Today I’m excited to share a wonderful turmeric face soap recipe with you!
It’s straight from the pages of the gorgeous new soap book by Simi Khabra, of Muddy Mint Soap Co.
I’ve long been a huge fan of Simi’s beautiful natural soap creations and am so excited about her book!
Everything from the cover and photographs, to the information packed pages of recipes and soapmaking techniques inside, is just perfectly crafted and so well-done.
If you’re a natural soapmaker, you will absolutely love adding this book to your library!
You can find it at Amazon (<- affiliate link) or your favorite place to buy books.
Now, here’s the recipe!
Reprinted with permission from The Natural Soapmaking Handbook by Simi Khabra. Page Street Publishing Co. 2024. Photo credit: Simi Khabra.
Golden Root Face Soap
This recipe is inspired by the Golden Root Turmeric Latte that’s so popular (if you haven’t tried one, you should!). Turmeric powder is traditionally used in cooking, but it also makes a fantastic natural colorant in soap. Depending on the amount you use, it can yield shades of pale yellow to bright orange. When combined with carrot juice, like in this recipe, the color is enhanced and becomes more orange than yellow. You can also make this recipe with coconut milk for a more yellow soap.
This soap is formulated for the face, but it can be used on your entire body. The low amount of coconut oil (15 percent) and high butters (25 percent), along with luxurious jojoba oil, creates a bar that’s a treat for your skin. We left this soap unscented to accommodate all skin types. We created this soap in a loaf mold using an impression mat placed at the bottom of the mold. For a bar that’s easier to hold when washing your face, you can make this soap in a cavity mold.
YIELD: 9 bars or 2.8 lb (1.27 kg)
OIL WEIGHT: 30.7 oz (870 g)
SUPERFAT: 5.3%
WATER TO LYE RATIO: 2:1
COLOR WATCH
The color change with turmeric powder is incredible! After you add your lye-water to the oils, the batter will turn a very bright orange/red. Don’t worry though! The color will calm down once the soap has saponified. Color changes like this are one of the joys of making soap with natural colorants!
LYE & LIQUID
- 8 oz (227 g) lye-water solution (4 oz lye plus 4 oz distilled water)
- 4 oz (113 g) carrot juice
OILS
- 4.6 oz (130 g) shea butter (15%)
- 3 oz (85 g) mango butter (10%)
- 4.6 oz (130 g) coconut oil (15%)
- 15.4 (437 g) olive oil (50%)
- 1.55 oz (44 g) jojoba oil (5%)
- 1.55 oz (44 g) castor oil (5%)
ADDITIVES & SUPPLIES
- 0.55 oz (16 g) turmeric powder
INSTRUCTIONS
- With your safety gear on, carefully weigh your lye-water solution from your master batch. (Jan’s note: the book teaches you to make master batches of lye solution. We don’t have that info here, so follow the amounts in the next paragraph instead.)
- If you haven’t yet made your lye-water solution, weigh out 4 ounces (113 g) of lye and 4 ounces (113 g) of distilled water or ice in two separate containers. Carefully pour the lye into the distilled water/ice, while stirring. Set aside to cool.
- Remember: Never microwave your lye solution!
- Weigh out the shea butter, mango butter and coconut oil and melt them on the stovetop or in the microwave. Weigh out the remaining oils and add them to your melted oils.
- Add the carrot juice and turmeric powder to your oils. Use your immersion blender to blend the ingredients together until well incorporated.
- Prepare the bottom of your mold with the silicone impression mat, if you’re using it. If you’re using cavity molds, make sure they’re ready to go and that you have extras for possible overflow.
- Check that the temperatures of your oils and lye-water are between 85 and 110°F (29 and 43°C). Slowly add your lye-water to your oils by running it down the shaft of your immersion blender to avoid splashing. Pulse your immersion blender on low while doing this. Continue to blend on medium until you reach light trace. Remove the immersion blender and hand-stir the soap batter with a silicone spatula to help loosen it up. Keep stirring until the batter feels fluid and is ready to pour.
- Pour the soap batter into your loaf mold and tap down or gently shake the mold to eliminate air bubbles. You’ll want to pour this batter quickly at light trace, so it gets into all the grooves of the silicone mat and/or fills all the nooks of the cavity molds. Since the top of the loaf or cavity molds will be the bottom of your soap, you don’t want to add any texture here. Make sure the tops are smooth and flat. You can always plane the tops with a soap planer, if you have one, to get them flatter.
- Let the soap sit for 48 hours or more before unmolding it so the pattern from the impression mat or the design from the cavity molds is nice and crisp. After unmolding, carefully peel back the impression mat to reveal the design and cut the loaf into bars. Cure your bars for about 4 weeks before using them.
