What makes a soap good for your acne-prone skin is the type of oil used when preparing the soap. Hard oils are good for cleansing but are usually terrible moisturizers while soft oils are good moisturizers but may not be able to clean on their own.
Depending on the cause of your acne, you will need a soap with the perfect base for it to serve its intended purpose. Most cases of acne are a result of your skin being too oily.
My experience was not any different from the common ones, I, therefore, opted to use coconut oil as the base for my soap.
Coconut oil is a hard oil and I was sure it would serve my main purpose of cleansing. Its combination with the other ingredients is guaranteed to also make it moisturizing.
Coconut oil is also cheap and readily available in most parts of the world.
Ingredients for the soap
- 317 grams of coconut oil
- 226 grams of olive oil
- 344 grams of water
- 136 grans lye (sodium hydroxide)
- 90 grams of aloe butter
- 272 grams of lard
- 10 drops of tea tree essential oil
- 1 gram activated charcoal powder
Step by step procedure
1. To begin with, ensure the containers you intend to use are not degradable materials like plastic and silicon. This ensures safety when handling the chemicals and reduces the risk of an accident.
I also discourage the use of glass since it may shatter when the reactions get very hot. I recommend the use of containers made of stainless steel since they have proven to work well and produce the best results.
2. Measure 136 grams of lye (sodium hydroxide) and place it in one container then 344 grams of water and place it in another.
3. Mixing of the chemicals should be done in a well-ventilated area room or an open area and also while wearing proper safety gear such as gloves and goggles.
You should try and avoid working with exposed skin as much as possible this means wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and covering your toes.
4. Add the lye to the water slowly while stirring consistently. As you add the lye the mixture will be cloudy and you should therefore not lean directly over it to avoid inhaling the fumes.
Add the lye in bits while stirring for it to mix faster. Never forget it is the lye that goes to the water and not vice versa.
5. Mix the oils together in a steel container and heat the mixture until they are both melted and mixed properly.
6. Take the first mixture you had made that consisted of the lye and water and add it to the mixture of oils.
7. For the finishing process you can decide whether you want a cold process soap or a hot process soap. The hot process soap is not good looking but it can be used immediately.
The cold process soap takes longer before it can be used, it can take up to a month before usage but the result is very pretty.
8. If you want the hot process, you should keep stirring the mixture until it reaches a thick pudding-like form.
Wait for the moment where it is in between very thick and before it hardens and add in the tea tree oil and the charcoal powder and keep mixing until it is spread uniformly.
9. Pour the mixture into the tin for it to harden. It takes between 24 and 48 hours for it to harden and you can take it out of the mold and use it immediately.
10. For the cold process, you follow the same steps for the hot process but after pouring it into the mold you will have to wait for 3 to 4 weeks for it to cure completely, and then you can have your soap when it is ready.
Tea tree oil and activated charcoal are excellent remedies for acne. Tea tree oil is known for its antibacterial properties while activated charcoal is known for its absorbing properties.
Therefore, the combination of the two ingredients on the soap ensures the dangerous bacteria on the skin are killed and absorbed to be washed away with the soap.
In this article we can summarize the step-by-step procedure to make soap for acne-prone skin as follows;
- Measure the water and lye in different containers
- Add the lye to the water while mixing and stirring consistently until the cloudy mixture becomes clear
- Combine all the oils (coconut oil, olive oil, lard, and aloe butter) in one container and heat it so that they all melt ad mix well to form one mixture
- Mix the lye solution with the melted oils and stir
- When it forms a thick paste, add the activated charcoal and tea tree oil and wait for it to harden so it can be ready for use.
