If you have been looking for a moisturizing soap full of natural skin loving ingredients that also smells great then this is the recipe for you! Some soaps can be drying to the skin but if formulated correctly you can have not only a bar of soap that cleanses but leaves your skin feeling soft and supple after each use.
Before we dive further into how to make this soap I have some words of wisdom if you are new to cold process soap making. Cold process soap is made with lye(sodium hydroxide) which is caustic to the skin so please be sure you have done your research(here is a great video you can watch on lye safety) and that you have all the proper safety equipment before you get started. Also, don't let this intimidate or keep you from trying to make cold process soap for yourself. It is perfectly safe( and fun and rewarding) to do but just like with many hobbies there are a few safety precautions you will want to take.
Now on to the soapmaking! For this recipe I chose to use cocoa, mango and shea butter as they are all great for moisturizing your skin and they give this bar a luxurious, creamy feeling when you are using it. To help keep this bar great for cleansing your skin, I have used coconut oil along with castor oil to help with the bars lather. Finally, I used hempseed oil for it's emollient properties. Sounds like a pretty great bar of soap so far right?
This bar also contains kaolin clay and coconut milk powder. The coconut milk powder adds to the creaminess of the bar while the kaolin clay adds a little slip and also helps anchor in our essential oils.
This recipe is scented with Tangerine and Ylang Ylang essential oils for a Citrusy scent with a light floral undertone.
I kept the colors simple using a gold and copper mica as those colors just spoke to me for a rich buttery soap:)
The batter recipe for this soap is:
Cocoa Butter 25% -9.5oz
Mango Seed Butter 20% - 7.6oz
Shea Butter 25% -9.5oz
Coconut Oil 20% -7.6oz
Castor Oil 5% -1.9oz
Hemp Oil 5% - 1.9oz
Water: 13.3oz
Lye: 5.19oz
Super Fat 5%
Lye Concentration 28%
Coconut Milk Powder 1 TBS(optional)
Kaolin Clay 1 TBS(optional)
Sodium Lactate 1 TBS in my lye water solution(optional)
The essential oils used in this soap are:
Tangerine 5% usage rate .95oz
Ylang Ylang 2% usage rate .38oz
Please keep in mind that the ounce measurements are based on a 38oz soap. If you are making a larger or smaller batch than that, you will want to run the percentages through a soap calculator to get the correct measurements for your batch size as well as recalculate the amount of essential oils used.
I like to start my soapmaking by making my lye water solution and melting down my oils and butters. While these are cooling off I measure out my essential oils and mix my colorants. For this soap I used Rapunzel which is a gold color and Copper Penny which is you guessed it, a copper color. I premixed the micas with a small frother and about a tablespoon of my batch oils for each color.
Once the lye water and oils and butters have cooled to your desired soaping temperature(I typically soap between room temperature and 95 degrees) you can add your essential oils and gold mica to your soap batter along with your coconut milk powder and kaolin clay and then stick blend or whisk until combined.
Next carefully pour in your lye water solution and stick blend until you are at a light to medium trace. As this recipe has a lot of butters in it, you want to be careful not to over blend to get good distribution of our mica in the pot swirl.
Once you have reached your light to medium trace, pour your copper mica in to your soap batter. I like to pour some mica in on all sides(Think about a clock face when you pour in the mica and imagine pouring at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock).
Now it's time to pour your batter into the mold and decorate the top. I did a simple swirled top on this soap using a bamboo skewer and topped it off with gold glitter but you can do any top that you would like:)
Cover and let the soap set up for 18-24 hours before unmolding and cutting your soap.
Your soap is fully saponified after about 48 hours but I recommend letting your soap sit for around 4 weeks to allow the water to evaporate out of the bar. This makes for a harder bar of soap that will last much longer.
If you make this soap, leave a comment down below on how the recipe turned out for you!
*This post contains affiliate links meaning if you use my link, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting The Oily Life!