Cooling Hot Process Soap Recipe

Making homemade soap is simple and fun! Once you learn how to make soap, you can start making your own products at home. There are many different ways to make soap, and each method has its advantages and disadvantages.

If you’re brand new to making soap, then you may not be aware that there are different methods to make it?

There’s hot process vs. cold process soap. What does that even mean? And of course, there are melt and pour soap bars.

Fear not – soap-making doesn’t need to be so mind-boggling. 

Soap making hot process

A very popular method, particularly for beginners and to make with kids – hot process soap recipes are a quicker technique to create homemade soap. 

As soon as the soap cools in its mold, it can be cut and used, meaning you have homemade soap in next to no time.

The reason hot process soap is made that much quicker than cold process soap making is because an external heat source speeds up the process. 

This can be a stove pan or slow cooker to melt the ingredients. 

In cold process soap making, saponification occurs (a chemical reaction), meaning no external heating is needed. 

The heat, instead, is created as a by-product of the soap-making process from the ingredients themselves. 

This process takes much longer to occur (we’re talking several days as opposed to a few minutes) and even longer to harden once it happens. 

In this post, I’ll share a hot process soap recipe that will result in ready-to-use soap, possibly on the same evening if you melt it in the morning.

Although for best results, I’d leave it 24 hours to harden properly. 

It contains olive oil, palm oil, and shea butter to soften and nourish the skin, and you can add essential oils to the mix if you wish to fragrance it.

Making soap with Lye

For various reasons, lye for soap making comes with some trepidation. 

Lye, also known as sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, can be harmful to the skin and lungs if breathed in.

The key to using lye is to wear gloves, and only work with it in a well-ventilated area, ideally outside, so the fumes don’t affect you. 

If you are working inside, you may want to wear a mask as well when mixing the lye with the liquid.

Don’t be afraid of using lye. It’s a necessary step in making soap.

And any potential dangers can be avoided by wearing the right safety equipment. 

My best lye safety tips (in summary) are wearing gloves, wearing safety glasses, wearing long sleeves, an apron to protect your clothes, and only using lye in a well-ventilated area. 

Learn more about making soap with lye here.

 How to make hot process soap

To begin with – you need the correct hot process soap equipment.

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This includes:

• Your safety equipment; apron, safety glasses, gloves and mask. 
• Kitchen scale
• Heavy based mixing bowls (ideally glass or stainless steel)
• Spatulas for mixing
• A pan or crockpot
• Soap ingredients
• Soap molds

Hot process soap recipe

Now we’re getting to the fun stuff. Make sure you’ve gathered together all your equipment first before moving to this next step. 

These are the hot process soap ingredients you’ll need:

• Palm oil: 10 oz
• Shea butter: 8 oz
• Olive oil: 8 oz
• Lye (Sodium Hydroxide): 3.42
• Liquid (aloe vera liquid) 7.65
• Green mica powder (for color)

And here are the instructions to make hot process soap:

1. First, melt palm oil, shea butter, and olive oil in a crockpot.
2. Next, measure out your aloe vera liquid and pour it into a heat-resistant container.
3. Next, measure out the lye and slowly add the lye to the aloe juice and stir in well. (Note, this will get hot very quickly). Wear safety goggles, gloves and work in a well-ventilated room or outside during this part. 
4. Once the oils are melted, Slowly add lye and aloe liquid to the crockpot a little at a time.
5. Position the bender in the middle of the crockpot, hold it steady and pulse for several seconds. Stir and repeat until soap comes to medium trace.
6. Now that the soap has come to trace, cover and cook for 55 minutes. 
7. While in theory, you shouldn’t need to watch the soap while it cooks, it could possibly bubble over. If it does, give it a quick stir to calm it back down.
8. After 55 minutes, stir in coloring.
9. Scoop soap into soap molds and allow it to harden for 24-48 hours.  

Hot process soap cures much faster than cold process and, as a result, is ready to use after just 1-2 days.

However, leaving the bars to dry for an additional week will ensure the bars are completely hardened, resulting in a longer-lasting soap bar.

What are the benefits of hot process soap

As I talked about earlier, the main benefit is the speed at which the soap can be made.

Usually, a hot process soap can be ready to use within 24 hours, start to finish, which is super quick in the soap-making history books! 

Another benefit is the appearance of the finished soap. 

Depending on the molds you use, of course, hot process soaps tend to look more earthy and rustic, which is somewhat appealing to me.

I absolutely love anything natural that hasn’t been tampered with. 

And because in the recipe here, there are no dyes or colorants, the soap should come out looking nicely down to earth. 

How to store homemade soap

As with any soap, it’s best to store them in a cool, dry place and not leave them in direct sunlight. 

So don’t store soap on the window sill! I find a lot of people tend to do this (that’s the worst!) 

The bathroom closet is much better or in the open air, on a soap dish, where the soap can dry properly after each use. 

Allowing soap to dry completely after each shower or bath helps the soap last much longer too. 

If you decide to cut your soap into soap bars, you can store them in paper towels, plastic wrap, or wax wrap to keep them from spoiling and help them last longer. 

Just be sure to do this once the soap is completely dry and hardened – this will help the soap last longer prior to its first use. 

I hope you enjoy this hot process soap recipe. Do comment below if you try it, and let me know how it turns out.

And if you love making your own soap, be sure to check out some of these cold processes and melt and pour recipes below!

• Charcoal soap bars
• Exfoliating loofah soap or Exfoliating coffee soap
• Translucent glycerin soap (hot process)
• Goat milk soap bars (melt and pour)
• Simple soap bar recipe (melt and pour)
• Long-lasting beeswax soap (cold process)

Hot Process Soap Recipe

Laura Ascher

A simple hot process soap recipe with cooling aloe vera for soothing sun-kissed skin. No more waiting weeks on end for your soap to fully cure since hot process soap is ready to use after just 1-2 days!

4.67 from 6 votes

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Project Type Soap Bars

Category Bath & Beauty

Create ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Active Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 2 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Yield 8 bars

Equipment

• ▢
  digital scale
• ▢
  soap molds
• ▢
  Crockpot

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• ▢ 10 oz Palm oil
• ▢ 8 oz Shea butter
• ▢ 8 oz Olive oil
• ▢ 3.42 oz Lye
• ▢ 7.65 oz Liquid aloe vera juice
• ▢ 2 tsp Green mica powder for color

Instructions

 

• Melt palm oil, shea butter, and olive oil in a crockpot.
• Measure out your aloe vera liquid and pour it into a heat-resistant container.
• Next, measure out the lye and slowly add the lye to the aloe juice and stir in well. (Note, this will get hot very quickly). Wear safety goggles, gloves and work in a well-ventilated room or outside during this part. 
• Once the oils are melted, Slowly add lye and aloe liquid to the crockpot a little at a time.
• Position the bender in the middle of the crockpot, hold it steady and pulse for several seconds. Stir and repeat until soap comes to medium trace.
• Now that the soap has come to trace, cover and cook for 55 minutes. 
• While in theory, you shouldn't need to watch the soap while it cooks, it could possibly bubble over. If it does, give it a quick stir to calm it back down.
• After 55 minutes, stir in coloring.
• Scoop soap into soap molds and allow it to harden for 24-48 hours.  

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was and mention us on Instagram @ouroilyhouse

This recipe is for your own viewing pleasure and is not meant for healing purposes. Readers must perform their own research and tests before making any recipe.