Easy Beginner Soap Recipe

A forgiving, palm-free cold process soap recipe for your first batch: olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter and castor oil.

Why this recipe works

Four easy-to-find ingredients, a slow trace that gives you time to pour, and a hard, mild bar with good lather. It is the recipe most new soap makers should start with.

Ingredients

Amounts are for 1000 g (or 32 oz) of oils, a batch of about 1422 g before curing. Water is 2:1 to lye by weight.

Method

1. Put on gloves and eye protection and clear the work area.
2. Weigh the water (or frozen liquid) into a heat-safe jug. Weigh the lye separately, then slowly add the lye to the water, never the other way round. Stir until dissolved and leave to cool.
3. Weigh and melt the hard oils and butters, then add the liquid oils.
4. When the oils and lye solution are both around 35–45°C (unless the tips say otherwise), pour the lye solution into the oils.
5. Stick blend in short bursts until light trace (like thin custard). Stir in fragrance, colour and any additives.
6. Pour into the mould, cover and leave for 24–48 hours.
7. Unmould, cut into bars and cure on a rack in a dry, airy place.

Tips

• Soap at around 35–40°C to keep trace slow.
• Add fragrance at light trace, no more than 3% of oil weight for most skin-safe fragrance oils.
• Unmould after 24–48 hours once the bar is firm.

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