Mermaids Kisses Salty Sea Soap
This delightful soap recipe was created after a wonderful trip to the ocean. I also developed an accompanying essential oil blend that smells like the ocean breezes around the Carmel Valley that roll in with the morning mist, with swaying eucalyptus trees, refreshing lemongrass, and just a touch of rosemary—the kiss of a mermaid.
This fun soap contains sea salt and seaweed. Sea salt adds a lovely exfoliating element; it is purifying and full of nutrients essential for skin health such as potassium, calcium, and zinc.
The best part about this soap is you can get all these benefits and not smell like a fish!
A note about crafting salt soaps: Salt in soap creates a quickly hardening bar accelerating the natural process of saponification created by the sodium hydroxide (lye). I cut this soap as soon as it is no longer warm to the touch. Cut it within 4 hours, otherwise it will be too hard to cut and may crumble. Alternatively, if you pour it into individual soap molds, you bypass this issue entirely.
Also, soap has a reducing effect upon bubbles. To remedy this, we use higher amounts of coconut oil, which in many cases can be far too drying. To counterbalance, I use a 20% super fat.
This blend uses sea salt and any type of seaweed you like. I use kelp, dulse, and bladderwrack, which you can easily purchase from your local co-op or from herb stores online, but you can use just one type of seaweed if you like—or ten! There are so many to choose from! Each type of seaweed contains a varying amount of nutrients.
Ingredients:
7 oz distilled water
2.8 oz lye
16 oz coconut oil
4 oz olive oil
½ cup sea salt
½ teaspoon powdered seaweed of your choice
Recommended Scent Blend: Mermaids Kisses Salty Sea Soap
• 60 drops eucalyptus
• 30 drops lemon grass
• 30 drops rosemary
Method
SAFETY CHECK!!
Line your soap mold with parchment paper. Weigh your water in a heatproof nonreactive bowl and your lye in a separate container. Take these outside in a well-ventilated safe area and add your lye to your water, mixing thoroughly with a nonreactive spoon. Set in a safe spot to cool.
Meanwhile, weigh your oils and melt over medium heat until thoroughly melted. Remove from heat and add essential oils for scent. Check that your lye and oil temps are around 100°F to 110°F and blend your lye/water into your oil blend. Mix these thoroughly with a stick blender. Mix until you have reached trace. Now add the salt and seaweed.
Keep blending until the mixture has reached a pudding-like consistency; this is important so the salt will remain suspended until the soap hardens. If the mixture is too liquidy, the salt will sink to the bottom of the bar. Pour your soap into a lined soap mold.
At this point, spritz the tops of your soap with alcohol to keep soda ash from forming. Set aside in a safe spot to set for 4 hours, then remove your soap from the mold, peel off the freezer paper, and cut your soap. Set aside to cure for 4 to 6 weeks!
Seaweed is incredibly beneficial for the skin. It contains a variety of minerals well known for their anti-aging benefits. Seaweed draws out redness and irritations and also speeds up healing with healthy cell turnover. The iodine in seaweed helps pull out toxins in the skin. Some people say it helps the body clear out radiation poisoning and heavy metals.