I was at a party last month and I got to talking to someone about Thai curries. Ginger, galangal, lemongrass, coconut milk, and chilies. The idea wedged itself in my brain. The next day I went to make a batch of soap and the idea was still there.
Instead of water, I used a mixture of citron oolong tea and coconut milk. I’m not certain the tea does anything, but the coconut milk is supposed to help with the lather of the bar.
I added essential oils of lemongrass and ginger, and some toasted ground rice (I used a coffee grinder) for an exfoliating boost. The resulting bar smells wonderful and is a beautiful milky greenish-yellow.
Lemongrass, Ginger, Coconut Milk, and Oolong Soap
30% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
25% beef tallow
25% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
5% castor oil (USA / Canada)
15% avocado oil5% Superfat
Coconut milk and cooled oolong or green tea for the liquid
Lemongrass essential oil
Ginger essential oilFreeze the coconut milk in an ice cube tray the night before. When you measure out your liquids (by weight!) you should have half coconut milk cubes, half cooled tea. That way, when you add the lye, it won’t get too hot and you won’t have to wait as long for it to cool down.
Other than that, follow my basic soap making instructions for a great bar of soap!
Why do you freeze the coconut milk?
When making soap with any liquids I tend to freeze about half of them. This is because combining lye with liquid creates an exothermic reaction (the mixture heats up a lot). With water that really just means you have to wait a lot longer for the lye mixture to cool down enough to combine it with the fats, but with other liquids that much added instant heat can create a bubbling over lye volcano, or curdle the milk. So, you freeze half the liquids and add the lye slowly to avoid that 🙂
Hi Marie have you used this soap yet? What is the lather like? Also with the added rice do you worry about rot?
This soap is one of my all time favourites, though sadly it’s just about all gone now 🙁 I’m hoarding the last few bars. The lather is just lovely, though not crazy bubbly if I recall correctly—more creamy. The rice dries out with the soap, so that’s no worry (think dry rice in your pantry), and it adds a wonderful touch of exfoliation that might just be my favourite in-soap exfoliant yet.
Would coconut milk powder work as an alternative? If so, what would you suggest in place of that liquid? I was pondering using dried ginger, and steeping it, as you would tea, what are your thoughts? Also, I’m out of ginger oil, would the tea lend a sufficient scent, or could I press the ginger to extract a bit of oil?
Best regards,
Heather
Yes, you can definitely use coconut milk powder—just add it at trace and use water instead of coconut milk. And, from my experience nothing but ginger essential oil is going to contribute a gingery scent to your soap. You might get some coming through if you used a lot of ground ginger, but at that point your final soap would be super gritty and really unpleasant to use (I’ve never had cinnamon scent come through from ground cinnamon, but have definitely made bars that were too gritty for my tastes).
Thank you, helpful as always 🙂
Thank you,
Heather WillaRose Soap Company
🙂
Hi Marie, I just made this soap but instead of coconut milk & tea I used 3/4 kefir (frozen) & 1/4 coconut milk.
While blending the mixture smelled really lyei (is that even a word?) I scented it quite a bit to see if that helped with lemongrass Eo & Litsea Cubea oil but even when pouring it smelled like lye? I’ve never had that happening with any of my 100% milk soaps? Also it’s really glossy, nearly oily looking.Not sure if I should insulate it or not while curing. Hope it works out 😉 what’s the best way to test he PH on the once cured soap bar? TIA Nadja
Hi Nadja! I’ve also found that coconut milk + lye = STINK. YUCK, haha. It does go away as the soap ages, though. The fastest way to check the pH of a bar is to touch your tongue to it—if you get “zapped” (you’ll know!), it’s lye heavy. Let me know how the finished bars go!
It’s curing and smelling lovely and looking great. Can’t wait to use it. I used pale blue spa minerals (clay) and rhassoul clay to color it. It’s a dark olive/grey 😉
Oooooh pretty!
Hi,
While I was in grade school we lived in China for 3 months, due to my fathers work. I LOVE Oolong tea. However, I can not find it anywhere, with the exception of a bulk store and you have to buy 20 boxes. As much as I love tea, that’s a bit much. I thought World Market would have it, but our store doesn’t carry it. Suggestions on a substitution, or shall I continue my search? 🙂
Heather
Hi Heather! Have you tried looking at a local Asian market? You should also look online. I know DavidsTea, Teavana, and Amazon all sell oolong tea online in the USA 🙂
Thank you Marie
🙂
Hi Marie,
Wondering if the coconut milk scent comes through in the bar? I was thinking about subbing it out for goat milk because I’m allergic to coconut milk. but I don’t want to lose the coconut scent if it does come through as it would go so well with the rest of the E.Os, in which case it would just be a gift batch.
Hi Jade! The coconut milk scent doesn’t come through, so you could use another milk. Have you ever worked with goats milk in soap before, though? You need to be quite careful not to scorch it with the lye—much moreso than with coconut milk.
Hey Marie,
Thanks for responding. I have worked with goat milk in soap before; my second time making your Uber Anti Acne soap I used goat milk as the liquid, split the batch, tweaked it to to be black(ish) (replaced half the green clay with australian black and black oxide) and white (kaolin and titanium dioxide) swirled soap so it would more visually represent activated charcoal and goat milk soap. I don’t think I scorched the goat milk, I froze-ish all of it before adding the lye. The end mixture was a yellowy color and the rest of the soap making went fine, trace and all, its cut and aging now. How would one tell if it were scorched, would the saponification be affected? Thanks!
It’s pretty easy to tell if you’ve scorched it—you’ll see a bright flare of orange, and then when you stir it the milk will warm to a sunny yellow. The more you scorch, the more yellow/golden the soap will be. Apparently a perfectly non-scorched pot of lye milk would still be perfectly white, making for a whiter bar… but I love a golden bar of soap, so I’m not sure what the fuss is LOL.