Ingredients
For this 12-bar (3.6 lb) recipe, use:
- 28.7 oz Olive Oil
- 6.2 oz Coconut Oil
- 4.1 oz Shea Butter
- 2.1 oz Castor Oil
- 5.48 oz Lye
- 10.6 oz water
- 2 tsps sugar (in the lye solution)
- 1.5 tsps salt (in the lye solution)
- Optional: 1.8 oz fragrance or essential oil
Directions
- Make up your lye solution as you normally would, adding the salt and the sugar to the water before you add the lye. Make sure both the sugar and the salt are completely dissolved before you add the lye. Set the lye solution aside to cool in a safe place.
- Measure out your hard oils and the shea butter and melt them in the microwave or on the stovetop.
- Measure out the liquid oils and add them to the melted hard oils. This is a great recipe to use oil infused with a healing herb like chamomile or lavender. Use the infused oil as you would your normal olive oil.
- When the oils and lye water have cooled to about 100 F, it's time to mix. Mix the lye water and the oils together and give it a few short bursts with the stick blender.
- Once you've reached trace, if you are not adding a fragrance or essential oil to the soap, it's time to pour it into the mold. If you're adding a fragrance, add it here and stir well. This would also be the time to add in any additives like chamomile flowers or lavender buds.
- Pour the soap into your mold, and you're done.
A high olive oil soap like this will be soft initially, but after four to six weeks of curing, will get really nice and hard. The lather will be milder and less bubbly than a bar with more coconut oil in it, but this soap will be super mild for sensitive or baby soft skin.