Sage and citrus bar
A firm, creamy everyday bar made with sage-infused olive oil and flecked with finely sieved sage, scented with sweet orange and clary sage. The flecks are fine and few, so the bar looks herbal without feeling scratchy.
- Skill
- Beginner
- Method
- Cold process
- Batch
- 1000 g of oils about 1449 g of batter
- Hands-on
- 1 h 15 min
- Cure
- 6 weeks
- Gel phase
- Either way gel or not, both work
What you need
For 1000 g of oils, which fills a 1.5 litre loaf mould. Weigh everything, liquids included.
| Shea Butter · 25.0 % | 250 g | 8.82 oz |
| Palm Oil · 25.0 % | 250 g | 8.82 oz |
| Olive Oil · 25.0 % | 250 g | 8.82 oz |
| Coconut Oil · 20.0 % | 200 g | 7.05 oz |
| Castor Oil · 5.0 % | 50 g | 1.76 oz |
| Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) · the lye, 100 % pure | 137.7 g | 4.86 oz |
| Distilled water · for a 33 % lye solution | 279.6 g | 9.86 oz |
| Dried sage leaf, for the infused oil · infused in 280 g of olive oil a day or more ahead and strained out | 3 g | 0.11 oz |
| Dried sage leaf, ground and sieved · what passes a tea strainer, stirred into a teaspoon of the sage oil, for flecks | 1.5 g | 0.05 oz |
| Sweet orange essential oil · 2.0 % of the oils, at trace | 20 g | 0.71 oz |
| Clary sage essential oil · 1.0 % of the oils, at trace | 10 g | 0.35 oz |
- Superfat
- 5 %
- Temperatures
- Oils and lye solution each between 38 and 43 °C (100 and 110 °F)
Method
-
Infuse the sage oil
A day or more ahead, put 3 g of dried sage leaf and 280 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. Strain it through fine cloth and weigh out 250 g, topping it up with plain olive oil if you are short. -
Make the sage flecks
Grind 1.5 g of dried sage to a powder, shake it through a tea strainer and throw away what stays behind. Stir what passed through into a teaspoon of the sage oil. -
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. -
Weigh everything
Melt and stir the whole tub of palm oil, then weigh 250 g of it, 250 g shea butter and 200 g coconut oil into the pot, and the rest of the sage oil and 50 g castor oil into a jug. Weigh 279.6 g of distilled water into the lye jug, 20 g of sweet orange and 10 g of clary sage essential oil into a small cup, and the 137.7 g of sodium hydroxide last, into a dry container. -
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. -
Melt the fats
Melt the palm oil, shea butter and coconut oil on the lowest heat until completely clear, then pour in the sage oil and castor oil. -
Check the temperatures
Go on when both the oils and the lye solution are between 38 and 43 °C (100 and 110 °F). This recipe is rich in hard fats, which start to set below that and can thicken the batter before it has traced. -
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. -
Add the scent and flecks
Stir in the orange and clary sage oils by hand, then the sage paste, until the flecks are spread evenly. -
Pour
Pour into the mould, scraping the pot clean, tap the mould on the worktop to release air, and smooth the top. -
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. -
Unmould and cut
After 24 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. -
Cure
Stand the bars on edge in a dry, airy place for six weeks, turning them every few days.
Tips
- Orange oil fades from soap as it cures. Five-fold or ten-fold orange oil, which is concentrated, holds much better; use the same weight.
- Sieve the sage. Only the fine powder belongs in the bar: large pieces feel scratchy, and every piece turns brown.
- Palm oil separates as it stands, so a scoop from the top of the tub is softer than one from the bottom. Melt and stir the whole tub before weighing, and look for RSPO-certified oil.
- For a palm-free bar, use lard at the same weight and run the recipe through the calculator again, as the lye changes a little.
The oils
| Oil | Share |
|---|---|
| Shea Butter | 25.0 % |
| Palm Oil | 25.0 % |
| Olive Oil (virgin / refined / olive oil) | 25.0 % |
| Coconut Oil | 20.0 % |
| Castor Oil | 5.0 % |
How it is made
| Process | Cold process |
| Alkali | NaOH |
| Superfat | 5 % |
| Water | lye water at 33 % |
| Iodine value | 53 |
| INS | 150 |
Why make it
A firm, creamy bar, hardness 44 and creamy 34 on our scale with a mild cleansing 14, so it suits everyday use on most skin and lasts well in a wet soap dish. Sage has been grown in European herb gardens for centuries, and makers infuse it into oil for a herbal note and a faint tint; here the infused oil and a few sieved flecks are mostly for looks, since the leaf turns brown in soap. Sweet orange and clary sage give a bright, green citrus scent that many people find cheerful, though orange fades as the bar cures. Any reputation beyond that rests on herbal tradition, not on evidence about soap. The palm oil gives hardness: choose RSPO-certified oil, or use the palm-free swap in the tips.
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 9.9 %
- Myristic acid 4.1 %
- Palmitic acid 17.0 %
- Stearic acid 13.0 %
- Ricinoleic acid 4.4 %
- Oleic acid 40.8 %
- Linoleic acid 7.8 %
- Other 4.1 %
Saturated : unsaturated 47 : 53
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
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.
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.
Palm-free soap: what takes palm oil's place
What palm oil does in a bar of soap, why makers drop it, and how lard, tallow, shea, cocoa, kokum or stearic acid take its place, with worked palm-free recipes.
Where these proportions come from
Adapted from Heidi Corley Barto's sage soap: her base of shea butter, palm, coconut and sage-infused olive oil, with sieved sage for flecks, reworked with 5 % castor oil at a 5 % superfat. Clary sage and sweet orange replace her fragrance oil.
Formulation adapted from The Natural Soap Chef by Heidi Corley Barto (Ulysses Press, 2012). The method and notes are ours.