Although formulating soap recipes can feel a little daunting at first, there are several benefits to learning how to formulate your own soap recipes from scratch. Here are my top 3 reasons why formulating is a better bet than following random soap recipes.
The soapmaking space is gradually getting crowded and to be able to stand out from the crowd you need to be able to create unique soap recipes
To help you make custom soaps for your users whether that be for your family or customers based on individual needs & preferences
To be able to tweak & constantly improve your soap recipes
So here are some tips to help you get started with formulating & creating your ideal & best soap recipe yet!
Often times formulating a *perfect* soap recipe is all about a simple balance of hard & soft oils. It is important to understand what property each of the oils & butters you use brings to the soap. Here are some examples below:
HARD OILS
Quick lathering & Cleansing - Ex: Coconut, Babassu, Palm KernelConditioning - Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Mango Butter, Lard, TallowHardness - Palm Oil, Cocoa Butter, Kokum Butter, Shea Butter
SOFT OILS
Lather booster - Castor oil Conditioning/Nourishing - Olive, Avocado, Almond, Apricot Kernel, Sunflower, Safflower, SesameSpecialty Oils - Argan, Jojoba, Neem, Tamanu, Hempseed
According to my personal preference, I aim to formulate a recipe with 50% hard oils & 50% soft oils. I find that this combination gives an ideal mix of hardness, conditioning, lather & a good shelf life too. Putting two-and-two together here’s what a rough soap recipe template can look like:
Using this template, here are examples of 3 recipes that you can come up with
Recipe 1
Coconut oil - 30%Shea Butter - 10%Cocoa Butter - 10%
Olive - 35%Almond Oil - 10%Castor Oil - 5%
Recipe 2
Coconut Oil - 25%Shea Butter - 15%Kokum Butter - 10%
Olive - 40%Avocado - 5%Castor Oil - 5%
Recipe 3
Coconut Oil - 20%Shea Butter - 15%Palm Oil - 15% Olive - 30%Avocado - 10%Castor Oil - 5%Argan Oil - 5%
Now that you have the base recipe, all you have to do is plug it into a lye calculator such as Soap Calc.
See? Easy Peasy right??And if you are looking for more recipes you can find them here.
Now over to you! What recipes can you think of using this template? If you use this template, feel free to leave them in the comments below. I would love to see what you come up with 🧡