Soap for dry and delicate skin

I have used soap on my face since I was about 16 years old.  Or not soap really, detergent in a bar form.  Back in those days soap was considered drying to the skin.  And the stuff that has been depleted of glycerin probably is and was.  Natural soaps were unheard of in those days.

But I have just always felt comfortable with cleaning my face with a soap bar rather than with cleansing milks, cold creams or liquids of any kind.  I like to rinse stuff off my face with water.  Tissuing off some cream just doesn't feel like cleaning the face to me.  But then I never had particularly dry skin.  But now I guess my skin is a bit dry and I like to treat my face gently.  So I like to do experiments to make gentle soaps for the face.  That is not to say that they don't end up being used in the shower as all over soap.

I tend to make these recipes up as I go along.  Very often I get one fairly simple idea ("I should make soap with honey and coconut milk and almond oil for the face") and then it gets a bit more complicated as I open drawers and find all my oils ("O o o, I really should add some Jojoba oil!" and "Rose hip is really nice for older skin, I should try that").  So here is one of those rather complicated recipes.  I tend not to put any fragrance in facial soaps since I like them to be as free from allergens as possible.  But I can just imagine that this recipe would be nice with a soft feminine scent.

I love the soap and I have to admit that I use it all over in the shower.  It is also a nice size to take to the gym and I do that.

Facial soap for dry and delicate skin:

30%  Coconut oil  -  150 g / 5.3 oz
20%  Olive oil  -  100 g / 3.5 oz
20%  Almond oil  - 100 g / 3.5 oz
10%  Avocado   -  50 g / 1.8 oz
8%  Castor oil  -  40 g / 1.4 oz
5%  Rose hip oil  - 25 g / 0.9 oz
5%  Jojoba wax  - 25 g / 0.9 oz
2%  Shea butter  - 10 g / 0.35 oz

For the liquid I used semi-frozen Coconut milk to which I added 1 tsp honey dissolved in a bit of water.  This together should amount to  165 g / 5.8 oz
Lye 69 g / 2.5 oz

This time I used 5% SF (but check in a lye calculator as always, especially the ounzes,  they are approximate since I use the grams myself).

I dissolved the lye in the half frozen Coconut milk/honey liquid and watched it turn a bright red.  This then turn into a beautiful yellow when the liquid had been added to the oils.  The soap hardens pretty quickly so don't wait too long to pour into molds.  I poured this into my pastry molds that had been covered in cling wrap (they are aluminium).   The soap doesn't stay a sunny yellow unfortunately, but turns that nice honey colour when it is cured.

The photo: This is one of my favorite soaps.  I is just lovely for the face. The little bowl is one of those things that I keep picking up at flee markets and that lovely little bottle broke, but I do have pictures to remember it by :)

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