Every oil brings its own properties to a bar of soap, and finding the perfect soap recipe is all about balancing those properties. This recipe does it, with a blend of hard and soft oils for a long-lasting bar, plus castor oil for lots of big bubbles and moisture. This might have more oils than beginner soap recipes, but that’s okay. The process is exactly the same. It’s just a matter of opening a couple more bottles and measuring them. I know you have it in you.
If you’ve never made soap before, you can start with this recipe, but I’d recommend something a little bit simpler if you’re feeling nervous. At the very least, please read this blog post, which goes over the science and safety of soap making. It’s not hard, but there are rules, and you do need to know them.
what You’ll Need
Stocking a soap-making “pantry”, so to speak, is a little bit of an investment, but you can make recipes out of this for years. Most recipes are going to use the same things over and over, and the equipment will always be the same. If you’d like to start out with a single-oil recipe, try homemade Castile soap, which is 100% olive oil.
Equipment
Yes, a scale is an absolute must, as is a stick blender. I’m sorry!
Ingredients
- 5.83 ounces lye (Make sure the bottle says 100% Sodium Hydroxide—do not use generic drain cleaners)
- 10 to 15 ounces water (Distilled water is best; tap water contains minerals that can create “soap scum” or odd colors)
- 11 ounces coconut oil
- 9 ounces palm oil (If you prefer not to use palm oil, you cannot just leave it out or swap it directly; you must run the new recipe through a soap calculator to get the safe lye amount. I have a popular soap recipe here that is palm-free.)
- 2 ounces mango butter
- 9 ounces olive oil
- 4 ounces castor oil
- 4 ounces avocado oil
- 2 ounces sweet almond oil
- 3 tablespoons fragrance oil (Make sure it is rated skin-safe for soap making)
- 2 teaspoons sodium lactate (Optional; this is a salt solution that makes the bar harder and easier to unmold)
- Mica or colorant (Optional)
Instructions
Remember:
The worst thing you can do when making soap is be really nervous or be in a rush. Stay calm, work slowly, and everything will be fine.
Step One: Measure Water and Lye
First measure your lye and water separately using a digital scale, then carefully combine them. Pour your water into a cup you don’t care much about, then add the lye to the water, stir it until it dissolves, and set it somewhere safe.
This is the most dangerous part of soap making because you now have a cup that looks like water but can blind someone, burn their skin, or become fatal if they drink it. Make sure everyone in your house understands not to mess with this cup and that it’s out of the way where it can’t accidentally be knocked over.
Step two: Measure, Melt, and Cool the Oils
Melt them on your stovetop, bringing the temperature up to around 140. Technically, these should be measured out separately and then added to one pot. I tend to just add them all at the same time, zeroing out the scale in between each oil.
Now everything needs to cool to about 110 to 120 degrees. It will take a few hours. Check with a thermometer.
If you’re using sodium lactate, add it now to the cooled lye water.
Step Three: Blend to Trace
Once your temperatures are right, it is time to combine. Pour the lye water into the pot of oils and stick blend.
Important: Before you do this, make sure any color and fragrance you want to add are ready to go, and that your mold is prepared. Things will move very quickly and you don’t want your soap batter hardening in the pot.
Until everything is combined and you have reached a thin “trace”. This means your soap had thickened up JUST a little. If you were to drizzle a bit of soap on top, it would stay instead of sinking in.
Step Four: Add color and fragrance if you’d like
Add color and fragrance and stir by hand or slowly with the stick blender.
Then pour everything into your prepared mold.
Step Five: Cure
Let the soap cure in a warm, draft-free place (such a turned-off oven that has been warmed to 140 degrees, then turned off), or wrapped in quilts.
The next morning or afternoon you take it out and cut it into bars. Let it cure for 3-5 weeks before using in the shower
Storage Instructions
Once fully cured, homemade soap should be stored in a dry, well-ventilated spot. I like to put it in shoe boxes in the closet with layers of newspaper in between the bars.
FAQs
A 10-inch silicone mold. It’s my favorite for most soaps.
If your soap is too soft, it might need more time to cure. Adding sodium lactate or using oils with higher stearic acid content can also help create a harder bar.
It is a pink mica from Nurture Soap. You can find it here.
Yes, absolutely. I’d recommend using sodium lactate since it can be a bit soft when unmolding it.
This is a 100% personal preference (except for the fact that florals are more difficult to work with). My personal favorites are Comfort and Joy from Nurture Soap and Mango Mango from Brambleberry.
Yes! I used to swirl it all the time before I got too lazy.
You sure can. You’ll need the following percentages:
Coconut Oil: 26.83%
Mango Butter: 4.88%
Olive Oil: 21.95%
Palm Oil: 21.95%
Sweet Almond Oil: 4.88%
Enter them into a soap calculator with the desired size of your batch and it will give you the correct amounts.
The gel phase is a part of the saponification process where the soap heats up and becomes translucent. This can help create a smoother, more uniform bar.
Yes, essential oils can be used as a natural alternative to fragrance oils. Just be sure to use skin-safe essential oils and follow recommended usage rates. The usage rates will be listed in ounces per pound of soap-making oils, and you will need to do a little math.
Printable Recipe
Big Bubbles Cold Process Soap
Equipment
- Safety equipment (gloves, goggles, apron)
Ingredients
- 11 ounces coconut oil
- 9 ounces olive oil
- 9 ounces palm oil
- 2 ounces sweet almond oil
- 4 ounces castor oil
- 4 ounces avocado oil
- 2 ounces mango butter
- 5.83 ounces lye
- 10-15 ounces water
- 3 tablespoons fragrance oil for a strong scent, vary this to your preferences
- 2 teaspoons sodium lactate optional, for a harder bar
- colorant or mica optional
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Instructions
- Make lye water. Using a digital scale, measure out the lye and water in separate glass containers. Combine them by adding the lye to the water. (Remember: snow floats on the lake.). Stir until the lye dissolves. The temperature will shoot up. Place this in a safe place to cool.
- Melt oils and butters. While the lye solution is cooling, measure out the oils and butters and combine them in a large stainless pot. Melt them over low heat and heat them up to 130-140 degrees. Set them aside to cool.
- Let cool. After 2 hours, check the temperature of both solutions. They should be around 110 degrees. (A range of 100-120 is fine.). If not, allow them to cool longer.
- Prep for mixing. Prepare your mold and measure out any fragrance or color you will be adding. (For best blending of colors, mix some color into a few drops of melted oils.). If using sodium lactate, add it to the lye water at this time.
- Blend to trace. Pour the water and lye solution into the pot with the melted oils. Blend with a stick blender until thin trace is reached. The soap batter will noticeable thicken and a trail of soap will sit on top of the liquid rather than immediately sinking in. (This will take about 1 minute.). Add the color and fragrance and stir by hand.
- Pour in mold. Immediately pour the soap batter into the mold. Place in a turned-off oven or wrap with blankets to insulate the soap.
- Cut bars and let cure. After 24 hours of curing, unmold and cut into bars. The bars may seem slightly soft but will harden considerably during the curing process. Allow to cure at least 3 weeks in a well-ventilated place.
Video
Notes
Hi katie
Can you please tell me how to calculate oil and lay ?in cold procsses soap? In simple method imam from India ndia and love watching your videos new in soap making ☺️
hi reeta i have a free booklet that lays it out. you can download it in my subscriber library. the password is: cozy
Love this recipe, it’s my first time making soap and I’ve made 3 loaves with this. Thank you for your detailed instructions. I seem to get soda ash on the tops even if I spray 99% isopropyl alcohol right away. I used 12oz of distilled water and soap between 100-110 degrees. Any suggestions?
hi jen! this happens to me sometimes still too because i like to soap at low temperatures. blending at higher temps will prevent this but it’s trickier in general. some people steam the tops of their soap but i’ve never tried that! honestly i wouldn’t worry too much about it, it’s just cosmetic.
This is my absolute FAVORITE soap recipe! It’s wonderfully moisturizing while bubbling beautifully. Thank you so much for sharing it with all of us. My family and I are grateful. ☺️
teresa i’m so happy you like it! we love the bubbles too!
I really appreciate your lecture and I wish one day I can. Be ableto blend my own my question is that can i use palm oil olive oil only or can I just use soyabean oil to do the same only thanks you I appreciate your tutorial ideas
Hi! I am a first time soap maker and I am excited to try your recipe. I have been reading and researching and prepping before I begin. My question is do you have to melt and heat the oils on the stove to the given temp or can I just melt in microwave? Thank you!
yes, you can! i would do it in bursts and stir in between. but it will work fine. 🙂
Hi Katie, when you made this recipe, what was the source of the SAP values that you used to calculate the solid lye (NaOH) quantity? There seems to be quite a range of values for each oil, depending on the supplier or on the online database source. For example, for avocado oil, I get a 177 to 230 range from the “fromnaturewithlove.com” saponification tables, while Bramble Berry just provides one value: 200. If I use the Bramble Berry values I get 6.1 oz of NaOH (for 5% superfat) for this recipe, but you are using 5.83 oz of NaOH, which would put you between 5 and 10%. If I rely on the wider range, then 5.83 oz lands me between 0.9% and 9.3% superfat.
hi gloria, i use the lye calculator from mountain sage: they use an average value for saponification from different suppliers.
You recipe is fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing it.
so happy you like it! 🙂
Since palm oil is destroying the planet and our kids deserve a place to live, do you have any recipes without palm oil?
I have a few, search for cold process baby soap and lemon soap they are both palm free.
I have been researching for months before trying to make soap for the first time and this was the recipe I tried. It is such a beautiful, creamy, bar that lathers like crazy which I absolutely love! After washing my hands with it they are not stripped what-so ever and is just moisturizing enough. Thanks for this recipe! I love your YouTube videos and you’ve taught me quite a bit of useful info on making cold process soap!
Hi Carma! Thank you so much for the kind note. I’m so happy you found a soap recipe that you love on the first try!
I’m interested in this soap recipe, but wonder if there’s a substitute for the palm oil and avacado oil; also could I use shea butter instead of mango? I’m just new at this, and I’m not exactly sure how to run this through a soap calculator. Thank you for you help!
hi WT: you can definitely make substitutions! if you don’t want palm or avocado oil you might like the lemon soap recipe i have. https://heartscontentfarmhouse.com/lemon-soap-recipe/ to just do a straight up substitution with THIS recipe, you could substitute babbasou oil for the palm oil (it’s expensive) and more almond oil for the avocado. but you would have to use a lye calculator to see if the lye amount changes. hope this helps 🙂
I just started making soap and would like to know what are your favorite scent recipes. I like a clean smelling soap
hi cheryl, my favorite clean fragrances are awaken (citrusy and fresh) and rosemary mint from nurture soap. they have a nice selection and sell in small sizes so you can try out a few. you can get them here: https://nurturesoap.com/collections/fragrance-oils?aff=326
If this recipe is drying out your skin and you want a vegan recipe, reduce the Coconut oil and skip the Palm. Sub with more olive oil or canola oil to be economical. Also be sure your lye formula is mild. 1:3 is a good rule of thumb ratio. Cover it to keep carbon absorption out. You can put a little of the butter aside and add it in with your choice of fragrance as well. I try to avoid fake fragrances because of my sentsative Irish girl skin. Jess, Barblender Soaps.
Hi. What is the super fat % for this recipe? N
5%
hello can I use grams instead of percentage
Great recipe! Can I leave out the mago butter?
you can try substituting shea butter or cocoa butter, but you’ll need to run it through a lye calculator to se if the lye amount changes.
This was great! I’m looking to make a three butter soap. Any tips?
so for the water amount do i use 10 or 15oz of water. its not really specific?
hallie, the amount of water is flexible in soap recipes. I typically go for an amount in the middle. less water and it will come to trace faster and the bars will cure faster, it just give you less time to add fragrance, etc before the soap sets up. a higher amount of water and you have more time to work but the bars will need more time to cure. its just personal preference.
I wanted to make your recipe but convert it into grams , do you have the % for each ingrediant so i can convert it ?
hi Anna! there are very annoying decimals involved, unfortunately! 🙂
Avocado Oil: 9.76%
Castor Oil: 9.76%
Coconut Oil: 26.83%
Mango Butter: 4.88%
Olive Oil: 21.95%
Palm Oil: 21.95%
Sweet Almond Oil: 4.88%
Hello! I have made many batches of this soap and the soap has cured for 4 weeks. I used one of the bars last evening and it was very drying to my hands. They felt tight etc. I love the recipe and all the ingredients. Any thoughts? Will curing longer help?
Pamela, do you mean previously batches have turned out well but this particular one did not? It could have been a measuring error- leaving out a certain oil and thus too much lye, or something like that. if you mean that all of your batches have been too drying, I would recommend increasing the superfat to 7%, but it will be a softer bar. 🙂
I made your recipe the other day and I absolutely loved it! So tonight I made it a second time, it’s been poured and sitting in the mold for a couple hours now. I just realized that I forgot to add the avocado oil! ???? How bad have I messed this up? I’m a new soaper, please help.
so the main issue that the lye is going to be a bit out of whack. there won’t be enough oils to balance out the lye. what I would do is use a soap calculator and input the recipe as you made it. see what the superfat percentage comes out to. if it’s below 4, it’s probably too harsh to use on your skin 🙁 but you could use it as a cleaning soap! here is my favorite lye calculator: https://www.the-sage.com/lyecalc/
Hi Katie
I am planning to make this soap and it will be my first time! A soap virgin. Where does the pink colouring come from? I love it and want my soap to look just like that!
Wish me luck.
hi Deirdre! how exciting! the pink is a pink mica! you can add it at trace until you get the color you want. my favorites pink is this one: cantaloupe mica