Cocoa Butter and Olive (Body Bar Base Recipe #6)

This last recipe I usually made plain, with no added ingredients. It makes a nice moisturizing bar that isn’t soft after curing (like hemp). It also makes a great facial bar- cleansing but non-stripping. You could easily add some clay into the water portion of the recipe if you need a bit more oil control from the bar. Un-mold this bar after 24hrs, don’t wait too long, as it can quickly become too hard to cut easily. If you want to allow to it sit a little longer before taking out of the mold, at an ounce or 2 of extra distilled water to the recipe (adding water doesn’t change your lye or oil ratios, so no need to recalculate the recipe).

Cocoa Butter & Olive Bar- Base Body Bar Recipe #6 (32oz or 2lbs)

Lye: 4.13oz

Distilled or Purified Water: 9-11oz

Olive oil: 27.20oz (85%)

Cocoa Butter: 4.80oz (15%)

For notes and instructions, see my Basic Supplies and Resources: https://truelovesoap.com/basic-supplies-and-resources/ and Basic Soap Making Instruction pages: https://truelovesoap.com/basic-soap-making-instructions

You will need to heat your oils a bit more in order to melt the cocoa butter, so allow for more cooling time for the oils.

Note on working with cocoa butter: if you change the amount of cocoa butter in the recipe, just check your needed lye amount at http://soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp . Your will likely need a tiny bit less lye in the bar. Don’t add more than 15% cocoa butter into your recipe, as it will crack on you. I’ve often had the very top crack a bit with my recipe, but it doesn’t effect cutting the bars. However, a huge deep crack through your bar will mean that you are instead cutting soap chunks instead of bars.

A Variation/Idea for this Recipe

Aloe & Mint: This is a great variation for summer- it’s both cooling and soothing. Replace the distilled water with aloe vera gel/juice. Just make sure whatever you buy doesn’t have any coconut derived preservatives- the tocopherol can be derived from coconut so it’s important to check. Follow general soap making instructions. Once soap batter has reached trace, hand stir in 1.5oz peppermint essential oil. (or a blend of different minty essential oils, whatever your preference.) Pour into mold(s).

Or: Think of this base recipe as a blank canvas and create the bar combination that is perfect for you!