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. There are my results and recipes that I’ve tried so far. As the soap cures a bit, the lather and clarity can improve. So, test your soap right after you make it and test it again in a few weeks. Simple food colours can easily be used, as can liquid soap colours and other water-soluble liquid colour bases. Obviously the depth of a particular colour is dependent upon how much is used. Don't be tempted to over-colour your soaps, especially if using clear soap bases, as the transparency of the finished soap will be affected if too much colour is used, plus, coloured lather in use is off-putting. Fragrance can be added either using essential oils or simple fragrance oils, which are available in a huge range of tempting fragrances these days. Again, strength of fragrance is dependent upon the amount added. For a meaningful fragrance, around 20ml fragrance per Kilo of soap (2%) is sufficient, so a few drops per single bar is fine. As a guide, a maximum of 3% fragrance addition is generally advised. Irridescent powders or glitters may float or sink to the bottom of a mould depending on their make-up, so a suspending base may be helpful if you want to avoid this. Also, glitters and sheens can become lost if too much is added, so be sparing for best results.

Liquid Glycerin (not glycerin soap!) – This is a great solvent to use in transparent soap. Glycerin is a humectant and moisturizer for the skin. And like I mentioned above, since we use a 0% superfat, glycerin acts as a superfat. Let’s take a look at how to make glycerin and then explore my favorite, recipe for how to make a glycerin soap base. How Glycerin is Made The addition of extra ingredients is more leisurely using this method, as continuous low heat is available to keep the mixture from forming a skin. Again, be careful not to introduce bubbles if at all possible. Fragrance should be the last addition, as heat will cause some evaporation. Again, work on around 20ml of fragrance or essential oil per Kilo for a meaningful fragrance.All transparent soap recipes that I’ve come across use a combo of solvents, including glycerin, sugar water and alcohol. I don’t know enough about why each is used. This will require some further research on my part. My solvents ended up being equal to my oil amount. I used 500 grams of oils and 500 grams of solvents.

To take best advantage of your handmade soap (made by yourself or store-bougth), read How Do You Use Handmade Soap? Related Posts Ingredients and Recipes

More Interest In Soap Base

Place as much soap base as you need into a heatproof container to melt it. I use a pint jar. Place the jar in a pan of hot water to melt, stirring occasionally. When melted, take the jar out of the water and place it on a cloth. Add a few drops of food coloring if desired. Stir well. Add more if needed. Next, add the essential or fragrance oil a few drops at a time. A 4-ounce bar should have about 10 drops of scent. Add any dried herbs you may desire, about a teaspoon per 4-ounce bar. Then, after cutting and melting the soap base, we will only add a bit of colorant and fragrance. No fancy techniques. The suggested colorants and fragrances can be changed to the ones of your choice, to make your soap unique for you. A soap mold with cute shapes can also make for a more personalized soap. Warning! You do use alcohol in this process so be aware of open flames or anything that might ignite the fumes. I went so far as to blow out the gas starters on my stove since I was making this in my kitchen. I opened the patio door so that I had fresh air at all times. Make sure you have a fire extinguisher on hand (a bit dramatic, but you should have one in your kitchen anyways). 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.

Results: Not as clear as batch #5 with sugar solution. The sugar certainly does help with clarity. Not bad, though. Low lather. Use little quantities of colorant if you really want to keep your soap highly transparent. More than 1/16 of a teaspoon, depending on the colorant, and the soap becomes opaque. The best way is to add very little colorant at a time until you are satisfied with the color and soap transparency. 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.White sugar produces the best results. You can use raw sugar but your soap will have more amber color. Superfat –Because superfat (unsaponified oils) can cloud transparent soap, go with a 0% superfat. We do add glycerin, and that acts as a superfat in your soap. Solvents Once you have your clear soap base ready, the next step is to personalize it with colors, fragrances, and additives. You can incorporate natural colorants such as clays or spices like turmeric or paprika. Beware, the color of some of these natural ingredients will fade with time. Oils – You want to choose oils that are high in stearic acid and that have a low amount of unsaponifiables that can cloud your clear soap. You want to choose oils that are not yellow or green tinted…Harriet uses tallow, coconut, castor and rice bran. Because you do add lots of solvents (some with water), you want to use a high amount of hard oils to create a hard bar. I would shoot for 60%+ of tallow, lard, stearic acid or palm oil. I tried a few different blends. The more solvents I used, the more stearic acid/coconut oil I used. Step 4– Weigh out the stearic acid + about 10 extra grams. Melt using a double boiler on the stove.