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Gentler bars

Baby bar

Small plain ivory soap bars with softly bevelled edges beside a dish of shea butter and a small glass jug of olive oil on a cobalt blue backdrop

The plainest bar we make: mostly olive oil, with coconut held to 15 %, shea butter and a little castor and rice bran oil, at a 10 % superfat. No scent, no colour and nothing else added, for a very mild, creamy bar.

Skill
Beginner
Method
Cold process
Batch
1000 g of oils about 1386 g of batter
Hands-on
55 min
Cure
8 weeks
Gel phase
Either way gel or not, both work
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What you need

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

Olive Oil · 60.0 % 600 g 21.16 oz
Coconut Oil · 15.0 % 150 g 5.29 oz
Shea Butter · 15.0 % 150 g 5.29 oz
Castor Oil · 5.0 % 50 g 1.76 oz
Rice Bran Oil · 5.0 % 50 g 1.76 oz
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) · the lye, 100 % pure 127.3 g 4.49 oz
Distilled water · for a 33 % lye solution 258.4 g 9.11 oz
Superfat
10 %
Temperatures
Oils and lye solution each at 35 to 40 °C (95 to 104 °F)

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Method

  1. Get ready

    Put on splash goggles, nitrile gloves and long sleeves, open a window or turn on the extractor fan, and keep children and pets out of the room. Line a 1.5 litre loaf mould and set it on a level surface where it can stay for two or three days.

  2. Weigh the oils

    Weigh 150 g shea butter and 150 g coconut oil into the soaping pot, and 600 g olive oil, 50 g castor oil and 50 g rice bran oil into a jug.

  3. Make the lye solution

    Weigh 258.4 g distilled water into a heat-safe jug and 127.3 g sodium hydroxide into a dry container. At the open window or under the fan, pour the lye slowly into the water, never the water onto the lye, stir until clear and leave it to cool, labelled and out of reach.

  4. Melt the butters

    Melt the shea butter and coconut oil together on the lowest heat until clear, take the pot off the heat and pour in the olive, castor and rice bran oils.

  5. Check the temperatures

    Carry on when the oils and the lye solution are each between 35 and 40 °C (95 and 104 °F).

  6. Combine

    Pour the lye solution into the oils down the shaft of the stick blender, tap the blender on the bottom of the pot to let trapped air out, and keep the blade under the surface while it runs.

  7. Blend to light trace

    Pulse for a few seconds, stir with the blender off, and repeat until the batter is opaque and a drizzle leaves a faint line on the surface. With this much olive oil it can take several minutes.

  8. Pour and cover

    Pour into the mould, tap it on the worktop to raise air bubbles and smooth the top. Lay baking paper on the surface, then a board or lid, and a folded towel for the first day.

  9. Clean up

    With your gloves still on, wipe the batter off the pot and tools with paper towels into the bin, then wash them in hot soapy water.

  10. Unmould and cut

    After about 48 hours, when the loaf is firm and has pulled away from the sides, unmould it with gloves on and cut it into bars about 2.5 cm (1 in) thick; if it smears on the knife, give it another day. Bevel the edges with a vegetable peeler if you like, for a softer bar in small hands.

  11. Cure for eight weeks

    Stand the bars on edge in a dry, airy room out of the sun, turning them every few days. The bar starts soft and slippery; with this much olive oil and a 10 % superfat it needs the full eight weeks, and it keeps getting harder and milder for months.

  12. Store

    Keep the cured bars wrapped in paper somewhere cool and dark, and use them within about a year: the extra oil a 10 % superfat leaves is what goes stale first.

Tips

  • The word baby describes the formulation, not a promise: no soap is tear-free, so keep it away from eyes and rinse well.
  • Shea butter comes from a tree nut. If anyone who will use the soap has a nut allergy, replace the shea in the calculator, which works out the new lye, rather than simply swapping one fat for another.
  • For a firmer baby bar with cocoa butter at a 7 % superfat, see the unscented baby bar.

Why make it

A plain bar with nothing in it but oils, lye and water: 15 % coconut oil for enough lather to rinse clean, 10 for cleansing and 67 for conditioning on our scale, and a 10 % superfat, twice that of an everyday bar. Leaving out scent and colour means fewer ingredients to wonder about, the same thinking behind dermatologists' advice to choose fragrance-free products for dry, sensitive skin. Be clear about what the name means, though: it describes the formulation, not a safety promise. Nothing about a soap makes it suitable for a newborn; the NHS suggests plain water, or a liquid cleanser made for babies, and a paediatrician is the person to ask about a baby's skin. Many families simply like a mild, unscented homemade bar for toddlers and for their own hands. The high superfat makes it softer and shortens its shelf life, so use it within a year.

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 2.9 %
  • Palmitic acid 11.1 %
  • Stearic acid 8.6 %
  • Ricinoleic acid 4.4 %
  • Oleic acid 52.0 %
  • Linoleic acid 10.3 %
  • Other 4.0 %

Saturated : unsaturated 32 : 68

Hardness 30 29–54
Cleansing 10 below 12–22
Conditioning 67 44–69
Bubbly lather 15 14–46
Creamy lather 24 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.

Try it differently

8 variations

The same soap with one thing moved. Each opens in the calculator ready to change again.

From the guides

All guides
Intermediate 11 min read

Superfat and lye discount: why recipes leave some oil unsaponified

What superfat and lye discount mean, how the calculator applies them, where makers set them for each soap, and why oil added at trace isn't the oil left over.
Beginner 8 min read

Castile soap: pure olive oil, and why it's worth the wait

What castile soap really is, why pure olive oil traces slowly and starts soft and slippery, how long to cure it, and a recipe with the calculator's numbers.
Beginner 8 min read

Curing and storing handmade soap

What curing does to cold process soap and what it doesn't, how long it takes, how to set bars up to cure, how to tell when they're done, and how to store them.

Where these proportions come from

Our own formulation: mostly olive oil, coconut held to 15 %, shea butter for firmness, a 10 % superfat and nothing else, no scent and no colour. "Baby" here is a formulation choice, not a safety claim.

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