discovered the conversion of a natural triglyceride oil into soap using sodium

hydroxide we are going to be using coconut oil as you can see this is a

solid when it's cool measure out 210 grams of coconut oil and place in a large

beaker this will be enough to produce three large bars of soap warm this

gently and allow the oil to melt this should occur at around 30 to 40

degrees C now measure out 34 grams of sodium hydroxide this should be enough

to hydrolyze a large portion of the oil but leave some oil left over to act as a

moisturizer in the soap we'll dissolve this in 84 mils of water

prepare a 200 mil beaker and add the sodium hydroxide and the water to it

note that this will create quite a strong solution

and it will help to reduce the amount of sodium hydroxide in the soap.

it's going to get very hot as it dissolves as you can see it's getting

steamy around here stir the solution well until all the hydroxide dissolves

now place a magnetic stir bar into the coconut oil and get it up to a

temperature of 40 degrees at which point all the oil should have melted we've used

a thermometer in the oil so we can monitor the temperature

now with stirring on vigorously we're going to add the half sodium hydroxide

solution to the oil as you add this to you'll see the mixture form a cloudy

emulsion in the beaker

the temperature on addition should be around 60 degrees C turn off the heat

and let the mixture cool slowly with vigorous stirring

the color will lighten and the mixture will thicken over time here we are about

20 minutes later eventually you reach a point after 35 minutes or so where the

mixture can no longer stir at this point turn off the stirring now you'll need to

get your molds ready we really recommend using silicone baking molds as this

makes it much easier to get the bars out of later when they have set for the

molds don't worry of the top of the soap bars looks a little uneven at this

stage here we are with our three bars now leave these in the mold at room

temperature to harden for three days after 24 hours they will still be soft

in the middle but hard enough to smooth the tops

using your

after three days the bars will be quite solid so turn them out of the molds and

wrap them in polyethylene wrap you'll need to leave them now for two to three

weeks in order for their reaction to complete before this time the bars will

still contain sodium hydroxide which could burn your skin and here it is the

finished article

this is in fact one we prepared for the next step we are going to use a little bit of a

mixture that we prepared earlier which takes pride of place in our lab bathroom

it forms a strong lather and has a subtle natural pleasant coconut aroma