As a soap maker, I know that I need to follow the IFRA maximum usage rates in my soaps. However, I did not know what IFRA meant. It turns out, it means International Fragrance Association. And from their website, I quote what their standards mean, in short: “To ensure that you and your family can have trust in fragranced products, we have developed the IFRA Standards to manage the safe use of fragrance. The IFRA Standards ban, limit or set criteria for the use of certain ingredients, based on scientific evidence and consumer insights.”
You can find out the IFRA maximum usage rate for a fragrance from the manufacturer’s product website. Most suppliers have this readily available, but if not, you need to contact them to get it. Not only because of the possible skin irritation that exceeding this amount could cause, but also because of the potential health harm (fragrances are composed of chemicals and each one has a safety threshold when used on the skin).
Essential oils also have usage limits, as some can be very irritating on the skin (like clove, oregano, cinnamon, etc.). When I want to know the limits for those, I check eocalc.com
Ideally, you should check the IFRA limit (soap is category 9, by the way) before purchasing a fragrance. I made the mistake of buying a fragrance recently without checking this prior. Because several reviews said that it was long lasting in soap, I assumed it had sufficient safe usage rates for soap. Well, it turns out the maximum I could use of it in soap was 0.28% (Though this was apparently an old standard, as the company recently updated their safety document and it shows 2.72% now)
I did not think that 0.28% was going to be detectable in the final soap, so I added other fragrances to have a total of 5% of fragrance in the recipe.
I am listing below the recipe I used, materials, and a link to the video for the process.
My affiliate links:
Several of the links above/below are affiliate links, as the ones below. If you buy from them, it will not cost you any more, and I would get a tiny commission on it. As amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Making the Embeds
- Soap dough: in orange, green and brown
- This is a kit with several sculpting tools
- blade to cut the sticks for the trees or a knife
- Soap scraps to resemble fall leaves (orange, yellow, red)
I did not film the making of the pumpkins so here is a brief explanation:
First, I made a roundish shape and flattened it from top and bottom. With a chisel end tool, I marked the sections of the pumpkin (vertical lines) from top to bottom. Then with a pointy tool I made an indentation on top to insert a green stem (small snake shape)
Next I made the tree trunks. I made them by cutting already cured soap, but it would be easier to roll some soap dough snakes instead. Ideally they should be tapered (one end is thinner than the other).
Colorants:
Gold dust enviroglitter (for the top) (I used brown but I think gold would have looked better)
I did not add any colorants to the body of the soap. I used orange, yellow, and red soap scraps though, that I chopped finely.
Mold:
5 lb loaf mold liner used as “slab” or 5 lb mold set plus extra cavity molds like this one (I filled two squares with leftovers)
Equipment
Safety Equipment:
- Nitrile gloves
- Facial Shield (I use either a facial shield or the goggles below)
- Safety Goggles
- Respirator (I use this when mixing the lye, I mix the lye in the window sill, window opened, with a pedestal fan blowing the fumes away, better yet, freeze your distilled water prior) I also try to wear long sleeves, pants and closed shoes. In my personal experience, most of my near misses (when I feel my skin itching or a slight burning sensation), or when I come contact with the soap batter, have happened when I am wiping down the containers, when I am almost done.
Recipe Oils, Fats and Waxes
| Oil | % | Ounces | Grams |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olive Oil | 30 | 10.8 | 306.17 |
| Tallow Beef | 30 | 10.8 | 306.17 |
| Coconut Oil, 76 deg | 25 | 9 | 255.15 |
| Castor Oil | 8 | 2.88 | 81.65 |
| Shea Butter | 7 | 2.52 | 71.44 |
| Total | 100 | 36 | 1020.58 |
Custom Additives
| Add with the Fats | |
|---|---|
| Rosemary oleoresin | 0.02 ounce |
| Add at trace | |
| EDTA mixed 1:1 with water | 0.54 oz total (0.27 oz of EDTA) |
For more information on these additives you can click in the links below, please note above links are affiliate ones
- Rosemary oleresin (My oils already had this added when I masterbatched the oils)
Fragrance
| Pumpkin patch from New Direction Aromatics | 0.05 oz |
| Pumpking and Brown Sugar from Brambleberry | 0.50 oz |
| Cinnamon Supreme from Nurtures Soap | 0.90 oz |
| Sweet Orange and chili pepper from Nature’s Garden & Candles | 0.60 oz |
| Spice fragrance formulator from Wholesale Supplies Plus | 0.25 oz |
Recipe Totals
Please note that this recipe has a low superfat* percentage and considerable water discount*. If you are a beginner, a recipe like this one might be better.
Recipe Totals
| Liquid Required | 10.34 oz | 293.11 g |
| NaOH Weight | 4.92 oz | 139.55 g |
| KOH Weight | 0.4 oz | 11.45 g at 90% Purity |
| Lye Weight | 5.33 oz | 151 g |
| Oil Weight | 36 oz | 1020.58 g |
| Fragrance Oil Weight | 2.25 oz | 63.79 g |
| Superfat* | 3% | |
| Total Batch Weight | 54.47 oz | 1544.28 g |
| Lye Concentration* | 34% | |
| NaOH / KOH Ratio | 95% / 5% |
MAKING THE SOAP
- I start by making the embeds several days ahead. I suppose you could make them the same day, just be careful when handling them.
- In a well ventilated area (outside or by a window), add the lye gradually to the distilled water. Do not breathe the fumes. You can freeze half of the water ahead to avoid fumes, and weigh the ice cubes. You need to wear your safety gear. Lye burns! You can prepare this several hours ahead, or even days ahead, keep it properly covered. (If making it the same day, loosely cover it to allow it to cool. Once at room temperature, use an airtight lid).
- While you wait for the lye water to cool down, you can weigh and melt your oils, if using soap scraps as embeds inside the soap, chop them ahead of time and sprinkle them with gold mica to keep them from sticking to themselves. Weigh your fragrance oil or essential oils into a glass container or ceramic container (fragrance oils can dissolve thin plastics). I masterbatch both the lye water solution and the oils.
- I did not use vanilla stabilizer for this one, so the soap turned yellowish. You could add an stabilizer if you wanted to avoid that. (The one from Nature’s Garden and Candles has been really good for me, lasting over a year)
- When your oils and lye solution are at or below 110°F (37.77°C), put on your PPE (Personal protective equipment) again, and add your lye solution to the oils slowly, to avoid splatters pour it on the blender shaft.
- Stir with the blender on Off position initially, then blend for 5-7 second periods, alternating with stirring for 10 seconds or longer, until it is emulsified. This takes about 30-50 seconds with this recipe. When a recipe reaches emulsion, everything has a uniform, lighter color than before, you do not see the darker oil swirls when blending. Because we are not using colorants for this soap, you can bring it to light trace instead (which is easier to tell apart)
- Add the fragrance blend and be ready to pour quickly.
- Blend the fragrance manually with a whisk or spatula, for at least 30 seconds to make sure it is incorporated.
- Pour the soap in the mold.
- Add the embeds on top. I positioned the tree trunks first, then some of the soap scraps to resemble leaves on top and at the bottom, lastly the pumpkins and more soap scraps and glitter.
- There is no need to insulate this soap, the wood mold and the fragrance make it go through gel phase. You may want to cover it to avoid soda ash though.
- Wait 24-48 hours and try releasing from one side of the mold, and if nothing sticks back, it is ready to be removed from the mold and cut. If it still sticks, wait longer or put in the freezer for 1 hour.
- Cut the soap to desired thickness bars. I use a single bar cutter. Let them cure for at least 4 weeks in an open area protected from direct sunlight before using. (not touching any metal)
*SUPERFAT:
By now you probably know that lye (sodium hydroxide) converts oils into soap, through a process called saponification. And you probably also know that there are specific amounts needed of each for this to happen. Because each soap has a different SAPonification value, different amounts of lye are needed for each oil.
Superfatting sounds like something I like to do to myself when I keep eating after I feel full. But in the soap world, many will know it is when you either add more oils or less lye than it is required. Let’s say, hypothetically, that you need 3 oz of lye to convert 16 oz of manacao oil (totally made up oil) into soap. If you only use 2.5 oz of lye instead of 3, that means that a percentage of the manaco oil will not become soap, but will remain an oil. And this is desirable as that extra oil will cause the soap to become more gentle on your skin, by reducing its cleansing ability slightly. But if you use 4 oz of lye instead of 3, that means all 16 oz of manacao oil will become soap, and not only that, there will be extra lye floating around. That extra lye will be looking for more oil to convert to soap, that oil could be the natural skin oils, which means this soap can burn or irritate the skin.
Usually superfat of at least 3% is recommended as oils properties may change from crop to crop. But even if you had a 0% superfat soap, it would still be gentle as handmade soap creates glycerin, which is a skin humectant. (From most commercially produced soap, glycerin is removed to be sold separately).
*LYE CONCENTRATION / WATER DISCOUNT:
Most soap calculators will give you the amount of water needed to mix the lye with, based on traditional cooking methods of making soap, what we now know as hot process. This is a big percentage of water (38% of the oils) because a lot of it would evaporate through the cooking process. However, for cold process soap this is usually too much water, which can lead to a lot of soda ash or a lot of shrinkage during the cure.
This blogpost explains it better (from modern soapmaking).
Soaps by Glenda 