Make sure to always run your recipe through a lye calculator. I love the calculator at Soap Calc.
Start by placing all of the hard oils into a large stainless steel pan. Then I take the hot lye water and place it in a pan with the hard oils. The heat from the lye water is used to melt the oils.
Once the hard oils are completely melted, add the carrier oils.
Stir, stir, stir…. I will normally stir by hand for about five minutes. At this point I will begin to separate my soap mixture into batches for each color that I will be using. Be sure to measure the soap into containers with a pouring spout.
At this stage, you can mix with the immersion blender until you reach your desired trace level. Now feel free to add and extras that you want such as fragrance, botanicals, and color. Mix it one more time to incorporate everything.
By separating your soap into different containers prior to adding fragrance , it will give you additional time to work with each section without racing the clock. The last thing you want is for it to set up before you are ready.