Salt Soap With Aloe Vera, Silk and Beetroot

I love salt soaps. They are great for eczematic skin, they have wonderful soft lather and their cleansing capacity comes handy when your hands are extra dirty.

This time I would like to show you how to make a cold process salt soap of 8 % superfat and with several components - citrate, ahimsa silk, inserted heart, rose water and aloe vera gel as a substitute for distilled water, clay and beetroot powder.

This is not a project for complete beginners, if you haven't made any soap before, try a few basic soaps before you come back to this one. Also, make sure you have enough time to make this soap. For this recipe I'm assuming that you have some soapmaking knowledge and know the terms. You need to make two batches for that, first the heart, then the rest of the soap. I recommend making the heart a day ahead.

Make sure you are not allergic to any of the ingredients. Also, salt soaps are generally good for eczemas but there are exceptions so if you have a skin condition, consult with your doctor first. Furthermore, you have to remember that no matter how good your soap it, if you wash your hands often, the skin will dry so you should use some quality hand cream.

Before you start, please read about the Safety in Soapmaking. And since Christmas is almost around the corner, check out my Mulled Wine Soap for inspiration.

Supplies

For the Heart

- 19,5 g/0.69 oz of rose water

- 19,5 g/0.69 oz of aloe vera gel - if you have your own aloe vera plants, here's how to extract the gel

- 19,5/0.69 oz of NaOH

- 3 g/0.1 oz of cherry blossom fragrance (optional)

- 78 g/2.8 oz of coconut oil

- 32,5 g/1.1 oz of safflower oil, high oleic

- 19,5 g/0.69 oz of shea butter

For the rest of the soap

- 116,9 g/4.1 oz of NaOH

- 21 g/0.7 oz of citric acid

- 1 g/0.03 oz of ahimsa silk

- 300 g/10.6 oz of fine Himalaya salt

- 20 g/0.7 oz of cherry blossom fragrance (optional)

- 2 tbsp of pink clay

- 2 tbsp of beetroot powder

- 105 g/3.7 oz of rose water

- 105 g/3.7 oz of aloe vera gel

- 420 of/14.8 oz of coconut oil

- 175 g/6.2 oz of safflower oil, high oleic

- 105 g/3.7 oz of shea butter

For decoration

• golden mica or dried calendula

Tools

• safety gear
• thick plastic containers with a beak
• electronic scales
• electronic thermometer
• spatula
• hand whisk
• stick blender
• rectangular mold
• long star soap mold
• soap cutter
• hand whisk
• cling film/aluminum foil/towel
• fenolftalein or pH papers

Step 1: Making the Star

Make the star one day before or at least the night before you make the rest of the soap. The star will be made from less ingredients because we want it to be more liquid for the mold and some of the other ingredients speed up the trace and make the mixture dense fast. So it's a very basic recipe just with water substitute. I have already explained this part in the Starry Space Soap where I made a star for the inside of the soap.

1. Melt the oils and butter in water bath.
2. Mix the aloe vera and rose water (liquids)
3. Weight the NaOH and slowly add it to the liquids. Stir slowly until combined. Remember the safety rules and do this outside if possible. Now you have the lye.
4. Check the temperature of the oils and the lye, we need to get them to 37 °C/98 °F. If anything gets too cold, just pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds and check the temperature again.
5. When both mixtures have the correct temperature, pour the lye slowly into the oils through a sieve to catch any small pieces of undissolved NaOH. Add the fragrance.
6. Use a hand whisk to mix it fast until both components combine and the mixture is still liquid but also smooth and creamy.
7. Poor the mixture into the star mold and wrap the mold in foil/towel. Let it stand vertically in a warm place at least overnight.
8. Open the mold and take out the star.

Step 2: Preparing the Soap

1. Mix the aloe vera gel and rose water and add citric acid. Stir until dissolved. I like to add the citric acid to almost all my soaps because our water is very hard and the acid helps the lather. Then add the NaOH very slowly in 4 batches. With the acid in the mixture you can expect a more eruptive reaction. Stir until the NaOH is dissolved. Then add the silk and again stir until it completely dissolves. Let the mixture cool down.
2. Weight the oils and butter and melt them in water bath.
3. Prepare the salt, clay and beetroot powder to have them at hand.
4. Take a small part of the warm oils and mix in the clay and powder. My beetroot powder was a little lumpy which isn't ideal but the stick blender will solve it later.
5. Check the temperature of the oils and the lye, we need to get them to 37 °C/98 °F.

Step 3: Mixing the Soap

1. Pour the lye into the oils at the correct temperature and again, use the sieve.
2. This time put a stick blender in and start blending until the mixture has a light trace (gets just a little bit thicker).
3. At this point, mix in the oil with the clay and powder, the salt and the fragrance and whisk in with a hand whisk. The color of the mixture at this point is nothing like it will be after the soap goes through gel. Now it's more orange and after that it will have what I call a "healthy" color - just light pink/beige.
4. Pour half of the mixture in another container and blend with the stick blender until it's dense but can still pour. Pour this half in the rectangular mold.
5. Place the star in the center.
6. Stick blend the other half until dense and pour it over the star. By making the mixture dense we make sure the star doesn't sink.
7. Sprinkle the top of the soap with golden mica or dried calendula.

Step 4: Safety Check and Curing

1. Wrap the mold with the soap in aluminum foil and a towel or a blanket and let it rest in a warm place for about 12 hours. Normally I would say 24 but the salt soaps get really hard really fast and then they're difficult to cut. You can speed up this process by putting the soap in the over for about 2 hours at 50°C/120°F but you have to watch it because salt soaps tend to overbake.
2. Take out the soap, let it cool down and cut off a thin slice for the safety test. I have written a whole article on the Soap safety and the two ways to check it so read it to find out which way you want to use. I use fenolftalein on the fresh cut.
3. Once you have checked that your soap is safe, cut the rest of the soap in slices.
4. Now comes the hard part - waiting. The soap should cure in a dark, dry and airy place and I really recommend a 6 months curing time, the salt soaps need to dry properly. If you absolutely can't wait then give your soap at least 3 months.

I really hope that you liked this instructable and maybe you got a bit inspired. Salt soaps are very beneficial for our skin (when used moderately like any other soap) so don't be afraid to make them!