Peppermint Soap Recipe

A very refreshing and mild soap, made with 100% peppermint-infused olive oil, peppermint essential oil, and colored with green clay and dried peppermint leaves. Peppermint scent is wonderful, and this will turn your shower experience into a refreshing and minty one.

With olive oil, soap takes a long time to reach trace, but this recipe was formulated to ease your life. Took me less than 5 minutes to reach medium trace and have the soap ready to mold. Be careful with soda ash.

Difficulty: Easy

Weight: 455g (1 lb)

Superfat: 5%

Lye Concentration: 32%

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Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 40

Total Time: 1 10

Method: Cold Process

Cosmetic: Soap Bar

Servings: soap bars

Author: Sofia Matias

Cost: $6 / 6€

Equipment

Ingredients

Lye Water

Oils

455 g extra virgin olive oil peppermint-infused olive oil

After trace Ingredients

6 drops grapefruit seed extract (GSE) (anti-oxidant) or ROE (Rosemary Oleorresin Extract)
16 ml essential oils blend
0,2 g dried peppermint or 1/8 tsp dried herbs

Essential Oil Blend

12 ml essential oil peppermint
4 ml essential oil cedarwood Atlas

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!
Prepare your peppermint-infused oil in advance. If you are using the cold infusion method you need to prepare it 4 weeks before your soap recipe. Learn how to make infused oil in How To Make Infused Oil With Dried Herbs.

Heat the Oil

Heat the olive oil to approx. 40ºC - 45ºC (104ºF - 113ºF). I've actually made the recipe at room temperature, but it was summer and the oil was almost at 30ºC (86ºF)

Make the Lye Water

Make the lye solution according to How To Make Lye Water. Add the green clay and the salt before adding the lye. But it's ok if you add it later. Mix it until the vapors start to dissipate. The lye water will be dark green.

Make the Soap Batter

Use as a target temperature 40ºC for the oil-solution mixture. If necessary, you can reheat the oils, but not the lye solution.
Pour the lye water into the oils carefully. Mix oils and lye with the immersion blender.
Use the immersion blender to reach trace. Use short pulses followed by steering the soap batter with the stick blender, as a spoon.
At light to medium trace, add the dried peppermint leaves in powder at this point. You can mix it with the stick blender as it will progress slowly to heavy trace - my soap batter didn't reach it.
Reach medium trace.

Add After Trace Ingredients

Add after trace ingredients: the extract and the essential oil blend. Stir with with a spoon, spatula or the stik blender, as there is no real danger of soap batter seizing with olive oil.

Molding the Soap

Pour the soap batter into the rectangular molds (use a pitcher if needed).
Sprinkle with alcohol or witch hazel.
Let it set from 4 to 7 days. The longer you leave your soap bars in the mold, the smaller chance to get soda ash.
Learn how to clean all equipment with How to Clean Soap Making Equipment.

Curing the Soap

Unmold the soaps after 7 days and let the bars cure for at least 8 weeks in a ventilated place. See How To Cure Soap and How Do You Store Homemade Soap?
Enjoy your natural peppermint soaps!!

Video

Tried this recipe?Send a pic to @herbalcochete!