Make Soap at Home: a Simple Olive Oil Lye Soap - No Frills

How to make soap from scratch with this easy cold process recipe.  The goal here is minimalist: few ingredients and little hardware.  We have used soap made this way now for quite some time.  For those who regard it as important, the soap is vegetarian, vegan even!

The result - known also as Castile soap - produces a smooth creamy lather (typical of olive oil based soap) - and is great at the job for which soap is intended.  The ingredients shown in the video result in an approximate lye discount of 5%.

Included in the video is a decidedly non-minimalist frill: the optional addition of a scented essential oil (here we use eucalyptus oil).  If the oil is not used, the soap smells of, well, not much.  With the oil, it has a very pleasant aroma.

Using the plastic wrap as a lining makes removal of the soap from the box much easier.  It more or less drops out and the plastic wrap is peeled away without difficulty.  Without the wrap, cutting the soap out of the box is quite cumbersome and some force is needed to extract it.  However, in the minimalist spirit, the plastic wrap was not used in this video.

For those who might emulate us: do not modify the recipe without first learning the essentials of soap making.  If an error is made, the soap might end up being caustic - dangerous even.  On that note: lye is a component in this recipe.  Lye is very caustic and can be dangerous if misused.  Wear the appropriate safety goggles, mask and gloves before any attempt at making soap.  If you choose to emulate us, you do so at your own risk.