How to Make Sea Mud Soap (Cold Process Soap Recipe)

Learn how to make Dead Sea mud soap with this cold process soap recipe. This natural soap is ideal for acne prone skin. Whether you suffer from facial breakouts or body acne, adding this natural soap with sea clay to your skin care routine can help minimize outbreaks and improve symptoms.

DIY Dead Sea Mud Soap

Oily and acne prone skin can be a real drag. But fighting nature can sometimes be a constant battle. And many of the commercial products formulated to fight acne can sometimes do more harm than good. Ever had a zit cream get rid of your zit but leave your face feeling raw or even cause it to peel?

My solution was to create an all natural sea mud soap recipe made with astringent hazelnut oil and Sea Clay (also known as Dead Sea Mud) to detoxify skin and improve its appearance. There’s no added fragrance to this cold process soap. However if you prefer a scented soap, simply add 1 – 2 oz. of your favorite fragrance oil. I recommend a fun Dirt scented fragrance or the unisex scent of Abalone & Sea. Alternately, you may also add 1/2 – 1 oz. of essential oils.

Dead Sea Mud Soap Benefits

Sea mud is good for a number of common skin conditions. Natural Dead Sea clay is often used in cosmetic applications to detox and purify skin as well as to help with acne. Following are some of the Dead Sea mud soap benefits you’ll experience when using this soap:

• Sea mud helps improve skin elasticity.
• It’s naturally rich in magnesium and salt that aid in skin’s functionality.
• This clay helps to soothe itching and skin irritation.
• It’s shown that soap made with sea mud benefits skin by helping reduce symptoms caused by dry skin and eczema.
• Sea clay soap is excellent for acne prone skin as it aids in drawing out oil and toxins that can clog pores.
• Tea tree soap made using sea mud can help to temporarily shrink pores as well as well as reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles by smoothing skin.
• The minerals present in sea mud promote healing.

Cold Process Dead Sea Mud Soap Recipe for Oily/Acne Prone Skin

© Rebecca D. Dillon

This DIY Dead Sea mud soap is a wonderful, all natural solution for oily and acne prone skin. If you’re tired of fighting breakouts at every turn, then give this cold process soap recipe a try!

This sea mud soap recipe yields 10 – 12 very hard soap bars and will fit into one of my DIY wooden loaf soap molds. If you need to re-size this soap recipe to make a smaller batch, superfat at 6% and use the Dead Sea clay at 3% of your cold process soap recipe. (You must always run the new oil amounts back through a lye calc to properly calculate the amount of lye needed.)

To make sea clay soap, you will need to follow my directions on how to make cold process soap. If you’ve never made cold press soap before, then I recommend starting with a more basic recipe. You can find several cold process soap recipes for beginners here. Or you can start with the following soap making books: Soap Crafting Anne-Marie Faiola and The Soapmaker’s Companion by Susan Miller Cavitch.

Sea Clay Soap Ingredients:

These are the ingredients you need to make cold process soap with sea clay:

• 10.8 oz. grapeseed oil: This lightweight, moisturizing carrier oil adds skin conditioning properties to this sea mud soap recipe. In addition, it also helps to create a harder soap bar with a creamy lather. In cold process soap, this oil is ideal for acne prone skin.
• 7.2 oz. 102 degree melt point palm kernel flakes: A temperature stable form of palm oil, palm kernel flakes adds a creamy, stable lather to soap and helps to harden the finished soap bars. 
• 9 oz. 76 degree melt point coconut oil: When used to make cold process soap, coconut oil helps to increase the lather and cleansing capabilities. Additionally, coconut oil helps to increase the hardness of the bar and, when used in moderation, can also help to hydrate skin.
• 7.2 oz. hazelnut oil: This carrier oil is well-known for its astringent skin care properties that help combat acne. It’s also naturally hydrating thanks to its high vitamin E and fatty acid composition and may help improve skin’s elasticity when used to make sea mud soap for acne. 
• 1.8 oz. refined shea butter: This moisturizing body butter lends soap skin conditioning properties and helps create a long lasting, hard bar of soap with a stable lather. When used on skin it also aids in the fight against acne due to its composition as well as its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant skin care properties.
• 5.2 oz. lye/sodium hydroxide: Lye acts as an alkali in the soap making process. When combined with fats, the soap making oils and butters, it goes through a process called saponification that makes soap.
• 11 oz. distilled water: You want to use distilled water is used to make cold process soap as it will be free of minerals and other trace pollutants that may react negatively with lye.
• 1.5 oz. Dead Sea clay: Sea mud, or sea clay, has anti-inflammatory properties when used in skin care. This soothing clay contains naturally occurring sulphur that can help to treat acne symptoms and prevent breakouts. You will need to use dry sea clay for this recipe that is in its powdered clay form rather than sea mud that has been reconstituted with water.

Tools and Equipment

You will need the following tools and equipment to make this cold process soap recipe with Dead Sea mud:

• Digital scale: You will need a digital scale to weigh out most of the ingredients called for in this soap tutorial.
• Soap mold: Several silicone six-cavity soap molds are ideal for making this homemade soap. As the molds are silicone and contains individual cavities for making soap bars, there’s no need to line the mold or cut the finished soap into bars. Alternately, you can also use a wooden loaf soap mold that accommodates a 3lb. soap batch.
• Digital laser thermometer: You need a thermometer so you can accurately judge the temperature of both the lye-water and soap making oils before you mix them together.
• Goggles: Protective eyewear will prevent damage to your eyes if the soap batter or lye-water is splashed or spills.
• Gloves: Nitrile gloves also protect hands from accidental burns that can occur when working with lye.
• Pitchers and measuring cups: You’ll need a heat safe pitcher or container to mix your lye-water in as well as to weigh out the soap making ingredients.
• Non-aluminum heat safe container: This will be used to heat and mix the soap batter.
• Crock Pot, stove or microwave: A heat source is necessary to melt the ingredients used to make soap.
• Immersion blender: Also known as a stick or hand blender, this tool makes it quick and easy to mix your scented summer soap and bring it to trace.
• Utensil or spatula (Non-aluminum): A spatula or other utensil makes it easy to get all of the soap out of the pot and into the prepared soap mold. It is also used to smooth down the layers and tops of soap.

How to Make Dead Sea Mud Soap

Here is how to make Dead Sea clay soap using the cold process soap making method:

1. To make this sea mud soap recipe, begin by lining your mold and taking all necessary safety precautions. Then measure out the distilled water into a large glass pyrex measuring cup or pitcher. Now, using a digital kitchen scale, weigh out the lye then slowly pour into the distilled water in a well ventilated area. Stir until all the lye has dissolved then set aside to cool.

2. Now weigh out the soapmaking oils and shea butter and combine in a large non-aluminum pot. Heat on the stove over medium heat until all ingredients have melted. Then remove from heat and allow to cool.

3. Once your lye-water and soapmaking oils have cooled to between 100 and 110 degrees, you can start making soap. Begin by weighing out the sea clay then adding it into the soapmaking oils. Mix with a stick blender until all of the dried mud is fully incorporated into the oils. Now slowly pour the lye-water into the soapmaking oils and mix until you reach trace.

4. Pour the soap into the mold, then cover and insulate for 24 hours. After this time you can unmold the soap and cut it into bars. {Learn how to make a soap cutting guide here.} Allow your homemade soaps to cure for 3-6 weeks, then wrap as desired with professional plastic food wrap film, Kraft paper, or even fabric, and label. If you’re making these to sell, you’ll need to include the weight of each bar of soap on your label.

If you love the idea of making soap with sea mud but aren’t ready to try a cold process soap recipe, then be sure to check out my sea mud melt and pour soap recipe. This decorative, marbled soap resembles turquoise stone and is formulated using Dead Sea clay and a combination of acne fighting tea tree and lavender essential oils.

Soap Recipes for Acne Prone Skin

Looking for other homemade soap recipes suited to oily or combination skin? In addition to my Dead Sea mud soap recipe, be sure to explore these other soap crafting ideas for acne prone skin:

• Lemon & Basil Soap
• Tomato & Basil Soap,
• Activated Charcoal Soap Recipes

For more handmade soap recipes and DIY bath and beauty ideas, follow my DIY Bath and Body board on Pinterest. You can follow Soap Deli News on facebook, twitter and instagram,