Cedarwood & Baking Soda Soap Recipe for Cleansing & Deodorizing Skin

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Normally, it’s not advisable to use a 0% superfat when making soap. That is, of course, unless you’re making a 100% coconut oil soap for use as a laundry stain remover or a solid dish soap. This is because it leaves room for error when making the soap. There’s the potential for your soap recipe to end up lye heavy if mistakes are made. Therefore, you’ll normally see most cold process soap recipes with a superfat of at least 5%. Superfat not only compensates in the case of error, however. It also gives the bar more skin conditioning properties. This is because superfatting soap allows extra oils in the final soap bars to remain unsaponified.

Baking soda reverses the saponification process to some extent. Therefore, despite using a 0% superfatted soap recipe with baking soda, the resulting soap will in fact have some superfat as a result. Even without adding it in. If you’re formulating your own baking soda soap recipe using the cold process soap making method, I recommend a recipe that creates a hard bar, with a higher cleansing percentage. You should also discount the water to at least 30% (or less) of the oil weight. And, more importantly, always add the baking soda once you reach trace. Never before. Otherwise, you run a high risk of a failed batch.

Cedarwood & Baking Soda Soap Recipe

Yield: 47.3 oz. (1,342.12 grams) before the cure

Ingredients:

3.2 oz. / 90.72 grams Castor Oil (10%)
6.4 oz. / 181.44 grams Cocoa Butter (20%)
8.95 oz. / 253.73 grams 76° Melt Point Coconut Oil (27.97%)
9.3 oz. / 263.65 grams Pomace Olive Oil (29.06%)
4.15 oz. / 117.65 grams Sunflower Oil (12.97%)

9.6 fl. oz. / 272.16 grams distilled water (30% of oil weight)
4.74 oz. / 134.43 grams lye/sodium hydroxide (0% superfat)

2 oz. baking soda
2 teaspoons white kaolin clay
1 teaspoon walnut shell powder, or to suit
1/16 teaspoon woodland green pigment powder
1 oz. / 28.35 grams cedarwood essential oil (3.13% of oil weight)

Baking Soda Soap  Recipe Making Notes:

It’s important to note that 3.13% is the suggested maximum, skin safe usage rate for cedarwood essential oil in a soap recipe. Therefore it is important, should you make changes, not to increase this amount when making my baking soda soap recipe. (You can learn more about the maximum usage rate of popular essential oils in soap here.)

My baking soda soap recipe will fit inside this silicone loaf mold or another similar mold. You can also use two sets of silicone molds with individual cavities. However, you won’t be able to pull off the pencils lines without using a loaf mold.

Follow basic cold process soap making instructions to make my cold process baking soda soap recipe. You should make sure you are not using any utensils or equipment that contain aluminum. All containers should be heat safe. In addition, take all safety precautions including wearing protective clothing (long sleeves), gloves and goggles.

Instructions:

Prepare the lye-water solution first. To do this, weigh out the lye into a heat safe container. Then measure out the distilled water into separate heat safe container, such as a heat safe pitcher.

Slowly pour the lye into the water. Then stir until the lye dissolves completely. Set the lye-water aside to cool.

Now, use a digital scale to weigh the olive, castor, coconut, and sunflower oils, as well as the cocoa butter. Combine these soap making fats in a stainless steel pot. Then heat on the stovetop over medium to medium-low heat until all oils have melted. Once fully melted, remove from heat.

In the meantime, weigh out the baking soda, clay and the cedarwood essential oil into separate containers. Measure out the walnut shell powder and pigment powder. Set aside.

Once the lye-water and melted soap making oils reach about 100° F, you’re ready to mix the soap batter.

Start by adding the kaolin clay to the melted soap making oils. Mix into clay into the oils using a stick blender.

Once the clay is fully incorporated into the oils, slowly pour the lye-water into the oils. Mix the lye-water and oils together with a stick blender until you reach a light trace trace. Then stir in both the cedarwood essential oil and the baking soda. Mix to combine.

Now pour roughly one third of the soap into the loaf mold. Smooth the soap out in the mold using a spatula. Then lightly dust the soap in the mold with walnut shell powder so that the entire surface is covered.

Once you’ve added the walnut shell powder, add the green pigment powder to the remaining soap in the pot. Mix well using the stick blender. 

Finally, pour the remaining soap batter from the pot into the mold over the walnut shell powder and the first layer of soap. Even out the soap using the spatula. If desired, cover and insulate for 24 hours.

Unmold the baking soda soap 24 to 36 hours later. Then cut the soap into bars. Allow the baking soda soap bars to cure a minimum of four weeks prior to use, for best results. (Cold process soaps will fully saponify within about 72 hours. However, a full cure not only makes the soap harder, but also increases the lather and final performance of the soap.)

Tip: For a harder soap with a lower superfat, reduce the amount of baking soda called for in the recipe to 1 oz.