The ONE cold process soap recipe every beginner needs to know

Once you decide to try cold process (CP) soap making, the first questions is:

which recipe should I use?

There are thousands of CP soap recipes out there on the internet. Literally T. H. O. U. S. A. N. D. S.. so it can be a bit overwhelming to choose what to try first 

Here is my advice: use a very simple recipe because at the beginning you will make mistakes! Don’t buy fancy & expensive butters and oils, you can just go to your nearest grocery store and get the holy trinity of soap making:

Olive oil

Coconut oil

Rapeseed oil (canola oil)

(+ Distilled water & lye for the lye solution)

not sponsored, we just have a Migros across the studio ;)

Why holy trinity? Because with these three oils you get all what you need in a soap. Olive oil is the best moisturizing oil in soap making, though unfortunately alone it does not lather well and has a slimy, slippery feeling. Coconut oil makes your soap hard and produces big fluffy bubbles. However, it can dry out your skin if you use too much of it. Rapeseed oil is stable, cheap and moisturizing. Alone it would be weirdly smelling and rather soft in a soap.

These three oils together really work! Over 200 students already made their first soap in our studio with this, and every single one was functional in the end.

Tip: I wouldn’t use any fragrance if you are just starting out – it alters the consistence, and you are more likely to have problems - but you can use natural colorants like paprika (red), turmeric (yellow), cacao powder (beige to brown) or finely ground peppermint tea or nettle tea (green) or any non-irritating herb from your pantry without buying a bunch of material before even starting. Colorful soap is fun 

Equipment

• A 2-4L pot you will not use anymore for cooking
• Stick blender – I would not use it for food afterwards anymore. A cheap one from Fuchs or Amazon will do
• Silicon spatula(s) – the IKEA ones are excellent. I would avoid wooden spoons; you can’t really get out the soap and colorant properly. Normal spoon is fine too, just don’t use it to eat anymore.
• A 1L heatproof jug – glass or PP – IKEA, pyrex are the best but you can find cheap PP plastic ones as well.
• A 1.2L silicon soap mold – you can also use an empty and cleaned Tetrapack milk carton and cut our one side (though it is smaller so you will have soap batter leftover). It is a good first time alternative.
• Safety gear - Rubber gloves, mask, safety googles, apron – to handle the lye

The recipe

Here is my basic CP soap recipe I use on my workshops for a standard 1.2L, 26 x 7 x 8 cm loaf mold you can buy anywhere (Amazon, Temu, Aliexpress all sell the same):

950g oils:

• 250 g coconut oil -  26%
• 350 g olive oil  -  37%
• 350 g rapeseed oil  -  37%

Lye solution:

• 250g distilled water
• 130g NaOH
• More or less 2:1 ratio

Colorant:

• 1-2 tablespoon natural colorant from your pantry for the whole batch, depending on how dark you want your colour to be.
• Don’t use food colorant! It will stain your hand.
• You can use cosmetic grade mica and pigments as well. In this case ½-1 teaspoon will suffice for the whole batch.

Fragrance:

•           If you decide to add fragrance (I would not recommend when you just start out), max 20-25g per batch is needed. Make sure you use cosmetic quality IFRA certified fragrance oil or essential oil to avoid irritation.

Tip: Buy the cheapest oils you can find. In a CP soap there is no difference between 7.6 CHF per 1L olive oil from Migros and a fancy extra virgin Spanish 30 CHF per 0.5L olive oil. Both will feel the same in a soap. Save your money! 

Note: this recipe above is for a 1.2L mold that yields 12-13 soaps. If you want to make less at first, keep in mind that you might need to put your soap for 24h into the oven at the lowest setting (usually you just need to switch on the lamp) because the smaller soap mass will not generate the required heat for the saponification process. Avoid single soap forms at the beginning as well! They are difficult to use with CP soap, because they will not harden properly.

Read the next post about how to make CP soap.