All Natural Homemade Soap Bar Recipes
20+ natural homemade soap bar recipes that are great for beginners and experienced soap makers. Plus, I’m sharing a few tips and tricks for how to make natural bar soaps at home.
You can easily make your own soap bars at home with these soap recipes!
It is so important to learn a new practical skill. And DIY soap making is such a great and valuable skill to have!
Learning how to make your own soap bars from scratch is also very satisfying. I love making homemade products for our home. There’s always a sense of accomplishment when making things from scratch.
When I make a natural bar soap, I don’t like to use any ingredient which could be toxic. So I personally avoid any artificial dyes, perfumes, and additives that can be questionable.
Homemade natural soap bar recipes
Not ready to make your own soap bars? Try these amazing all natural artisan soaps and organic body care products.
When I make a natural bar soap, I don’t like to use any ingredient which could be toxic. So I personally avoid any artificial dyes, perfumes, and additives that can be questionable.
The recipes that I’m sharing in this post don’t contain any of those questionable ingredients that we are trying to avoid. Instead, they are all naturally made.
Methods of making homemade soap
There are 3 basic methods of making soap at home.
- Cold process – cold process soap takes about 4-6 weeks to cure before using the soap.
- Hot process – heated and cooked for awhile, typically in a crock pot as it needs a constant heat source. Can be used once it cools.
- Melt & pour – easy process without use of measuring out fats, liquids, lye. Simply cut, melt and pour into soap molds. Can be used once it’s cooled.
Is lye required?
The way that the saponification process works, animal fats or vegetable oils are reacted with sodium or potassium hydroxide (lye) to produce soap.
Simply said, yes it is needed when making a making cold and hot process soaps.
When working with sodium hydroxide, aka lye, be sure to work in a well ventilated area. And be sure to wear protective gear, such as eye goggles, gloves, long sleeves, etc.
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However, you can make melt and pour soap bars without having to deal with the lye solution.
While I’m raising littles, I prefer to work with melt & pour soap bases. Because the dangers of working with lye are just too risky while they are toddling around the home.
Additive ideas
- dried herbs & flowers
- coffee grounds
- activated charcoal
- honey
- oatmeal
- clay
- seeds: apricot, raspberry, cranberry, etc
- milk powder
- aloe powder
- shea butter
- cocoa butter
- loofah
How to naturally color soap bars
There are many natural ingredients that can be used to color natural soap bars. I’m going to highlight a few of the most common and easily available options for homemade soap.
- Red / pink: beetroot powder, rose pink clay
- Orange: ground or shredded carrots, annatto seed
- Yellow: turmeric, curry powder, ground chamomile
- Green: alfalfa, spinach, green tea powder, spirulina
- Blue: indigo root
- Purple: alkanet root
- Black: activated charcoal
- White: kaolin clay
- Gray: bentonite clay
Generally you will infuse with the oils you are using for the soap bar. Some other options are to blend into the soap mixture.
For best results, follow the specific recipe when you’re beginning with your soap making journey.
Natural ingredients
When making your own soap bars, you can make it with the ingredients that you choose and the fragrance oils, additives, and colorants that you prefer.
The recipes that I’m sharing in this post don’t contain any of those questionable ingredients that we are trying to avoid. Instead, they are all naturally made with great ingredients.
The featured soap recipes in this post are great for both beginning and experienced soap makers.
There are recipes for making your soaps completely from scratch and also many simple melt and pour soap recipes. So there’s really a little bit of something for everyone!
Hi Mary,
I’m new to all this so this may be a dumb question, but I have a husband who works in the medical field and is in and out of hospitals all the time. His first question to me is going to be, “Does this soap kill germs?” I want to move to a more natural home but he’s big on disinfectants and antibacterial soaps…
Hi Jenny! I think that if you add essential oils that are known for their germ killing ability to the soap base you should be ok. More common types are tea tree, Eucalyptus, citronella, sage, lemongrass, and peppermint. Some companies like Plant Therapy make a germ fighting blend and Doterra makes On Guard which has germ fighting oils. I would definitely recommend that you research these oils a little more to make sure they work for your family. 🙂
This looks so good! What a great gift to make for friends or to enjoy yourself!
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
how do you make the soap base?
There are instructions for each recipe when you click on the read more under the desired soap recipe. 🙂
Hi,
I am an avid soap maker as well. I went to handmade soaps when my husband started having skin problems. I have looked into the melt and pour options and have not found one without added chemicals. They are not all natural. The ingredient I am trying to avoid is Propylene Glycol, a petroleum based product. So far, all the melt and pour options have it. If you have found one, do you mind sharing where you purchased it?
The soap base that I get is local. But I did search and there are good soap bases available on Amazon – you’ll probably have to search to find your specific needs.