Shea Butter Soap

Shea Butter Guest Soaps

As I've mentioned before, once you master a technique, recipes become very simple and it's easy to make them your own. But there are tips and tricks and little details that are easy to forget, that lead to success or failure when you customize. That's what this post is about.

Inspired by The Everything Soapmaking Book "Basic Cold Process Soap Recipe," I made this batch of soap with just one customization. I superfatted it with moisturizing shea butter, added at light trace.

Light trace is also when fragrance oils should be added, as some of them will cause your soap base to seize. To be safe, it's a good habit to blend the fragrance oil into castor oil first. Once you've added the fragrance blend, only use a spoon or whisk to stir, as a stick blender can cause the soap to seize.

A second batch, in the mold right now, is somewhat lumpy. I'm not sure what happened. Was it the beeswax cappings I added? Or the Wisteria fragrance oil? Forgetting to stir it into castor oil first? Or the pomace grade, which sets up harder than virgin, olive oil? Ugh... so many details to consider. I'll tweet a review in a couple of days, once it's out of the mold. For now, here's the recipe used to make the soaps that are curing in the picture.

Shea Butter Soap
10 oz. light olive oil
6 oz. coconut oil
1 T. shea butter
6 fl. oz. water
2.25 oz. lye (NaOH)
1 T. fragrance oil (optional: I highly recommend Brambleberry's Fresh Zucchini Flower)

Technique: cold process
Target temps: 110–150°F (higher temp for small molds)
Mold requirements: 3 cup capacity
Time in molds: 48+ hrs
Time to maturity: 4 weeks

Final Results: 16 guest-size moisturizing bars
Color: creamy white
Aroma: softly floral
Lather: low

UPDATE 11-14-2011
The wisteria-scented batch came out of the mold, leaking fragrance oil a bit. Once the batter started to trace heavily, I was gun-shy about stirring it more and making it seize, so did not blend the oil in thoroughly. There are even one or two burnt-orange spots, where the oil is not blended in at all. Research says it's just a cosmetic blemish, as long as you're not sensitive to fragrance oils. I set 4 bars aside to be French milled. The remaining bars are curing quite nicely and giving off the lightest floral scent imaginable.

I don't think it was the FO that caused the heavy trace, as I've used it before without problems, so perhaps the culprit was the pomace-grade oil. I'm a fan of it's price but not of the alabaster color it produces. From now on, for hard longer-lasting soaps, I'll stick with just adding beeswax to light-colored oils. Besides, it only makes sense, to make the soap a true Backyard Bee Hive product.

I have tried adding honey, but again I don't like non-white bars of soap. Do you? Beeswax, which is thoroughly melted into the oils at 150°F, really seems to be the ticket, as it also increases the soap's emollient properties.