The Regulations
This guide isn’t really about the legalities, sales or marketing of soap, but it would be remiss of me not to mention that you really can’t just make and sell soap in the UK (or the EU).
To legally make and sell (or gift) soap in the UK, you have to make sure your products are safe, and comply with labelling and manufacturing regulations. You also have to register with the safety standards authorities.
In short you need:
A Cosmetic Product Safety Report (CPSR) (or safety assessment) for each product.
A Product Information File (PIF) for each product.
Adherence to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
Proper labelling including ingredient lists and allergen declarations.
Public liability insurance.
Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) Registration (Cosmetics Portal) for product notification.
How to get A CPSR
This is where it all gets a bit gnarly for me. My intention in starting to make soap, years ago, was to use our own goats milk to make a very special, premium product. Now, any goats milk will make you a premium soap, and have beneficial effects on sensitive or sore skin, but I obviously felt like ours was special!
For some years, I did just that, but that was before the regulations tightened up. At that time there was a loophole for small producers. Eventually that was closed, and I stopped producing soap for sale.
Fast forward about twenty years (I can’t believe I just said that!) and the soap supplies companies have developed a simple way for you to get your CPSR. You can get a basic report for a base recipe (in my case, a plain goats milk soap) and one variation (I do a scented goats milk with added nettle) currently with the site I use for £60. If you then want to go on and add another variation (I’m about to try a goats milk with essential oils version) it’s £12 per variation.
BUT … to make use of this deal, you have to use all ingredients sourced from their site. I completely understand why. The chemical composition of every single element has to be written in, and they know their own products. So for now, I’m using their goats milk powder and dried nettles. I can hardly believe I am paying someone for nettles, but here we all are.
The cost for certification using some of your own ingredients is not absolutely exorbitant - currently £180 for base and six variations.- so immediately I can get labelling and marketing sorted and actually sell something I will be able to make soap using actual products of the field.
The Base Recipe
The ingredients in my base recipe are as follows:
Olive oil pomace 360g | 395ml
Coconut oil refined 224g
Shea butter refined 160g
Castor oil 56g | 58ml
Water 212g
Sodium hydroxide 111g
Goats milk powder 28g
Now, I originally found this online, and it said it would make 6 100g bars. I’m not sure how that works because I also purchased a very similar kit to this one, from Amazon1:
And when I use this recipe in this mould, I get ten bars, plus the ends, and they were about 100g. So I’m not the expert here, but that’s what happened when I did it.
You’ll also need the recommended equipment:
Gloves
Goggles
Digital scales
Digital thermometer
Stick blender
Silicone soap mould or DIY alternative
Silicone spatula
Heatproof bowl
Plastic measuring jugs, for oils and fats and all kinds of things at once, so a good mix is 2x 1L and 1x 2L
Making the First Batch
Making the sodium hydroxide solution
Put your gloves and goggles on.
Make sure you’re well ventilated. Open the window and do this bit right in front of the open window, or in good weather, just do this bit outside.
Weigh the water.
Weigh the sodium hydroxide.
Add the sodium hydroxide to the water, not the other way around. This is important. You do not want to be splashed with this stuff.
Mix well until combined.
Leave to cool down, it will be hot, and the fumes are not good, so step away.
Weighing and heating the oils
Weigh the olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter and castor oil
Heat over a pan of boiling water, or according to most recipes, you can use short bursts in the microwave. Not something I fancy trying, but then I’m all about the slow method!
Mix well until combined, this is important, so be sure you have them completely mixed.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool
Checking the temperatures
Test the temperature of your melted oils, they should be between 35C and 40C.
You can reheat them or leave them to cool more if necessary
Test the temperature of the sodium hydroxide solution, it should be between 25C and 40C.
You can obviously leave to cool if necessary, but you can’t reheat if it’s too cool. Online recipes say you can heat the oils a little more to compensate, but the wonderful American lady who taught me to make soap years ago held fast to getting them both to the exact same temperature, and she liked 38C (well she didn’t, she liked 100F but you get the point.)
When the temperatures are right, blend the powdered goat milk into your oil mixture. Don’t waste time on this as adding things can cause all sorts of changes to happen, and you want to get on and get everything saponifying.
Add the sodium hydroxide solution to the oil mixture. SLOWLY and CAREFULLY!
Blending until ‘trace’
Mix with the stick blender and blend with short bursts.
Watch and feel for the mixture starting to thicken. I used to do this with a wooden spoon and it could take anything from minutes to an hour, and was punishing! But with ‘store bought’ ingredients and a stick blender, this is just a couple of minutes.
Test for trace by dripping soap batter on the surface of the mixture. If the drips sit on the surface then your mixture has reached trace.
Stop blending when the soap batter has reached a light trace. Don’t keep going hoping for a thicker blend, or you’ll miss your chance to get it smoothly into the mould.
Pouring into moulds
Pour the soap mixture into moulds
Tap the mould to get rid of air bubbles
Leave somewhere cool for 48 hours before unmoulding.
We’re usually advised not to insulate the soap while it’s curing, in case it overheats, but use your common sense in the average British winter won’t you? I put the lid on mine.
Unmoulding and curing
Take your soap out from the mould
Put the bars with gaps in between them, and leave to cure for 4-6 weeks.
For Your Own Use
Of course if the soap is solely for your own use, or if you live in countries where these regulations don’t exist, you can ignore all the regulation bit, and just make soap!
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Oh wow, Jackie, I had no idea about the layers and layers of legislation! Great post - and how very kind of you to share the recipe.
We used to keep goats but never made their milk into anything other than butter and cheese - oh, and for all that time the only milk we had in the house was from them. Dad had found a way of cooling the milk really really quickly so it never tasted goaty. I love the idea of soap, though! 🫧🐐🧼