Project 3.7, Soap Processing

Making soap is actually so much fun. I feel like I am organizing a party but I am also a scientist, and I am benefitting mucho from my lab work. I’ve outlined the steps I took below for synthetic soap and my avocado soap.

Synthetic:

1. Devise what materials (oils, fragrances, exfoliants) you want to use

2. Make sure you have protective equipment (goggles and gloves)

3. Set up your recipe based off of the properties of oils you’ve selected

4. Measure water, oils, and lye in weight according to your recipe keeping separate

a. When measuring coconut oil, measure in room temperature state, then melt down afterwards

5. Mix liquid oils to hard oils

6. Mix fragrances to oil batch

7. Begin adding lye to water, never water to lye (dangerous)

8. Add lye water to oil batch

9. Mix with immersion blender

10. Add color and exfoliants

11. Pour into mold

12. Let sit 24 hours

13. Cut

14. Let sit 1 month to solidify

Avocado:

1. Get a seed from your avocado and let sit dry for one day

2. Shred the seed with a cheese grater

3. Bring the shreds and 2 cups of water to a boil and simmer for a half an hour

4. Strain the pot and mix into your near dry shampoo bottle

5. Use shampoo as normal