Raise The Bar With Homemade Exfoliating Soap
Dry, itchy skin got you down? Don’t worry, there’s hope—or rather, soap—for that! With our all-natural, homemade exfoliating soaps, hydrated skin is only a shower away.
Gentle exfoliation is the key to silky soft skin. Our DIY soap bars include natural exfoliating ingredients to remove dead skin from the surface, plus a combination of coconut and essential oils to soothe as you scrub.
After a couple weeks, don’t be surprised if your friends are all, “Look at you glow, girl!” the next time you meet for lunch.
Homemade exfoliating soaps are masters at renewing dull, dehydrated skin—and they do it in style. Each one is uncommonly beautiful, thanks to natural ingredients like Himalayan pink salt and poppy seed. The unique way the exfoliators disperse throughout the soap simply adds to their charm. Display the bars as part of your bathroom decor or wrap a ribbon around one of our naturally exfoliating soaps for a gift that keeps your friends glowing.
Ingredients to make homemade exfoliating soap
Homemade exfoliating soap is easier to customize when you start with a pre-made base. We used the same base—organic melt and pour glycerin soap plus coconut oil—for each bar but changed up the exfoliating ingredients and essential oils.
We recommend using silicone soap molds with circles approximately 2 ½ inches in diameter.
Yield: Approximately 3 soaps
Base
6 ounces suspended organic melt and pour glycerin soap
Clear Glycerin Melt & Pour Soap Base
1 tablespoon coconut oil
Mix-ins
Exfoliating ingredient
Essential oils
How to make homemade exfoliating soap
1. Cut soap into about 1-inch cubes.
2. Put soap and coconut oil in a large microwave-safe bowl.
3. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time until soap is completely melted, stirring in between to smooth clumps.
4. Add essential oils and mix well.
5. Add exfoliating ingredient slowly, stirring well to combine and remove all clumps. Work quickly before the soap gets too cool.
6. Pour into molds. Let sit until solid, approximately 1-3 hours.
Rosemary-Lemon-Sage soap with cornmeal
Cornmeal is a gentle exfoliator, which makes it safe for sensitive skin. We used about 1 tablespoon of cornmeal to get the right amount of texture without it feeling too gritty. You can totally add more for a more intense exfoliation. Combining cornmeal with herb and citrus scents like Lemon, Rosemary, and Sage gives this soap a clean, earthy aroma.
Mix-ins
1 tablespoon cornmeal
10 drops Lemon essential oil
10 drops Rosemary essential oil
10 drops Sage essential oil
Cinnamon-Orange-Ginger soap with coffee grounds
The warm, spicy scents of Cinnamon Bark and Ginger, the bright aroma of Orange, and the rich brown color of coffee make this exfoliating soap a real treat! Keep in mind, coffee grounds provide more intense exfoliation than cornmeal; scrub with care if you have sensitive skin. Coffee grounds tend to settle. If you’re not a fan of how the soap looks, use fewer coffee grounds so they don’t sink to the bottom of the bar.
Mix-ins
2 tablespoons organic coffee grounds
15 drops Cinnamon Bark essential oil
10 drops Ginger essential oil
10 drops Orange essential oil
Joy-Geranium-Patchouli soap with poppy seeds and Himalayan pink salt
How can you not love a homemade exfoliating soap packed with alliterative ingredients like Patchouli, poppy seeds, and pink salt? Fortunately for your skin, the ingredients do more than sound pretty. When paired with Joy™ and Geranium, you get a bar that sloughs off dead skin as the scent boosts your mood.
The finely ground pink salt exfoliates well but blends with the soap differently than the other ingredients. To add it, pour a thin layer of salt into your mold, then pour the soap on top of it. Also, like the coffee grounds, the poppy seeds in this mix may settle at the bottom.
Mix-ins
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1-2 tablespoons fine Himalayan pink salt
15 drops Joy essential oil blend
10 drops Patchouli essential oil
5 drops Geranium essential oil
Want an exfoliating soap you don’t have to DIY?
Too busy to make soap from scratch? Try our Lavender-Oatmeal Bar Soap. The luxuriously creamy formula, with its calming floral scent, uses oats to gently exfoliate and remove excess oil. Skin feels soft, smooth, and refreshed—no circular silicone mold required!
Love exfoliating with loofahs? Treat yourself to a DIY loofah soap—a cleanser that’s as fun to make as it is to use! When you’re ready to switch up your soapmaking, try your hand at a cocoa-mint massage bar.
