Last Friday, I braved traffic and possible parallel parking (which I don’t enjoy) to drive all the way into Vancouver to visit Lindsay Coulter. In her day job she’s David Suzuki’s Queen of Green, which is how I connected with her originally. But the rest of the time she’s just Lindsay, and she enjoys making soap, amongst other things. I actually don’t know everything that Lindsay enjoys, come to think of it, but my point is that she’s a well-rounded person with interests outside of work. Also, David Suzuki does not personally endorse her soap-making efforts. Although I doubt that he opposes them, either.
After a conversation on Twitter about how soap-making intrigues and intimidates me, she offered to teach me. And this is how I found myself knocking on her door on a cold Friday afternoon. I was 40 minutes late thanks to the afore-mentioned traffic, but I was enthusiastic and ready to go. And immediately when I walked into Lindsay’s home, I could smell the essential oils she uses in her soap wafting my way. She made her 15th batch of soap with me, and all around her kitchen and living room I could see the other 14 batches, some drying on wire wracks, some artfully arranged in jars, some ready to be sent off as Christmas gifts.
Some of Lindsay’s soap – this batch has coffee in it
Since it was my first foray into soap Lindsay let me choose what we would make, and I opted for star anise essential oil, with it’s lovely licorice smell. I am a black jellybean person, and I enjoy soap that carries that aroma. I also added some chamomile blossoms that Lindsay ground up in her coffee grinder to act as an exfoliant. Choices made, we set about making soap.
Soap additives – honey, clay, dried flowers, oats, essential oils, etc.
The part that scared me most came first – the lye. It’s a highly-corrosive substance, and highly-corrosive substances freak me out. I’ve never used bleach, for instance, because that skeleton hand on the warning label skeeves me out. I don’t want my hand to turn into that skeleton hand. Now that I have two little kids in my house, my fear is only amplified. I don’t want my babies to have that skeleton hand, either. But Lindsay assured me that while we needed to “respect the lye” it was really no big deal, and I decided to trust her.
Scary, scary lye with the skeleton hand warning
It turns out making soap is really pretty simple. We used the cold process method. Lindsay used an online calculator to figure out the correct amount of each ingredient. First we mixed the lye crystals with water, and then took the solution outside so that we weren’t inhaling the gases. While that did its thing, we mixed together a bunch of different kinds of fat and melted them together over low heat. There were solid fats like coconut oil and cocoa butter, and liquid fats like grapeseed oil, olive oil, canola oil and castor oil. Each oil has different properties, and you want a mix of solid and liquid.
The finished soap goes in this block mold while it hardens
Once the oil was all melted together, we had to bring it down to the right temperature. We brought the lye in and brought it to the same temperature, and then we mixed them together. Then you mix and mix and mix. I had an immersion blender, and Lindsay had a whisk, and we kept at it for a few minutes until the soap started to thicken. You want to get a “trace”, which means that when you drag the whisk along the surface a little bit of soap comes along with it and stays in place, instead of sinking back into the mixture. Once we had that, we added the essential oil and ground chamomile, and did some more mixing. And that was it.
My finished soap
Once the soap is done it goes into a mold. Lindsay has a soap block, and we poured it all in. It has to stay in there for a couple of days, so I had to bid my soap farewell. Once it’s ready to come out you cut it, and then you need to leave it out in room temperature air to cure for about four weeks before it’s ready use it. This means I’ll be waiting until mid-January to give you the report on my soap. I’m waiting eagerly, though, let me tell you!
I really enjoyed making soap, and I could definitely see doing it again. With my kids at the age they are now, though, the idea of handling lye around them still freaks me out. But I was really impressed with how easy it was. Other than a precise kitchen scale and a soap mold, Lindsay didn’t have any special equipment at all. It’s really quite straightforward. You’re just mixing fat and lye, the way people have been doing for centuries. Once the kiddos are a little older, I would definitely consider making soap in my own kitchen.
Have you ever made soap? What was it like? If not, would you consider it? Share your soapy stories with me!
