1. Measure the oils and pour into the crock pot. Turn the crock pot on high.

2. Measure the water (use room temperature or cooler) into your large mixing bowl and place in a deep sink.

3. Put on safety glasses, rubber gloves, and long sleeves/long pants and closed toed shoes to protect yourself from the lye. Carefully measure the potassium hydroxide, and slowly pour into the water. Stir gently so all of the potassium hydroxide dissolves. Note that this reaction is exothermic - it will produce heat - and the fumes are toxic. Do not breathe over the bowl and stand away as you stir.

4. Carefully pour the water-lye solution into the crock pot. Using an immersion blender, blend for 3-5 minutes, until the mixture is uniformly opaque.

5. Every 30 minutes or so, for the next 3 hours, blend the mixture to help thicken. If your mixture is too thick to use the immersion blender after your 30 or 60 minute check, turn the temperature to low (or warm if you're already on low). My crock pot is extremely hot, and it frothed a lot, the volume increased to fill the crock pot, and when I stirred I noticed that it began to gel in less than 1 hour.

6. Once the mixture is too thick to immersion blend, use your spatula to fold the mixture over itself. Keep folding every 30-60 minutes for 2-4 hours (or longer if needed), until the entire mixture is a uniform, translucent gelatinous mass.

7. Dilution. Once you have a saponified, gelatinous glob of soap, you need to dilute it to use it. Lower the crock pot temperature to warm. Add 6-10 cups of distilled water to your crock pot (ultimately you need 10 cups, but my crock pot only had space for 8), and gently stir/mash the soap into the water. If you're able, stir/mash every hour or so until the glob is fully dissolved. This should take 4-8 hours if you're stirring frequently. You may turn off the crock pot and let sit at room temperature overnight. Stir well in the morning and heat on warm if needed to finish dissolving.

8. Turn off the crock pot and allow the soap to cool to room temperature. Strain if desired, and pour into a clean 1 gallon vessel (I used my now empty distilled water bottle). If you have less than 1 gallon, add more water to fill the gallon bottle and gently swirl to uniformly mix the water and soap.

9. Use your castile soap as you would Dr. Bronners!