!! This recipe is shared for fellow soap enjoyers. This recipe/video does not replace due diligence in learning and knowing how to properly handle lye and make handcrafted cold process soap. Follow all safety precautions.

!!! New England Homebody is not responsible for any outcome that results from prepping, making, and/or testing this recipe. Follow all safety precautions and heed all warnings for the production and use of cold process soap.

!!! A lye solution must only be made in a lye safe container. Lye and/or cold process soap should never come in contact with aluminum. Do not mix a lye solution in glass (like I did. But I will remember to be better next time)