soapformulator
EN
Facial bars

Green tea and cucumber facial bar

Light tan facial soap bars flecked with green cucumber peel beside cucumber slices and loose green tea on a deep pink backdrop

A mild, unscented face bar with strong green tea as its liquid and a little fresh cucumber purée for flecks of green peel. Only 15 % coconut oil keeps the cleansing gentle, and shea and cocoa butter keep it creamy.

Skill
Intermediate
Method
Cold process
Batch
1000 g of oils about 1406 g of batter
Hands-on
1 h 15 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 · 40.0 % 400 g 14.11 oz
Shea Butter · 20.0 % 200 g 7.05 oz
Coconut Oil · 15.0 % 150 g 5.29 oz
Rice Bran Oil · 10.0 % 100 g 3.53 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 132.9 g 4.69 oz
Green tea, brewed strong and chilled · the lye goes into it; the cucumber purée brings the rest of the water 213 g 7.50 oz
Cucumber purée, seeded, peel on · blended completely smooth; its water counts towards the recipe's 60 g 2.12 oz
Loose green tea, for brewing · or 4 tea bags, steeped and strained the day before 8 g 0.28 oz
Distilled water, for brewing the tea · just boiled; the leaves keep some, and 212.5 g of the strained tea goes into the recipe 350 g 12.35 oz
Superfat
6 %
Temperatures
Tea lye kept below 30 °C (86 °F); oils at 32 to 35 °C (90 to 95 °F) when it goes in

Resize or change it in the calculator

Method

  1. Brew the tea a day ahead

    Pour about 350 g of just-boiled distilled water over 8 g of loose green tea, or 4 tea bags, and steep it for 10 minutes until dark. Strain it, pressing the leaves, and chill it overnight in a covered jug.

  2. Get ready

    Put on goggles, gloves and long sleeves, open a window, weigh the oils and lye, line the mould, and make an ice bath the lye jug can stand in.

  3. Purée the cucumber

    Halve a cucumber lengthways, scrape out the seeds and blend 60 g of it, peel on, until completely smooth; tiny flecks of peel are fine, lumps are not. Keep it in the fridge.

  4. Melt the oils

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

  5. Add the lye to the tea

    Weigh 212.5 g of the cold tea into a heat-safe jug standing in the ice bath and sprinkle in the lye a spoonful at a time, stirring until each dissolves; never pour the tea onto the lye. It turns dark brown, and the cooler you keep it, below 30 °C (86 °F), the lighter the bar.

  6. Combine

    With the oils at 32 to 35 °C (90 to 95 °F), pour the cold tea lye through a stainless steel sieve into them and stick blend in short bursts to light trace, like thin custard.

  7. Add the cucumber

    Add the cucumber purée and pulse the blender until it is evenly spread, with no streaks.

  8. Pour

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

  9. Chill it

    Put the mould uncovered in the fridge for 24 hours so the loaf never heats into gel; kept cool, the tea stays as light as it can and the cucumber stays fresh.

  10. Unmould and cut

    Let the loaf come back to room temperature and any condensation dry off, then unmould and cut it once it is firm, usually after 48 hours.

  11. 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

  • Expect a light tan bar with green flecks, not a green one: lye turns green tea brown, and the cooler the lye solution stays, the lighter the bar.
  • Seed the cucumber, as Corley Barto does, and blend it until nothing is left to see: lumps of fresh vegetable are what spoil in a bar.
  • Cucumber adds water and flecks of peel. Nothing in it survives the lye to cool or tighten the skin, so keep those promises off the label.

Why make it

A face bar for anyone who finds ordinary soap too strong. Coconut is held to 15 % of the oils, so it cleanses at just 10 on our scale, with shea and cocoa butter for a creamy lather and no scent, in line with the dermatologists' advice to wash the face with a gentle cleanser. Green tea and cucumber are here for their appeal and their colour: the tea turns the bar tan and the cucumber leaves flecks of peel. Green tea is prized in leave-on skin care for its catechins, but those break down within minutes in alkaline solution (Zhu and colleagues), and a lye solution is far more alkaline than that, so none of that reputation carries into soap. Cucumber's cooling name belongs to fresh slices, not to a cured bar.

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 12.1 %
  • Stearic acid 13.7 %
  • Ricinoleic acid 4.4 %
  • Oleic acid 46.2 %
  • Linoleic acid 10.1 %
  • Other 3.7 %

Saturated : unsaturated 38 : 62

Hardness 36 29–54
Cleansing 10 below 12–22
Conditioning 61 44–69
Bubbly lather 15 14–46
Creamy lather 30 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 11 min read

Beer, wine, coffee, tea and juice in soap

Using beer, wine, coffee, tea or juice in place of soap's water: how to prepare each one, add the lye safely, and what the calculator does with the liquid.
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 9 min read

Herbs, flowers and infusions in soap

What dried herbs, petals, infused oils and herbal teas really do in soap: which survive lye, how to infuse an oil, and which claims a herbal soap can make.

Where these proportions come from

Our own formulation: a gentle face bar with only 15 % coconut oil for a mild, low-cleansing lather, and olive, rice bran oil and two butters for a creamy bar, at a 6 % superfat. Strong green tea is the liquid and cucumber purée goes in at trace; the calculator counts the purée's water, so the tea makes up only the rest.

All recipes