How to Make Your Own Soap (Continued)

If you need to clean your bacon fat, check the first post in the Bacon Fat Soap Trilogy. Once you have clean fat that can actually be used, continue:

Bacon grease clean and ready to be saponified.

Clean fat melted and ready to make into soap.

Weigh and melt the fat. ( I had about 5.5 lbs of fat when I was done washing it.)
Do not make soap with young children or pets underfoot; it is not worth the risk of an accident. However, there is no reason to fear lye as long as you respect it and use safety precautions. Put on your goggles and rubber gloves.
Use this lye calculator to figure out how much lye and water you need. (Based on the quantity and type of fat, I needed 1 quart of water and 12 oz. of lye)
Lye and water mixture.

Sprinkle the lye into the water IN A HEAT-PROOF GLASS CONTAINER and swirl with a silicone or rubber spatula. (This is an exothermic reaction and gives off A LOT of heat; use caution.)
Soap fat combined with lye-water mixture.

Wait until the lye and water cool off and pour them slowly and carefully into the fat.
The soap is ready when you can see where you were just mixing. This is called "trace".

Blend with an immersion blender until you can see where you’ve been blending.
Add fragrance or herbs if you plan to and mix well. (I used about 30 drops off tea tree oil and 65 drops of lavender plus some lavender blossoms I harvested this summer.)
Upcycle an old soymilk carton into a soap mold for your homemade soap.

Pour into soap mold.