I’m a big fan of Shea butter, and while it’s great in body butters, I find I like it best in soap. It’s nicely moisturizing and I find the lather is luxuriously creamy. It’s not a particularly hard fat, so soaps made with Shea tend to need some time to age, but once they do, they’re a thing if beauty.
My first batches of soap were made with Shea butter as the sole “hard” fat. I quickly learned that something a bit sturdier was in order, and I moved onto using beef tallow. But as those first few bars aged over the last 18 months or so, I fell in love with them all over again. Especially this beautiful lavender bar, which not only feels wonderful, but smells amazing (far more amazing than it did when I made it last June).
The unfortunate thing about your favourite soaps is that you use them up, and if time is one of the major ingredients, you’ll soon be out of soap and wondering why you didn’t make a bigger batch. Unfortunately the size of this batch was limited by the amount of coconut oil I had left, so the batch used 800g of oils, which was enough for 18 bars, which is still pretty respectable.
I scented the soap with lemon and cinnamon bark essential oils. It’s wonderfully bright, but also warm and spicy, just like autumn. Yum!
Autumn Shea Soap
40% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
30% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
10% unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)
15% beef tallow
5% castor oil (USA / Canada)30g essential oils of lemon and cinnamon per 500g oils
2020 update: Given the irritation potential for this essential oil blend, I’d recommend using an autumn spice fragrance oil rather than the essential oil blend. Please refer to supplier documentation for maximum usage rates for the particular fragrance oil you’re using when used in soap.
1 tbsp clay per 500g oils
Red and yellow iron oxides
Follow my basic soap making instructions, adding the clay and essential oils at trace. You’ll want a good, thick trace so you can get distinct layers. Divide the soap into thirds. Colour one batch red, one orange (red + orange oxides), and one yellow. Layer them in the mould with the yellow in the middle. Sharply rap the mould on the counter to knock out any air bubbles.
Never made soap before but now that I have read your comments nd recipes, can’t wait! I live in Sicily and have all the lovelay natural herbs, flowers, fruits and olive oil, so, I think, I may be able to concoct some pretty lovely soaps. I shall keep you posted on how I get on!! Many thanks so far…..
OOoh, wonderful! Sicily sounds like a soaper’s dream 🙂 Thanks for reading!
Where do I get the lye and tallow or lard to make soaps? I read your article on why you use lard but I was wondering if you have any recipes without using animals fats just so I can see the difference? My husband does not want me to use lye in our home with our children but I’ve made all of the liquid and melt and pour soaps that I can handle, it’s time for the real thing!!
You can easily buy lard at the grocery store in the baking aisle (in with the shortening). As for tallow, I generally ask my butcher for trimmings and then render it myself (which is very easy). I believe this is my only animal-fat-free soap recipe. Otherwise, the article you mentioned on why I use animal fats discusses a few alternatives, and you could just use one of those (basically, swap the animal fat for cocoa butter or something similar, and add on more aging time). Have fun with the “real thing”!
Hi Marie,
I made this divinely scented soap, but it didn’t seem to go beyond medium trace. After more than 72 hours in a silicone mold with 12 small rectangle cavities, it’s still very soft. I ran it through Soap Calc and followed all the measurements precisely. Don’t know what I did wrong. Any recommendations? I’d like to make another batch for gifts.
Thanks,
Susan
Hmm. You didn’t change anything? Are you certain you achieved trace? It sure sounds like you are, and I find it’s hard not to achieve trace with shea butter in a soap. How does the soap look now?
Although the bars didn’t come out of the mould cavities smoothly, looks aren’t everything. They smell amazing and hardened up just fine. I will try this again using my loaf mould. Thanks, Marie!
In the future you can also try popping the mould + soaps into the freezer before removing the soaps if they’re a bit soft/being stubborn. I’m glad the bars are behaving in the aging process for you 🙂
Thank you for that suggestion, Marie. I did make the recipe again and took more time to get it to a full trace. It turned out perfect! The bars will make a special Thanksgiving gift to my guests. 🙂 Thanks!!
Wonderful 🙂 You could also try adding sodium lactate (it both helps harden the bars and speeds trace) or soaping a bit warmer than room temperature. I’m glad everything worked out in the end—you have truly lucky Thanksgiving guests!