Rose and Shea Butter Soap

Last updated: October 2026

How to make rose and shea butter soap

To make rose and shea butter soap, you combine Baraka's unrefined shea butter, made by hand at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana's Upper West Region, with coconut, olive and castor oils and lye, then add rose petals and rose essential oil and cure the bars for 4 to 6 weeks.

Dissolve the lye in distilled water (always add lye to water), melt the shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil and castor oil, then pour the lye solution into the oils when both are around 100–120°F (38–49°C). Blend to trace, stir in the dried rose petals and rose essential oil, and pour into a mould. Let it set for 24–48 hours, then cut and cure the bars for 4–6 weeks. Wear gloves and eye protection whenever you handle lye. More in Directions

In This Recipe:

• What This Recipe Is For
• Why Make This Yourself
• Why These Ingredients Work Together
• Ingredient by Ingredient
• Rose and shea butter soap recipe
• What is rose and shea butter soap good for?
• Before You Begin: Soap-Making Safety
• Ingredients
• Directions
• Troubleshooting
• Storage and Shelf Life
• Scaling and Substitutions
• Customisation Ideas
• Essential Oils
• Application Tips
• What We Know and How We Know It
• FAQ
• The Impact of Your Purchase
• Shop the Baraka Ingredients in This Recipe
• Try These Next
• About These Ingredients
• Disclaimer
• About the Author

What This Recipe Is For

An everyday bar with a rose scent. This recipe makes a firm, creamy-lathering cold-process bar for washing hands, face and body, scented with real rose. One batch gives 8–10 bars, enough to keep, share or give away.

• Everyday cleansing with a rich, gentle lather
• An elegant, floral-scented addition to a self-pampering routine
• Replacing synthetic detergent bars with a traditional, hand-made alternative
• A delicately fragranced, thoughtful hand-made gift
• A comforting, calming scent for an evening wind-down routine
• A second cold-process project once you have made a plain shea butter soap

Why Make This Yourself

Real rose and full control. Some soaps are made for a quiet moment of pampering, and this one leans into that with dried rose petals and rose essential oil folded into a rich shea butter base. Combining rose with shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil and castor oil, this traditional cold-process soap follows the fundamentals covered in How to Make Shea Butter Soap, with rose added for an elegant, floral character. For more shea-based projects, the Definitive Guide to DIY with Shea Butter covers the wider range.

Many commercial rose-scented soaps use a fragrance oil; this one takes its scent from real rose petals and rose essential oil, and it keeps its natural glycerin content intact. It's ideal for anyone who enjoys hands-on projects and wants full control over what goes into their soap. There's something satisfying about watching a liquid oil-and-lye mixture transform into a delicately rose-flecked bar over the course of a few weeks.

It rewards a little patience: the batter comes together quickly, but the real transformation happens during the weeks of cure that follow. Skill Level: Intermediate. The process is forgiving in terms of scent strength and mould choice, but precision matters for the lye and water measurements, so this project suits anyone who has made cold-process soap at least once before. Prep and make time is about 45 minutes, plus 24–48 hours in the mould and 4–6 weeks of curing.

Why These Ingredients Work Together

Two hard oils, two soft oils. This bar balances conditioning oils with cleansing and lathering ones, finished with an elegant floral character. Shea Butter contributes deep conditioning and a smooth, creamy bar texture, and Coconut Oil is the primary cleansing and lathering oil, producing big, bubbly suds.

Olive Oil softens the bar's feel and supports mildness, while Castor Oil boosts and stabilizes the lather that coconut oil starts. Dried Rose Petals and Rose Essential Oil finish the bar with delicate texture and a comforting, floral scent.

Oil	Weight	Share of total oils	Main job in the bar
Shea butter	1 lb (454 g)	33%	Creamy lather, conditioning feel, firmness
Traditional coconut oil	1 lb (454 g)	33%	Hardness, cleansing, big bubbles
Olive oil	8 oz (227 g)	17%	Mildness and a soft skin feel
Castor oil	8 oz (227 g)	17%	Boosts and steadies the lather
Total	3 lb (1,361 g)	100%

If you change these shares, the bar changes with them: more coconut oil gives more lather but a more stripping wash, and more olive or castor oil gives a softer bar that takes longer to firm up. Any change to an oil or its weight means the lye has to be worked out again, as the recipe section below shows.

Ingredient by Ingredient

What each ingredient does here. Every ingredient in this bar has a job, and knowing it helps you troubleshoot and substitute.

• Shea Butter: Deeply conditioning, it helps keep the finished bar from feeling drying even with cleansing oils in the mix. Baraka's shea butter is unrefined, strained and filtered only, with no refining, bleaching or deodorising, so its natural ivory-to-pale-yellow colour and mild nutty smell vary a little between batches and can warm the tone of the bar slightly.
• Traditional Coconut Oil: Drives the rich, bubbly lather this soap is known for. Baraka's virgin coconut oil is mechanically pressed from the fresh kernel with no solvent extraction, and in soapmaking it contributes hardness and abundant lather.
• Olive Oil: A gentle, mild oil that supports the bar's overall skin-comfort feel.
• Castor Oil: Stabilizes and enhances lather, helping bubbles last longer in use. At about a sixth of the oils it also makes a slightly softer bar, which is one reason the full cure matters.
• Dried Rose Petals: Traditionally valued for giving skin a fresh, radiant-looking feel after use. In the batter they add texture and flecks of colour, though petals mixed into cold-process soap usually darken to brown as the soap saponifies.
• Rose Essential Oil: Comforting Scent: Rose oil is traditionally valued for its calming, comforting character. It is the costliest ingredient in the bar, so it is measured by the spoon, not poured freely.

Where the shea butter comes from

Made by hand in northern Ghana. Baraka's shea butter is made by hand by the women of the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Wa, in Ghana's Upper West Region, and Baraka's founder Wayne Dunn has worked directly with the Centre for over 15 years. At the Centre, the shea kernels are cracked, roasted, milled to a paste, kneaded with water and boiled so the fat separates, then cooled and filtered, with no solvent, bleaching or deodorising at any stage. The step-by-step process is in How is Handcrafted Shea Butter Made?, and what the work adds up to for the women is in Baraka's Social and Environmental Impact Report.

Shea butter is the ingredient this recipe is built on, so it is worth using one you can trace. Baraka's Raw Shea Butter is that butter: unrefined, strained and filtered only, and made by hand at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre.

Rose and shea butter soap recipe: ingredients, amounts and yield

Baraka's unrefined shea butter and traditional coconut oil are the two largest oils in this recipe, a third of the oil weight each.

Use 1 lb (454 g) shea butter, 1 lb (454 g) coconut oil, 8 oz (227 g) olive oil, 8 oz (227 g) castor oil, 6.7 oz (191 g) sodium hydroxide (lye), 13.5 oz (382 g) distilled water, 0.5 oz (15 g) dried rose petals and 1 tbsp (15 ml) rose essential oil. This makes about 4 pounds (1.8 kg) of soap, which cuts into 8–10 bars. The lye and water amounts are worked out for these exact oils, so re-run a soap calculator if you change any oil or its weight. More in Ingredients

How the lye is worked out

Calculated from the oils, at 5% superfat. Each oil needs a set weight of sodium hydroxide to turn into soap, given by its saponification value. The figures below multiply each oil by its value, add them up, take 5% off so a little oil stays unsaponified in the bar, and set the water at twice the lye.

Oil	Weight	Lye per unit of oil	Lye needed
Shea butter	16 oz (454 g)	0.128	2.05 oz (58.1 g)
Traditional coconut oil	16 oz (454 g)	0.183	2.93 oz (83.1 g)
Olive oil	8 oz (227 g)	0.135	1.08 oz (30.6 g)
Castor oil	8 oz (227 g)	0.128	1.03 oz (29.1 g)
Total before superfat	48 oz (1,362 g)		7.09 oz (200.9 g)
Less 5% superfat			6.7 oz (191 g) lye
Water at twice the lye			13.5 oz (382 g) water

The lye on this page matches the calculation exactly. Coconut oil sits at 33% of the oils, below the point of about 35% where a bar starts to feel drying.

Yield, time and skill

About 4 lb (1.8 kg) of cured soap. The freshly poured batter weighs about 69 oz (1,963 g); some of the water evaporates during the cure, leaving about 4 lb (1.8 kg) of soap, or 8–10 bars from a standard loaf mould. Allow about 45 minutes to prepare and make the batch, 24–48 hours in the mould, and 4–6 weeks of curing. Skill level: intermediate.

What is rose and shea butter soap good for?

Baraka's unrefined shea butter, made by hand at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana, gives this bar its creamy, conditioning feel.

Rose and shea butter soap is good for everyday cleansing with a rich, gentle lather and a floral rose scent. People also make it as a hand-made gift or for a calming evening wind-down routine. It is a traditional, hand-made alternative to synthetic detergent bars. More in What This Recipe Helps With

How the bar feels in use

Creamy lather, soft after-feel. The 5% superfat leaves a little unsaponified oil in each bar, so it rinses clean without the tight feel a high-cleansing bar can leave. Shea butter and olive oil give the lather a creamy body, while coconut and castor oil keep it bubbly. The rose scent is gentle rather than strong, because essential oils soften as cold-process soap cures.

Before You Begin: Soap-Making Safety

Gloves, goggles and fresh air. Lye is caustic until it has fully reacted with the oils, so treat it, the lye solution and the raw batter with care from start to finish.

• Wear protective gloves and eye protection whenever you handle lye.
• Work in a well-ventilated area — open a window or work near an extractor fan.
• Always add lye to water, never water to lye.
• Keep lye, raw soap batter, and curing soap well out of reach of children and pets.
• This is an adults-only project from start to finish.

Ingredients

Eight ingredients, all weighed. Weigh every oil, the lye and the water on a digital scale; only the essential oil is measured by the spoon.

• Shea Butter — 1 lb (454 g)
• Traditional Coconut Oil — 1 lb (454 g)
• Olive oil — 8 oz (227 g)
• Castor oil — 8 oz (227 g)
• Sodium hydroxide (lye) — 6.7 oz (191 g)
• Distilled water — 13.5 oz (382 g)
• Dried rose petals — 0.5 oz (15 g), about 1/4 cup
• Rose essential oil — 1 tbsp (15 ml)

Note: these lye and water amounts are calculated for this exact oil combination and weights. If you change any oil or its amount, always re-run the recipe through a soap calculator before making it — see the calculator links in Customisation Ideas.

Directions

Nine steps, then a 4–6 week cure. Read every step before you start, and have the mould lined and the rose petals measured before you mix the lye.

1. Put on gloves and eye protection before handling lye.
2. In a heat-resistant container, slowly add the sodium hydroxide to the distilled water (never the reverse), stirring until fully dissolved. The mixture will heat up — set it aside in a ventilated area to cool.
3. Melt the shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil, and castor oil together gently until fully liquid.
4. Once the lye solution and the oils are both around 100–120°F (38–49°C), slowly pour the lye solution into the oils, stirring continuously.
5. Use a stick blender in short bursts, alternating with hand stirring, until the mixture reaches trace — it will thicken and leave a visible trail when you drizzle it across the surface.
6. Add the dried rose petals and rose essential oil, stirring until evenly distributed.
7. Pour the mixture into a soap mould, tap gently to release air bubbles, and cover.
8. Let the soap set in the mould for 24–48 hours before unmoulding.
9. Cut into bars once firm enough to handle, then set the bars on their sides in a well-ventilated space to cure for 4–6 weeks before use.

Troubleshooting

Most problems trace to temperature or timing. These are the faults that come up most often with this bar, with the usual cause and the fix.

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Rose petals turned brown inside the bar	Plant material darkens in the alkaline batter as it saponifies	Expect it with petals mixed in; for colour on top, press a few petals onto the surface just after pouring and accept they may still darken
White, powdery film on top of the bar	Soda ash, formed where fresh batter meets the air	Cover the mould with plastic wrap after pouring; trim or plane the top once cured, as the film is cosmetic only
Batter thickened too fast to pour	Oils or lye solution below 100°F (38°C), or too much stick-blending	Keep both near 100–120°F (38–49°C), blend in short bursts, and add the rose essential oil at light trace by hand
Bars soft or sticky at unmoulding	Olive and castor oil make up a third of the oils, so the bar firms slowly	Leave it the full 48 hours before cutting and give it the whole 4–6 week cure
Oily patches or liquid pooling in the mould	The batter did not reach true trace	Blend until a drizzled trail sits on the surface; if liquid pockets remain after 48 hours, wear gloves and discard the batch
Rose scent faint after curing	Essential oils soften during the cure	Raise the rose essential oil, staying within 3 tbsp (45 ml) in total for this batch

Storage and Shelf Life

Cure 4–6 weeks, then keep cool and dry. Cure time is 4–6 weeks; do not use the soap before curing is complete, as it needs this time to fully harden and mellow. Store fully cured bars in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight — a drawer or shelf with airflow works well.

Once cured, bars typically keep well for 12–18 months. Between uses, store on a well-draining soap dish to extend the life of each bar. Any shea butter left over from the batch keeps 2+ years when stored properly, away from heat and direct sun.

Scaling and Substitutions

Scale every ingredient, then recheck the lye. Halving or doubling works as long as every oil, the lye and the water change together, and the lye is checked against the new oil weights.

Ingredient	Half batch	Full batch	Double batch
Shea butter	8 oz (227 g)	1 lb (454 g)	2 lb (907 g)
Traditional coconut oil	8 oz (227 g)	1 lb (454 g)	2 lb (907 g)
Olive oil	4 oz (113 g)	8 oz (227 g)	1 lb (454 g)
Castor oil	4 oz (113 g)	8 oz (227 g)	1 lb (454 g)
Sodium hydroxide (lye)	3.4 oz (95 g)	6.7 oz (191 g)	13.5 oz (382 g)
Distilled water	6.7 oz (190 g)	13.5 oz (382 g)	27 oz (764 g)
Dried rose petals	0.25 oz (7 g)	0.5 oz (15 g)	1 oz (30 g)
Rose essential oil	1 1/2 tsp (7.5 ml)	1 tbsp (15 ml)	2 tbsp (30 ml)
Bars	4–5	8–10	16–20

Substitutions change the lye, because every oil has its own saponification value. Whatever you swap, recalculate the lye and water with a soap calculator before you make the batch.

• No castor oil: replace it with more olive oil for a gentler but less bubbly bar, and recalculate the lye.
• Coconut oil swap: Baraka's palm kernel oil gives a similar hard, quick-lathering bar; it is pressed from the kernel and is not the same as red palm oil, which would tint the soap orange. Recalculate the lye.
• No rose essential oil: leave the bar unscented, or use rose-scented geranium essential oil at the same amount.
• No dried rose petals: leave them out, or use a pinch of rose clay for colour instead.

Customisation Ideas

Change the look and scent, not the oils. These changes leave the lye calculation untouched, except the last, which is a reminder for any oil change.

• Adjust the scent with a touch more or less rose essential oil to suit your preference, staying within 3 tbsp (45 ml) in total for this batch.
• Add colour with a pinch of pink or rose clay for a soft blush tone throughout the bar.
• Adjust the mould to individual bar moulds instead of a loaf mould for a different shape.
• Always recalculate lye and water amounts with a soap calculator (see links below) before changing any oil or its weight.
• Layer the rose petals on top just before pouring for a decorative, textured finish.

Popular soap calculators (external links, always re-run before adjusting oils): SoapCalc.net, HSCG Lye Calculator, LyeCalc.com.

Essential Oils

Up to 3 tbsp (45 ml) for this batch. The recipe uses 1 tbsp (15 ml) of rose essential oil, and the safe ceiling in soap is 1 tbsp of essential oil in total per 16 oz (454 g) of oils, which is 3 tbsp (45 ml) for the 48 oz (1,362 g) of oils here. That ceiling covers every essential oil in the bar together, so if you blend rose with rose-scented geranium or palmarosa, the total stays at or under 3 tbsp (45 ml).

Stir the essential oil in at light trace rather than early in blending, so less of it is lost to heat and the batter has time to stay pourable. The bar also works well unscented, with the petals alone giving it its look.

Application Tips

Lather, rinse, keep it dry. Use like any bar soap for hands, face, or body — lather with warm water and rinse well. The dried rose petals may add gentle texture as you lather; no need to scrub aggressively.

A soap dish with drainage will help the bar last longer between uses. Store the bar dry between uses for the longest life.

What We Know and How We Know It

Three kinds of source. The lye figures come from published saponification values for each oil, calculated at a 5% superfat, and the essential oil ceiling is the 1 tbsp per 16 oz (454 g) of oils used across Baraka's soap recipes. Method, temperatures, cure time, troubleshooting and scaling are common practice in the home soapmaking community. Descriptions of rose oil and rose petals as calming or refreshing come from traditional use, and everything stated about Baraka's shea butter and coconut oil comes from Baraka's own product documentation.

FAQ

Can I use dried rose petals in soap?

Yes — dried rose petals are commonly used in cold-process soap for decorative texture and a delicate floral character in the finished bar. Use dried rather than fresh petals, because fresh petals carry water and can spoil inside the bar. Petals mixed into the batter usually turn brown as the soap saponifies, so many makers stir most of them in for texture and press a few onto the top just after pouring for looks. This recipe uses 0.5 oz (15 g), about 1/4 cup, for a 4 lb (1.8 kg) batch; more than that can make the bar scratchy.

How long does homemade soap need to cure?

Cold-process soap like this typically needs 4–6 weeks to cure fully. Curing lets excess water evaporate and allows the bar to harden, so don't use it before this time is up. Stand the cut bars on their sides with space between them in a dry, airy room, and turn them once a week so every face dries evenly. A fully cured bar is firmer, lasts longer in the soap dish and gives a milder, creamier lather than one used early, and this bar, with a third of its oils soft, benefits from the full 6 weeks.

The Impact of Your Purchase

When you make skincare with Baraka ingredients, you are buying from women's cooperatives that earn fair wages and keep traditional processing methods alive. Baraka's 2025 Social and Environmental Impact Report records income opportunities for more than 3,000 women in northern Ghana, over $100,000 invested in women's enterprise infrastructure, and equipment and fuel recovery that have cut the carbon impact of shea processing by up to 90%. At the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana's Upper West Region, Baraka's shea butter is made by hand, and the waste left over from making it is dried into fuel blocks that fire the next batch. Baraka also offsets 100% of the carbon cost of shipping to customers. You get full transparency about what touches your skin and your family's skin, and about where it came from.

Meet one of the women behind Baraka's ingredients in this short film: Shea Butter Producer: Zenabo Imoro.

Shop the Baraka Ingredients in This Recipe

These natural, ethically sourced ingredients are the ones trusted throughout Baraka's DIY guides and recipes.

Shea Butter — Shop Shea Butter. Unrefined shea butter, strained and filtered only, that gives this bar its creamy lather and conditioning feel.

Traditional Coconut Oil — Shop Traditional Coconut Oil. Virgin coconut oil that contributes the hardness and abundant lather in this bar.

More for soapmakers: Butters, Oils and the DIY Starter range.

Try These Next

More shea butter soaps to make next. If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like:

• Shea Butter and Turmeric Soap — a warm, golden bar that uses the same cold-process method with a spice in place of the petals.
• Shea Butter and Goats Milk Soap — a creamier bar for when you want to work with milk in the lye stage.
• Honey and Shea Butter Soap — adds honey to the batter, a natural next step after a botanical bar like this one.
• Creamy Cow Milk and Shea Butter Soap — a rich, mild bar built on the same shea butter base.
• Shea Butter and Aloe Vera Soap — another plant-based variation for comparing how additives change the lather.
• Peppermint and Shea Butter Soap — a cooling, invigorating scent if rose's softness isn't what you're after.
• Vanilla and Shea Butter Soap — a warm, sweet-scented option for a comforting everyday bar.
• Chocolate and Shea Butter Soap — a rich, indulgent variation with a naturally cocoa-scented character.
• Avocado and Shea Butter Soap — a creamier, extra-conditioning variation for a different kind of richness.
• Classic Goat Milk Soap with Essential Oil — a different traditional base for anyone wanting to explore beyond shea butter.

About These Ingredients

This recipe is expanded from our comprehensive Definitive Guide to DIY with Shea Butter, which explores additional formulations, ingredient options, and variations. Visit the full guide for more approaches to shea-based DIY skincare.

Disclaimer

The information in this article is for general education. It reflects traditional use, reported experience and, where noted, published research. It has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or Health Canada. Baraka products are cosmetics and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or medical condition. Always patch test a new ingredient, keep products away from the eyes and out of reach of children, and speak to a qualified healthcare provider about any skin or health condition. If you add essential oils, use no more than the amount given, and leave them out for young children, during pregnancy and on sensitive skin. Individual results vary.

A note on the traditions in this post: the practices described here come from conversations with, and time spent among, the community members and cooperative partners we work with in West Africa. We share them as anecdotal, first-hand impressions — not as verified fact or expert accounts. These traditions vary from family to family and region to region, so what follows is indicative rather than definitive. We offer it with respect and humility: to share a little of what we've encountered, not to speak for these communities or claim any authority over their traditions.

About the Author

Wayne Dunn is the founder of Baraka Impact and a former Professor of Practice in Sustainability at McGill University. He holds an M.Sc. in Management from Stanford and has spent over 15 years working directly with the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana's Upper West Region to source traditionally made shea butter and natural oils. He shares DIY skincare recipes and ingredient guides designed to be made at home with real ingredients — and sourced with full transparency about where they come from.