Easy Soap & Scrub Recipes

Fun and Simple Soap Making Recipes:
~ including salt scrubs, luscious lotions, lip balm recipes and lots more ~

Nothing’s more fun than sharing and swapping a good recipe. Here are a few of our favorites for making everything from skin nurturing soaps and scrubs, to solid perfume and more. Share your recipes by using the “comment box” at the bottom of this page.

Gardener’s Soap Recipe

8 oz. Melt & Pour Base
2 T. White Cornmeal
1-1/2 T. Fine Pumice
1 T. Bentonite Clay
2 tsp. of a Citrus Essential Oil (Orange, Lemon, etc.) or Fragrance Oil

Melt base and scent. Stir in cornmeal, pumice and clay continually until it gets to a point where it will stay suspended in the soap. By this time, the soap will be quite thick and cool. Pour into molds.

Honey Bee CP Soap

Olive Oil 32 oz.
Palm Oil 16 oz.
Tallow 24 oz.
Totals 72 oz.
5% Superfatted Lye Amount 9.477 oz.
Ounces of water recommended 23.760 oz.

At trace, add fragrance and 1 Tablespoon of honey. Do not insulate your soap as the honey may cause your soap to superheat.

Easy Shea Butter CP Soap

Coconut Oil 16 oz.
Olive Oil 18 oz.
Palm Oil 16 oz.
Shea Butter 4 oz.
Tallow 16 oz.
Totals 70 oz.
5% Superfatted Lye Amount 9.815 oz.
Ounces of water recommended 23.100 oz.

Easy Lip Balm Recipe – using Lanolin

1 oz. Olive Oil
.3 oz. of Lanolin
.4 oz. of Shea Butter
.4 oz. of Beeswax
Flavor Oil and Stevia for taste.
Melt beeswax gently over a double boiler (or in the microwave if no double boiler is available). In a separate container, heat the lanolin oil and shea nutter up until it is fully liquid. Add the olive oil to the melted lanolin oil and shea butter. Combine the beeswax and all the oil, stir well. Add flavoring (if desired) and pour into containers.

Skin Firming Gel – using CroThix

CroThix has a secondary use as a skin firming agent. (Its primary use is as a thickening agent in liquid soaps, and shampoos.) Here is an easy gel that you can make that is good for all skin types, using jojoba makes a non-comedogenic cream that won’t clog your pores. (CroThix may be purchased at Bramble Berry Soap Making Supplies)

This makes (4) four ounce containers of gel-crème.

Water 13 oz.
Glycerin .5 oz.
Emulsifying Wax or Ceteryl Alcohol 1 oz.
CroThix .7 oz.
Jojoba Oil .6 oz.
Germaben II orPhenonip .16 oz.
Fragrance or Essential Oil .16 – .50 oz.

Heat the water and Glycerin to 170 degrees and set aside. Heat the Emulsifying Wax until melted and add to the CroThix and Jojoba. Stir. Add the water and glycerin to the Emulsifying Wax, CroThix and Jojoba. Mix until the creme is 105 degrees (or less). Add your fragrance and preservative and package in jars or an easily squeezable package. Apply under make up for a more smooth application or as a night creme.

lotion bar recipe Teach Soap

Lotion bars!

Easy Lotion Bars

4 ounces Mango or Shea Butter
4 ounces Beeswax, Yellow or White
5 ounces Liquid Oil (Jojoba or Grapeseed are both excellent)
2 teaspoons of Essential Oil or Fragrance Oil

This lotion bar does not use cocoa butter so you can use any fragrance or essential oil that your heart desires and not have a chocolate over-smell.

Melt the beeswax in a separate container and the butter/oil in another container. Add together, mix well, stir in FO/EO and pour into containers. Mixture will harden in approximately 1-2 hours. The cooler the mixture is upon pouring it, the less ‘divets’ you’ll get in the bar (that sunken spot at the top of the bar).

Easy Clay Mask – made with Rhassoul&Bentonite Clays

1 part Bentonite Clay
1 part Rhassoul Clay
Optional: Skin-loving Essential Oils, such as Lavender, Lemongrass or German Chamomile

Mix with water until the mask has a consistency that you like. Apply to body or face and wait for clay to dry fully. Take off with a warm water washcloth. If all over body, jump in the shower to get off more quickly than a washcloth.

Cookie Cutter Soaps by T.J. Currey

Here’s what you need:

scraps or bars of soap
small metal cookie cutters
small see-thru bags, netting, or tulle for wrapping

1. Slice a bar of soap into thin (1/8 to 1/4 inch) layers.
2. Position small metal cookie cutters and punch out designs.
3. Carefully push soap out and arrange on a pretty dish in the bathroom. You can take different colored soaps and make a pretty bag of them tied with a ribbon on top.

Note: May want to wear kitchen gloves while punching out soaps – the metal cookie cutters are sharp.

Chocolate Lipgloss Recipe by Rachel and Jennifer

2 tsp. Petroleum Jelly
1/8 tsp. Honey
10 mini Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Chips (any brand will do though)
1/8 tsp. Shortening (Crisco)

Carefully mix all ingredients into a microwave safe container. Make sure they are all clumped together. (Do not put lid on) Heat at high power for 20 seconds, stir, then repeat until fully melted. Then pour into a small bottle, and freeze for 15 min, or until solid. Then you can apply it on your lips!

Sheer Lipstick Recipe by Anne-Marie Faiola

2 oz. Beeswax
2 oz. Grapeseed Oil
1/4 oz. Wheatgerm Oil
2 tsp. Zinc Oxide (by volume – optional – may substitute Titanium Dioxide)
4 tsp. Lip Safe Mica (by volume)

The zinc oxide will provide a opaque, matte effect to your lipstick. If you use just mica, you will have a more sheer lip balm.

Melt the beeswax in a double boiler. Once fully melted, add the Grapeseed and Wheatgerm oil. Pour your colorant into the double boiler and stir well. Let this mixture sit until mixture begins to thicken slightly (thus suspending the colorant better) and pour into jars or tubes

Colored Lipstick Recipe by Anne-Marie Faiola

This lipstick is a more waxy lipstick than the Sheer lipstick.

Phase 1
4 oz. Castor Oil
4 oz. Jojoba Oil
.5 oz. Beeswax
1 oz. Candelilla Wax
1/4 oz. Wheatgerm Oil

Colorant phase
8 full teaspoons of Lip Safe Mica
1 oz. Castor, Olive or Wheatgerm Oil

Hint: Castor provides more shine than Olive or Wheatgerm

Melt the waxes in a double boiler. Once they are fully melted, add the Castor Oil and Jojoba Oil. In a separate bowl, add your mica to the liquid oil of your choice. Mix in well and make sure there are no clumps. Add the colorant mixture into your double boiler and mix well. Remove this mixture from the double boiler and let sit until mixture begins to cool and thicken (thus suspending the colorant through out the lipstick). Once cooled to an appropriate thickness, pour into jars or tubes.

Luscious Lip Luster

4.4 oz. Calendula-infused Olive Oil
1.7 oz. Shea Butter
4.9 oz. Emu Oil
1.3 oz.Beeswax

Melt beeswax gently over a double boiler (or in the microwave if no double boiler is available). In a separate container, heat the emu oil up until it is fully liquid. Combine the wax and all the oil, stir well. Add flavoring (if desired) and pour into containers.

Floating Bath Soak by Camille Pratt

3 oz. Cocoa Butter
1 tbsp. Creamed Coconut
1 tsp Almond Oil
1 tbsp. Honey
1 tbsp. Powdered Oatmeal
2 drops Tangerine Essential Oil

Melt cocoa butter in double boiler, remove from heat. Mix creamed coconut, almond oil, honey and oatmeal, blend well. Add mixture to melted cocoa butter, blend well. Add Tangerine Essential Oil (or your favorite EO!), blend in. Pour mixture into ice cube trays, chill until firm. Toss one into tub of running water and enjoy!

Note: Use caution upon exiting tub, it may be a bit slippery. But, oh, what a soak!

Shaving Soap

Package this in a wide mouth jar and sell with a shaving brush!
2 pounds Goats Milk Liquid Soap Base
2 tbs. Calendula, ground
8 oz. Melt and Pour Base
1 oz. of your favorite Fragrance

Add melted melt and pour to the goatsmilk base; stir in fragrance oil and ground calendula. Pour into wide mouth jars; wait 24 hours to harden. Soap will get slightly hard but not hard enough to pour into individual molds.

Scented Stones

Great as room fresheners!  You will need:
One ceramic or glass bowl,
1/2 cup flour (do not use self-rising flour)
1/4 cup salt
1/2 tablespoon alum (available in drug stores),
1 tablespoon essential or fragrance oil,
2/3 cup boiling water and
food coloring (optional).

In ceramic or glass bowl, thoroughly mix dry ingredients.
Add essential oil and boiling water.
NOTE: scent will be strong, but will fade slightly when pastilles dry.
For colored dough, blend in food coloring one drop at a time until desired shade is achieved.
Blend ingredients to form a ball.
Working with a small amount at a time, roll dough between palms of hands to form small balls.
Note: cover unused dough to keep it from drying out.
Allow pastilles to dry.

Solid Perfume

Solid perfume is fun and easy to make and is a wonderful idea for a personal, hand-crafted gift! You’ll want some stylish little butter pots to hold your creations and Bramble Berry, Inc. has a terrific selection. To make your solid perfume, follow these directions:

For a 9 oz. batch (which will fill about 36 pots), you would use, by weight:

2 oz. Beeswax
3 oz. Shea Butter
4 oz. Olive Oil
.5 to 1 oz. Fragrance Oil of choice

Melt all fixed oils together, and add fragrance oil to melted oils. Pour mixture into small jars or twist-up tubes and sell as a solid perfume!