We’ve given olive oil soap a 21st-century twist with this recipe, but it’s still natural, gentle and even better for your skin.
Ingredients
Olive oil 250 gr
Coconut oil 150 gr
Shea butter 100 gr
Water 170 gr
Sodium hydroxide 57 gr
Fragrance oil 11 gr
Instructions
Combine all the oils (except the fragrance oil) in a suitable bowl and mix. Shea butter should be solid at room temperature; you may be able to use help from a microwave or double boiler.
Make a lye solution with sodium hydroxide and water. Slowly add lye into a cup of water to prevent overheating. Use protective gloves and goggles to avoid accidents.
Slowly add the lye solution to the oil bowl while mixing with a stick blender, mix in the fragrance oil when the lye solution is ready.
Process for 1 more minute and then put your soap in your mold.
Olive oil has long been a favorite base oil in soap making. It has moisturizing and skin nourishing properties. It is very mild which makes it good for sensitive skin and adds fragrance. And using olive oil as a base oil creates a nice hard bar of soap and helps produce a good lather in the final product. A soap that uses 100% olive oil is considered a castile soap and has been made for centuries. Even when not used 100%, olive is often mixed with other oils in soap recipes because it has so many benefits for the skin.
Shea Butter is usually used for its moisturizing effects. These benefits are associated with shea’s fatty acid content, which includes linoleic, oleic, stearic and palmitic acids. When you apply shea topically, these oils are quickly absorbed into your skin. They act as a “refatting” agent, restoring lipids and creating moisture quickly. This restores the barrier between your skin and the outside world, keeping moisture in and reducing the risk of dehydration.
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