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Expensive oils

Luxury bar

Pale golden cream soap bars with spoon-textured tops beside a small bottle of argan oil, a few macadamia nuts and pieces of frankincense resin on a charcoal backdrop

A creamy bar made with the pricier oils, argan, avocado and macadamia with olive oil and shea butter, at an 8 % superfat. Scented with palmarosa and frankincense, a soft rose-and-resin blend.

Skill
Beginner
Method
Cold process
Batch
1000 g of oils about 1418 g of batter
Hands-on
1 hour
Cure
6 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 · 30.0 % 300 g 10.58 oz
Shea Butter · 20.0 % 200 g 7.05 oz
Avocado Oil · 15.0 % 150 g 5.29 oz
Coconut Oil · 15.0 % 150 g 5.29 oz
Castor Oil · 5.0 % 50 g 1.76 oz
Argan Oil · 10.0 % 100 g 3.53 oz
Macadamia Nut Oil · 5.0 % 50 g 1.76 oz
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) · the lye, 100 % pure 129.9 g 4.58 oz
Distilled water · for a 33 % lye solution 263.6 g 9.30 oz
Palmarosa essential oil · 1.5 % of the oils, at trace 15 g 0.53 oz
Frankincense essential oil · 1.0 % of the oils, at trace 10 g 0.35 oz
Superfat
8 %
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.

  2. Weigh the oils and scent

    Weigh 200 g shea butter and 150 g coconut oil into the soaping pot, and 300 g olive oil, 150 g avocado oil, 100 g argan oil, 50 g macadamia nut oil and 50 g castor oil into a jug. Weigh 15 g palmarosa and 10 g frankincense essential oil together into a small glass cup.

  3. Make the lye solution

    Weigh 263.6 g distilled water into a heat-safe jug and 129.9 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 jug of liquid 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 at a time, stirring between bursts, until the batter is opaque and a drizzle leaves a faint line on the surface.

  8. Add the scent

    Pour in the essential oils and stir them through by hand with a spatula for 20 to 30 seconds.

  9. Pour and cover

    Pour into the mould, tap it on the worktop to raise air bubbles, and smooth the top or texture it with the back of a spoon. Cover it with a lid or board and a folded towel for the first day.

  10. 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.

  11. Unmould and cut

    After 36 to 48 hours, when the loaf is firm, unmould it with gloves on and cut it into bars about 2.5 cm (1 in) thick.

  12. Cure

    Stand the bars on edge in a dry, airy room out of the sun for six weeks, turning them every few days.

Tips

  • Buy the argan and macadamia fresh and store them in the fridge until soaping day. Stale oil smells stale in soap too, and an 8 % superfat leaves some of it free in the bar.
  • If you sell the soap, palmarosa is rich in geraniol, one of the fragrance allergens that has to be named on a cosmetic label above a set level.
  • Unscented works well too, and nothing else changes. For a richer bar with more butter, see the shea and cocoa butter luxury bar; for one made with milk and cream, the cream and honey luxury bar.

Why make it

This is a bar for the pleasure of it: argan, avocado and macadamia with olive oil and shea, 10 for cleansing and 64 for conditioning on our scale, a smooth, creamy lather and a soft rose-and-resin scent. Argan oil comes from the argan woodland of south-west Morocco, where the traditional way of pressing it, passed from mother to daughter, is on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage, and the oil has long gone into cooking, medicine and cosmetics there. Be honest with yourself about what the expensive oils do in soap, though: lye turns them into soap as readily as it does olive oil, and the bar would give much the same numbers with cheaper oils. What makes it feel richer is the 8 % superfat, a share of every oil left unreacted, and cold process cannot choose which oil that share comes from. Argan and macadamia are tree nuts, so ask before giving it as a present.

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 10.3 %
  • Stearic acid 10.9 %
  • Ricinoleic acid 4.4 %
  • Oleic acid 48.5 %
  • Linoleic acid 10.6 %
  • Other 5.5 %

Saturated : unsaturated 34 : 66

Hardness 32 29–54
Cleansing 10 below 12–22
Conditioning 64 44–69
Bubbly lather 15 14–46
Creamy lather 26 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

17 variations

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

From the guides

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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.
Intermediate 25 min read

The soaping oils: what each one brings to a bar

Twenty-five soaping oils, butters and waxes: what each does in a bar and why, the share makers give it, and what to watch for, with figures from our records.
Intermediate 14 min read

Scenting soap: essential oils and fragrance oils

How much essential or fragrance oil to use in soap, what ounces per pound mean in percent, the IFRA limits for common essential oils, and EU allergen labelling.

Guides with this recipe

Where these proportions come from

Our own formulation: olive oil and shea butter with avocado, argan and macadamia oils, 15 % coconut oil for lather and a little castor oil, at an 8 % superfat. Expensive oils mostly saponify like cheap ones; the superfat is where they are noticed.

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