How to make triple milled soap at home

Soap milling, also called French Milling, is an easy traditional process for enhancing cakes or bars of soaps. Milling allows you to add a variety of healing, soothing, or cleansing ingredients, such as extra fats or oatmeal or essential oils, to  your soaps. I like to make hand milled soaps to give as gifts as well as to add luxury to our daily lives.

I’ve used two methods for hand-milling soaps. This method uses heat and works better for soaps you intend to mold. The second method uses warm water, making it a terrific method for kids, and works better for making soap balls and hand-sculpted bars.

Milling Soap Tutorial

This is a basic procedure, not a recipe. I haven’t included specific measurements but have instead described the process and what to look for as you’re working. For specific recipes using this technique, see The Practical Herbalist Recipes.

Equipment you’ll need to mill soap:

• a mixing bowl
• a cheese grater
• a non-reactive pot
• a rubber scraper or a spoon
• soap molds
• waxed paper (optional)

Ingredients for milling soap:

• One or more bars of unscented, natural soap
• 1/2 cup of warm to hot water for every 4 ounces (approximately 1 cup, grated) soap
• essential oils, herbs, abrasives, or other ingredients

Procedure for milling soap:

1. Grate the soap into a mixing bowl.
2. Add water, approximately 1/2 cup per 4 ounces of soap, and stir well.
3. Heat the mixture on low setting, stirring constantly until the soap is melted and thoroughly combined with the water. It should be about the consistency of a soft cookie dough.
4. Remove the mixture from the heat.
5. Add any further ingredients, such as herbs, honey, or abrasives. Do not add essential oils yet because the heat will cause them to evaporate.
6. Stir the mixture until it’s cool but still pourable.
7. Add any essential oils and stir thoroughly. Try adding 4 or 5 drops of essential oil for every cup of soap you grated.
8. Spoon into molds, pack the soap well so there are no air bubbles.
9. Set the molds aside to dry and harden.
10. Once the soap is hard enough, turn it out of the molds and set it on a wire rack or waxed paper to harden thoroughly. This may take a few weeks.

Finishing and Storing your Hand-milled Soap

After your soap has dried and hardened thoroughly, which may take as much as a few weeks, store it in an air-tight container. It will last for a long time, but after a few months any scent you have added to it may lessen. You can re-mill the soap to add more essential oils to it, if you wish.

  

The name Triple Milled Soap speaks for itself, really. As it is manufactured the soap is passed through a milling machine of smooth stainless steel rollers. The soap is passed through the machine not once… not twice… but, you guessed it, three times, and pressed into a smooth fine paste.

Why Triple Milled?

The goal of all this milling is to thoroughly mix the soap and any fragrances or extra ingredients added to the soap base, while squeezing out any extra moisture or air. In truth, Triple Milled Soap is sometimes put through the milling machine more than three times. Mill the soap too many times, though, and you wind up with a dry, less desirable final product. Getting it just right is a bit of an art.

The soap base used in Triple Milled Soap is the same basic recipe used to make all soaps. Mix a fat or oil with an alkali salt (lye), and a chemical reaction occurs called saponification - resulting in soap! It’s what happens after saponification that gives Triple Milled Soap its charm.

The Charm of Triple Milled

What is that charm? Simply put, Triple Milled Soaps contain less water and more actual soap creating a long-lasting hard soap. How many times have you picked up your soap from its dish, only to find a messy blob? This will never happen with Triple Milled Soap! Less goop, richer lather – that’s Triple Milled Soap.

   

Are Homemade Soaps Triple Milled?

Don’t try this at home! A number of homemade soap recipes are called French Milled Soaps. But don’t let the name fool you. This soap is made by a two-part cooking method called hand milling or re-batching. No expensive milling machine, no triple Triple Milled Soap.

Interested in trying some of our favorite triple milled soap? We recommend the  Provence Sante Bath Bars. Provence Sante 7 oz. soaps are the 'goldilocks' of soap bars: Not too big; not too small; just right! And when you go back for your next use, they're still there! The perfect size for bath and shower, but not too large for hand washing, these soaps feature the trademark, shea butter enriched, creamy lather of all Provence Sante soaps.

Browse Our Triple Milled Soap

Baudelaire Lavender soap is the closest to real lavender fragrance I've ever found, The gentle, but luxurious cleanser is a pleasure to use." -One Happy Customer

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Hand-milled soap, also called rebatched soap or French milled soap, is an easy way to make the perfect bar of soap without using caustic lye.  Soap making supplies are expensive in small quantities, so if you only want to make a few bars, this is an affordable way to make your own.  You can  use nearly any soap, but it's best to use a handmade soap.  Glycerin soap and inexpensive commercial soaps don't work as well in this recipe.  Keep reading to learn how to make hand milled soap.

Links in this post may be affiliate links, which means that I earn a small commission from sales. Making hand milled soap is easy and fun.  Even kids can't help you make the soap, just be sure to let the soap mixture cool before they touch it.  My kids like to work the soap and water mixture with their hands after it cools and then smoosh it in to the molds.

What You Need

Directions

1. Grate soap and process with food processor until it is a fine powder or shred with a cheese grater.
2. Place the powdered soap or soap flakes in a glass bowl and put in double boiler over low heat.  Add water,
3. Add any additional oils that you want (more on that in a moment).
4. Stir until soap gets stringy.  You may need to add more water as needed if your soap was really dry.
5. Add any additional additives and stir well.
6. Quickly pour melted soap in to molds.  
7. Unmold soap when it is hard.  Let cure 2-3 weeks.

It's important to heat the soap slowly.  You can also use a slow cooker on low, but you will need to stir it often.  I just use a double boiler and heat slowly.  It takes anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes to melt, depending on the water content of the soap. You may need to add more water to the soap as it melts.  I usually add enough so my bar of soap is stringy but not a liquid  If you add too much water, it will evaporate as it dries.   It will take longer to dry, but it won't hurt the recipe unless you add cups of water more than you should have.

You can add fragrance oil or essential oil to this soap.  The general rule is 0.3 to 0.5 ounces per pound of soap.  Since this recipe will yield about 12 ounces of soap, you'll want to use 0.225 to 0.375 ounces of FO or EO.  If you use more or less soap powder, you can adjust the scent accordingly.   

If you find a melt and pour recipe that you like, substitute this recipe for the melt and pour base.  Just make sure you calculate the ingredients for 12 ounces of soap base or multiply the amount by 0.75,  

Years ago when I learned to make my own soap I also learned a handy trick for reusing those little bits of leftover soap that seem useless. You can make hand milled soap with those bits and create useful bars. The frugal gal in me loves that nothing goes to waste.

Hand milling soap is also the best way to incorporate additives into your soap without degrading their herbal properties. During the curing process for soap made with lye, the essential oils and herbs can lose their potency.

Not so when you make a hand milled soap batch.

This process is how I usually make my soap. I “cook” up a plain batch of soap. let is cure and then use it to make all kinds of fantastic herbal soaps to benefit my family.  This may seem like an extra step to you, but it works well for us. We always have plain soap on hand that can be used for any purpose and we only need to hand mill a batch of soap to have something special.

What kind of soap should you use?

It’s all about the ingredients. Any soap will do as long as it has not been overly processed with additives.  I have had great success with hand milling soap that I have received from a bed and breakfast that we like to frequent. Any pure castile soap or natural soap base will do, as well as any soap that you know was made by hand.

Once I tried to use an Ivory Soap® bar as a rebatch test subject, which did not work out. It turned into a goopy, icky, slimy mess. As a general rule, if there are no ingredients listed on the package, or there are  ingredients that you can’t pronounce, skip it.

A natural soaps should always win out for your rebatching efforts.

The Hand Milling Process

Gather various bits of leftover soap that you have around the house. You can include a few commercially processed bars, if you have them, but don’t make it a full batch. Castile or other pure soaps bases are best.

Using a hand grater or food processor, turn your soap bits into a powder.

Gather Your Supplies

• 2 cups of grated soap
• 1 to 3 Tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or even witch hazel)
• medium saucepan or double boiler
• dried herbs (optional)
• essential oil (optional)
• sweet almond or jojoba oil (optional)

1. Place 2 cups of grated soap into your saucepan and add 1 tablespoon of liquid. This is just enough to wet the soap but not make it overly soupy.
2. On low heat, gently stir the mixture until the soap melts. This process will take some time so do not rush or stir the soap so hard that you turn it into a lather. The goal is to incorporate as little bubbles into your new soap bars as possible.
3. Add additional liquid, in 1 tablespoon amounts, as needed. You should not have to add any more than 3 tablespoons to achieve a complete soap melt.
4. Continue gently stirring and NOT creating too many bubbles until you think it will not melt any further. You may have small leftover bits of soap and that’s okay.
5. Stir in any dried herbs that you want. Calendula and lavender are especially good for your skin.
6. Add a few drops of essential oil to give your soap creation a wonderful scent.
7. Add a few drops of sweet almond or jojoba oil for added skin softening properties. (Don’t add too much or your soap won’t set!)

Pour your hand milled soap into molds

I like to use various items from around the house as my soap molds. Mostly that’s just because I’m frugal and don’t want to spend the money on fancy molds. You may want to consider purchasing molds if you will be giving your hand milled soap as gifts.

As you can see I use ice cube trays, small boxes, plastic yogurt cups, and even small cups. Anything that looks like it would make a bar small enough to hold in your hand is game for me!

The large bar from this picture is removed from the mold after 2 days and cut into bar size pieces. That lets me use just about anything I can find as a mold to make a bar of soap. If the item you’ve chosen in not flexible, add plastic wrap to help with removing the batch.

The Drying Process

Success! You’ve taken a few bits of soap that you thought were useless and made something new and good for you. Now comes a bit of curing time so you can achieve a bar that will stand up to hand washing and shower time.

You soap will need to cool and be allowed to set. After 2 days remove the soap from the molds and place the bars on a flat surface. If they are still sticky, leave them molded until they can be removed without deforming them. The more water you added during rebatching, the longer this will take, maybe even up to a week.

Once they are on the drying surface, leave enough space between the bars so air can circulate and aid with the drying process. After a few days, turn them over to expose the underside. In 7 to 14 days your bars should be hard enough to use.

If you need a simple tutorial to make your own soap try this post – Soap Making Basics.

In a hurry to make your own wonderful smelling creations? You can purchase soap base, ready for grating, at Amazon. Here’s a link for 2 pounds of Goats Milk Glycerin Soap Base for around $10. You’ll be surprised with all the soap bases that are available for purchase.

Hand milling soap is a fantastic and frugal way to take a basic soap base and give it herbal properties to benefit your skin. Have you ever rebatched a bit of soap?

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