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Everyday bars

Nettle and rosemary bar

Three soft olive green bars of soap beside a small bowl of dried nettle leaves and a sprig of rosemary on an orange backdrop

An everyday herbal bar coloured a soft, natural green by olive oil infused with nettle leaf, and scented with rosemary essential oil. Straining the infusion gives an even colour with no specks, and the rest is a well-balanced palm-free bar.

Skill
Beginner
Method
Cold process
Batch
1000 g of oils about 1448 g of batter
Hands-on
1 h 10 min
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 · 45.0 % 450 g 15.87 oz
Coconut Oil · 22.0 % 220 g 7.76 oz
Cocoa Butter · 10.0 % 100 g 3.53 oz
Shea Butter · 10.0 % 100 g 3.53 oz
Sunflowerseed Oil - High Oleic Acid · 8.0 % 80 g 2.82 oz
Castor Oil · 5.0 % 50 g 1.76 oz
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) · the lye, 100 % pure 137.8 g 4.86 oz
Distilled water · for a 33 % lye solution 279.8 g 9.87 oz
Dried nettle leaf powder · infused in 500 g of olive oil and strained out 15 g 0.53 oz
Olive oil for the nettle infusion · 450 g of the strained green oil is the recipe's olive oil; the rest stays behind with the sludge 500 g 17.64 oz
Rosemary essential oil · 3.0 % of the oils, at trace 30 g 1.06 oz
Superfat
5 %
Temperatures
Oils and lye solution each between 32 and 43 °C (90 and 110 °F)

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Method

  1. Infuse the nettle oil

    A day or two ahead, stir 15 g of dried nettle leaf powder into 500 g of olive oil in a clean glass jar and stand it in a pan of hot water, keeping the oil at about 49 °C (120 °F) and below 54 °C (130 °F), for 2 to 4 hours, never over a direct flame. Let it settle overnight, pour the clear green oil off the sludge, and filter the rest through a coffee filter.

  2. Get ready

    Open a window or turn on the extractor fan, send children and pets out, and put on splash goggles, nitrile gloves and long sleeves. Set out a 1.5 litre loaf mould, lined if it is not silicone.

  3. Weigh everything

    Weigh 220 g coconut oil, 100 g cocoa butter and 100 g shea butter into the pot, and 450 g of the nettle oil, topped up with plain olive oil if you are short, 80 g high-oleic sunflower oil and 50 g castor oil into a jug. Weigh 279.8 g of distilled water into the lye jug, 30 g of rosemary essential oil into a small cup, and the 137.8 g of sodium hydroxide last, into a dry container.

  4. Make the lye solution

    Where air moves, pour the sodium hydroxide slowly into the water, never the water onto the lye, and stir until it turns clear. Keep your face away from the vapour and leave it to cool, labelled and out of reach.

  5. Melt the fats

    Melt the coconut oil, cocoa butter and shea butter on the lowest heat until just clear, then pour in the nettle oil, sunflower oil and castor oil.

  6. Check the temperatures

    Go on when the oils are clear and both they and the lye solution are between 32 and 43 °C (90 and 110 °F).

  7. Blend to light trace

    Pour the lye solution into the oils down the shaft of the stick blender, tap out the trapped air, and pulse and stir until the batter looks like thin custard and a drizzle leaves a faint line.

  8. Add the rosemary

    Stir in the rosemary essential oil by hand, then give it two or three short pulses.

  9. Pour

    Pour into the mould, scraping the pot clean, and tap the mould on the worktop to release air. Smooth the top, or rough it into low peaks with the back of a spoon once it has thickened a little.

  10. Cover and leave

    Cover the mould with its lid or a board and lay a towel over it for a day. It may gel or not; either is fine.

  11. Unmould and cut

    After 24 to 48 hours, when the loaf is firm and has pulled away from the sides, unmould it with gloves on and cut it into bars.

  12. Cure

    Stand the bars on edge for six weeks somewhere dry, airy and dark, turning them every few days; light fades a leaf green.

Tips

  • Expect a soft, muted green that drifts towards khaki over the months, faster in light. Store the bars in the dark and it lasts longer.
  • Use dried nettle leaf sold for tea or cooking. Fresh nettles are mostly water, and pieces of fresh plant brown and can go mouldy in a bar.
  • Fine powder clogs a filter. Letting the jar settle overnight and pouring off the clear oil first saves most of the waiting.
  • The infused oil is still olive oil to the calculator: the powder is strained out and changes nothing in the lye.

Why make it

A calm, softly green everyday bar for anyone who likes a herbal soap without specks, and a good first try at infusing oil. The formula is balanced and palm-free, cleansing 15 and conditioning 60 on our scale, mild enough for hands and body every day. Nettle has a long place in European country tradition, as food, as fibre and in hair rinses, and rosemary is one of the old herbs of the kitchen garden; that reputation rests on custom rather than on tests of soap. Here the nettle is infused and strained out, so what reaches the bar is its colour, a gentle green that drifts towards khaki over the months. Rosemary essential oil gives a clean, sharp herbal smell that many people like in the morning.

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 10.8 %
  • Myristic acid 4.2 %
  • Palmitic acid 11.5 %
  • Stearic acid 10.0 %
  • Ricinoleic acid 4.4 %
  • Oleic acid 47.7 %
  • Linoleic acid 7.8 %
  • Other 4.7 %

Saturated : unsaturated 39 : 61

Hardness 36 29–54
Cleansing 15 12–22
Conditioning 60 44–69
Bubbly lather 19 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.

From the guides

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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.
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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.
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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.

Where these proportions come from

Our own palm-free formulation at a 5 % superfat. The green comes from olive oil infused with nettle leaf powder and strained, the way Kelly Cable tints soap green with leaf-powder infusions.

Formulation adapted from The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners by Kelly Cable (Althea Press, 2017). The method and notes are ours.

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