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Make a gentle shea butter face soap recipe from scratch using pure oils and natural ingredients. It’s suitable for sensitive skin and loaded with conditioning shea butter. Cold-process soapmaking instructions are included.
Many facialcleanserscan strip the skin of natural oils, leaving your skin either too dry or too oily. This is because yourface can respond to over-cleansing and over-exfoliation with evenmore acne, blackheads, oiliness, or skin irritation. Knowing this,I tend not to cleanse my face with anything other than water on days I’m not wearing make-up or a natural cleanser on days that I am. When I’m not using my copycat version of Lush’s Angels on Bare Skin, I also make an extremely sensitive and creamy shea butter face soap recipe. It’s gentle, easy to make, and great for times when my skin needs extra cleansing.
I have naturally oily skin, but I’ve found that the secret to managing it is to allow my skin to find its own balance. When I was a teenager and in my twenties, I cleaned it morning and night, and the shine never seemed to disappear. This is because my skin was overcompensating for the natural oils it lost twice daily. I also suffered from acne, and I’m convinced it was because I was over-cleansing.
Shea Butter Face Soap Recipe
The recipe below creates quite delicate bars of soap that are perfect for cleansing all skin types, including sensitive skin. It’s made with natural ingredients, including shea butter and cocoa butter, and has no artificial preservatives or additives. The lather is rich and creamy, and the addition of rich shea butter gives the bars a soothing creaminess. You can make this recipe without any fragrance at all, but if you’d like a scented bar, add the optional rose geranium essential oil. Extracted from rose geranium leaves Pelargonium graveolens, it smells lovely and uplifting and could also help treat bacterial acne and tighten the skin.
Natural Soap Making for Beginners
If you’re new to making handmade soap, you might also want to check out the introduction to natural soap making series. It gives a good introduction to what to expect from ingredients, equipment, recipes, and how to combine everything together to make soap. For this recipe, ensure that your main oils, water, and lye are pre-measured. Wear an apron, gloves, and eye protection, and work in an orderly space free from distractions. Any tools, pans, or bowls that come into contact with the lye should be soap-dedicated. It’s best not to use the same items that you’d prepare food with. Ensure that the jugs you measure the lye and water into are heat resistant.
More Gentle Skincare Recipes
- Simple Skin Cream Recipe
- Rose Petal Facial Mist Recipe
- How to Make Herbal Lip Balm
- Cocoa Mint Cracked Heel Balm
Gentle Shea Butter Face Soap Recipe
Lovely Greens
Natural Vegan and palm-oil-free simple cold process shea butter face soap recipe. Shea butter is high in unsaponifiables, making it ideal as a superfatting oil in cold process soap. This recipe makes approximately six bars. Technical information:1lb / 454g batch — 7% superfat — 33% lye concentration
5 from 9 votes
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Author Lovely Greens
Cost 10
Equipment
Stainless steel pan for melting the solid oils
A large bowl for measuring the liquid oils into
Materials
Lye solution
- 62 g sodium hydroxide 2.14 oz
- 124 g distilled water 4.37 oz
- 1 tsp Sodium lactate Optional / See notes below on powder vs liquid*
Solid oils
- 91 g Coconut oil (refined) 3.2 oz / 20%
- 68 g Shea butter 2.4 oz / 15%
- 45 g Cocoa butter 1.6 oz / 10%
Liquid oils
- 227 g Olive oil 8 oz / 50%
- 23 g Castor oil 0.8 oz / 5%
Add at Trace
- 3 tsp Rose geranium essential oil (optional ingredient)
Instructions
Preparation
Prepare your workstation with your tools and equipment. Put on rubber gloves, eye protection, and an apron. Carefully pre-measure the ingredients. The solid oils into the pan, the liquid oils into a jug, the shea butter in a small saucepan or microwaveable dish, the water into a heat-proof jug, and the lye in another container.
Mix the Lye Solution
In an airy place, outdoors is best, pour the lye crystals into the distilled water and stir well. There will be a lot of heat and steam, so be careful. Try not to breathe it in. Leave outside in a safe place, or in a shallow basin of water to cool.
Add the sodium lactate to the lye solution after it's cooled below 130°F (54°C). You're aiming for the final temperature of the lye solution to be bout 95-100°F (35-38°C).
Melt the Solid Oils
Melt the solid oils in a stainless steel pan on very low heat. When melted, remove from the heat and set on a potholder. Stir the liquid oils together in the jug and pour into the pan of melted oils. Castor oil is pretty sticky, and it's easier to pour when mixed with a lighter oil.
Measure the temperatures of the lye solution and the oils. You should aim to cool them both to about 95-100°F / 35-38°C.
Make Shea Butter Face Soap
Now it's time to make the face soap. You begin by pouring the lye solution into the pan of oils.
Dip your immersion blender into the pan, and with it turned off, stir the mixture. Next, bring it to the center of the pan, and with both your hands, hold it on the bottom of the pan and blitz it for just a couple of seconds. Turn it off and stir the soap batter, using the blender as a spoon. Repeat until the mixture thickens up to 'Trace.' This is when the batter leaves a distinguishable trail on the surface. The consistency will be like thin custard.
Next, pour the optional essential oil into the soap. Stir it quickly but gently.
Molding and Curing
Working quickly, pour the soap into the mold. Give it a jiggle to settle it in the cavities. Leave the soap on the counter for two days before popping it out of the mold.
Because this recipe is high in olive oil, it's best to cure it for at least six weeks. Curing means leaving the bars spaced out on a protected surface out of direct sunlight and in an airy place. This allows the extra water content to fully evaporate out. Here are full instructions on how to cure soap.
Once made, your soap will have a shelf-life of the closest best-by date of the specific ingredients you used.
Video
Notes
*Although listed as ‘optional,’ sodium lactate is useful in hardening all soap recipes, especially softer soaps like this recipe. It’s available as a powder or in liquid form; if you’re using the liquid form, you’ll need one teaspoon. If you’re using the powder form, use only half a teaspoon and dilute it in one Tablespoon of the water amount you’ve measured for the lye. Do this before you begin, and mix the powder and water into its own small dish.
Lastly, are you a beginner soapmaker looking for more guidance on how to make handmade soap? Enroll in the Natural Soapmaking for Beginners Online Course to get up to speed quickly. You’ll learn all about soap ingredients and equipment and be guided through step-by-step soap recipe videos.
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