Step 4: Once my oils were melted I created the lye solution. I wanted it to be nice and hot. To make a lye solution weigh the water and sodium hydroxide into two separate containers. Pour the lye into the water and stir. When cool, remove from the mold. Wrap soap in plastic wrap or wax paper. You must wrap it right away or it may collect moisture from the air and bead “sweat” on the surface. For batch #5 I bumped up the solvents quite a bit! I also reversed my stearic and coconut amounts, using more coconut than stearic. Let’s see what happens.

There are soft forms of Melt & Pour soap bases available (often known as bath butter or 'ice cream' soap), which can be piped like a cream icing when warm, which can be used to great effect when 'decorating' soap 'cakes'. Tip... To avoid 'bleeding' of colours into each-other, use a 'pigments' rather than dyes. Pigments have a larger particle size and are generally not water soluble, so will not bleed their colour. Alternatively, choose a specific colouring system like Zenicolour 5, made for the purpose. Transparent soap making can be a bit daunting to try. I hope this tutorial clearly explains the steps that I used and that it inspires you to give it a try! Step 8– Immediately cover with Press & Seal and the lid. Set to cook. You want as little evaporation of the alcohol to happen as possible so that it remains in the soap mixture to dissolve the soap. So, I got experimenting! I was inspired by a post in our soapmaking group, Saponification Nation, by Harriet Pretzsch. She generously shared her procedure for making a cold process transparent soap. You can find it on her blog here. You’ll have to translate it or join our FB group and search her name…you’ll find it translated.

Whatever you are doing...

Isopropyl – Isopropyl is also commonly called rubbing alcohol. It comes in different strengths, from 50%, 70% and 90%. Like I said, isopropyl doesn’t seem to be the best in transparent soap but it is cheaper than ethyl and does work. Use the highest strength that you can find. White sugar produces the best results. You can use raw sugar but your soap will have more amber color.

Results: The most crystal clear soap. Must wrap right after unmolding because of the high amount of solvents. Not the best lather when unmolded but it will probably improve a bit. So what is transparent soap? Transparent soap is simply hot process soap that uses solvents (sugar, glycerin and alcohol) to dissolve the soap crystals that form allowing light to pass, therefore creating transparency. Because the skin's pH is naturally slightly acidic (around 5.5), cleansing ingredients with an alkaline pH can disrupt the skin barrier and lead to irritation. That's why it's best to avoid sulfate-containing soap, especially if you have sensitive skin or eczema. "Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is a harsh detergent that is very effective, but can be very drying," explains Zeichner. "In fact, it’s used in clinical trials as the positive control to elicit irritation in the skin in comparison to other products." Uh, yikes. So if you see sodium laureth and/or lauryl sulfate on an ingredients list, it's probs best to avoid. Consider your skin sensitivityYou can add also exfoliating ingredients, like poppy seeds, or ground coffee, but I really want to keep this soap simple, and show you how good a soap can look without overdoing with addictives or techniques. Find Where To Buy Handmade Clear Soap In the shower or bath, wet your hands and rub your soap in them to create a lather. Wash your hands first, then repeat the process and apply soap to your whole body using the soap directly and your hands. You may also wash your face with it. Rinse hands and body abundantly. Also wash your soap from lather before placing it in your soap dish or bag saver. Now pour your glycerin soap into the molds. If the base cools too much and gets chunky or stiff, remelt it and stir. Let the molds sit until the soap is completely cool. By now most of you know I’m a soap maker. I have a small business that makes more than 400 bars a month and it’s still growing. I sell a lot of soap at the tailgate markets in the summer and I always have people asking for a glycerin soap base. It’s still a common myth that glycerin soap is milder and better for you. That can be true in some cases, but when you hand-craft a good cold process bar of soap, it contains just about as much glycerin.