Vegan hard bar
A hard, creamy everyday bar with no animal fat and no palm oil: cocoa butter does the hardening, with olive, coconut, castor and rice bran oils. Scented with bright, lemony litsea over Atlas cedarwood.
- Skill
- Beginner
- Method
- Cold process
- Batch
- 1000 g of oils about 1454 g of batter
- Hands-on
- 1 hour
- Cure
- 5 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.
| Coconut Oil · 25.0 % | 250 g | 8.82 oz |
| Cocoa Butter · 20.0 % | 200 g | 7.05 oz |
| Olive Oil · 40.0 % | 400 g | 14.11 oz |
| Castor Oil · 5.0 % | 50 g | 1.76 oz |
| Rice Bran Oil · 10.0 % | 100 g | 3.53 oz |
| Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) · the lye, 100 % pure | 139.9 g | 4.94 oz |
| Distilled water · for a 33 % lye solution | 284.1 g | 10.02 oz |
| Litsea oil (May Chang) · 1.5 % of the oils, at trace | 15 g | 0.53 oz |
| Atlas cedarwood oil · 1.5 % of the oils, at trace | 15 g | 0.53 oz |
- Superfat
- 5 %
- Temperatures
- Oils and lye solution at 35 to 40 °C (95 to 104 °F), so the cocoa butter stays liquid
Method
-
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. Set out a 1.5 litre loaf mould, level, where it can stay for two days. -
Weigh the oils
Weigh 250 g coconut oil and 200 g cocoa butter into the pot, and 400 g olive oil, 100 g rice bran oil and 50 g castor oil into a jug. -
Weigh the rest
Weigh 284.1 g distilled water into a heat-safe lye jug and 139.9 g sodium hydroxide into a small, dry container. Weigh 15 g litsea oil and 15 g Atlas cedarwood oil into a small glass. -
Make the lye solution
By an open window, pour the sodium hydroxide slowly into the water, never the water onto the lye, and stir until it runs clear, keeping your face away from the vapour. Leave it to cool to 35 to 40 °C (95 to 104 °F), labelled and out of reach. -
Melt the cocoa butter and coconut oil
Melt the two together on low heat until completely clear, with no flakes of cocoa butter left, then pour in the olive, rice bran and castor oils. -
Check the temperatures
Go ahead when the oils and the lye solution are both between 35 and 40 °C (95 and 104 °F). Much cooler and the cocoa butter starts to set again, which thickens the batter before it has really traced and can leave white specks. -
Blend to light trace
Pour the lye solution into the oils down the shaft of the stick blender and blend in short pulses, stirring between them, until the batter is opaque and a drizzle leaves a faint line on the surface. -
Add the essential oils
Pour in the litsea and cedarwood oils, stir them in with the blender switched off, then give two or three short pulses to spread them through the batter. -
Pour and cover
Pour into the mould, tap it firmly on the worktop to raise air bubbles, and cover it with a lid or a board. A towel over the top is optional: the loaf will heat up either way. -
Clean up with your gloves on
Wipe the raw batter off the pot and tools with paper towels into the bin, then wash everything in hot soapy water. -
Unmould and cut on time
Cocoa butter makes a loaf that hardens fast and turns brittle if it waits. Unmould it with gloves on and cut it into bars about 2.5 cm (1 in) thick after 24 to 36 hours, as soon as it is firm and has pulled away from the sides. -
Cure
Stand the bars on edge in a dry, airy place out of the sun, a finger's width apart, for four to six weeks, turning them every few days.
Tips
- Twenty per cent cocoa butter is more than the 15 % Faiola suggests, and above that it can contribute to cracking. Cut on time and the bars cut cleanly; if yours still crack or crumble, move 5 % of the cocoa butter to shea butter and run the recipe through the calculator again.
- Unrefined cocoa butter smells of chocolate, and some of that lasts into the soap, warming the litsea and cedar. For a cleaner citrus smell, use refined, deodorised cocoa butter.
- Everything in this bar comes from plants. If you add a colour or anything else, check its source: carmine is made from insects, and honey, beeswax, milk and silk are not vegan.
- Our palm-free classic takes its hardness from shea butter instead, and our men's cedar and orange bar is a close relative, with shea butter in place of the rice bran oil.
The oils
| Oil | Share |
|---|---|
| Coconut Oil | 25.0 % |
| Cocoa Butter (Theobroma Oil) | 20.0 % |
| Olive Oil (virgin / refined / olive oil) | 40.0 % |
| Castor Oil | 5.0 % |
| Rice Bran Oil | 10.0 % |
How it is made
| Process | Cold process |
| Alkali | NaOH |
| Superfat | 5 % |
| Water | lye water at 33 % |
| Iodine value | 58 |
| INS | 149 |
Why make it
A bar for anyone who wants no animal fat and no palm in their soap. Cocoa butter does the hardening that tallow, lard or palm does elsewhere, so the bar still scores 41 for hardness, with a creamy lather (creamy 28) and a mild cleansing figure of 17 that suits everyday washing of hands and body. The Vegan Society defines veganism as excluding, as far as is possible and practicable, the exploitation of animals for food, clothing or any other purpose, and a soap of plant oils fits that. Being vegan says nothing about how mild a bar is, though: that comes from its fatty acids and its superfat, and a lard bar at the same numbers washes much the same. The one caveat is the cocoa butter itself. At 20 % it makes a firm bar that can turn brittle if it is cut late, which is why Faiola suggests no more than 15 %.
Sources
- Definition of veganism · The Vegan Society
- Soap Crafting · Anne-Marie Faiola, Storey Publishing, 2013
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 12.3 %
- Myristic acid 4.8 %
- Palmitic acid 15.0 %
- Stearic acid 9.0 %
- Ricinoleic acid 4.4 %
- Oleic acid 40.9 %
- Linoleic acid 9.4 %
- Other 5.0 %
Saturated : unsaturated 44 : 56
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
3 variationsThe same soap with one thing moved. Each opens in the calculator ready to change again.
From the guides
All guides
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.
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.
Unmoulding and cutting soap
When cold process soap is ready to come out of the mould, how to release it from silicone, lined and cavity moulds, and how to cut, bevel and stamp even bars.
Where these proportions come from
Our own formulation: no animal fat and no palm, with 20 % cocoa butter doing the hardening that tallow, lard or palm oil would do, olive oil for mildness, coconut and castor oils for lather, and rice bran oil for a little more palmitic acid.