Recipe and instructions for how to make natural soap using Rosemary and Blue Clay. Includes a video tutorial
There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of cleansers on the market for oily skin. Many have harsh additives that irritate or that strip your skin completely. When this happens your skin tries to recover by producing even more oil that can then make the issue worse. I have oily skin myself and when I was younger I tried anything and everything to clean it and treat my blemishes. These days I only use natural cleansers on my face and also try to cleanse less frequently. It has truly helped to even out my skin tone.
When I’m not using this easy DIY soap-less cleanser, I’ll use one of my own soaps on my face. I generally use the latter during ‘that time of the month’ when my skin feels a bit more oily. This is one of my soap recipes that includes anti-bacterial rosemary essential oil and cambrian blue clay for its oil drawing properties. The recipe includes all natural Vegan oils and I’ve made the recipe very easy to make for beginners.
Both rosemary and cambrian blue clay are ideal for treating oily skin and blemishes
Interested in Naturally Colouring soap?
- How to Naturally Color Handmade Soap + Ingredients Chart
- Using Annatto seeds to tint soap bright orange
- Naturally purple soap using Alkanet root
Using Cambrian Blue Clay in Soap
You may have found this recipe through my piece on natural colours for handmade soap. There are so many wonderful natural ingredients that you can use to tint your batches but some have properties other than just a pretty colour.
Cambrian Blue Clay is found as a natural element that is mined from areas in northwest Russia. Clay is used in beauty products for its oil pulling ability and you’ll know its use in face masks or in drawing salves. In soap its used for tinting but if the right enough is used then that clay can also work to cleanse oily skin.
Blue clay’s colour comes from having a high content of chemically reduced iron and this has been linked to its ability to naturally eliminate bacteria. Bacteria causes pimples and blue clay is the perfect ingredient to use to gently treat blemishes and break-outs.
Cambrian Blue Clay not only cleanses skin but has anti-bacterial properties
Rosemary also kills bacteria
Like Blue Clay, rosemary oil also works to kill bacteria, fungi, and other microbes. Actually, it’s been observed to specifically kill Propionibacterium acnes, the bacteria that causes pimples. This makes it ideal in natural skincare for problematic skin in both its fresh plant form and in concentrated essential oil.
This recipe uses both, and the fresh rosemary can be grown in your own garden or purchased. Fresh rosemary has a very low water content and even in relatively large pieces I’ve never had an issue with it not preserving well in soap.
When chopping the rosemary for this recipe I do recommend that you get it as fine as possible. It adds visual interest and potentially allows more of the rosemary extract to be released into the soap. Larger pieces can also be off-putting when you’re using the soap. I personally don’t like large chunks of dried leaves coming out of bars and ending up in the shower tray. Everyone is different though so if you’d prefer you could chop them a bit rougher.
Use fresh rosemary in this soap for visual interest and its skin beneficial properties
Natural Rosemary Soap Recipe
454g / 1 lb batch — makes six bars
The full video instruction on making this soap is at the bottom of this piece. The recipe may be a little different from other cold-process soap recipes since it uses quite cool temperatures. In fact, this is a room-temperature soap making recipe. This technique helps to make the soap making process easier and also stops the soap from ‘Gelling’ or getting darker.
If you use extra virgin olive oil in the recipe expect for your bars to come out a soft grey-green. If you’re using a lighter coloured olive oil pomace, the colour will be more blue.
Lye water
65g (2.29 oz) Sodium hydroxide (also called lye or NaOH)
110g (3.88 oz) Water (preferably distilled) — in a heat proof jug
1tsp Sodium Lactate (optional)
Clay Mixture
3g or 2tsp Cambrian Blue Clay
30g or 6tsp Water (preferably distilled)
Solid oils – measured into a stainless steel pan
140g (4.9 oz) Coconut oil (refined)
25g (0.88 oz) Shea butter
Liquid oils
190g (6.7 oz) Olive oil (pomace)
25g (0.88 oz) Castor oil
75g (2.65 oz) Sunflower oil
Oils to add after Trace
14g (049 oz) or 4tsp Rosemary Essential oil
Dried herbs to decorate with
3g or 1tsp chopped Rosemary leaves
Special Equipment needed
- Digital Thermometer or Temperature Gun
- Digital Kitchen Scale
- Stick (Immersion) Blender
- 6 Cavity silicone soap mould
The soap from this recipe will be grey-green to grey-blue, depending on the olive oil you use
Other Equipment needed
- Stainless steel pan
- Heat-proof plastic jug
- a bowl
- spatula
- fine mesh strainer
- a spoon
- Apron
- Rubber gloves
- Eye protection
Natural Soap Making for Beginners
If you’re new to making natural handmade soap, you should read my four-part series on natural soap making. It gives a good introduction on what to expect from ingredients, equipment, cold-process soap recipes, and the soap making process.
1. Ingredients
2. Equipment & Safety
3. Basic Recipes and Formulating Your Own
4. The Soap Making Process: Make, Mould, and Cure
Step 1: Making the lye water
I’ve recently stepped into making room temperature soap and while it’s not ideal for all recipes, it works great for this one. We’re using a water discount of 33% to help speed up the trace and to also reduce the chance of the soap gelling. The temperature and water discount work together in this.
A couple of hours before you make soap, pour the sodium hydroxide in the water and stir very well. You should do this in a well ventilated area and try not to breathe in the steam. It will be over 200 degrees at this point so be careful. Set the jug someplace safe and leave the lye mixture to cool to room temperature.
Step 2: Mix the Clay
Just before you’re about to make your soap, chop the rosemary and mix the clay together with water. Though the video in this piece shows adding this to the soap after Trace, it’s actually easier to add it to the cooled lye water. It really helps with dispersing the clay.
If you’re using the optional Sodium lactate, add it to the lye water once it’s cooled too. Sodium lactate helps harden bars quicker and this can be handy for soaps that have a lot of olive oil, like this one.
Step 3: Melt the solid oils
When the lye water has cooled, melt the solid oils on the stove. When they’re just melted, remove the pan from the heat and pour the liquid oils in the pan. Stir well and cool the oils until they’re about 27 °C (80 °F). Floating the pan in cool water whilst stirring helps.
While it’s cooling, add the clay-water to the pan and stir. Adding the clay before stick blending helps the clay to disperse better. It also helps cool the oil temperature down a little.
The soap looked far more blue when it was initially poured
Step 4: Make your Rosemary Soap
When cooled, pour the lye water through a mini strainer and into your pan. Use the stick blending technique shown in the video below and blend until you reach a light trace. Stir in the essential oil then the rosemary and pour into your mould. It may be a grey colour at this time but it will change.
Leave the soap to harden up inside the mould for 48 hours before taking it out. It may be a little sticky when removing, especially if you decide not to use Sodium lactate. In this case, you can leave the soap in the mold for longer, even a week or more. You can also put the entire mold in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour. They should pop out easily after that.
Cure the soap for four weeks before using it. The lather is stable and creamy and the colour of the soap will be grey-green to grey-blue depending on the quality and colour of your olive oil. There’s a clip of the lather in the video below.
Betty says
Hi:)
I have made 4-5 batches of cold process successfully and 1 batch of hot process soap that never fully hardened. So I’m not completely new, but certainly not experienced either! I found you on you tube yesterday and love your tutorial. I went to one hands on class and this was just as helpful. Thank you so much. My question – doesn’t the tutorial say you picked the sprig of Rosemary the day before you made the soap? So the chopped rosemary that goes in the soap does not have to be dried? One more question- where do you buy your supplies?
lovelygreens says
Rosemary is one of those rare herbs that you can add to soap undried BUT it must be cut very small and it will turn black. It’s a visual effect more than anything else so you can leave the herbs out if you wish.
Leanne says
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! How would I go about decorating the top of the soap loaves with fresh rosemary? I have tried in the past and the rosemary turned brown/black. Not sure if it was because the temperature was too high during gel phase? Would you suggest waiting 24 hours after gel phase and then attempting to add the rosemary using isopropyl alcohol? Many thanks in advance for your thoughts! x
lovelygreens says
Hi Leanne, I don’t recommend decorating any soap with fresh herbs or flowers — only dried. Fresh material will mold over, or cause the soap underneath to get icky. To keep the rosemary as green as possible, dry it quickly using a food dehydrator if you have one. Wait until the soap is fully cured, then spray the tops with alcohol or witch hazel and spinkle the chopped rosemary over. When the alcohol dries, the herbs will stick 🙂
Anitha says
Hi, I’m so excited to make this soap. And I’m also new to soap making . Thinking of sodium Lactate , since it’s optional, I wanted to omit it. So that means do I have to cure the soap for longer time , more than four weeks . Thanks for your detailed recipe . Looking forward more !
lovelygreens says
Without it, the soap will be sticky at first and be difficult to get out of the mold. You can just leave it in the molds for part of the cure time though.
Kelly says
Made my first batch a few weeks ago! Thank you! Questions: can this recipe be doubled easily? I am thinking of making about 100 as favors for my wedding. They will be made in molds shaped like animals (we are biologists). Also, how long do they keep for? I’d like to start making them now for my wedding in August 2020. Thanks!
lovelygreens says
Feel free to double, triple, etc, this recipe. I share soap ideas in one-pound batches for the hobby soap maker but all of them can be increased in size. Once made, your soap has a shelf-life that’s the closest best-by date of your ingredients. So use oils that have a long shelf-life. The rosemary in this recipe brings the best-by date down to a maximum of one year though. All the best for your wedding this summer 🙂
Kelly says
Thank you very much! Is this recipe transferable with other herbs?
lovelygreens says
Yes, you could use lots of other different dried herbs for this recipe instead of rosemary. Peppermint, oregano, lemon balm, and thyme to name a few. Essential oils are different though and some won’t be safe in the same quantity as the rosemary eo in this recipe. For further guidance on other essential oils, and how much to use, head over here: https://lovelygreens.com/make-soap-with-essential-oils/
Elicia Lunsford says
Is it okay to substitute the olive oil pomace, for evoo?
lovelygreens says
Yes of course. It’s darker in color though so your end bars will be a different shade though.
Nicky says
Hi, I’m not going to add the clay as I don’t have any. Should I add the water you use for the clay in with the lye water mix or omit it completely? Can’t wait to make it I love Rosemary.
lovelygreens says
You can just omit it. It’s only needed to mix the clay, not for anything else.
David Culver says
You state you are using a water discount of 33%.
Soapcalc asks for:
Water as a % of oil, or
Lye concentration, or
Water : lye ratio.
What do you mean water discount 33%?
I was just checking out your recipe with soapcalc trying to learn more.
Thanks so much. This batch will be #2 for me. Batch 1 is great soap but doesn’t smell that good.
lovelygreens says
Have a read on what water discounting is about half-way down in this piece: https://lovelygreens.com/change-customize-soap-recipe/
Why do you think the soap doesn’t smell great? Are all of your ingredients within their best-by date? Old oil can go rancid quickly in soap making.
Susan says
Hello Tanya,
Thank you for this recipe! I have rosemary that needs harvesting and this soap fits the bill. But this will be my first soapmaking experience and I haven’t been able to buy the Cambrian Blue Clay ($27 shipping to Canada and cannot find it here) so I need to swap clays.
My question: can I replace the Cambrian Blue Clay with any other type of clay? I understand the color of the clay will change the color of the soap, and also it’s properties. Hence I would probably stick with some green clay which will fit the color and properties – would that be right?
Thank you for a great website, tutorials and information – you are definitely my “go-to” for soapmaking advice (amongst other topics)!
lovelygreens says
Hi Susan and thanks for being in touch — good question! Yes, you can use most any other clay for this recipe. Stick to using just one teaspoon of clay per pound of oils as a general rule. There are many to choose from!
baru rose says
Hello. I love your recipe. I have one question. Can I change the castor oil for almond oil? thank you 🙂
lovelygreens says
Sure, but if you change any oils in a cold-process soap recipe then the Sodium hydroxide amount has to change too. Use the SoapCalc to get the amounts you need: http://soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp
Amy says
Thank you so much for your video tutorial and wonderful recipe! Smal batches are so helpful as I am just making soap for myself (and I guess giving to my friends and family!) I am just getting into soap making and excited to try this one!
Lorraine says
hi Tanya, thanks for sharing your wonderful soap recipes. Thinking of making some for commercial purposes. but i am in Africa and its quite difficult getting fresh rosemary. I was wondering if i could use dried rosemary instead and if possible how do i use it.
Thank you
lovelygreens says
Hi Lorraine and yes, you can used dried rosemary. Chop it up finely and only use half the amount of fresh.
Paige says
Hi Tanya,
Thank you again for sharing another great soap recipe! I made a batch a month ago and am now happily using them. They smell wonderful, feel great and have lots of fluffy lather. I will be making these again soon. Mine turned out a pale greenish grey color.
So glad I discovered your website!
lovelygreens says
So pleased to hear it 🙂 Doesn’t the rosemary essential oil smell amazing?
Pam says
I was always told making soap was dangerous. Your video for the lavender soap was wonderful and “scrubbed” my fear of making my on soap. Thank you so much!
lovelygreens says
You’re so welcome Pam 🙂 I foresee many other soap batches in your future! Have fun making them
Liz (Eight Acres) says
I love the scent of rosemary in soap! Always looking for more natural colour options too 🙂
catherine bell says
I have a question..Will the rosemary turn brown in and on the soap? Thanks! I love these! They are lovely!
lovelygreens says
Yes it will and in the photos you can see how it’s turned brown already. Each little piece of lavender creates a dark speckle in the soap. I think that i’s a pretty effect contrasted against the blue-green of the bar.