Difficulty: Advanced
Time: 1 hr
Yields: 500 g soap or 4 bars of soap to fit the small square soap mold
To use the larger loaf mold, which gives you 10 bars, multiply the recipe by 2.5
Avocado oil, like the fruit itself (yes, avocado is a fruit!), contains many healthy vitamins and minerals for your skin. It is especially rich in vitamin A, D and E and potassium, and the oil penetrates deeply, keeping your skin nourished and moisturised. Adding avocado to your soap, either as an oil or freshly pureed, will add creaminess to your soap and increase the conditioning properties, resulting in a rich, silky, creamy bar, which is great for all skin types, especially sensitive skins. Added lemongrass and peppermint essential oils make for a gentle, yet effective cleanser, and gives the soap a refreshing pick-me-up fragrance!
This soap uses advanced techniques like water discounting, so I suggest to do a few ‘normal’ batches first if you haven’t made soap before, and then move on to these kind of soaps.
To prepare the avocado, choose one that is ripe but not over-ripe and doesn’t have brown spots. Using a stick blender, blitz until the avocado is a smooth puree. You might have to add a bit of water to achieve a smooth consistency.
The water discount we are using in this recipe is 1:1, which means we are using 1 tablespoon (15 ml) less water to make up for the extra water added in 1 tablespoon of avocado. In addition, I added another 10% water discount to ensure no glycerin rivers will form in the soap.
All ingredients are available from Pure Nature.
ONE: Prepare your lye as usual and leave to cool down to room temperature. I added 1 teaspoon of sodium lactate to my lye, to make the soap harder.
TWO: Weigh out your solid oils (coconut oil and shea butter) and melt in the microwave.
THREE: Add your liquid oils (avocado oil, olive oil, castor oil) and give it a quick stir to blend them together. Set aside.
FOUR: If you haven’t already, prepare your avocado puree as outlined above. Prepare your colour and your essential oil blend, so you’ll have everything ready when putting the soap together.
FIVE: Once both your oils and lye have cooled down to room temperature, add the lye to the oils, and using a whisk or stick blender, mix until emulsified (light trace). MAKE SURE YOU ARE WEARING PROTECTIVE GOGGLES AND GLOVES!
SIX: Add the essential oils. I used a blend of lemongrass essential oil and peppermint essential oil. Lemongrass is a great skin cleanser, and peppermint has a calming and cooling effect on the skin. The blend is a great pick-me-up for both skin and mind!
SEVEN: Add the avocado puree, and using your stick blender, mix until the avocado has been well incorporated into the soap. Try not to get it to thick trace, like I did (taking pictures and making soap at the same time doesn’t help!)
EIGTH: Separate about 1/3 of the soap into a separate container, and add the colour you have prepared earlier. I used 1/4 teaspoon of Chromium Green Oxide in 1 teaspoon of rice bran oil, but any type of lightweight oil will do. Mix well until the soap is evenly coloured.
NINE: To put the soap together, first pour (or in my case, scoop) the uncoloured soap into the mold. Tap the mold on the bench a few times to get rid of any air bubbles trapped within the soap.
TEN: Pour or scoop the green soap over the top.
ELEVEN: Using a hanger tool, a plastic covered flexible wire bent to fit the length of the mold, move it up and down along the length of your soap, to mix up the layers a bit.
TWELVE: Leave the soap to cure in your mold for a few days, before removing, and then let it sit for another 1-2 days before cutting it into bars. Curing time for the bars is another 8-10 weeks.
Creamy avocado soap
Ingredients
- 140 g olive oil
- 80 g avocado oil
- 120 g coconut oil
- 30 g shea butter
- 20 g castor oil
- 57 g caustic soda
- 90 g water
- 1 teaspoon sodium lactate
- 1 tablespoon fresh avocado puree
- 1/4 teaspoon chromium green oxide
- 15 ml lemongrass essential oil
- 5 ml peppermint essential oil
Directions
- Prepare you lye and add 1 teaspoon of sodium lactate. Leave to cool down.
- Prepare your oils and leave to cool down to a warm room temperature (26-28 deg C)
- While you are waiting for the oils and lye to cool down, prepare your avocado puree. Scoop out the avocado and blitz with a stick blender or in a food processor until smooth. You may have to add a little water to achieve this.
- When lye and oils have cooled down, pour the lye into the oil and using a stick blender, blitz until thin trace.
- Add the essential oils and mix into the soap.
- Add one tablespoon of avocado puree and blitz using the stick blender until the puree is well mixed through the soap – avoid getting to thick trace!
- Separate 1/3 of the mixture and colour this with 1/4 teaspoon green chromium oxide diluted in 1 teaspoon of light weight oil, such as rice bran oil.
- Pour the uncoloured soap into the soap mold, and then pour the green coloured soap over the top.
- Using a hanger swirl tool, move it down and up several times along the length to mix the layers into each other a little.
- Leave the soap to cure a few days before unmolding. Let it stand for another few days before cutting into bars. The soap bars will need to cure for a further 8-10 weeks until ready for use.
Hey! So I made this recipe and I just doubled it to get more soap. The soap came out super crumbly and broke apart.
I’m not sure what I did wrong so wanted to ask for your opinion. There were a few things I did different though. For one, I used a lukewarm herbal tea as my water for the lye mixture. Then once I added my fragrance (did about 20 g of rosemary and a few drops of sage by the way). Also I added a few drops of a green colorant that is safe for soaping.**Then I wrapped it in a blanket for a couple of hours. After 24 hours is when I took it out of the mold and cut it. (barely could cut it because it was crumbly.) Do you have any idea what I did wrong or why this happened? I researched it and have a few ideas, but wanted to ask someone with more experience. Anyways love your recipes and soaps. Would appreciate any advice you have.
Hi Larisa! I’m sorry your soap didn’t turn out! Crumbly soap can be due to many different reasons. I’m assuming you followed the recipe correctly and didn’t forget to add any oils when you doubled the recipe. It could have been due to not mixing properly, not gelling, leaving it too long before cutting, but from what you wrote it seems like it’s none of these. I also don’t think the lukewarm herbal tea would have been the cause either. Every now and then I do get a student getting a crumbly soap despite everyone else in the class having followed the same recipe, which leaves me stumped. My best guess is due to the gelling and timing of the cutting. Either it went through a hot gel and hardened quickly, that it was ready for cutting after 12 hours. I’m thinking this is the most probable reason, especially since I added a water discount to the recipe. The opposite could have also happened, when the soap either didn’t gel at all (unlikely with warm lye and insulating with blankets) or it experienced an uneven gel, leaving the soap crystals to form unevenly, leaving an uneven structure. You could try re-batching the soap, and adding a little water (about 2-3 tablespoons) to it. For the next time, you can add more water, up to roughly double the amount of caustic soda. So if you are using 114 g of caustic soda, you could go up to 230 g of water. I hope this helps!