Sweet Almond Oil Soap Recipe

Try this single oil soap recipe, with sweet almond oil, coloured with paprika, and scented with a blend of citrus essencial oils. Besides using only sweet almond oil, this soap recipe uses citric acid to work as a chelator, and a DOS/rancidity preventer. This recipe is simple enough, and can be used by soap beginners to learn how to make cold processs soap from scratch.

This recipe is economically viable only if sweet almond oil is cheap in your living area.

Difficulty: Easy, for Beginners

Weight: 225g (7,93 oz)

Superfat: 5%

Lye Concentration: 30%

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Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 30

Total Time: 1

Method: Cold Process

Cosmetic: Soap Bar

Servings: soap bars

Author: Sofia Matias

Cost: $4 / 4€

Equipment

Ingredients

Lye Water

Oils/Fat

225 g sweet almond oil

After Trace Ingredients

5 drops grapefruit seed extract (GSE) (anti-oxidant) or rosemary oleorresin extract
16 ml essential oils blend
1 tsp paprika (equivalent to 2 tsp for 450g of oils)

Essential Oil Blend

5 g essential oil litsea cubeba/may chang
5 g essential oil tangerine
2 g essential oil lime
2 g essential oil bergamot
2 g essential oil palmarosa

Instructions

Get Ready!

Wear goggles and gloves! Look at “Safety Precautions” in the video above or in Soap Making Safety Precautions
Watch the video above about "Cold Process Soap Making Tutorial" or read the post Learn To Make Cold Process Soap for instructions on cold process soap making before starting. These are generic but important steps for all recipes.
Assemble everything: ingredients, equipment, safety equipment. Prepare your workstations. Measure all the ingredients. Don’t start the recipe without having everything ready!

Measure the Oil

Measure the sweet almond oil and pour it in a pyrex bowl. As we will make the soap at room temperature, there's no need to heat the oil.
225 g sweet almond oil

Make the Lye Water

Make the lye solution according to How To Make Lye Water. Add the citric acid before the lye. Mix it well until the vapors start to dissipate.
70 g distilled water, 5 g citric acid, 33 g lye (100% sodium hydroxide)

Make the Soap Batter

Use as target temperature 25ºC-30ºC for the oil-solution mixture. It can be less than this, but the lye and oils should not have a difference of more than 10ºC between them.
Pour the lye water into the oils carefully. Mix oils and lye with the immersion blender.
Add the paprika during this operation. It's not usual, but paprika may accelerate trace. If it does, be swift with next instructions.
Reach trace with the immersion blender.

Add After Trace Ingredients

Add the extract and the essential oil blend. Mix with a spoon or spatula. The soap might accelerate at this point, be ready to pour it in your molds afterwards.
5 drops grapefruit seed extract (GSE) (anti-oxidant), 16 ml essential oils blend, 1 tsp paprika

Molding the Soap

Pour the dough in individual soap molds and sprinkle with alcohol or witch hazel. Let it set for 48 hours.
Learn how to clean all equipment with How to Clean Soap Making Equipment.

Cutting and Curing the Soap Bars

Unmold the soaps after 48 hours and let the bars cure for 4 to 6 weeks in a ventilated place. See How To Cure Soap and How Do You Store Homemade Soap?
Enjoy your soaps!!

Video

Tried this recipe?Send a pic to @herbalcochete!