Homemade Bacon Soap Recipe for Men

This homemade bacon soap recipe is the perfect DIY gift idea for men who love bacon! And with Valentine’s Day right around the corner what better way to say “I love you” than with a bar of heart shaped bacon soap? Made using real bacon (rendered) fat, this homemade bacon soap recipe yields nine hard, extra conditioning homemade soap bars perfect for the shower! So there are plenty to go around to all of your bacon loving friends. Scent this homemade bacon soap with a bacon fragrance oil or your sweetheart’s favorite scent – your choice!

Homemade Bacon Soap Recipe

© Rebecca’s Soap Delicatessen

Ingredients:

8.75 oz. bacon fat, rendered (lard, pig tallow in soap calc)
5 oz. 76° melt point refined coconut oil
3.75 oz. castor oil
7.5 oz. pomace olive oil, (virgin olive oil is ok too!)

8.25 fluid oz. distilled water
3.5 oz. sodium hydroxide/lye

1.5 oz. fragrance oil

Soap notes (in case you want to resize the batch):

water as % of oils – 33%
fragrance oil used at 1 oz. per pound
8% superfat

Instructions:

You’ll need to begin by rendering your bacon fat. Basically all this means is you’ll need to cook up a bunch of bacon and save the grease that’s left at the end. I saved up my bacon grease over many weekend morning breakfasts in cups in the fridge. Once you have the necessary amount you can either strain out the tiny bits of bacon that may have snuck in or leave them in just for fun. (I totally left mine in.)

For the rest of the bacon soap recipe you’ll need to follow your basic cold process soapmaking instructions. You’ll also need two Wilton 6-Cavity Silicone Heart Molds.

Begin by preparing the lye-water. Measure out the distilled water into a pitcher. Then, using a digital scale, weigh out the lye. Slowly pour the lye into the water in a well ventilated area and stir until the lye has fully dissolved. Set aside to cool.

Now prepare the soapmaking oils by weighing out the bacon fat, coconut oil, castor oil and olive oil into a large stainless steel pot. Heat on the stove over medium heat until all of the oils have melted then remove from heat and set aside.

While you are waiting for the oils and lye-water to cool you can go ahead and weigh out the fragrance oil. For this particular homemade soap recipe I used Nature’s Garden Cracklin Birch fragrance oil as my boyfriend really liked this scent. It does accelerate trace a bit but nothing too crazy and it stills smells great once it goes through the soap’s saponification process. Alternately Nature’s Garden also sells a Bacon fragrance oil if you’re looking for an authentic bacon scented soap.

Once the lye-water and oils have cooled to around 95°-100°F you’re ready to make soap. Slowly pour the lye-water into the soapmaking oils and mix with a stick blender until you reach a light trace. Add the fragrance oil and mix thoroughly until you reach about a medium trace. You don’t want the soap to thicken too much or you’ll have trouble filling your mold cavities so there are no air bubbles or pockets.

Now pour the soap evenly into nine of the mold cavities. This will fill one mold completely and half of the second mold. Cover the mold with cling wrap or foodservice film.

My homemade bacon soaps were ready to unmold the next day. However if you live in a particularly humid area you may want to wait an additional day before unmolding to ensure your soaps come out of the molds cleanly.

Once you’ve unmolded your heart shaped bacon soaps set them aside to cure for 4-6 weeks. Then wrap and label as desired for gifting.

For more DIY Valentine’s Day gift ideas be sure to follow my DIY Valentine’s Day Gifts Pinterest board. Or get inspired by any one of my other creative DIY boards on Pinterest.

You can keep up with all of my new homemade soap recipes, bath and beauty DIY’s and DIY craft projects by following Soap Deli News on Blog Lovin’ and Tumblr as well as on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Instagram.