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Perfect for those with sensitive skin, this homemade glycerin soap recipe makes a hard bar of soap that lathers nicely while gently cleansing and moisturizing your skin.
What is glycerin soap?
It sounds like an easy question, but there is really a bit of confusion about what should be called glycerin soap.
When most people think of glycerin soap, they think of translucent soaps. Many think of the translucent melt and pour soaps that can be melted down to make easy, customizable soaps. (Although not all melt and pour soaps are translucent, of course).
What most people don’t know is that there is glycerin in all soap because it is a byproduct of the soap making process.
The difference between translucent “glycerin” soaps and other more opaque soaps with glycerin in them, is that the glycerin soaps have been cooked with certain solvents like sugar, alcohol, and, well, more glycerin, to help make the soap crystals small so that light can pass through. (It’s the soap crystals that reflect light back at our eyes, making soap opaque).
Glycerin soap benefits
Glycerin is a humectant, meaning that it helps retain, or reduce the loss of, moisture.
What’s special about glycerin, though, compared to some other humectants, is that it is an endogenous humectant, meaning we have it naturally in our skin. Glycerin has been shown to help restore moisture and elasticity in the stratum corneum layer of our skin, helping to restore the barrier that protects us.
Interestingly enough, even after you stop using glycerin topically, it can continue to help form a barrier to help prevent moisture loss for up to 2 weeks.
Glycerin soaps are thought to be milder and gentler on the skin. While that probably depends on each particular recipe or soap, I’ve found that this soap has worked well on my son who has sensitive skin with atopic dermatitis. (That said, I still use soaps, or other washing products like gels, sparingly on his skin, and most days only rinse the majority of his skin with water.)
I find this to be a great overall soap for face and body, and I like how it helps reduce acne on my skin.
Watch how I make glycerin soap
The Glycerin Soap Making Process
Making a translucent glycerin soap is really a two part process.
First, you have to make the soap, using a hot process method. (I use my slow cooker which works perfectly for both parts of the process.)
After you have made your soap, you need to dissolve the soap crystals to help allow the light to pass through the soap, making it translucent. To do that, you will use a combination of several different “solvents.”
On my first two attempts, I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to dissolve the crystals. I wasn’t careful to keep the slow cooker well sealed, and I didn’t leave the solvents to work longer, or add more of them, to try to get a more translucent soap.
If getting a more translucent soap is important to you, I’ve given you a range of different solvent values for you to experiment with. I chose to add an amount somewhere in the middle of the given range of each particular solvent. You may want to try adding a smaller amount, and increase, as needed, until your soap gets more translucent. Using a stronger alcohol will also probably help you get a clearer soap.
If you’re really picky about getting translucent soap, I’d suggest reading the book, Making Transparent Soap: The Art Of Crafting, Molding, Scenting & Coloring by Catherine Failor. Her techniques are the ones that most people follow when making both translucent solid soaps and translucent liquid soaps. She has another book about Making Natural Liquid Soaps. If you’re interested in making liquid soaps, I have a couple of liquid soap recipes up on the blog. (You can choose to make a liquid castile soap, or a liquid coconut oil soap, or make both and combine them to get the best of both worlds.)
Choosing oils for a glycerin soap recipe
Because we are going to be using solvents to dissolve some of the soap crystals, it’s best to use oils that make a harder bar of soap. This will help ensure you’ll still end up with a hard, long lasting bar of soap despite the solvent process.
In general, oils that are solid at room temperature tend to make harder bars of soap. (Olive oil can also make a hard bar of soap, but it usually requires a long curing process to get it to harden.) Tallow and coconut oil are great oils for this type of recipe; not only because they make a nice hard bar of soap, but they are also said to be good for making a translucent, rather than cloudy, glycerin soap.
Castor oil is another common oil used in translucent soap making, not because it’s a solid oil that makes a hard bar of soap (because it isn’t, of course), but because castor oil is said to be somewhat of a solvent on its own.
Even after using the solvents, this recipe made very hard bars of soap, and I really love the way it lathers. The coconut oil adds to the cleaning factor of the soap and helps make a bubbly lather. The castor oil helps stabilize that lather. This was the first time I used tallow for making soap because it’s not very easy to find here. (I wanted to make my own, but couldn’t get any butchers to save beef fat for me for rendering tallow.) I have to say that I really love it, and plan on using it more often.
Choosing an alcohol as a solvent
I would have loved to use a consumable alcohol without any added scents or ingredients like Everclear, but I wasn’t able to find anything like that here.
Funny story…
I actually went to the supermarket with my mother-in-law and bought some 70% absinthe because it was the only drinkable alcohol I could find over 50% here in Spain. I was slightly embarrassed buying it, and felt the need to say that it was for making soap. In the end, I felt bad about using an expensive alcohol in my experiments with making a translucent soap, and wasn’t sure how the green coloring would affect the color of my final soap. (I wanted to see what I’d end up with without adding anything at all to it.)
I decided to use some 70% denatured alcohol instead. I was worried about it leaving an unusual scent to my soap, but honestly I don’t notice any off putting fragrances from the alcohol, despite my having forgotten to add any essential oils in the end for fragrance.
I think next time I’d try with a stronger alcohol to see if my soap turns out more translucent. If anybody gives a 96% alcohol, or something similar, a try, I’d love to hear how it goes!
I now have been left with a completely full bottle of absinthe at my house, if anybody wants to come for a party. (Just kidding about the second part.)
Superfatting glycerin soaps
Because excess oils can make for a cloudy soap, I chose not to superfat this soap. (Superfatting is when you add more oils to the soap than what are needed to react with the amount of lye used. Some unreacted oils remain in the soap, and can leave a hydrating film on your skin when you use the soap.)
The excess glycerin in this soap helps compensate and acts as the leftover emollient that helps make a moisturizing soap. I used the same thought process when making my liquid castile soap and liquid coconut oil soap, and find that both are very mild for use on face and body.
Now that I’ve been using this glycerin soap for awhile, I definitely don’t think it’s missing anything, and love it just the way it is. That said, you could always try adding slightly more oil if you prefer to superfat the soap.
Glycerin soap recipe
Homemade Glycerin Soap Recipe (From Scratch)
Makes around 8 bars of soap.
Ingredients
For the soap
- 304 g distilled water
- 117.7 g lye NaOH
- 440 g tallow
- 200 g castor oil
- 160 g coconut oil
Solvents
- 120 g glycerin Between 98g and 147g
- 300 g 70º alcohol Between 275g and 321g
- 90 g sugar Between 73g and 110g
- 180 g distilled water Between 147g and 244g
Instructions
Make the soap.
- Weigh out the lye in a small, non-metal bowl.
- Weigh out the distilled water in another, larger, non metal bowl.
- In a well ventilated area, carefully pout the lye into the container with the distilled water. You should wear gloves and goggles to protect your eyes and hands. Stir the lye into the water until it is dissolved. The mixture will heat up and get cloudy at first, but will clear up and cool down with time.
- Leave the lye mixture to cool while you weigh out the oils. I find that the easiest way is to place the bowl on a digital scale, tare it, add an oil to the bowl until you reach the right weight. You then tare again before carefully adding the next oil, and between each addition.
- Add the oils to a slow cooker on low heat, and stir them together well. Allow any solid oils like the tallow to melt.
- Carefully add the lye mixture to the melted oils, and gently stir them together. Once the lye solution is fully incorporated into the oils, you can begin to blend them together with an immersion blender.
- Blend with the immersion blender until the mixture thickens to trace. Once the mixture has reached trace, place the lid on the slow cooker and allow the soap mixture to cook for several hours (around 3) until it starts to get transparent.
- You have now made a hot process soap.
Use the solvents to make it translucent.
- Weigh out the alcohol and the glycerin. You will be mixing them together and adding them to your soap. I would have liked to use a high proof alcohol like Everclear, but couldn't find anything like that here in Spain. I ended up using a 70º denatured alcohol. they say that if you use a higher concentration of alcohol, that it will do a better job of making the soap more transparent. (Perhaps next time I'll try with a 90+% denatured alcohol. Rubbing alcohol is said to leave an unpleasant scent behind, but I haven't tried it to verify the difference.)
- Pour the alcohol and glycerin mixture into the soap. You'll probably end up with chunks of soap floating in the liquid. Try to break them up as best as you can. (I used my immersion blender to break up the chunks and fully incorporate the alcohol and glycerin into the soap. Work in a well-ventilated area for this step and be careful not to have any open flames in the area. (You should always be careful when heating high percentages of alcohol.)
- Cover the crock pot, sealing it as best you can so that the alcohol doesn't evaporate. (If it evaporates too quickly, it won't be able to work its magic on the soap.)
If you really have your heart set on making a translucent soap, you should seal your crock pot with some sort of plastic wrap before placing the lid on top. I didn't have any on hand, and wasn't really too concerned about making a fully transparent soap, so I just used the regular lid of my crock pot. - Allow the soap to cook, covered and sealed, for around 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make your sugar syrup. Weigh out the sugar and water and mix them together in a saucepan over low to medium heat until the sugar has completely dissolved. Remove it from the heat.
- Once the 30 minutes has passed, you can begin to add the sugar solution to the soap. Gently mix it in, trying not to move the soap too much so as not to form a lot of foam or bubbles.
- At this point, you can begin to test the soap for translucence. It will look translucent to the eye, but as it cools, it will become more opaque. The way most people check is by freezing a glass, and adding a small amount of soap to the bottom of the glass to cool it. Keep in mind that you are using a very thin layer of soap, and that when you have a thicker layer it won't be as translucent.
- To try to get a more translucent soap, you can continue to cook the soap, adding in small amounts of the various solvents and checking the translucence with the frozen glass. (To be honest, I didn't bother, and just added the sugar, and went right to pouring the soap into the mold. Perhaps next time I'll try for a more translucent soap, and will give you my tips for what works best.)
- At this point, you can add in any fragrances or colorings. The nice thing about this soap is that because it has been cooking for so long, and has completed the saponification (soap making) phase, you can even use food coloring to color your soaps. You won't have to worry about the lye reacting with the colorants and changing them as often happens when adding things to cold process soaps.
- Clear the foam off the soap, and carefully pour the soap into your soap molds. Try to be gentle at this stage as any movement can cause foaming of the soap, which will lead to a more opaque soap. (I wasn't very careful, and my soaps have a more transparent layer on the bottom, with a thin layer that is more opaque at the top, where the bubbly soap settled before hardening.)
- You can skim the foam off and pour it into small soap molds. They will make a more opaque soap that will work just as well as the rest of the soap.
- Allow the soap to set undisturbed overnight.
- The next morning, check the soap for hardness. If it is hard enough, unmold the soap and cut it into bars as needed.
- Allow your soap to cure and dry for several weeks. This is best done by separating the soaps to allow for air flow over them. It's a good idea to rotate the soaps occasionally so that all sides dry at the same rate. The curing process will allow it to harden and finish any remaining chemical processes to make for a better soap.
My first experience making glycerin soap
The first time I tried to make a glycerin soap, I decided to try using a new wooden soap mold for my newly made soap. I should have experimented with a soap that was easier and quicker to make like my easy, beginner soap.
What happened?
The mold began to leak, and I ended up with my soap solution all over the counter. I scraped up some of it, and tried pouring it into another mold, but by that point I had a lot of parts that were hardening up and floating in the melted soap mixture. I decided that I was going to use my immersion blender to smooth out the mixture before pouring it back into the other mold.
The result?
Because I didn’t let the mixture settle again, I ended up with a more cloudy soap. The soap started to settle on its own leaving a clearer, harder bar of soap on the bottom, and a foamier, opaque soap on top.
What did I learn?
It’s just as important to be careful how you handle the soap when pouring into the molds. You want to be gentle and not incorporate a lot of air into the mixture. That is, unless you are going for this lemon merengue pie look to your soap! (I have to admit that it is kind of cool. The foamy layer is very soft, and almost like a marshmallow.)
Making a loofah soap
I decided to use the translucency of this soap to my advantage, and made loofah soaps. The loofah serves as a gentle, natural exfoliant for bathing.
To make a loofah soap, you can use PVC piping as your soap mold. If you have a PVC pipe cap, you can seal off one end with one of those. If not, you can seal off the end with some heavy plastic and rubber bands.
Add the loofah to the pvc pipe and weigh it down with something. (I used a spoon.)
Once in place, gently pour the soap into the pipe over the loofah.
When the soap has hardened, the easiest way to pull the soap from the mold is to put the pipe into the freezer for at least half an hour. Not only will this help solidify the soap, but it will slightly reduce its size long enough to help you push the soap out of the mold.
Carefully cut the soap into round bars and allow them to cure like you would any other bar of soap.
I’m sure somebody will ask me why the loofah soaps stayed white, while the other soaps turned yellow after during the curing process…
I wish I had an answer. I will say that they were from the same batch, and I didn’t add any colorants or any different ingredients to one versus the other. I poured the bar soaps first, and then filled up the pvc mold for the loofah soaps. If anybody has any ideas about why they aren’t the same color, I’d love to hear them!
Healthy Paleo Red Soda (Red Pop)
Hello
I wonder how long does it take for that glycerine soap mold to dry?
Thank you
Hi Mahmoud,
Do you mean how long until you can take it out of the mold? Or how long the total cure time is?
For removing from the mold, you can press into the soap with your finger the next day to see if it’s solid enough to remove without deforming. At that point, you can remove it and cut it into bars.
While you could use it safely immediately, all soaps benefit from a cure time of around a month. During that time, the soap dries further, gets harder, improves lather, etc.
Dear Tracy, I have a serious safety concern about you using (and recomending) the use of denatured alcohol in skincare products. Alcohol is often denatured with methanol, which is toxic through skin contact and deffinately not appropriate for skincare products. Even if the specific brand you use is free of methanol, it will have other unpleasant chemicals added to denature it & most of your readers are unlikely to be sufficiently knowledgeable chemists to differentiate them anyway.
I recommend using consumable alcohol, but not everybody has access to that. It is illegal in many countries to have consumable alcohol at the high enough percentage used for this soap.
My alcohol was specifically intended for cosmetic use, which is why it was not denatured with methanol.
What do you suggest for those who can’t access drinkable ethanol?
I think Propylene Glycol (USP grade or Food Grade that is the one used in the Pharma or Food industries) is a good substitute for Denatured (methylated or otherwise) Alcohol.
Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks
Hello,
Yes, I’ve read that you can use propylene glycol. It also is supposed to help make it be a pour-and-melt type of soap.
I’ve never personally used it, though.
Sprit also can use?
Hi Manju,
It would depend on what type you are referring to.
The higher the alcohol content, the better it will work as a solvent to help dissolve away part of the crystalline structure to make a more translucent soap.
🙌👍
Would Everclear alcohol be too strong for this soap recipe? I believe it is legal in my state.
Hi Leigh,
Everclear would be great to use! I wish I could get ahold of it here for all sorts of projects. 😉
Hello…
Nice soap making receipe. I want to know whether I can add alum (dissolved in water) in melted glycerin? I would like to make a soap of melted glycerin, alum in water, color n perfume. Will this receipe work? Please suggest me something.
Hi Leena,
Well, to be honest, I have no idea what the alum would do in this sort of soap. It’s not something I’ve ever worked with before. May I ask you why you want to use alum? Is it for shaving? (Just curious.)
Thank you for the reply! Alum works as a deodorising agent. So I want to use that in the soap.
Let’s see. I will try. The only thing I am worried about it is, it should not catch fungus etc if I store it, because of water in the product. And one more thing is alum should not get converted in crystals once soap becomes hard.
Hi Leena,
Soaps are self-preserving. They don’t need a preservative because they have a naturally high pH, which makes them unhabitable for most bacteria and fungi. So, no, you shouldn’t have to worry about the fungus.
I’m not sure about the alum/crystals as I’ve never worked with alum before. I have absolutely no idea about how it would react with soap.
Well I got thru the day ! Lol I just finished the recipe with 500g of soup. I had to make this recipe because I am allergic to castor oil, so used olive oil, mango butter, broccoli oil, and the minimum of coconut oil just for cleansing These are the results:
I didn’t have foam, it had a brownish color because of the broccoli oil. To me it came out good! I used 91% regular alcohol. After if there is any strange odor I will let you know.
Hello,
I’m happy it worked out for you.
Normally you have to be careful about switching oils out because soap recipes tend to be quite precise and specific to the oils chosen.
Each oil needs a different amount of lye.
Also, switching oils will completely change the color, texture, lather, cleansing ability, etc.
In the end, though, if it worked and you are happy with it, I’m glad.
Just keep that in mind before making future subs in soap recipes. 😉
On step #4 in using the solvents section, is that still using low heat as in the making the soap section?
Hi Cath,
Yes, I continue to cook when using the solvents.
hi
I’d like to know how I can do business with you. To provide the materials
I’m not sure what you mean?
I don’t sell soaps.
You may either tell me what you want here, though, or email me at Tracy@thethingswellmake.com
Thank you for this recipe. I also loved your video, simple and straight forward. Can I substitute the tallow with another oil – making for vegan group and need to use another type of oil.
Hi Victoria,
You can’t just switch out the oils and fats of a soap recipe without running the new recipe through a lye calculator.
That said, I do have a vegan glycerin soap recipe up on the blog.
hello dear, i just want to ask u about this glycerin recipe, i see that is free propylen glycol, and what i know that propylene glycol allow the soap to be melted, is ur recipe free propylen glycol could be melted after cure time?
Hello Doha,
I did melt a couple of thin bars as a test and they actually did melt OK. I’m not sure if it melts as nicely as the propylene glycol ones, but definitely much better than trying to melt a normal bar of soap.
Hi,
I made my first glycerine soap but it is still very very liquid in other day, should I heat it more or is it better to add some fresh made hard soap and mix with soft glycerine soap mixture? pH of my glycerine soap is 8-9m i found it very low…?
Hi Lita,
What recipe did you follow?
The solvents are taking away part of the crystalline structure of the soap, which can soften it. That’s why a good glycerin soap recipe will use lots of hard fats that will make a nice hard bar of soap to begin with. Even after using the solvents on this soap, it is very hard.
I wouldn’t mix it with another soap because that will end up making it very opaque, I think, and it sort of defeats the purpose of all of the hard work you’ve done so far.
Yes, you could try cooking it a bit more. That will help evaporate away some of the liquid and maybe help it harden more quickly.
I’m not sure about the pH. Yes, most soaps are around pH=9. So, if it’s closer to the 9, that isn’t really that unusual. I haven’t tested the pH of this soap. I normally only test it if I see something weird about a particular soap.
Hi tracy, i am new in soap. And i still do research. I brought already my ingredients, and since our law are not allowed 70% or more. So i brought 60% which is available here. My question is- should i do the same thing as you written above or should i less the water? I appreciate and hope you read this comment i was a little bit confusing about my 60% alcohol.
Hi May,
The only thing that will be affected is the transparency really. It depends on how important that is to you.
I’d probably try it with the same amount of water, but you may find yourself adding more alcohol if you are trying to achieve a more translucent soap. If you cook it a bit longer afterward, especially if you end up adding more alcohol, the extra water will eventually evaporate out.
Good luck with it!
Glycerin soaps are milder and gentler on the skin. specially in winter glycerin are are very useful for the skin.thanks for sharing detailed information about the glycerin soap and its benefits.
Hi,
Thank you so much for the recipe.
I tried this using KOH as the lye. because it is said that caustic soda is not much suitable to the skin.
And I experienced a cake forming on the soap.do not know whether this is due to the mismatch of the lye against the oils. can you advice with that?
Thanks.
– sujan De silva
Hi Susan,
You can’t switch out the NaOH for KOH. It will give a totally different result.
NaOH is meant for bar soaps like this one. KOH is meant for liquid soaps.
Neither is good for your skin when used directly. They are very caustic.
When you make soap, though, they are chemically reacted with the oils and neither remains.
Please read my post about working with lye. It will clear up a lot of your concerns and answer a lot of questions for you!
I made this soap last night and accidentally forgot to add the glycerine! What can I do???
Hi Ka,
I’d imagine you’ll still end up with a nice bar of soap, so you have a couple of options. Cut yourself a bar and see if you like it and keep it as is, or…
This soap should be fairly simple to melt and add when re-melted. You may have to add a bit more alcohol and/or sugar solution to keep things translucent if yours already was and if that’s important to you. If it isn’t (to me it’s not that important), you can just add the glycerin and re-pour into the molds.
If it isn’t melting well without the glycerin, you can add a small amount of water (or one of the other solvents) to help things along. 🙂
Thanks for the superb recipe. I successfully made the soap but the tallow odor is there in the soap.
I used beef tallow.
Is there any solution to kill the tallow odor.
Regards
Hi Muhammad,
I’m sorry to hear that! I made mine with a deodorized tallow. I wanted to make my own, but I couldn’t get my hands on enough beef fat. (I even asked at several butchers, but nobody wanted to save it for me.)
I ended up finding a shelf stable tallow meant for soap making.
I hadn’t even considered that using a homemade tallow would cause the scent to be part of the soap.
Did you add any fragrance to your soap to mask the scent?
Mine retains a very slight scent of the alcohol used as a solvent, but it’s very light. I’ve had people tell me the soap smells “clean.” (I’m guessing that tallow scented soap doesn’t smell as clean.)
You could try remelting some of the soap and adding a fragrance to mask the scent, but I’m not sure if it will be enough. When you re-melt, you may have to add more solvents to keep the soap translucent if yours was translucent to begin with.
Hola, descubrí tu blog ayer y estoy encantada con el mundo de información y la facilidad con que describes los procesos, felicidades y muchas gracias!!!
Hola Graciela,
Muchas gracias-
Tengo que ponerme a traducir de nuevo… lo tengo pendiente. 😉
¿Has visto que tengo blog en español también?
This soap is incredible and loved your video presentation! I would love to try to make this because glycerine always has been perfect for my skin. Do you know if there is a substitute for tallow? I’m trying to find a vegan-friendly alternative. Your soaps are fabulous! Thank you for any insight you can help me with
Hi Amy,
Thank you so much!
I’ve heard that palm oil works well as a substitute, but I haven’t personally tried it. I have made a vegan version using only coconut oil and castor oil and it makes a very nice soap too. It’s a much whiter bar of soap. Mine didn’t turn out very translucent, but I love it and will be posting it on the blog soon.
Love!!!!
Thanks! 🙂
I was wondering if you was able to melt it and pour? This is so very similar to my recipe for melt and pour but I don’t use alcohol. Instead I use food grade PG. Its my tried and true and I make about once a week. I have bought dentured alcohol. But I haven’t tried it yet mostly because when I make it, it’s to use and I hate to have an unusable batch. Mine is rather soft but I’ve never actually tried curing because of the humidity. I also wanted to help with the question of what to use in place of Tallow. Palm oil is an exact replacement for Tallow. I use them interchangable in all my recipes. (Please no negitive comments regarding my use of palm. I exclusively use humanly sourced palm from essential depo) I prefer to use Tallow.but I don’t always have it on hand.
Hello,
I was to a certain point, but I haven’t really tried to use it like that because I really like the soap so I haven’t really wanted to play with it too much. Let me better explain… I was rebatching some soaps that I didn’t love and first started melting the end pieces of this soap. I also added some of the foamy bits. It melted quite nicely but right afterward I added bits and pieces of the other soaps. I ended up adding a bit of water, but it was mainly for the other soaps. I think this soap helped extremely with the texture of the final soap. I really love the rebatched soap mixture that used this in it.
I have since made this soap using only coconut oil and castor oil- to avoid the tallow- and it’s also quite a nice soap. It is white in color and hasn’t yellowed at all. This soap has since darkened into a more amber color. I’ll be taking pictures in the next week or two because I want to take pictures of the coconut oil soap too and post that recipe. I’d like to update this post with the alternative and with the newer pictures of how this soap has changed.
Thanks for the suggestion about palm oil. I actually bought some when I wanted to try to make a shave soap, and for some reason never did. I was going to try to make some other soap with it, so this might be a nice one to try. It’s really one of my favorite soaps so far!
I’m definitely not planning on giving you any negative comments! I really appreciate your input! I also love that you use humanely sourced palm oil. I don’t really ever use palm oil (or haven’t as of yet) because of the possible issues with it, but I also bought the one I bought because it was said to be humanely sourced as well and I was curious.
If I do give it a try, I’ll let you know.
Thanks I see it very interesting and amazing I so much enjoyed the video appreciate
Tracy ariza
You’re welcome, Humphrey!
Thanks it is very interesting.
BTW….I did make glycerin soap with pig tallow and it turned out really nice. It has an odd smell to it, but it cures out after a few weeks.
Thanks for commenting on your experience. I’ll have to try sometime. I made a vegan version a week or two ago with mostly coconut oil. I’m waiting to let it cure further before taking pictures and posting about it on the blog. (A lot of people were asking for one that didn’t use animal fats.)
Did it turn out translucent? (Or weren’t you trying much for that? I never really care about it, but so many people ask me about these things.)
Thank you, Tracy…this was really helpful, and I enjoyed the video!
You’re very welcome!
Hi Tracy can you suggest any material to replace alcohal in soap as Muslims and Jews don’t use alcohal products please reply on my email can we try sugar can ferlmentedl solution or any other organic fermented solution to replace alcohal as viniger
Hello Rao,
Alcohol is really the best solvent for dissolving away some of the crystalline structure to make a more translucent soap. You can still make the soap without it, but it won’t get that translucent quality.
It’s said that you can use propylene glycol, but I’ve never tried it. Some people have bad reactions to propylene glycol and I prefer to go a more natural route. Of course, if we must get technical, propylene glycol also has alcohol groups on the molecule.
From what I understand, though, you can get non-edible alcohol in pharmacies even in strict countries like Saudi Arabia. Of course, if you don’t personally feel comfortable using it, I understand and respect that, but it is something to consider.
Hello Rao,
I don’t know where you learned that Jews don’t use alcohol, but that is not true. I am sitting here waiting for my soap to cook as we speak, using Everclear (190 proof).
Best of luck….
Can we make clear transparent soap by altering the formulation little bit?
I’ve been finding that by increasing the amount of the solvents used, I’ve had better luck getting it more transparent, but I still haven’t been successful getting it completely transparent, and it definitely doesn’t stay clear for me. In fact, the soaps I made here have darkened to an amber color with time. I need to take pictures and update the post to show them. They look pretty much identical to the glycerin soaps normally sold here in Spain.
I recently made a vegan batch with mostly coconut oil and the color was clearer. I’ll have to check on the color again to see if it’s stayed that way. I put them up high to let them cure and haven’t looked at them for the last couple of weeks. I haven’t been as concerned with the transparency so I haven’t put that much effort into that, but I think if you play with the amounts of solvents, you should be able to get closer to transparent soap.
Thank you friend . Its simple and super
You’re very welcome!
What is tallow?
Tallow is rendered beef fat. That basically means that you melt beef fat and strain it and end up with a clean, white fat. It’s the equivalent of lard being rendered pork fat. (You can see the process of rendering lard here.)
Some places sell already rendered tallow to use for soap making which is what I used.
This looks great! Can I substitute the tallow with a vegan alternative (that is also not palm)?
Hi Chris,
I’ve been getting a lot of requests for a vegan version, so I’ve been meaning to give it a shot.
The reason tallow is used is that solvents are being added to make the soap more translucent, and that can soften the soap. Animal oils make for a very hard bar of soap.
I just calculated out a recipe for using only coconut oil and castor oil, but I’d like to test it out before recommending it. 🙂
Perhaps I’ll give it a shot this afternoon.
You may use rice bran oil and stearic acid in a ratio of 85:15.
Everclear is not sold in my state…will the 91% rubbing alcohol work in it’s place? I am a new soaper…
Hi Brenda,
I can’t find Everclear here in Spain either. I ended up using a 70% denatured alcohol.
I’ve heard it can be done with rubbing alcohol, but that it can leave behind an unpleasant fragrance. I think it depends a lot on the alcohol you’re using, and what’s been mixed with it to make it inedible.
I didn’t find my soap to have an unpleasant fragrance, despite not using any fragrance oils with it. I do notice a slight bit of a different type fragrance that may have come from the alcohol, though.
I’m planning on trying with a stronger alcohol and only vegan oils, and hope to post my new findings once I do.
You can use propyl alcohol in place of rubbing alcohol. There will be slight smell in the beginning but will ultimately evaporate and fragrance will come out in pure form after drying period.
Thanks! I’m glad to hear it!
Hi tracy
I have tried this formula and worked fine with this;
Coco oil 143g
Castor oil 93g
Stearic acid 63g
Lye 47g
114g distilled water
86g glecirine
140g Alcohol (90%)
Sugar 36g and water 35g
The result was more clear then yours
I am asking if I can use 96% alcohol. But how much will be the quantity???
Hi Nabil,
Great to hear that! I want to try making a vegan version myself as many people have asked me for one without tallow. Does it make a hard bar of soap?
What alcohol did you use for the batch that you already made?
I think you can use higher percentages of alcohol, and, in fact, I think it’s supposed to be even better, but I think you are supposed to reduce the amount of alcohol slightly. I’m not really sure by how much, though. It’s been awhile since I researched making this type of soap.
Awesome. I’ll try and make my own soap.
Great!
I hope you enjoy making and using it!
Hi! WHat can I use instead of tallow? Any other oil?
Hi Myra,
I’m working on it–
I plan on trying to make a vegan version with only coconut oil. I’m just waiting for my husband to buy a new type of grain alcohol to try using it as a solvent too.
For now, the reason for the tallow is because it makes a nice hard bar of soap that stays hard even after using the solvents.
thank you very much for that recipe I will work on it
You’re very welcome! 🙂
Thanks for this video I want make this soap but ingredients not found
The recipe, with the ingredients and amounts, is in the recipe card at the end of the post.
Perfect workout, keep it on,
I’ve the looks. Please can rice cooker be use?
Thank you. I’m not really sure about a rice cooker. It would depend upon the settings of the particular rice cooker. You want a very low heat because you don’t want to burn the soap.
There are other methods, such as carefully cooking over a double boiler- although you’d need to be especially careful when it comes to the alcohol step.
if u dont have a crock pot can u cook it directly on fire
While you could cook it directly on a fire, I’d be afraid of burning the soap paste. You’d have to use very low heat, or a double boiler which could be tricky with a large batch of soap, and keep a very good eye on it, stirring as needed.
I’ve also seen people use an oven on low heat to gently bake the paste. That might actually be an easier/safer option.
Can these bars be melted down and molded at a later date?
Thank-you, Terri
Well, seeing as you are the second person to ask me this today, I think maybe I should give it a try.
This is what I just answered to somebody else…
I haven’t tried it myself, but I’ve read that homemade glycerin soaps using alcohol as a solvent don’t melt and pour smoothly. Perhaps if water were added, it would.
To make a melt and pour type glycerin soap, you’re supposed to use propylene glycol instead of alcohol. (But I still haven’t gotten around to trying it myself.)
Let me see if I can try to melt down one of my bars and see what happens. I’ll get back to you as soon as I give it a try. 😉
Can this be re-melted like “Melt and Pour”?
I haven’t tried it myself, but I’ve read that homemade glycerin soaps using alcohol as a solvent don’t melt and pour smoothly. Perhaps if water were added, it would.
To make a melt and pour type glycerin soap, you’re supposed to use propylene glycol instead of alcohol. (But I still haven’t gotten around to trying it myself.)
a coisa que eu mais procuro ultimamente é aprender confeccionar um tipo de sabão tão transparente que pareça de vidro.ok.
No hablo Portugués, pero a ver si nos entendemos… 😉
No he intentado hacer un jabón así de transparente todavía. Tendría que buscar un alcohol más fuerte o quizás probar con algo distinto como glicol de propileno. No lo sé. Por ahora realmente sólo quería hacer tipo jabón de glicerina clásico y sale bastante bien. Con el tiempo se hace un color ámbar típico de los jabones de glicerina que se venden.
HI Tracy,
Really want to make this glycerine soap. Can I use a replacement for tallow? Don’t have access to tallow where I stay.
Hi Anamika,
I’ve had a lot of requests, and plan on trying it out substituting the tallow for more coconut oil (after running it through the lye calculator to see if the lye amount changes, of course). A lot of people want to avoid the tallow, so I’d like to help you all out.
The soap needs to be hard to begin with because you’re using solvents to dissolve away some of the crystals. All of the recipes I found fro this type of soap advised a maximum amount of coconut oil and specified using an animal fat like tallow, but I tend to like to experiment myself. I still haven’t gotten around to trying it, though, so I’m afraid to recommend it yet.
Thank you for this wonderful tutorial. I just successfully made my first batch of translucent soap, after 3 failed attempts!
Hi Amy!
I’m so happy to have been able to help! I really like this soap myself. 🙂
Hi!
I made my first batch this weekend. I think I must have done something wrong, because my soap didn’t end up being totally liquid like yours; there was a big glob of soap hanging out in the middle of the liquid. I’m thinking I either didn’t let it cook long enough after trace (I did 3 hours on the dot…probably could have gone longer) OR I didn’t break up the chunks of soap well enough after adding the glycerin and alcohol mixture? I ended up with a thick, soft soap at the end that I had to press into my loaf mold with a spoon. Going to try again soon, any tips would be appreciated!
Hi Jamie- That’s interesting. I can’t imagine the problem being not having cooked enough after trace. Was it thick at that point and somewhat transparent?
I’d be more inclined to think that the problem came when adding the solvents. You definitely want to break up the soap as much as you can when adding the glycerin and alcohol. You could even use an immersion blender (carefully, and not for very long so as not to create too much foam) to incorporate them maybe if necessary. The idea is to get the mixture covered as soon as possible, too, so that the alcohol doesn’t evaporate too quickly. You want the alcohol working as a solvent on the soap paste as long as you can. Did you add the sugar syrup mixture too?
In any case, I’d imagine that you’ll still have a nice soap. If you don’t like this batch, you could play with adding small amounts of the solvents and remelting the soap.
Thank you, Tracy, for the great information on how to make glycerine soap. I made my first batch last night and was relatively successful, though I do have a foam top. After I added the 91% isopropyl alcohol and glycerin, covered it with plastic and the lid for the half hour, when I checked back it had foamed over the top onto my counter. Hum? So I had quite a bit of foam from which I made foam bars before putting the clearer stuff into the mold. Anyway, I’m writing because the smell of the rubbing alcohol is quite strong in my soap. I’ve cut it up and am hoping with time it will dissipate. I’m wondering if you’ve used rubbing alcohol before and if the smell will go away? Thanks, Margie
Hi Margie,
This is one of those recipes that I want to try again soon in several different ways. I didn’t use rubbing alcohol, but wasn’t able to find an edible alcohol either. I used a denatured alcohol which does sort of have a bit of an alcohol scent too, but it didn’t really leave a bad scent in the soap. I’m not really sure if it will clear up or not. I completely forgot to add essential oils for fragrance in my last batch, so the soap smells just like that- a soap. It smells different than my other “normal” soaps, but not like alcohol or bad. I don’t know.
I will say that mine changed a lot over time. The bars ended up turning a dark amber color.
I want to try making this soap without the tallow (a lot of requests for that through my YouTube video), and to see how different alcohols or other solvents affect the soap too. After my next attempt, I’ll be updating the post with new pics of my soap as it looks today- and my results with changing up the recipe. I really hope yours ends up mellowing out. This is really one of my favorite soaps in the end. It’s nice and hard and gives a pleasant lather. I’d love to hear an update in a month or so.
Anything I learn helps me when I update posts to help future readers avoid certain possible problems.
Great article!
Thanks Jeanne!
What can be used instead of tallow, I’m vegan!!
Hi Sherry-
Theoretically, you can use coconut oil, but it may change the way the soap turns out. (Most places advised a maximum concentration for the coconut oil- and doing that would bring it higher, so I’m not sure what the result would be.) I’ve actually been meaning to try it out as several people have already asked me about it through the YouTube video.
We’d have to run the recipe through a lye calculator first. I can run it through for you if you don’t know how and are interested…
If you prefer to wait until I’ve tried it myself- I can try to test it and put it up on the blog as soon as I can. 😉
Thank you for sharing your valuable experience in soap making
I enjoyed reading your detailed and very clear way of making translucent soap.
You’re very welcome! 🙂
I really enjoyed your explanations about the soap.
Thank SO much, may God bless you more. Please I’m a lay man,i have no knowledge about soap making but I’m interested in making it too, I don’t know if you can be of any help to guide me through.Beside that, those ingredients you mentioned, I still have to get them clear because it may not have the same name called here. So if you May help, it will be of great help.
Hi Simon,
I’m happy to help, but I’m not sure what ingredients you are having a problem understanding.
Perhaps you should start with a simpler soap first. This soap is a bit more advanced.
I have a recipe up for an easy, beginner soap that uses simple ingredients and which would help get you started on your soap making journey. In any case, I’m happy to answer any questions that you may have about specific ingredients.
I just realize i have some soap like that as i bought t years ago and i dont use bar soap anymore i prefer liquids once much more
Do you know how can i turn my bar soap into liquid?
The soap i have is hand made and it says the ingredients is coconut oil, sunflower oil, olive oil and shea butter by this order.
Thank you so much for all the information you share in your blog
You can’t really. Bar soap and liquid soap are made with different types of lye, the potassium lye in liquid soap allows you to introduce water and make a stable solution. Some people shave bar soap and dissolve in water to use and shake frequently since it’s not stable. But whenever water is introduced you also need preservatives to prevent nasties growing in the soap, so it really shouldn’t be kept for very long and can become easily contaminated.
Thanks, Lin, for answering. I somehow missed Hodaya’s comment when I was going through. (So, sorry, Hodaya, for not answering earlier!)
I agree- I’ve tried making “liquid soap” from bar soap several times and have always hated it.
If I want to use up an old bar soap that I don’t necessarily love, I usually grate it up and use it in my dishwasher or in the washer when washing laundry. I know some people are opposed to that too, but it works for me. 😉
I’m curious, Lin, as to your thoughts about needing a preservative or not when making a proper liquid soap with KOH? It seems to be such a controversial topic. For now, I don’t use one- especially since the natural preservatives that I use are’t all that effective in the pH range of liquid soap. I’m always interested in hearing what others have to say, though, and what they use if they do use a preservative.
Would honey work? It’s antibacterial?
Hello,
I’m not really sure how you want to use the honey- do you mean to use it as a solvent at the end in place of the sugar syrup?
I don’t really know how that would work as I’ve never tried it myself.
I do plan on doing more experimentation with this recipe, though, as I find that a lot of people want to make modified versions that don’t use tallow, for example.
Very nice
Thanks! 🙂
Good day l am so much interest in soap making
Just a thought— in reference to your issue with finding the right strength of alcohol. . .
You can use Propylene Glycol instead of the alcohol, because it is a type of alcohol.
And it isnt as drying as other types of alcohol.
Do not use Isopropyl alcohol… it does not produce satisfactory results.
Grain alcohol is better, and Propylene glycol is the best.
Well that is my 2 cents worth.
Hi Angel,
Thanks for your comment.
I did buy some propylene glycol, and was planning on attempting to use it sometime in this recipe as it’s also said to produce a soap that can be remelted, effectively giving you a melt and pour soap base.
The reason I didn’t use it this time is that many of my readers are very strict about using “natural” products and propylene glycol has a bit of a bad rep. I think that is a bit unfair, as it seems to have a relatively safe rating on EWG’s Skin Deep database.
Once I give it a try, I’ll definitely update my post with the results.
Just so you know, it’s Polyethelyne Glycol. You need the Ethelyne, which is the alcohol. It is also Know as antifreeze. Propylene Glycol has some alcohol but is used mainly as an emulsifier. Both are quite slick and neither is considered natural. Both are absorbed into the system through your skin. Some people’s kidneys do not process these well. They end up with an allergic reaction. Glycols are poison, yet they are added to meds, cosmetics, and food in tiny quantities and most people process this out of their system. I know all this because I’m a chemist AND allergic to glycols.
Hi Laura,
Thanks for your insight! That’s very interesting. I’m only relying on what I’ve read certain places, and being one who errs on the “natural” side, I’ve also avoided its use up until now. I do have the unopened bottle of propylene glycol in my cabinet, which I still haven’t gotten around to playing with. (And we’ll see if I ever actually do. It would be more for the experimentation aspect than for my regular use.)
In Angel’s defense, the recipes for melt and pour soaps online all use propylene glycol. I’ve never seen a recipe for melt and pour soap using polyethelyne Glycol. It makes sense that something with an alcohol in it would work better for this application, but I’m guessing it’s also harder to find, which is probably why the recipes don’t use it. I think it is also used by people who are looking for an “alcohol free” solution. Not that it’s fully alcohol free, as you mentioned, but it probably (Maybe?) gets by the regulations in countries where alcohol is prohibited?!?! (This is just me thinking out loud.) 😉
Propylene glycol does not have “some alcohol in it” alcohol in it; it is an alcohol! Glycerin aka glycerol is also an alcohol, so really the whole point of not using *any* alcohol is not going to work. Your body already has alcohols that occur naturally and you would be in trouble without such as inostiol.
Good day,l am so happy when l came and crossed your contact.please l want you to teach me how l can make my own transparent bar soap but in our country we only have palm oils and palm carnnel oils and coconut oils can those oils make transparent soap l like to know.and again l like you to make me a pratical video CD of how to make soap thanks
Hello,
In theory, yes, you should be able to make a translucent soap with those oils. Coconut oil is a good oil to use. I can’t remember if the palm oils were said to be good for translucency in soaps, though. You’d have to run the new formulation through a lye calculator to make sure you are using the right amount of lye for the new formulation. Keep in mind, I haven’t personally tried making a glycerin soap with coconut oil as the main oil, so I’m not sure how it would turn out.
If you do try it, I’d love to hear how it goes!
This is great! Thank you. I plan on trying this tonight! I don’t have access to beef tallow, but Manteca (Pig Tallow). I ran it through a lye calculator and it came out exactly as yours did. So I hope it will work out okay.
thanks again!
Suzanne
Hi Suzanne,
I’d love to hear how it turns out.
I had made soap with homemade lard once, and wasn’t very happy with it, so I’ve been afraid to try again. I really want to try again, though, especially because I think I may have used lard that wasn’t very freshly made, and that probably affected the soap.
Making it with lard should theoretically turn out pretty similar to the soap made with tallow. I’ve read that lard may be slightly softer and more “conditioning” than tallow in a soap, but without trying both ways, it would be impossible to know for sure.
Good luck! I hope it goes well for you. 🙂