Recipes

TL;DR: Recipes for cold process soap making range from simple three-oil bases to Castilian, goat's milk or tallow recipes. Beginners should start with a recipe with 30% coconut, 40% olive and 30% sunflower oil.

This section contains recipes for all experience levels - from a three-oil basic recipe to Castile soap with a year's aging, tallow soap following the ancestral pattern, goat's milk or shampoo cubes with SCI surfactants.

Every recipe includes exact gram measurements, SoapCalc calculation and detailed procedure. No guesswork.

Where to start when making soap for the first time?

Made your first batch? Congratulations! Now it's time to experiment. For beginners, we have a set of recipes that work and most often succeed.

Recipes for beginners — 6 simple ideas

Looking for your first recipe? A guide with six recipes anyone can manage in their first or second batch: basic three-oil, coconut, olive, lavender, oat and citrus. Each with an estimate of difficulty, cost and curing time.

Recommended as a first recipe.

Your first recipe — step by step

Maximally detailed guide for complete beginners. Three-oil recipe (coconut + olive + sunflower), no fragrance or colorants, every step with photographic description.

Classic recipes

Castile soap — 100% olive oil

The gentlest cold process soap — 100% olive oil, no coconut or palm. Ideal for sensitive skin, babies and face, requires at least 6 months of curing for full lather. Also includes a variant of liquid castile soap with KOH.

Goat milk soap

Conditioning soap with lactic acid from goat's milk. The technique of freezing the milk before adding the lye, two recipes (classic and with higher SF for dry skin), benefits for skin with eczema or psoriasis - all in goat milk recipe.

Tallow soap — ancestral recipe

Beef tallow soap creates an exceptional creamy lather — biocompatible fatty acids similar to human sebum. We'll teach you rendering tallow at home (wet and dry method) with two recipes.

Activated charcoal soap

Deep-cleansing soap for oily and acne-prone skin. Scientific explanation of adsorption vs. absorption, three variants of activated charcoal recipe (gentle, standard, detox).

Special recipes

Special soaps: salt bars, beer, milk

Unusual ingredients transform soap — salt bars (intense cleansing, hardening within 30 min), beer soap (beneficial compounds for skin), variations with different milks. Everything in the special recipes guide.

Liquid soap with KOH

Making liquid soap using potassium hydroxide (KOH). Hot process paste → dilution to liquid soap, consistency, preservation — everything in detail in the liquid soap guide.

Natural herbal soap

Infusion oils transform soap — herbal recipes (calendula, chamomile, nettle), table of natural colorants and their stability in alkaline environment can be found in the herbal recipe.

Advanced and design recipes

Advanced design soap

Planning multicolor designs requires precise trace timing. Learn trace timing for different techniques, batch documentation and the basic framework before specific techniques (see Techniques section).

Melt & Pour mýdlo

Alternative to cold process — ready-made soap base is melted and poured. No lye, results in 24 hours. Base types, embed techniques, layering — everything v průvodci Melt & Pour.

Shampoo bars

Solid shampoo based on SCI/SLSA surfactants or CP soap. Key pH difference, transition period, recipes for different hair types — complete guide to shampoo bars.

How to choose the right recipe

Making soap for the first time? → Recipes for beginners

Want the gentlest soap for sensitive skin? → Castile soap

Looking for soap without lye? → Melt & Pour

Want a solid shampoo? → Shampoo bars

Interested in natural ingredients? → Herbal soap or goat's milk

Frequently asked questions

How much do recipes differ in oil amounts? Each oil has a different saponification number and contributes differently to hardness, foaming and conditioning. Changing the proportion of oils changes the character of the soap - e.g. 40% coconut makes a hard soap with a thick lather, 100% olive oil makes a soft, mild soap. Always recalculate the NaOH in the calculator.

Can I double or triple the recipe? Yes — a soap calculator will recalculate the NaOH amount automatically. Be careful when preparing the lye solution — larger amounts = more heat. Tempering takes longer.

What if I don't want to add essential oil? No problem - the soap works without fragrance (ideal for allergy sufferers). The finished soap will have a neutral, slightly "soapy“ smell.

How do I know if a recipe will suit my skin? Try the recipe in a small batch (200 g of oils) as a test batch. Age for 4-6 weeks - then you will know if it suits you. Gradually add special ingredients (goat's milk, cocoa butter) and see how your skin reacts.

What super fat would you recommend? 5% is standard — safe for all skin types. For dry skin, increase to 7–10%. For oily skin, decrease to 3–4%.

How long does soap cure? Basic recipes 4–6 weeks, castile 6–12 months, special recipes (milk, herbal) 4–8 weeks. Curing is a physical process — water evaporates, soap becomes harder and lathers better.

See also:

• Oil encyclopedia — SAP numbers and profiles for ingredient selection
• Soap calculator — NaOH calculation for every recipe
• Techniques — swirl, layering, colorants — how to elevate your recipe visually