Chocolate Soap Recipes
Discover a plethora a deliciously scented chocolate soap recipes. Plus, learn about the benefits of chocolate when used in skin care applications to cleanse skin as part of your daily routine.
DIY Chocolate Soap
Bathing is a necessary task to keep our bodies clean. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t indulge a little. Get some extra enjoyment out of your daily skin care routine with chocolate soap! Whether you’re a fan of body wash or bar soap, these chocolate skin care recipes are a sure fire way to cleanse, condition and hydrate skin. If you’re ready to make your own homemade chocolate skin care products at home, you’ve come to the right place.
Following we will explore not only benefits of using chocolate to make soap, but also various homemade soap recipes for making both melt and pour chocolate soap and cold process chocolate soap. I also share a fun chocolate body wash recipe that can be made either using a liquid soap or body wash base!
Chocolate Soap Benefits
While all chocolate provides skin care benefits, dark chocolate is the best option to use for soap making. This is because fewer ingredients, like sugar or milk, are used to dilute the chocolate. Dark chocolate is not only rich in antioxidants that support wellness, but it also contains bioactive compounds that are great for your skin. Following are the benefits that chocolate provides when used to create products for cosmetic applications:
- Dark chocolate contains flavanols that studies show can protect against sun damage. In addition, these bioactive compounds may also improve blood flow to the skin and increase skin hydration and density when used regularly.
- This tasty ingredient has anti-aging properties when used in skin care thanks to the antioxidants polyphenols, flavanols, and catechins. It helps lighten dark spots and pigmentation. And, as it may increase collagen, it can also reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
- Chocolate may promote healthy cell growth thanks to skin nourishing minerals such as copper, iron, and zinc.
- The naturally occurring minerals and other compounds found in dark chocolate also promote healing, so wounds and acne recover faster.
- The magnesium found in chocolate helps promote healthy sleep and may reduce stress.
- Flavonols are wonderful for skin inflammation. These compounds reduce body inflammation making chocolate a wonderful skin care ingredient for dry and eczema prone skin.
How to Make Chocolate Soap
Now that you’re aware of the benefits of using chocolate to create soap, you’re likely as excited as I was to get start soaping! Learning how to make soap using chocolate as ingredient isn’t difficult. There are lots of different ways to make chocolate soap. Not only are there different methods of soap making: cold process, melt and pour and hand milled or rebatched soap, but there are also different forms of chocolate you can use to complete your projects. Before we jump directly into my chocolate soap recipes, let us first explore the methods and ingredients used to make chocolate soap at home.
Soap Making Methods
The most common methods used to make any homemade soap are cold process soap making, melt and pour soap making and rebatching soap.
Hand Milled (Rebatch) Soap Making
Making hand milled soap is an easy way to learn how to make soap for beginners. Hand milled soaps are created by rebatching unscented (or leftover) soaps on the stovetop or in an oven. This is done to add scent and color, conditioning skin care ingredients or to salvage a botched cold process soap batch. Typically one makes hand milled soap by grating an existing soap bar, then mixing it will milk or water. Once the soap melts, other ingredients can be added to customize the fragrance, color or other properties of the soap.
The process for rebatching soap is easier than making soap completely from scratch in which you combine lye and soap making fats. It’s also a safer process for anyone who has pets or small children in the home. If you’d like more information on this process, you can learn how to make hand milled soap here.
Cold Process Soap Making
Cold process soap making, also sometimes referred to as cold press soap or lye soap, is the process used to make true soap. True soap is defined by the ingredients used and the chemical process that turns those ingredients into real soap. To make cold process soap you need a fat and an alkali. The fats are generally carrier oils and body butters but may also include other ingredients with a fat content, such as milk. While the alkali necessary to make soap is lye. You can use either sodium hydroxide to make soap bars or potassium hydroxide to create liquid soap. You can find a full overview of this process and learn how to make cold process soap here.
Melt and Pour Soap Making
While lye is necessary to make true soap, you can work around this by buying a pre-made melt and pour soap base. There are lots of way to create unique homemade soaps without lye by using a glycerin soap base. This method of making soap simply involved cutting down a soap base and melting it. Additional ingredients are then added to the base for things like scent, color or exfoliation. The soap is then molded. Once it hardens, it’s removed from the mold as a brand new bar of soap!
If you’ve never made melt and pour soap before, it’s a wonderful experience that everyone in the family will enjoy. You can learn how to make melt and pour soap through the book, Homemade Melt & Pour Soaps, by Jan Berry. (Check out a review of this book here.) Or check out this easy glycerin soap tutorial.
Chocolate Soap Ingredients
There are several types of chocolate that you may use to make soap. Melted bar chocolate, cocoa butter, cocoa absolute and cocoa powder. The easiest forms to use are the absolute (most often used for fragrance,) cocoa butter and cocoa powder. Therefore, these are the three ingredients I cover.
Cocoa Butter
Cocoa butter is common ingredient in many skin care recipes. It’s also the key ingredient used to make the chocolate that we eat! When roasted, the rich chocolate scent and flavor of this ingredients shines through. Roasted cocoa butter possesses all the same skin care benefits as regular cocoa butter, however it smells all the more like those delicious dark chocolate candy bars we’ve come to love.
Cocoa Powder
In addition to adding roasted cocoa butter to create chocolate skin care products, you can also add cocoa powder to your cosmetic applications. Unsweetened cocoa powder or even roasted cacao powder are two easy ways to enhance the natural chocolate fragrance of the recipes you create. While also providing their benefits for skin.
Cocoa Absolute
This oil is similar to an essential oil. However, because you can’t make an essential oil from chocolate, an absolute is created instead as the closet alternative. Cocoa absolute is solvent extracted using ethanol from the roasted beans of Theobroma cacao. It has a warm, bittersweet, and earthy aroma with characteristic chocolate notes. This slightly viscous oil is often used as a middle base note when learning how to make perfume oils or in fragrance blends for soaps and other cosmetic and skin care applications.
Now that you know which ingredients can be used to make chocolate soap, let’s try some recipes!
Chocolate Coffee Soap Recipe
Just like your morning cup of brew, this DIY chocolate coffee soap is a wonderful way to start your day. This easy melt and pour chocolate soap recipe is so much fun to make. It’s scented with a delicious blend of chocolate and coffee that you’re sure to find absolutely irresistible! This easy melt and pour soap recipe is made using a combination of two different melt and pour soap bases. By swirling two different bases together, you’re able to achieve the look of a creamy, swirled coffee drink.
I chose to use Stephensons natural soap bases for this project. Readily available in the United States from online soap making suppliers, Stephensons natural soap bases are free of both surfactants and propylene glycol. In addition, I’ve found that these soap bases tend to cool more quickly than other soap bases on the market. This makes them especially suitable for swirling soap — especially when combining both a clear and opaque soap base.
I especially love Stephensons natural honey soap base I chose for this melt and pour soap recipe. This base not only contains 10% natural grade A honey, but it has a beautiful amber color that works beautifully for creating a coffee colored soap. Due to the natural color, you won’t need to add any colorants to the recipe.
Finally, the addition of ground coffee, coffee absolute, and chocolate absolute give these chocolate soap bars an enticing, natural fragrance with a touch of cardamom essential oil for a bit of spice.
Ingredients
This recipe yields 3 – 4oz. bars. These are the ingredients you will need to make these natural soap bars:
- 8.5 oz. Stephensons Natural Honey Melt & Pour Soap Base
- 2.5 oz. Stephensons White Shea Butter Melt & Pour Soap Base
- 1/4 teaspoon Coffee, finely ground
- 1 teaspoon Coffee Absolute
- 1/2 teaspoon Cocoa Absolute
- 12 drops Cardamom Essential Oil
- Copper Sparkle Mica or Cocoa Powder, optional
How to Make Coffee Chocolate Soap
To make this spiced coffee and chocolate soap recipe, follow these steps:
- Using a digital scale, weigh out 1.25 oz. of the white shea butter melt and pour soap base. Cut the base into small cubes. Then dust the sides of each cube with mica. Set aside.
- Now weigh out 8.5 oz. of the honey soap base. Cut into large chunks and combine in a 2-cup glass Pyrex measuring cup.
- Heat in the microwave in 30 second increments until melted, stirring after each heating.
- Once your honey soap base has melted, use graduated plastic transfer pipettes to add the coffee liqueur, chocolate extract, and cardamom essential oil to the melted soap base. Stir to combine.
- Measure out 1/4 teaspoon of ground coffee and stir into the scented honey soap base.
- Pour half of the scented honey soap base evenly into three cavities of a 6-cavity rectangle silicone mold.
- Now add half of the mica dusted shea butter cubes evenly into each of the three mold cavities with the poured soap. (Alternately, you can also use unsweetened cocoa powder. Just spritz the soap cubes with isopropyl/rubbing alcohol prior so the cocoa powder sticks.)
- Pour the rest of the melted honey soap base into the three cavities and follow with the remaining mica soap cubes.
- Weigh out the remaining 1.25 oz. of white shea butter soap base and cut into chunks.
- Heat in the microwave until melted. (If you prefer not to use mica for this soap recipe, rather than creating the mica dusted cubes, you would weigh out all 2.5 oz. of the white soap base for this step.)
- Slowly pour about half of the melted white soap in a circular pattern into your soap mold.
- Using a fork or a butter knife, gently swirl the white soap base into the honey soap base.
- Lift some of the honey base from the bottom, using a utensil so that the two soap bases run through one another.
- Follow with the remaining white soap base using the same procedure as the first half.
- Now spritz the tops of your cocoa & cocoa soap bars with isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) to remove any air bubbles on the top.
- Once your soap cools and hardens completely, remove the soaps from the mold and wrap tightly in foodservice film for personal use or gifting.
Use these soap bars like you would any other soap to cleanse the skin. As you use the soaps, the mica soap cubes will begin to reveal themselves for a new soap design everyday!
Melt and Pour Chocolate Soap Recipe
Discover how to make deliciously scented and convincingly colored luxury soaps with a chocolatey twist! This exfoliating, goat milk chocolate soap is made using a melt and pour soap base for an easy recipe that smells like rich, dark chocolate.
Ingredients
You will need the following ingredients to create this chocolate goat milk soap recipe:
- 2 lb Melt & Pour Soap Base
- 1/2 cup Goat’s Milk Powder
- 1 teaspoon Roasted Cacao Powder (or Kola Nut Powder)
- 1 teaspoon Macadamia Nut Oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Roasted Cocoa Butter
- 1/2 teaspoon Mango Butter
- 1/2 teaspoon Silk Amino Acids
- 3 1/2 teaspoons Chocolate Fragrance Oil (Or 1/2 Tablespoon Cocoa Absolute)
How to Make Melt and Pour Chocolate Soap
Here is how to make this chocolate melt and pour soap recipe:
- Melt the butters and glycerin soap base over a double boiler.
- When liquid, blend in macadamia oil and silk.
- Let it cool slightly.
- Pour about 1 cup of soap into a separate dish and blend well with Goat’s Milk powder, making sure to eliminate all lumps.
- Combine with rest of melted soap.
- Then, mix in the fragrance and roasted cacao powder to achieve desired chocolate color and scent.
- Pour into molds. Then allow to harden prior to removal.
Use this DIY chocolate soap bar the same as you would any other bar soap to cleanse and hydrate skin as you bathe.
Also be sure to try this orange mocha melt and pour soap. This cocoa powder soap recipe is made with cocoa powder for its rich, beautiful color and is perfect for use in the kitchen or garden thanks to its exfoliating skin care properties. Scented with a fragrance blend of coffee, orange and mocha, this easy melt and pour soap recipe for beginners is a great way to add some fun to your hand washing routine! I personally love this soap as a homemade gardener’s soap to wash away tough dirt and grime.
Chocolate Body Wash Recipe
This chocolate body wash is an exciting way to reveal glowing skin using one cocoa powder. This natural beauty recipe is formulated using a combination of brown sugar, apricot kernel meal and fine ground pumice to exfoliate skin. I used unscented Castile soap as the base for this body wash recipe, then combined it with shea body butter and avocado oil to moisturize, nourish and hydrate skin. Vitamin E is added as an antioxidant. And, of course, there’s cocoa powder and a chocolate fragrance oil to make this body wash smell like your favorite treat.
If you prefer not to use a synthetic fragrance to scent this chocolate skin care product, you may substitute the chocolate fragrance oil with cocoa absolute. I recommend using 3/4 teaspoon of the absolute, then tweaking the amount as needed until the desired fragrance is achieved. In addition to the chocolatey fragrance, you can also try an exciting and unique combination of chocolate and coffee. For chocolate and coffee essential oil blends, be sure to check out my chocolate body butter recipe.
Ingredients
These are the ingredients need to make a homemade body wash with chocolate for glowing skin:
- 3/4 Cup Liquid Castile Soap (Or try this unscented body wash base)
- 1/4 Cup Refined Shea Butter
- 1/8 Cup Fine Ground pumice
- 1/4 Cup Apricot Kernel Meal (or Jojoba Meal)
- 1 Tablespoon Cocoa Powder (or Roasted Cacao Powder)
- 2 Tablespoons Dark Brown Sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Avocado Oil
- 1/2 Tablespoon Vitamin E Oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Chocolate Fragrance Oil (or 3/4 teaspoon Cocoa Absolute)
How to Make Chocolate Body Wash
To make this exfoliating chocolate body wash soap follow these steps:
- First melt the shea butter over low on the stove. Ideally you may want to use a double boiler. However, you may also melt the ingredients for this chocolate skin care product in the microwave. When using a microwave, heat in a heat-safe container for about 2 – 2 1/2 minutes at 60% power until completely melted.
- Remove from heat. Then combine the shea butter with the liquid Castile soap. Mix well.
- Stir in other remaining ingredients. Take care to break up brown sugar completely so there are no clumps.
- Once thoroughly combined, fill your desired containers. (I used a measuring cup with a pour spout for this.)
- Allow to cool completely prior to screwing on the lids or caps. It will thicken over time. Left at room temperature, this chocolate body wash will completely thicken in about two days. If desired, you can place your chocolate skin care product in the refrigerator to speed up the process.
To use this chocolate body wash, remove desired amount from the container. Then massage onto damp skin in the shower and bath to exfoliate and cleanse skin. After bathing, rinse off. Then pat dry. Follow with your favorite body butter for dry skin.
Cold Process Chocolate Soap Recipes
For more chocolate soap making ideas, be sure to explore these other DIY’s made using some form of chocolate. Whether it’s roasted cocoa butter, cocoa powder or cocoa absolute, these cold process chocolate soap recipes are sure to delight and invigorate the senses!
- Chocolate Orange Soap: This cold process cocoa powder soap is formulated with dark cocoa powder so you can bathe in your favorite food! Scented with orange essential oil that naturally compliments the fragrance of the cocoa powder, this glycerin soap recipe also contains almond extract and a dash of ground cinnamon.
- Coffee Cocoa Soap Recipe: This chocolate coffee soap is with egg is a natural way to nourish and care for skin. Formulated using fresh brewed coffee, dark cocoa powder and fresh brewed coffee, this cold process cocoa powder soap recipe boasts rich, thick lather — and it’s palm free!
How to Package Chocolate Soaps
Need ideas on how to package your homemade soap bars? Check out these informative posts for easy and creative DIY ideas!
- Soap Packaging Ideas: Presentation is the key to showcasing the value of your homemade soaps. These soap packaging ideas will help your homemade soaps get the attention they so readily deserve, whether you’re giving them as gifts, or making homemade soaps to sell.
- Ways to Package Soap: If you’re looking for creative ways to package soap for sale to set your product apart at craft fairs and events, then you’ll love these easy soap packaging and labeling ideas! Learn the best ways to package homemade soap for sale and put your soaps a head above the competition.
I hope you love these chocolate soap recipes! For more homemade soap recipes, be sure to follow Soap Deli News online. You can find and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram as well as on Pinterest. Or subscribe via email.
2 Comments
Dannaca
February 14, 2024 at 9:38 pm
Hi is it okay if I use your recipe for my shop?
Rebecca D. Dillon
February 16, 2024 at 3:16 pm
You can use these recipes to create products to sell, yes. However, you cannot sell the actual recipes to others for profit.
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