The Best Cold Process Soap Recipe (extra moisture and lots of lather)

This is a great recipe for a bar of soap that everyone in the family can use. It is moisturizing, has lots of lather, and is gentle on the skin.

If you want a printable version of the recipe, grab it here:

Beginner Soap Makers, Read This First:

The Best Cold Process Soap Recipe:

11 oz. coconut oil
9 oz. olive oil
9 oz. palm oil
2 oz. sweet almond oil
4 oz. castor oil
4 oz. avocado oil
2 oz. mango butter
5.83 oz of lye
10-15 oz. water
3 T. of fragrance (for a strong scent, vary this to your preferences)

Instructions:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Immediately pour the soap batter into the mold. Place in a turned off oven or wrap with blankets to insulate the soap.

7. 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.

RESIZED 30 OUNCE BATCH for smaller molds:

Almond oil: 1.46 ounces
Avocado oil: 2.92 ounces
Castor Oil: 2.92 ounces
Coconut Oil: 8.05 ounces
Mango butter: 1.46 ounces
Olive Oil: 6.58 ounces
Palm Oil: 6.58 ounces

Lye: 4.25 ounces

Water: 7-11 ounces

Hi there and welcome to my channel, Heart’s Content Farmhouse. I post one new country-style recipe every week with a step by step video.

I am a home baker who wants to teach everyone how to bake their own bread, desserts, and other goodies. Learning to bake changed my life and it’s a skill anyone can learn. I want to guide you through your baking journey!

You will find the occasional non-baking recipe here as well, but everything is family friendly, from scratch, and delicious. My recipes are tried and true, and they are tested multiple times.

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[Eli.P..]

I really love this lady, she just cover everything you need to know, I feel like she goes above and beyond to make sure you understand, she's a good teacher ❤️

[kathyhaynes]

I found making soap to be very addictive. My home always smelled so good from the many kinds of soap on the curing racks. I like the contents of your recipe. One of the first things I learned was castor oil is good for bubbles.

[gallen]

1st you are such a lovely person and a generous spirit not many people are willing to share their recipes, thank you and may you continue to prosper

[gingermorgan]

I made this soap as my very first batch...this video gave me the confidence to make soap. That was about a year ago. You made it so easy to understand and I have graduated to making very intricate designs. Thank you.

[MariaPerez-nmqw]

I have just been schooled by the most beautiful, articulate, virtuous, and knowledgeable young lady. Thank you! God bless you!

[spacecadet]

Hi Katie.
I did my very first soap batch with this recipe. I got brave and decided to split it into two funnel cups, coloring one orange with Saffron (expensive stuff!) dissolved into "borrowed" oils from the main pot) and the other cup brown, using brown oxide dissolved into "borrowed" oils from the main pot. I scented the orange with Brazillian Orange oil, and the brown with Brambleberry's Espresso scent (both scents heavenly!) I call my mix "Orange Cappucino"...
Anyways my problem: I ALMOST wound up with "Soap on a Stick", because it started hardening so fast.
I only stick blended the main pot for about 20 seconds, and hurried through blending the colorants and scents at the last second. I used one Loaf mold and a couple small square molds (one with a splash-ripple pattern, the other with Elephants in it.) It's these two little molds where the two layers didn't blend, and set a little clumpy inbetween.
The Loaf mold did fine, but I had to smooth down the top with a rubber spatula because it was setting so fast.
OK. so you have the basic picture. I'm wondering how critical the temperature at which I added the Lye mixture is. note: I did NOT use Sodium Lactate. Would it have really made matters worse, or is the Sodium Lactate a more "Long term" effect, coming into play during the 6 seek curing time?
I measured the temperature of the main pot and the lye, and noticed that the digital thermometer would go up as I stired it around and stabalize after about 5 seconds. That's what I assumed to be the correct temperature.
I mixed the Lye into the oils at between 115 degrees F, and 120 degrees F. I know your recipe said 100 to 110. Why?
Do you think the higher temperature makes it set sooner? I was concerned that the heavy fats (Palm Oil and coconut oil, and Mango butter) would solidify the closer they got to body temp (98 degrees), so thought I'd go ahead and pour at the temperature that I did.

What do you think? Suggestions? Wish I could send you pictures.

Actually I'm pretty proud of myself, (for a first effort), since my wife loves the scents and says we'll definetly use it when it's ready...

[MariaSanchez]

Thank you for this video! I been trying to learn more about soap making and I been asking God to lead me to the right videos and let me tell you! I love your personality! I can tell you have a humble loving heart. I pray the Lord, will always be with you and your family. Thank you for sharing your ingredients, that’s another thing I noticed about others in the soap making community, they don’t want to share information or help the new person. Thank I appreciate you. 🙏🏽🙌🏽

[bridgettemeyer]

My mom and I made our first bar of cold process soap a few nights ago, and we chose your recipe. Yes, I know. A lot of oils for a beginner, but I have researched so much I was ready to tackle it, and I LOVE lather. It sets up so fast!!!! We ended up spooning it into the mold. I think we should try another one next that doesn’t set up so fast we can’t work with it, but I can’t wait to try the bars out. They turned out prettier than I expected. Thank you for sharing your recipe!

[vinukg]

Actually I had gone through almost all soap making videos, but yours seems so dedicated as you want others to make like u make, sincere, thank u

[susanravella]

Just made this today, on Easter, and it was fun and easy! I made it into a camouflage loaf and topped it with melt and pour "grass, " "mud, " "bark, " and "twigs." Should be ready in time for Father's day! Thanks for sharing the recipe, you made my day!

[josephbolz]

Thank You! Probably going to try soap making as I near retirement. I’m always buying the stuff off of locals. Made lye soap as a kid for a school project.

[beautifuldisaster]

Just made my first batch ever, and I switched up the oils a tad but still kept coconut and olive just switched out the Avocado oil and mango for Shea and added more coconut it was easy but I didn’t use the sodium lactate as I used single molds and added salt for salt bars at the end omg it was so amazing I used grapefruit mint fragrance oil and some strawberry seeds for extra exfoliating I can’t wait. Also since it’s gonna take like 4-6 weeks before I can sell or use it will be spring time so I split up all my new spring colors. Just fabulous thank you so much

[khione]

Been makings soaps for about 4 years now, and love watching other Soapmaking videos from others!

(Funny story) This is the 1st time I've ever come across your channel, but interestingly enough, I wasn't searching for soap videos at all.

Loved your video, and the soap came out nice! I like how you speak clearly and make it easy for those who are new, to understand. Not many channels do that.

1 tip I would like to mention. Don't use Pyrex (or any type of glass) for mixing your lye solution. It seems like a good idea, but lye actually etches the glass, weakening it over time, and can eventually cause it to shatter. Many Soapmakers have had this happen to them before. Stainless Steel is recommended, or a plastic container (with a Recycle Code of #2 or #5 only) can also be used.

[sandywest]

ty very much for your recipes. man i looked for 2 days to get a recipe to used to do cold process. it is usually in percentage and i am percentage illiterate. ty for taking the time to help new soap makers to find a way to do beautiful work like you do. again thank you ...
most people say this is instructional. sheesh. i just wanted to bless people at church with some lovely soaps. you are my hero. i wish i could give you a big hug

[jenn.x]

I am a soap maker using melt n pour only. I want to try to make it this way and this video is so simple! You explained everything and made it easy for me to understand! Thank you 😊

[melindaduncan]

I made this as my first batch of soap yesterday and it came out so nice! I did over stick blend it but I was still able to make it work!

[MamaShalom]

Thank you so much for this recipe. I have made it several times now and it is by far my favorite.

[iwannaapple]

If you would like to resize this to fit your own mold you will need percentages. Here they are:
26.6 % coconut
22% Olive oil
22% Palm oil
4.9% Almond oil
9.8% Castor
9.8% Avocado
4.9% Mango butter
SF +- 3.7%

At 41 ounces of oil it will yield 10 - 5.7 ounce bars.
To refit this to your mold measure (W)idth x (L)ength x (D)esired height x .40 in inches which determines oil amount only.
Plug oil amount and SF 3.7% and this will approximate her recipe to your mold.
Lye calculators average saponification values and might show slight variations on values. Olive oil is one of them but use the recommended lye values.

[karensimons]

This is my 4th time using your wonderful recipe. This time, I ran out of Palm oil so substituted lard (after running the recipe through SoapCalc). So much fun!

[karenb]

This is gonna be my 1st cold process and can't wait to make it. Thank you!