soapformulator
EN
Facial bars

Avocado and cucumber bar

Soft sage green avocado and cucumber soap bars beside half an avocado and cucumber slices on a purple backdrop

A gentle, unscented face bar with a quarter avocado oil, fresh avocado and cucumber blended in at trace, and French green clay for a soft sage green. It goes straight into the cold after pouring, so the avocado doesn't brown.

Skill
Intermediate
Method
Cold process
Batch
1000 g of oils about 1481 g of batter
Hands-on
1 h 10 min
Cure
6 weeks
Gel phase
No keep it cool
Open in the calculator

Save to a list

Your lists

What you need

For 1000 g of oils, which fills a 1.5 litre loaf mould. Weigh everything, liquids included.

Olive Oil · 30.0 % 300 g 10.58 oz
Avocado Oil · 25.0 % 250 g 8.82 oz
Coconut Oil · 15.0 % 150 g 5.29 oz
Shea Butter · 15.0 % 150 g 5.29 oz
Cocoa Butter · 10.0 % 100 g 3.53 oz
Castor Oil · 5.0 % 50 g 1.76 oz
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) · the lye, 100 % pure 132.5 g 4.67 oz
Distilled water · for a 38 % lye solution 219.7 g 7.75 oz
Ripe avocado flesh · blended smooth with the cucumber and clay 70 g 2.47 oz
Cucumber purée, seeded, peel on · blended with the avocado and clay; its water counts towards the recipe's 40 g 1.41 oz
French green clay · 1.5 tbsp, blended into the avocado and cucumber 18.7 g 0.66 oz
Superfat
6 %
Temperatures
Lye solution and oils both at 32 to 35 °C (90 to 95 °F)

Resize or change it in the calculator

Method

  1. Get ready

    Put on goggles, gloves and long sleeves, open a window or run the extractor, weigh every ingredient, line the mould, and clear a shelf in the freezer or fridge.

  2. Make the lye solution

    Sprinkle the lye into 219.7 g of cold distilled water, never the water onto the lye, and stir until clear. Leave it to cool to 32 to 35 °C (90 to 95 °F) where no one will knock it.

  3. Melt the oils

    Melt the shea butter, cocoa butter and coconut oil gently, stir in the olive, avocado and castor oils, and let them cool to 32 to 35 °C (90 to 95 °F).

  4. Blend the green purée

    Just before you soap, seed a cucumber and blend 40 g of it, peel on, with 70 g of ripe avocado flesh and 1½ tablespoons of French green clay until completely smooth. The water in the avocado and cucumber wets the clay, so it goes in without dry lumps.

  5. Combine

    Pour the lye solution into the oils down the shaft of the stick blender and blend in short bursts to light trace, like thin custard.

  6. Add the green purée

    Add the purée and pulse until the batter is an even soft green with no streaks. The clay thickens the batter, so pour straight away.

  7. Pour

    Pour into the mould, tap it on the bench to release air, and smooth the top.

  8. Chill it

    Put the mould uncovered in the freezer for 12 hours, or in the fridge for a day: the heat of gel turns fresh avocado brown.

  9. Unmould and cut

    Let the loaf come back to room temperature and any condensation dry off, then unmould and cut it; with this much soft oil, give it two to three days to firm up.

  10. Cure

    Cure the bars on a rack with air around them for six weeks, turning them now and then; a face bar is at its mildest after the full cure.

Tips

  • The green is the clay's. Fresh avocado doesn't stay green in soap, and the cucumber adds flecks of peel rather than colour.
  • Blend the avocado and cucumber until nothing is left to see: lumps of fruit are what spoil in a bar.
  • The avocado's fat, about 10 g of it, is counted by the calculator, which is why the superfat is set at 6 %: with the avocado it comes out near 7 %, the top of the range for a face bar.

Why make it

A face bar for dry or easily upset skin: only 15 % coconut oil, a quarter avocado oil and a superfat near 7 % once the fresh avocado's fat is counted, which puts cleansing at 10 and conditioning at 62 on our scale, gentle enough for washing a face every day. It is unscented, following dermatologists' advice to choose fragrance-free products for sensitive skin. Avocado and cucumber have a long place in home beauty recipes, cucumber for its cool, fresh reputation, but that is folklore: in soap the avocado's fat becomes soap or superfat and the cucumber is mostly water, and nothing suggests either does more in a rinsed-off bar than add a little richness, green flecks and the pleasure of using fresh food. The soft green comes from French clay, which also gives the lather some slip. Give it the full cure: a face bar is mildest at six weeks.

Sources

What tradition, makers' experience and research say about soaps like this, each labelled for what it is. It is not medical advice, and no soap treats a skin condition: if you have one, ask a doctor or pharmacist.

What the numbers say

  • Lauric acid 7.4 %
  • Myristic acid 2.8 %
  • Palmitic acid 12.5 %
  • Stearic acid 11.8 %
  • Ricinoleic acid 4.4 %
  • Oleic acid 48.1 %
  • Linoleic acid 8.7 %
  • α-Linolenic acid 1.1 %
  • Other 4.8 %

Saturated : unsaturated 36 : 64

Hardness 34 29–54
Cleansing 10 below 12–22
Conditioning 62 44–69
Bubbly lather 15 14–46
Creamy lather 29 16–48

Computed from the fatty acids of the fats above. The bands are what the craft has settled on, not chemistry — a bar outside one is not wrong.

From the guides

All guides
Intermediate 10 min read

Fruit and vegetable purées in soap

How much pumpkin, carrot, cucumber, avocado or banana to put in soap, when to add it, why purées overheat and spoil, what each really adds, and a recipe.
Intermediate 12 min read

Natural colourants: what herbs, clays and spices really do in soap

Clays, charcoal and plant colours in cold-process soap: doses per 500 g of oils, infused oil, powder or lye, and the colour each one actually turns.
Beginner 7 min read

Gel phase: to insulate or keep it cool

What gel phase is, why a loaf turns dark and translucent, how gelled and ungelled bars differ, why partial gel is cosmetic, and how to cause or prevent it.

Where these proportions come from

Our own formulation: a gentle face bar with a quarter avocado oil and only 15 % coconut oil for low cleansing, at a 6 % superfat that the fresh avocado's own fat lifts to about 7 %. The water is set at a 30 % lye solution because the avocado and cucumber go in at trace and take their water out of the lye's share, leaving the lye you mix near 38 %.

All recipes