Annie was the first person who suggested silk soap to me, and it was like a thunderclap. I immediately wondered what rock I’d been living under for the past few years as it is such a brilliant idea (thanks, Annie!). So, silk soap has been on my to-do list ever since then, and I’m thrilled that I finally got around to making a batch.
With silk as the theme, I wanted these bars to be supremely luxurious. I was also leaning towards an Asian theme, inspired by the origins of silk. I decided on an unscented green tea and silk bar, though mandarin would be a great choice of an essential oil if you really want something scented. I was happy with the simplicity of an unscented bar, and I’ve found they come in handy as gifts for those who are scent adverse.
I used a green tea botanical extract as I have lots on hand, but you could use matcha powder, or swap the water in the recipe out for chilled and strained green tea (be sure to freeze half of it if you do this). My final soap ended up a creamy green shade, but all the edges that were exposed to air turned an interesting mottled brown. I’m not quite sure why this happenedāI haven’t seen it in soaps made with liquid green tea, and since both the botanical extract and the silk are new soap ingredients for me, I can’t pin down the cause at this point. Input and opinions are welcome!
Green tea is loaded with antioxidants in the form of beneficial vitamins C & E, and it’s said to be a potent anti-aging ingredient to boot. Silk is a wonderfully versatile natural protein, it helps moisturize and protect hair and skin. It also lends a wonderfully silky feel to the soap, seriously amping up the luxury factor.
Green Tea & Silk Soap
25% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
25% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
30% beef tallow
15% unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)
5% castor oil (USA / Canada)Per 500g (1.1lbs) oils:
- 1 tbsp white kaolin clay (USA / Canada)
- 1 tsp silk peptides or silk powder
- 1 tbsp green tea botanical extract or matcha powder or replace the water with chilled green tea
Use SoapCalc to calculate your final amounts of oils, lye, and water based on the size of batch you want to make. Unsure about how to use SoapCalc? I made a video to walk you through it! Please ensure you’re familiar with standard soap making procedure before diving in.
Follow my standard soap making instructions. Once you reach a medium trace, add the clay, green tea powder, and silk. Thoroughly blend with your immersion blender, and pour the soap batter into your mould.
Cover the mould and lightly insulate it. Let saponify for 24 hours before removing from the mould to slice. Age for at least 3ā4 weeks before using.
Looking good! š I’ve used silk fabric in soaps several times, and it didn’t make any colour changes to them. So I guess it is the tea that made that brown colour to your soaps.
Sweet! Thanks, Signe š
My green tea soaps are always a shade of tan to brown, darkest in hot process. Going to give this a whirl, I love tallow in soap.
Thanks, Ann š
What a cool looking soap!
I’ve used silk in several soap batches and haven’t had the browning either, so I’d think the green tea extract had something to do with it. I hadn’t thought of using green tea as the liquid for soap – I’m going to give that a try! I have an opportunity to sell at a street fair in October and am working on my list of soaps to make. I have silk and am going to add a mandarin/green tea/silk soap to my consideration list!
Cool! Have fun with it š
Could I use silk fiber in this recipe. I’ve ordered silk peptide, and silk powder from Saffire Blue, along with too many other items :), but their shipping is extremely slow, I order it over a week ago, and it still hasn’t shipped!
Thank,
Heather
Hi, Heather! I’m sure you can use silk fibers, because I use silk fabric in my soaps, and that works great. You just have to dissolve fibers to lye water mix.
š
As long as it’ll dissolve I think it would work out perfectly š
Green Tea always goes brown for me, it’s just natural.
Thanks, Kaja! I’ve used black tea before and it doesn’tāhow interesting.
Hi, What other oil other than tallow could i use in this recipe? I love the idea of this soap but I don’t like using animal fat. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thank you
Hi JaneāI’ve written an entire blog on using animal fats in soap and alternatives š
You say to replace the water with chilled green tea, where there is water in the recipe?
You’ll need to go to a website like soapcalc.net to enter the actual weight of oils that you’re going to use, and the tool they have online will calculate the amount of water and lye (by weight) that you need for the recipe. She gives oil amounts in percentages, and you can use those percentages to determine how much oil you need for whatever size batch you want to make.
š Thanks JenZ!
When you run the recipe through a soap calculator you will be provided with finite amounts of all the fats as well as for water and lye, which I don’t list in the recipe to force you to run it through a calculator š I like SoapCalc š
Hi, what qualities does clay add to the soap? I’ve not tried clay before.
Hi Nic! Clay adds slip and boosts cleansing, making these bars perfect for shaving as well as soaping š
Marie, I meant to ask you, could I use liquid silk aminos in this?
You definitely can š
Hi, I am wondering about that did you try all the stuff you put on this website? How are they? Are they working well?
I do, and I never post a recipe that fails š Read individual entries for accounts of the performance of individual products.
Hey Marie – love this new soap! I’ve made CP soap with Green Tea extact (from NDA) and used chamomile infused water. I didn’t insulate the soap so it only partially gelled in the middle of the soap, but overall my soap turned brown as well, with darker brown spots (the green tea). To be honest it looked so gross I considered throwing it away because I couldn’t look at it without making my skin crawl. BUT – after it cured, it is probably one of my favourite soaps! I’ll try your recipe š
Ha! I just love (and sometimes hate) the things that happen during saponification š It can be a bit of a lottery, and sometimes makes for not-quite-suitable-for-gifts soaps, haha.
Ooops – I mean to add – have you tried adding a pinch of Tussah Silk from Saffire Blue to your Lye water yet into your soaps? I’ve not tried silk powders into mine but I never make soap anymore without the Tussah silk. It definitely makes my soaps so luxuriously silky!
I haven’t tried Tussah Silk in soap yet as I figured it can’t be that different from silk peptides in terms of chemical composition, and I have a lot of silk peptides left. I’ll have to order a pinch next time and do a side-by-side comparison š
Omg, do I love this! Made it, my first hard soap batch!!! Was very easy! I used matcha powder. I also added in lemongrass to continue the Asiany theme. I didn’t have any mandarin lol. But next time I might try both!! So it looked like pudding as I molded it. Smelled so good I almost ate some, kidding. I was resigned to having it brown from reading up on comments and knowing CP does magic things to colors lol. As it dried, it actually lightened up! It’s a pretty caramel with hint of green now. Three weeks to wait omg idk if I can! I did cut most into tiny pieces for traveling and when friends use it and don’t use a whole bar and just toss them, to cut down on waste. So I originally thought it might help speed up the cute time, but I assume no matter the size it will probably be the same due to it needing to evaporate, right? Regardless I’m gonna try some a little early. Then I’ll be able to know when a soap isn’t fully cured yet. I have enough small pieces to do a but of “market research” like that š thanks again for the awesome recipe!! Idk what’s more addicting, making soap, or your blog.
Hi Colie! I’m so thrilled your first batch of soap was one of mine š And even better that it went off perfectly! It sounds like everything worked like a charm (especially since you didn’t eat any lol!).
Technically the smaller pieces would dry out faster, especially if they’re flat and thināmore surface area to be exposed to the air for evaporation š
Enjoy the slowest three weeks of your life š
Thanks for the advice!! You have me hooked girl! I LOVE this recipe especially!! If it wasn’t for you, I think I may’ve failed š wow, You are so creative! I almost don’t want to gift any hehe. The lemongrass is very faint, comes out better when in use, but I think that’s better as it’s pretty strong. I should know, I just spilled some.. Errrr.. A lot.. in my room lol. I did try some smaller pieces early, and they did dry faster. Which will be great for my impatient self š I just made my first shampoo bar, and for anyone who likes little bars of soap….BOBBLE MOLDS!!! They’re made for bobble water bottles, but… They’re cute, sooo easy to pop out, and perfect for traveling. I got a few uses out of my shampoo bobble bar š take care and thanks again!
I’m so thrilled you’re loving it! And hey, now your room smells sort of like Thailand, which is sort of nice with the weather these days š
I have done tons of research on soaping, which can be very confusing at times!! As my husband and I currently use other soaper’s shampoo bars, I would like to make shampoo bars as my very first batch of soap I love the combinations you used in this bar, Green Tea and Silk Soap, but it’s not for shampooing. Both my husband and I have fine/thin hair. First, is the combination of green tea and silk right for our type of hair? (I’ve read where Jojoba Oil is good for hair?) Will this bar be ok to use for shampooing if I increase the olive oil to 35%; replace the tallow to 15% lard and add 5% to the castor oil to make it 10%? Or can you suggest one of your other shampoo bars.
One last thing, what kind of olive oil do you use. I’m getting mixed messages about EVOO and Pomace OO.
Have to say, it’s your Pinterest Pins that got me interested in soaping and I’ve gone webbing to look at other soap recipes, but always come back to yours!!!
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!
Hi Micol! I know what you mean about the confusing partāit’s a bit silly and can definitely be overwhelming. I have used this bar as shampoo as is and it works wonderfully. I have fine, thick hair, for reference. I formulate most of my bars as “all-in-one” bars that I use for soap, shampoo, and shaving. Just be sure to follow up with an ACV rinse or you’ll be pretty unhappy with the texture of your hair pretty fast š
As for olive oil, I just use the cheap stuff from CostcoāI always recommend using the cheaper versions of ingredients for soap, and saving the good stuff for places where the quality will really shine on its own.
Thanks for reading!
Hi Marie!
I’ve been reading/following your blog for some time now and absolutely love your soap recipes and aroma/flavor combinations!
On the topic of color for your green tea soap, i didn’t follow this recipe to the letter, but i did use the green tea extract powder in a recent batch.
Out of sheer laziness, i waited until both lye mixture and oils were room temperature prior to combining and my soap turned out a lovely dark olive, which i expect will lighten a bit with time.
Seems like the higher temps prior to combining the parts may be the reason for the brown color you’re getting with this soap.
Ina.
Hi Ina! I actually made my soap the same way, combining everything at room temperature (probably around 20Ā°C), so I don’t think that’s it š
Hi Marie,
Just came across this post and really love it. The green tea and Silk is such a nice looking soap. I love to make our own natural soaps on the weekends and prefer darker soaps in general. Really love the media in the article as well – makes it so much fun to follow. I will try to make it this Saturday with my significant other. Thanks again for posting it.
Carlos
Hi Carlos! I’m so glad you like the looks of my soap š I look forward to hearing how it turns out for you!
Hi Marie, just wondered at what stage you add your EOs and do you stir or blend them? I am using between 3 – 5 % adding them last of all not blending but stirring them in, but the scent still is not very strong don’t want to add more as I am already up to the limit
Hi Anne! For CP soaps you should be adding the EOs at trace at a rate of about 30g per 500g oils. That’s 6%, but it’s ok in soap applications as the EOs really take a beating during saponification and aging.
It’s also worth noting that some EOs will last longer than others in soap. I find lavender, lemongrass, peppermint, 5-fold citrus, and cinnamon do really well, but pine, spruce, cedar, and fir pretty much vanish š
Hi Marie,
Upto 6% of EO in cp soap? I have been soaping for 2 years now and everywhere I looked it’s no more than 3%… with 3% I am really having a hard time making the scent last after curring (some eo definitely stay but some almost disappear)….
Tea has tannin. Tannin reacts with lye by often turning black. One way to avoid this is use part water part tea as the liquid, freeze the tea in ice cubes and add at medium trace.
Thanks, Marta!
sorry Marie I know this topic has been worn out but I just made a batch of acne-type soap using powdered green tea in it along with french green clay and the soaps developed strange ever-expanding brown spots in the middle of the bars. The body of the soap is the green clay colour and these weird brown spots appeared. Do not look like DOS. I think it may be the tea powder.. Weird
How funny that the weird brown marbling/spotting worked so differently for you! I wonder if is the gel stage? If mine reached full gel and yours only gelled in the center that would explain the varying spottage. How odd!