Homemade soap recipe with rosehips + video

This gentle and smooth homemade rosehip soap is unique with its triple action of rosehips. Enhanced with rosehip seed oil, rosehip powder and dried rosehips, this easy to make soap moisturizes your skin and heal it from bruises, acne and wrinkles. It might also help to heal the skin from dermatitis or eczema.

So I finally made it. I mean my first homemade soap attempt. Soap making was on my to-do list. I have been making many kinds of natural homemade skincare products in the past however I kept postponing the soap making. When I came accross to Simple natural soapmaking book – where is the whole process described step by step, I said to myself – now or never. 

Why people make homemade soap?

The soap making process is a creative and fulfilling activity that once you try you never want to go back to buy a commercially made soap. There are two reasons. One is the process somehow addictive so you don’t want to stop just there. Once you learn that is not as difficult as you thought you kinda start to like it. I know many people with soap making addiction and now I fully understand. The second reason is that homemade soap is somewhat different than the one you can buy in stores. It smells good and it feels good to pamper yourself with such a unique soft and healing soap. 

If you like to pamper yourself try these beautiful exfoliating sugar scrub bars. They will make your skin soft and glowing already after one use

This foaming bath butter recipe makes a great alternative to soap and is foamy and nourishing for the skin.

Soap making method

There are several methods of making your own soap but If you know me I like to make everything from scratch. Therefore in this tutorial, we are going to cover the old traditional method of making soap and that is a cold method with lye and herbal infusion oils.

We used the same method when making this smoothing rose soap with coconut oil.

What sort of tools are we going to need:

the kitchen items you decide to use for making the soap should not go back to the kitchen. So chose something you don’t use so often and can be easily missed.

1. Working with lye might sound scary for I would say the majority of us. But all you need is to be cautious, were gloves and eyewear to protect your skin and eyes in case of an accident.  
2. You will need small glass or plastic jar where you can measure the lye
3. Larger heatproof jar for mixing the lye with liquid
4. Precise kitchen scale – digital. Yu might find this “free printable kitchen conversions chart” handy
5. Bowl for mixing the soap (glass, plastic or stainless steel)
6. Rubber spatula
7. Blender 
8. Soap mold – I just used one from board game we didn’t use. YOu can make any from wood or use old plastic containers. Cardboard with parchment paper is also a good to start.
9. Parchment paper to line the soap mold
10. “free printable kitchen conversions chart”

What are the ingredients for homemade soap?

Lye (NAOH, Sodium Hydroxide, caustic soda, sodium hydrate) – can be in solid or liquid form. I purchased the one in solid form in pellet shape. It is white substance without any odour that quickly absorbs water from the air. 

Olive oil

Coconut oil fractionated (in the liquid form)

Rosehip oil – versatile moisturizer, rosehip oil can heal your skin from bruises, acne and wrinkles and have a positive effect on your nails as well as hair. It also makes wonderful face serum.

Cocoa butter comes from cocoa beans and smoothes scars and wrinkles. Research shows that it might also heal rashes, eczema and dermatitis.

Rose essential oil

Rosehip powder–  Rosehip powder is a vitamin and mineral-rich herbal substance that will enhance your skin. Full of antioxidants it can increase elasticity and longevity of the skin

Dried rosehips

How do you make natural soap at home?

First step:

Before you start you should have the recipe and all ingredients ready. If you want to make any changes to this recipe (like replacing rosehip oil with castor oil you will have to use this calculator to recalculate the quantities of each ingredient. Each oil needs a different amount of lye to saponify and therefore It is very important to keep the ingredients as they are or recalculate again. I used soapcalc and 4% superfat.

Second step:

Prepare your heat resistant glass, plastic or stainless steel jar (I used laboratory glass – beaker) and pour the exact amount of water as per the recipe. Use the decimal scale so it is precise. 

If you want to add an extra boost of rosehips and colour to your soap, use rosehip tea instead of water. Just make sure you let the tea cool down before using it for lye mixture

Thirds step:

Now it is time for your gloves and goggles to come in place. Put them on and weigh the lye as precisely as you can on the digital scale and put it on the side. 

Fourth step:

Now, this is a very important step so pay attention SLOWLY POUR THE LYE INTO THE WATER!!! Never the other way around. Make it in the small steps, first half, stir and wait till it dissolves and then repeat the same with the other half. There are very intensive fumes coming out of the mixture so try not to breathe too much during this short period of time and keep your window open. Stir it slowly till it dissolves and put it aside to cool off as it will become very hot suddenly. NOw you have at least 1 hour to prepare the rest.

Fifth step:

Measure precisely olive oil, coconut and rosehip oil as well as cocoa butter. Warm coconut oil and cocoa butter in double boiler, mix it with olive and rosehip oil and let it cool down to 35 C (100 F) 

Sixth step:

While you are waiting for both (oily and liquid) parts to cool down to their similar temperatures, get your molds ready. This mixture is calculated for total of 300 g. That was the total volume of my molds. Just line them from all sides with the parchment paper so it will be easy to remove the solid soap from the mold. Skip this step if you use silicone mold

Seventh step:

Once the temperatures of the oily part and liquid part are fairly close to each other slowly pour the lye solution into the container of oils. Use a hand blender to make the mixture smooth. It should not take longer than 10 minutes by switching the blender on and off to prevent overheating of the blender.

Eighth step:

Add rose essential oil and rosehip powder to the mixture and mix it well. Pour the final soap mixture into the mold. Smooth the top with the spatula and add rosehips on the top.

Ninth step:

In order to finish the saponification process, we need to keep the soap in a warm place. So I cover it with a towel and let it sit for at least 24 hours.

Tenth step:

Now comes the best part of the whole soaping process.

Now it’s time to remove the soap from the mold and cut it into bars. It is up to you how big slices you will make. If you wait for longe it might be too hard to cut. Some people use wire soap cutters but I was very fine with the sharp knife.

Eleventh step:

Disappointing part – you will need to wait for another 1 month for the soap to cure to start to enjoy your perfect soap!

Can I make homemade soap without lye?

Lye (Sodium hydroxide)  is an important and irreplaceable piece in the chemical reaction that results in the creation of soap. If we don’t add lye to the process, the oils and water which we use will not bond together and remain separated. It is important to mention that once the soap is made there are no traces of lye in the soap anymore. This process is called saponification.

I am afraid to handle the lye

I f you are afraid to handle the lye but still want to experience the homemade soap making process you can buy a pre-made melt and pour soap. There is lye in it but it has already been saponified. It is not as cost-effective as when you make the soap from scratch. Also, you will not be able to add or change any ingredients. But it will allow you to experience the process

Is homemade soap better than a store-bought?

The main difference is in the ingredients. While homemade soap contain all-natural and healthy ingredients for your skin, the store-bough is full of chemicals such as chemical hardeners, foaming agents, artificial scents. Moreover, you can adjust the homemade soap as per your liking by adding ingredients you like and removing those you don’t. Homemade soap also makes a wonderful and personalized gift.

Which soap is your favourite?