Shea Butter and Oatmeal Melt and Pour Homemade Soap

Shea butter and oatmeal soap simply make the skin look and feel great. No matter what scent you decide to use (if any) your skin will smell fresh and amazingly soft to the touch after using this simple melt and pour soap recipe.

I used goat’s milk melt and pour soap base to create shea butter and oatmeal soap in several different colors and scents, but you can pick any melt and pour soap base you would like or happen to have without altering any of the ingredients or measurements.

I love the way goat’s milk soap softens the skin, so I use it most often unless I want a clear glycerin soap that is going to have flowers suspended inside for added visual effect.

The entire soap making process takes only roughly 10 minutes and does not require being exposed to lye.

Melt and pour soap bases take all of the guesswork and lye concerns out of the soap making process, but still allow you to personalize the scent, texture, color, and added skin care ingredients to each bar.

Why Shea Butter Is Good To Use In Soap

• The rich concentration of essential vitamins and fatty acids found in shea butter is why it’s often used in soap, cosmetics, lotions, and creams of all types.
• Shea butter may help soothe dry skin and reduce inflammation from minor and common skin rashes.
• The anti-inflammatory compounds in shea butter can help heal chapped skin and soothe minor wounds.
• Shea butter has also been used alone or as an active natural ingredient to soothe insect bites, sore muscles, psoriasis, dandruff, acne, stretch marks, fine lines and wrinkles, as well as arthritis.

Why Oatmeal Is Good To Use In Soap

• Oatmeal helps to reduce oil content in the skin without drying it.
• This breakfast staple may also help prevent and treat acne-prone skins.
• The natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds in oatmeal make it an excellent natural exfoliant that helps to remove dead skin cells and leave skin softer and more supple.
• The saponins in oatmeal are a wonderful natural cleansing agent that help remove oil and dirt from deep inside of the pores.

Ingredients and Supplies

• 3 teaspoons of oatmeal – I recommend against using instant oatmeal
• 1 teaspoon of mica powder – optional but recommended if you want a colored soap. I chose green and purple mica powder when making two batches of this soap simply because they were a gift for my mother and those are her favorite colors.
• 10 – 15 drops of your favorite essential oil – optional but recommended for enhanced scent – I made one batch of this soap with eucalyptus and another with lavender, both go great with the natural light scent of oatmeal.
• 2 pounds of goat’s milk or shea butter melt and pour soap base – this amount of base can make about 10 standard-size bars of soap.
• 3 tablespoons of raw shea butter – not needed if you are using a shea butter melt and pour soap base

If using raw shea butter it too will need to be cut into chunks and melted in the microwave or a double boiler.

Timing is crucial when using raw shea butter because it must be heated into a liquid state and poured into the melt-and-pour base when it is also in a liquid state.

I put the raw shea butter in the microwave with the melt-and-pour base – after cutting it into smaller chunks so they both become completely melted at the same time.

Surprisingly, shea butter melts more slowly than the melt-and-pour base even though it is softer to the touch.

Melt and pour soap bases can typically retain both their scent and texture for 12 months. But, because a fresh material was used in creating this particular bar (the oatmeal), it should be used within three to six months.

Mold and bacteria can (often does) grow from the fresh material used in melt and pour soap recipes. If you want to use a lot of fresh material, or create a soap that will last longer when fresh ingredients are used, consider using the cold process (lye required) method, instead.