This is day four in my 30 day blogging challenge. My goal this month is to post one recipe every day. You can see day one here, day two here and day three here. These recipes feature natural colorants and additives and are scented using natural essential oil blends.

Charcoal and Sea Salt Acne-Busting Face Bar Cold Process Soap

Because this soap gets hard, its best done in individual cavity molds. So let’s get started!

charcoal and sea salt acne bar

Featured Ingredients:

Charcoal – Charcoal is drawing and helps to remove oil and sebum from your pours.

Sea Salt – Sea salt is purifying, drawing and acts as an astringent.

Tea Tree Essential Oil – Tea tree is anti-bacterial and anti-microbial making it a great zit-busting oil to use in a facial bar. Tea tree, teamed up with charcoal, seems to help with acne.

*If you are selling your soap, be sure not to make medical claims. When using facial bars, lather up with a luffa. Allow the soap lather to sit on your face (like a mask) for a bit before washing off. This will allow the ingredients to work their magic.

Charcoal and Sea Salt Acne-Busting Face Bar Soap Recipe

Coconut oil – 20 oz.
Olive oil – 10 oz.
Avocado oil – 2 oz.

Lye – 4.7 oz.
Water – 10 oz.

This recipe uses a higher amount of coconut oil to make sure its nice and lathery with the added salt. We used a 10% superfat to leave unsaponified oils in it to combat the drying effects of high coconut oil. Its not a full blown salt bar; you can find recipes for those here as well. I also use more water in this as coconut oil can move fast with a water discount. The lather on this bar is nice and lotion-like. It doesn’t produce super fluffy lather as salt is a lather killer.

Additives:
Charcoal – 1 tablespoon (add to oils)
Fine Sea Salt – 2 tablespoons (add to lye water to dissolve)

Essential Oil Blend:

Lavender Essential Oil – 20 grams
Tea Tree Essential Oil – 15 grams
Peppermint Essential Oil – 15 grams
Rosemary Essential Oil – 10 grams

Basic Soapmaking Process:

New to soapmaking? Visit our basic tutorial here.

Step 1 – Wearing safety gear, weigh out the lye and water into two separate containers.

Step 2 – Pour the lye into the water while stirring. Place in a safe place and let cool while you prepare the oils.

Step 3 – Weigh out the hard oils/butters and melt.

Step 4 – Weigh the liquid oils into the melted oils/butters. This helps cool the oils down.

Step 5 – Add essential oils and additives to the melted oils. Stick-blend to get rid of clumps if any occur.

Step 6 – Once both the lye solution and oils have cooled to under 100° F, add the lye solution to the oils and mix to trace. Be sure to wear goggles and gloves!

Step 7 – Pour the soap into your mold.

Step 8 – Unmold, cut and cure your soap for at least four weeks.

Happy Soaping!

Amanda Gail

pssssst – Do you want more cold process soap recipes featuring natural additives and essential oil blends? Check out Lovin’ Soap Studio Cold Process Soap Recipe Book! This recipe book contains 50 recipes for cold process soap and 64 essential oil blends. You can get it as a PDF eBook here or a printed book here.

Are you looking for soapmaking, nail polish and other body care product classes in the Kansas City area? Check out our schedule. Our studio is in Downtown Lee’s Summit, MO.