Homemade Solar Soap Instructions
I hope you enjoy these Homemade Solar Soap Instructions. I love to make it this way when ever I can…
When I made this solar soap in the car (rosemary/lavender shampoo bar), it was a last minute thought since it had been a fairly hot sunny day.
At 4:30 in the afternoon it was running a little late, earlier in the day to catch the optimal heat would have been better but there was just enough time to get the heat I needed to bring the soap to gel.
I snapped a few pictures so that you could see how I did it…
First I set a few things from the kitchen to level out the seat. That way the soap wouldn’t spill or set unevenly in the molds.
Since it was getting late and I wasn’t sure how long the heat was going to last I put a hot water bottle in with the soap. I also had an oven thermometer to see how hot it was. It read 100`F.
Next I covered it with two new garbage bags to attract and hold the heat.
And lastly I tucked it in with a double fleece blanket to keep the heat in.
It all took minutes to put together. The hardest part was trying not to open the car door to check the heat. I did peek often enough to check on the gel status. Once I saw that it had reached gel stage I was able to leave it alone :0)
That’s that. If you can catch it early enough on a hot day you can even melt some of your oils – coconut will melt and even shea butter especially if you have a metal pot – I used a smaller metal canning pot.
Of course you must be careful to set them securely so that you don’t get a spill. No one is going to be happy with a car seat covered in oil!
We are lucky to have an older car so if there is an accident it isn’t going to be a huge problem. Interestingly, I also find since the windows are older they aren’t tinted as the new ones so the car gets hotter easier.
IMPORTANT: If you have kids you should be sure that they can’t get in there, to either spill things or get into something that may harm them such as raw soap. And of course as always, follow Soapmaking Safety Rules.
I like to leave it at least a few hours, if the time is right I leave it to cool overnight and take them out in the morning.
After I removed the soaps from the car I popped them in the freezer with some concerns about removing the soaps since it was quite sticky due to the high Castor Oil content.
NOTE: Harder bars pop out quite nicely after a short time in the freezer – no hair dryer needed!
If you normally cook your soap, homemade solar soap is a great way to save a little electricity and do something a little different.
Related posts:
Tags: handmade soap, homemade soap making instructions, making solar soap
Sep 05, 2010
That is too cool! Never hear of Handmade Solar Soap before.
Sep 05, 2010
Jan, you’re always an innovative thinker! Great idea! I don’t have a car but I do have a sunroom with 9 foot high windows and it gets over 115F in there during the summer! Solar Soap – I love it!
Sep 12, 2010
Hi Denise! I was just thinking that I should have made much better use of our sun room – some days it got really hot in there and would easily have cooked soap. We just did a bunch of reorganizing and now we’re using it for a living room so we will be controlling the temperature in there but I think that is a GREAT idea.
It’s probably too late in the season now, but next summer I’m going to play with making some solar cookers from boxes and tin foil – I haven’t looked into it much but I think that they are easy to make and maybe more practical if someone needs the car :0))