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The Oily Life

Making An All Natural Soap With White Tea

There are so many different additives that you can use in soap making all for various reasons. Some additves adds more lather, others add to the slip of the bar on your skin or give the bar a creaminess on your skin. Additives can also change the color of the soap and certain additives have skin benefits as well.


The soap I am sharing today is made with a White Tea Lye water which will add to the lather of the soap. It also has goat milk powder for creaminess and French Green Clay for color and slip. This soap does not have anything added for scent like essential oils or fragrance oils. The scent comes purely from the additives and oils and butters used to make the soap.


The additives are really the star of the soap which is why I didn't add any scent to this bar and even though it is unscented and has a simple design, the feel of this bar is pure luxury on your skin.


The soap batter recipe I used is as follows:

Sweet Almond Oil 5%

Castor Oil 5%

Sunflower Oil 5%

Cocoa Butter 15%

Coconut Oil 30%

Olive Oil 40%

Superfat 5%

Water as % of oils 35%

I replaced all of my water in this recipe with White Tea.

I use 36 ounces of oils in my batches but recipe is given in percentages so you can easily calculate based off your batch size. To figure out your exact measurements, just plug the recipe above into a soap calculator along with the weight of your oils and it will give you the exact measurements you need based on the batch size you wish to make.


You will also need:

Additives:

1-2 Tea Bags of White Tea


Molds & Other Soap Equipment:

A Soap Mold mine is from Nurture Soap



  1. For this soap, you will want to make your White Tea, a few hours to the day before, you are ready to make your soap. To make steep 1 to 2 tea bags for 15-20 minutes in distilled water that you have brought to a simmer. Allow to cool then, place the tea in ice cube trays and freeze. This helps to keep the tea from scorching when you add in your lye.

  2. While you tea is freezing, go ahead and measure out your oils and butters, melt them down and set to the side.

  3. Once your tea has frozen and you are ready to make your soap, place your tea cubes in a pitcher and add your lye slowly, stirring as you go. The lye water will have a bit of an odor and be orange in color but don't worry, once the soap saponifies this will go away. Once you have fully incorporated the lye into your tea set to the side. I also like to add sodium lactate to my lye water to help it harden faster allowing me to unmold within 18-24 hours. I add 1 TBS of sodium lactate to my lye water.

  4. Next you are going to finish prepping your soap batter by adding in 1 TBS of Goat Milk powder and 1-2 TBS French Green Clay. Blend until thoroughly combined.

  5. Next pour in your lye water and blend until it has come to a light to medium trace. Don't be afraid of the color once you add in your lye water. It will turn back once the soap saponifies.

  6. Now your soap is ready to pour into the mold. I topped mine with some loose white tea to add a little texture to the top of the soap.

  7. Let your soap set up for 18-24 hours and it will be ready to unmold and cut. I typically allow my soaps to cure for 4 weeks before use. This allows the water to evaporate out of the bar, making for a hard bar that will last longer.


The feel of this soap is pure luxury on your skin and I hope you give making it a try:)


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