This is a follow-up to the post, Soap Making 101. Today, I’d like to show you how I took one simple, plain recipe and doctored it up to create a variety of custom soaps.
The point I’d like for you to take away from this, is not that you have tofollow my recipes exactly (though you’re certainly free to do so!), but to use the idea as a jumping off point to create your own unique products from your own favorite recipe.
Don’t be afraid to get creative and change things around!
My foray into making homemade soap started several years ago when my son was little and had a ton of allergies. Trying to find products that were gluten free, dairy free, corn free, soy free AND unscented was impossible.
For a time, he took baths with plain water since I couldn’t find anything suitable to wash him with.After a lot of research, I finally took the plunge into making my own soap and haven’t stopped since!
(For more information on making natural soap for your family, be sure to check out my Natural Soap Making Package, filled with helpful resourcesI wish I’d had available when I first started out.)
Natural Colorants
REFERENCE CHART
Subscribe to Soap Tip Tuesdays and I’ll send you my helpful Natural Colorants Reference Chart. Each Tuesday, you’ll receive one of my best natural soapmaking tips, recipes, or printables.
Some links on this site are affiliate links; I only recommend products I personally use and enjoy. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Basic Soap Recipe
This recipe is very plain and simple. It’s a good one to start with if you’re just learning how to make soap or have super sensitive skin prone to allergic reactions.
- 12.5 oz (354 g) olive oil (44.64%)
- 3.5 oz (99 g) sunflower or sweet almond oil (12.5%)
- 8 oz (227 g) coconut oil (28.57%)
- 4 oz (113 g) kokum or cocoa butter(14.29%) (ORuse tallow or lard)
- 3.95 oz (112 g) lye (sodium hydroxide)
- 8.5 oz (241 g) distilled water
Make soap according to the directions in Soap Making 101. This makes a simpleunscented plain off-white bar. The recipe is 2.5 pounds and will fit THIS MOLD.
I most often buy lye from Amazon or my local hardware store. (THIS is a brand that always works well.)
I liked the plain soap because it didn’t break out my son. However, his eczema and dry skin were still a problem, so I set out to tackle that by creating a “Healing Skin Bar.”
I went through my cabinets and gathered up every anti-inflammatory, good-for-the-skin herb I could find and threw it all in this recipe. I also super-fatted the soap by adding someextra oil at trace, right before pouring into the mold. (You can also add this amount with the other oils when making the soap; back when I learned to make soap we added extra oils at trace, but it’s since been shown it doesn’t matter when you add the extra oil.)
Healing Skin Bar
For this bar, I substitute herbal tea for the water using some or all of the following herbs that I keep on hand: calendula, lavender, comfrey leaf, comfrey root, plantain leaf, chamomile, elder flowers, lemon balm/melissa, boswellia, echinacea flowers/leaves, rose petals &/or leaves, violet flowers &/or leaves, and olive leaf powder. You can buy most of these herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs.
Placeseveral tablespoons of dried and/or fresh herbs and flowers in a jar and pour simmering hot water over them. Let this steep overnight, strain and use just as you would water in your recipe. It might smell a little funny and turn a weird color when mixed with the lye, but that’s perfectly normal and will disappear by the time you have a finished bar. Strong herbal teas will give your soap a tan or brownish color.
- 12.5 oz (354 g) infused olive oil (44.64%) (see *Note)
- 3.5 oz (99 g) sunflower or sweet almond oil (12.5%)
- 8 oz (227 g) coconut oil (28.57%)
- 4 oz (113 g) kokum or cocoa butter(14.29%) (ORuse tallow or lard)
- 3.95 oz (112 g) lye (sodium hydroxide)
- 8.5 oz (241 g) cooled herbal tea
- at trace, stir in 1 tablespoon tamanu or rosehip seed oil
- optional, at trace, stir in 20 g lavender essential oil + 10 g tea tree essential oil
Make soap according to the directions in Soap Making 101. The recipe issized to be 2.5 pounds and will fit THIS MOLD.
*Note: I usually keep a variety of olive oils on hand infused with calendula, comfrey, plantain and violet leaf. Any or all of these can be substituted for plain olive oil for even more skin benefits.See THIS POST for an example of how to infuse oil.
Springtime Violet Soap
This is one of my all-time favorite soaps! Every spring, we have loads of violets blooming around here and I love to create different things with them. Even after the blooms are gone, the leaves hang around and are most useful. (See my Violet Leaf Balm, Violet Leaf Honey Cough Syrup & Sweet Springtime Violet Jelly recipes for more ideas of ways to use fresh violets.) Violets are excellent for skin problems (especially eczema), have been used in the treatment of fibrocystic breast disease and are purported to have anti-cancer benefits. I try to incorporate them in my products whenever possible!
To make the violet blossom infusion, collect a jar full of violet flowers and pour hot water over them. Cover with a saucer and let steep a few hours. Strain before using in your recipe.
- 12.5 oz (354 g) infused olive oil (44.64%) (see *Note)
- 3.5 oz (99 g) sunflower or sweet almond oil (12.5%)
- 8 oz (227 g) coconut oil (28.57%)
- 4 oz (113 g) kokum or cocoa butter(14.29%) (ORuse tallow or lard)
- 3.95 oz (112 g) lye (sodium hydroxide)
- 8.5 oz (241 g) cooled violet flowerinfusion/tea
- at trace, stir in 1 tablespoon tamanu, jojoba or rosehip seed oil
- optional, at trace, stir in 20 g lavender essential oil + 6 g ylang ylang essential oil
- optional for green swirl, 1 tsp chlorella mixed with 2 tsp warm water
Make soap according to the directions in Soap Making 101. The recipe issized to be 2.5 pounds and will fit THIS MOLD.
*Note – infuse the olive oil with violet leaves. See THIS POST for more information on how to do that.
To get the green swirl, pour most of the soap mixture into the molds, reserving around around 1/2 to 1 cup or so. Working quickly, add the chlorella and water mixture to the reserved soap batteruntil you get the shade of green you like. (It will fade over time, so go a little darker than you think you’d want.) Pourthis over the top of your plain soap, then use a chopstick to give it a little swirl or two, similar to when making a marble cake.
Sunflower Soap
The color for this soap comes from substituting a small amount of sea buckthorn oil for olive oil.Sea buckthorn oil is a very strong natural colorant that’s fantastic for many skin conditions; a little bit goes a long way!
- 11.5 oz (326 g) olive oil
- 1 oz (28 g) sea buckthorn oil
- 3.5 oz (99 g) sunflower orsweet almond oil
- 8 oz (227 g) coconut oil
- 4 oz (113 g) kokum or cocoa butter (ORuse tallow or lard)
- 3.95 oz (112 g) lye (sodium hydroxide)
- 8.5 oz (241 g)distilled water
- optional, at trace, stir in 20 g lemongrass essential oil
Make soap according to the directions in Soap Making 101. The recipe issized to be 2.5 pounds and will fit THIS MOLD, but I used THESE pretty sunflower molds for this batch.
A Few More Customization Ideas:
- For a Rosy Soap, stir up to 25 grams of geranium essential oil into thebasic soap at trace. (Geranium smells like rose, but is less costly.)
- For an Oatmeal & Honey Soap, stir in 1 teaspoon of honey mixed with 1 teaspoon of warm water, along with 1 tablespoon of ground oats at trace.
- For a Lemon Poppy Seed Soap, stir in 20 grams lemongrass essential oil and 1 teaspoon poppy seeds at trace.
For natural soap recipes, tutorials and inspiration, be sure to check out my Natural Soap Making Ebook Collection:
