Using Food Ingredients for Soap Making

​Soap good enough to eat! Well, not really, but how about soap with lots of food added to it? Handmade soap often contains ingredients that are technically edible (cocoa butter, coconut oil, etc.) but may not be the tastiest things on their own, but can you made soaps with actual food? The answer you may be surprised to learn is a resounding yes!

Foods like avocado, wine, pumpkin, oatmeal, espresso and strawberries can all be easily integrated into your homemade soap recipes.

What are the benefits of using foods and alcohol in your handmade soaps?

There is a wide variety of colorants and oils you can add to your handmade soap and most of the ingredients you choose are based on their benefits, the same goes for food. Consider that avocadoes contain antioxidant carotenoids, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and beneficial fatty acids that all help slow down signs of aging, moisturize the skin and soften skin cells. By pureeing it and adding it to your handmade soap, you’ll be able to reap those same benefits.

Beer added to soap can increase lather and make an extra creamy bar of soap for you to use. Wine has similar effects on soap since the natural sugars in alcohol help boost the lather into a fluffy, milky texture. Plus, it’s a fun trick to use beer and wine in the shower!

When it comes to adding fruits or veggies to your soap, you’ll want to do a bit of research on how to add them into your favorite recipe. Usually, you’ll have to heavily puree your chosen fruit of vegetable in a food processor with a bit of distilled water until it’s finely blended with no lumps. Lumps will mean moldy soap!

The variety of fruits and veggies that can be added to your handmade soap are almost limitless and each brings with it some fun properties. Keep in mind, most pureed foods are added to cold process soaps, since hot process may inadvertently cook the ingredients!

Using Sea Salt in your Soap Recipes

​The idea of salty soap may be a strange one to many people but soap makers and those familiar with luxury skincare items should be well familiar with the benefits of sea salt soap.

While many people have heard of the benefits of soaking in sea salt, many people would shy away from sea salt soap under the impression that it would dry the skin and sap it of moisture, but soaps made with sea salt can actually make skin softer by gently exfoliating the skin and increasing blood circulation. Sea salts are also packed with minerals beneficial to the skin like magnesium, zinc, calcium, potassium and sulfur.

When you’re deciding on making sea salt soap, keep in mind that not all salts are created equal. Table salt is 100% out of the equation when it comes to making soap, so we won’t even address it. Dead Sea salt and Epsom salt, while both incredibly beneficial in their own ways, will be difficult to make a successful soap with. Both these salts will make a sweaty, sticky soap since they absorb water. The salts you’ll want to use are either Pacific sea salt or Himalayan pink salt, ground to a fine texture.

Sea salt’s mineral value has been shown to improve vitality, lessen irritation, heal acne and gently exfoliate the skin by sloughing off dead cells. Sea salt is also a natural detoxifier and can absorb toxins from the skin, which allows the naturally produced glycerin in handmade soap to be more readily absorbed.

If you would like to add scents to your soap, we suggest using all natural, high quality essential oils so as not to diminish the sea salt’s natural benefits. Consider some gentle, skin-friendly essential oils like lavender, geranium or sandalwood to produce a calming, lightly scented soap that will provide many benefits. Sea salt does decrease soap’s lather, so many recipes make up for this by superfatting the soap and adding up to 70% more fats, such as coconut oil.