Shea Butter and Oatmeal Soap

Last updated: October 2026

Oatmeal shea butter soap: what it is and how to make it

A cold-process bar with ground oats stirred in. Baraka's shea butter and oatmeal soap is an oatmeal shea butter soap: a cold-process bar of shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil and castor oil with ground oatmeal stirred in at light trace, made with shea butter handmade by the women of the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana. It makes 10 bars for gentle everyday washing, with a soft oat scrub in every lather.

You dissolve lye in distilled water, melt the four oils, blend the two together to light trace, stir in the oats by hand, then mould, cut and cure the bars for 4 to 6 weeks. The hands-on work takes about 45 minutes. If this is your first soap, How to Make Shea Butter Soap walks through the basic cold-process method this recipe builds on, and the Definitive Guide to DIY with Shea Butter places it among the other shea recipes.

The bar is built on Baraka's Raw Shea Butter, because shea butter is the ingredient this soap depends on: it is a third of the oils and gives the bar its creamy lather and conditioning feel. Baraka's shea butter is unrefined, strained and filtered only, with no refining, bleaching or deodorising.

In This Recipe:

• What This Recipe Is For
• Why Make This Yourself
• Recommend shea butter soap formulations that are suitable for sensitive skin types
• Oatmeal and shea butter benefits
• Why These Ingredients Work Together
• Ingredient by Ingredient
• 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
• Try These Next
• Disclaimer

What This Recipe Is For

A gentle, low-fragrance everyday bar. This recipe makes a mild cold-process soap with a soft oat texture, meant for daily washing of hands and body.

• Making a gentle, calming bar for sensitive or easily irritated skin
• Adding mild exfoliation to a daily cleansing routine without a harsh scrub
• Creating a comforting, low-fragrance soap the whole family can share
• Building confidence with traditional cold-process soap making on a short ingredient list
• Replacing a tight-feeling everyday bar with one that keeps its natural glycerin
• Giving a hand-made gift once the bars have fully cured

Why Make This Yourself

Intermediate, 45 minutes, 10 bars. Making this soap yourself means you choose every oil, you know the exact superfat, and you decide whether it carries any scent at all. The batch makes about 4.3 lb (1,955 g) of soap batter, which cuts into 10 bars of about 6.9 oz (196 g) each; the bars weigh a little less once cured, as water evaporates.

It is a rewarding soap because oatmeal behaves differently from coarser exfoliants: it folds into the batter smoothly and leaves the finished bar softly flecked, with a warm oat colour. Skill level is intermediate. You need to handle lye confidently and weigh accurately, but the recipe uses only four base oils, so it is more forgiving than blends with a dozen ingredients.

A homemade bar and a shop bar differ in composition. Many shop bars are syndet bars, made from synthetic detergents, or soaps built on one base oil with a fragrance blend and colourant added. This one is a true soap made from four oils chosen for hardness, lather and conditioning, with its glycerin left in and no scent unless you add one. It suits makers who have finished a first batch and want a gentler, low-fragrance option.

Recommend shea butter soap formulations that are suitable for sensitive skin types

Unscented, shea-led and fully cured. For sensitive skin, Baraka's shea butter and oatmeal soap made unscented is the first formulation to try, followed by a gentler high-shea version with less coconut oil, set out below. Both use a 5% superfat, no essential oil, no colourant and a full 4 to 6 week cure.

Four choices make a shea butter soap gentler on reactive skin. Leave out fragrance, because essential oils such as lavender are among the botanical materials reported to cause allergic contact dermatitis.

Keep coconut oil at the lower end of its usual range, since it is the most strongly cleansing oil in the bar. Keep the superfat at about 5%, so a little oil stays unsaponified. And cure the bars fully, so they are hard and mild before first use.

Formulation	Oils	Lye and water	Best for
Shea butter and oatmeal soap, unscented (this recipe)	Shea butter 1 lb (454 g), coconut oil 1 lb (454 g), olive oil 8 oz (227 g), castor oil 8 oz (227 g)	Lye 6.7 oz (191 g), water 13.5 oz (382 g)	A firm bar with plenty of lather and a soft oat scrub
High-shea gentle bar	Shea butter 1 1/4 lb (567 g), coconut oil 12 oz (340 g), olive oil 12 oz (340 g), castor oil 4 oz (113 g)	Lye 6.5 oz (185 g), water 13.1 oz (370 g)	A creamier, lower-lather bar with coconut oil at 25% of the oils

The high-shea lye figure is calculated the same way as the main recipe: shea butter 567 g × 0.128, coconut oil 340 g × 0.183, olive oil 340 g × 0.135 and castor oil 113 g × 0.128 come to 195 g, and 5% superfat brings that to 185 g, with water at twice the lye. Stir in the same 0.7 oz (20 g) of ground oatmeal at light trace, and check the figures in a lye calculator before you make it.

All true soap is alkaline, so some people whose skin reacts to any soap do better with a non-soap cleanser chosen with their doctor or pharmacist. Before using a new bar all over, wash a small patch on the inner arm once a day for a few days. For other gentle bars on the same shea base, see Shea Butter and Goats Milk Soap and Honey and Shea Butter Soap.

Oatmeal and shea butter benefits: what each brings to the bar

A soft scrub and a conditioning lather. In Baraka's shea butter and oatmeal soap, ground oatmeal gives a gentle, soft scrub and a creamy feel, while shea butter gives the bar a hard, creamy structure, a stable lather and a conditioning after-feel.

Oats are mostly starch, with beta-glucans, a little oil and plant compounds called saponins. A 2012 review in the Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology describes oat starches and beta-glucans as water-holding and protective, credits oat saponins with a soap-like cleansing action, and notes that colloidal oatmeal is used in cleansing bars.

In the United States, colloidal oatmeal is listed by the Food and Drug Administration as a skin protectant active ingredient for over-the-counter products at a minimum of 0.007%. That status belongs to tested, labelled products. In a homemade wash-off bar most of the oat rinses away, so enjoy it here for its texture and feel.

Shea butter works differently. In soap it is one of the oils the lye turns into soap, and it makes a hard, creamy bar with a lather that lasts. The 5% superfat leaves a small share of the oils unsaponified in the finished bar, which is part of why it feels conditioning rather than tight. Shea butter is traditionally used on dry skin, lips, hands, feet and hair.

Ingredient	What it brings to this soap
Ground oatmeal	A soft, gentle scrub, a creamy feel and a flecked look
Shea butter	Hardness, a creamy and lasting lather, and a conditioning after-feel
Both together	A mild, low-fragrance bar that cleans without a tight feeling

Why These Ingredients Work Together

Hardness, lather, mildness and texture, in balance. This bar pairs two hard oils that make it firm and lathering with two liquid oils that make it mild and long-lasting, then adds oats for texture.

Shea butter and coconut oil form the backbone of the bar, contributing a rich, stable lather and a creamy after-feel. Olive oil adds mildness and a silky quality that balances the harder oils, while castor oil boosts lather and helps the bubbles last. Ground oatmeal is folded in at light trace for very gentle mechanical exfoliation.

By weight the oils sit at one third shea butter, one third coconut oil and one sixth each of olive and castor oil. Coconut oil at about 33% of the oils gives a hard bar and quick lather; for very reactive skin, the high-shea version above lowers it to 25%. The oats make up about 1.5% of the oil weight, enough to fleck every bar without making it rough.

Ingredient by Ingredient

Seven ingredients, each with one job. Every ingredient in this soap is there for hardness, lather, mildness, texture or the chemistry that turns oil into soap.

• Shea Butter: conditioning and creamy, it keeps the finished bar from feeling drying even with a cleansing oil in the mix. Baraka's shea butter is unrefined, so its natural ivory-to-pale-yellow colour and mild nutty smell can carry faintly into the bar; both vary between batches.
• Traditional Coconut Oil: the main cleansing and lathering oil. Baraka's virgin coconut oil is pressed from fresh coconut kernel and left unrefined, and in soap it contributes hardness and abundant lather.
• Olive oil: a mild liquid oil that softens the feel of the bar. It also slows trace a little, which gives you time to stir in the oats evenly.
• Castor oil: stabilises and lifts the lather. Keep it at the stated amount, because much more castor oil makes a softer, stickier bar.
• Ground oatmeal: plain rolled oats ground to a fine flour in a blender or spice grinder. Fine oats give a soft scrub; coarse or whole oats feel scratchy.
• Sodium hydroxide (lye): reacts with the oils to make soap and glycerin. None remains as free lye in a correctly made, fully cured bar.
• Distilled water: dissolves the lye and carries it into the oils. Water is used here only because soap needs it for saponification, and distilled water keeps minerals out of the batch.

Baraka's shea butter is made by hand by women's producer groups at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana, and Wayne Dunn has worked directly with the centre for over 15 years. You can see how that butter is made, step by step, in How is Handcrafted Shea Butter Made?, and meet one of the women behind it in this short film: Shea Butter Producer: Zenabo Imoro. What that work adds up to is recorded in Baraka's Social and Environmental Impact Report.

Before You Begin: Soap-Making Safety

Lye is the one hazardous ingredient. Sodium hydroxide burns skin and eyes and heats water sharply as it dissolves, so these rules apply from the moment you open the container until the bars have cured.

• Wear protective gloves and eye protection whenever you handle lye, mix the lye solution or work with raw soap batter.
• Work in a well-ventilated area, because the fumes are sharp when the solution is first mixed.
• Always add lye to water, never water to lye. Adding water to lye can make the mixture boil up violently.
• Keep lye, raw soap batter and curing soap well out of reach of children and pets at every stage.
• This is an adults-only project from start to finish.

Ingredients

3 lb (1,362 g) of oils, weighed on a scale. Every oil, the lye, the water and the oats are measured by weight.

• 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)
• Ground oatmeal — 0.7 oz (20 g), about 1/4 cup

These lye and water amounts are calculated for this exact oil combination and these weights. If you change any oil or its amount, recalculate the lye before you make the soap. See our saponification value chart and soap-making guide.

Lye calculation

The lye is worked out from each oil's weight multiplied by its saponification value for sodium hydroxide, using standard published soap-making values: shea butter 0.128, coconut oil 0.183, olive oil 0.135 and castor oil 0.128.

Oil	Weight	Lye it needs
Shea butter	1 lb (454 g)	2.0 oz (58 g)
Coconut oil	1 lb (454 g)	2.9 oz (83 g)
Olive oil	8 oz (227 g)	1.1 oz (31 g)
Castor oil	8 oz (227 g)	1.0 oz (29 g)
Total before superfat	3 lb (1,362 g)	7.1 oz (201 g)
After 5% superfat (× 0.95)		6.7 oz (191 g)
Water at twice the lye		13.5 oz (382 g)

Check these figures in a lye calculator before you make the soap: your scale, your oils and your calculator should all agree to within a gram.

Directions

Mix, blend to light trace, add oats, mould, then cure 4 to 6 weeks. The hands-on work takes about 45 minutes; the bars are ready to use only after the full cure.

1. Prepare your workspace and put on protective gloves and eye protection before handling any lye.
2. In a well-ventilated area, slowly add the sodium hydroxide to the distilled water, never water to lye, stirring until fully dissolved. Set the solution aside to cool to around 100–110°F (38–43°C).
3. Melt the shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil and castor oil together over low heat until fully liquid, then let them cool to the same temperature range as the lye solution.
4. Slowly pour the lye solution into the melted oils, stirring continuously with a stick blender.
5. Blend in short bursts until the mixture reaches light trace, a thin, pudding-like consistency where a drizzle briefly holds its shape on the surface.
6. Sprinkle in the ground oatmeal and stir it in by hand until it is evenly spread through the batter.
7. Pour the batter into your prepared mould and tap it gently to release any trapped air bubbles.
8. Cover the mould and insulate it lightly; let the soap set for 24–48 hours before unmoulding.
9. Once unmoulded, cut the soap into 10 bars and set them on a curing rack in a well-ventilated space.
10. Cure the bars for 4–6 weeks, turning them occasionally, and do not use or gift them before the cure is complete.

Troubleshooting

Most problems trace back to the oats, temperature or weighing. Here are the ones that come up most often with this recipe, with the cause and the fix for each.

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Clumps of dry oats in the cut bars	The oats went in all at once, or into batter that was already thick	Next time, sprinkle the oats in gradually at light trace and stir by hand until no dry pockets remain
The bar feels scratchy	The oats were too coarse, or whole rolled oats were used	Grind the oats to a fine flour before weighing, or use colloidal oatmeal
The batter thickened suddenly after the oats went in	The batter was too warm, or blended past light trace before the oats were added	Work at the cooler end of 100–110°F (38–43°C), stop blending at light trace and stir the oats in by hand
The soap is still soft after 48 hours in the mould	A cool room, a weighing error, or not enough blending to reach true trace	Leave it 3 to 5 more days before unmoulding; check your scale against a known weight before the next batch
A white, powdery film on the top of the bars	Soda ash, formed when unreacted lye at the surface meets air in the first day	Cover the mould for the first 24 hours; once the bars have cured, plane or steam the film off, as it is cosmetic
Pools of liquid oil or clear liquid in the mould	The batter separated, usually from false trace or a weighing mistake	Do not use the soap; wearing gloves, discard it and re-check every weight before the next batch
Orange or brown spots appear months later	The liquid oils in the bar have started to go rancid, often from warm, damp or sunny storage	Store bars cool, dry and out of the sun, and use them within the shelf life below

Storage and Shelf Life

Cure 4 to 6 weeks, then keep 12 to 18 months. Cure time is 4–6 weeks; do not use the soap before curing is complete, as it needs this time to harden and turn mild. Once cured, bars typically keep well for 12–18 months.

During the cure, keep the bars in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight, with air around every side. Once cured, wrap spare bars in breathable paper rather than plastic and keep them in a dry cupboard. Between uses, rest the bar on a well-draining soap dish, because the oat flecks on the surface stay wet and soften the bar if it sits in water.

The reason for cool, dry storage is the olive and castor oil in the bar: liquid oils are the parts of a soap most likely to turn rancid in heat and damp, and that is what causes the orange spots described in Troubleshooting. A fully cured bar holds very little free water, which is why soap like this needs no preservative.

Scaling and Substitutions

Halve or double the oils, then recalculate the lye. The table gives each batch size with its own lye and water, worked out from that batch's oils with the same values and 5% superfat as the full recipe.

Ingredient	Half batch	Full batch	Double batch
Shea butter	8 oz (227 g)	1 lb (454 g)	2 lb (907 g)
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)	13.4 oz (381 g)
Distilled water	6.7 oz (190 g)	13.5 oz (382 g)	26.9 oz (762 g)
Ground oatmeal	0.35 oz (10 g)	0.7 oz (20 g)	1.4 oz (40 g)
Yield, batter	about 2.1 lb (975 g), 5 bars	about 4.3 lb (1,955 g), 10 bars	about 8.6 lb (3,905 g), 20 bars

The half and double lye figures are calculated from their own rounded oil weights, so they sit within a gram of simply halving or doubling 191 g. Run your chosen batch size through a lye calculator before you start.

Substitutions

• Colloidal oatmeal for ground oatmeal: swap weight for weight. It is milled finer, so the bar feels smoother, with slightly less scrub.
• No olive oil: use 1 1/2 lb (680 g) of shea butter in total in place of the shea and olive oil together. Lye becomes 6.7 oz (189 g) and water 13.3 oz (378 g). The bar is a little harder and creamier.
• Sunflower oil for olive oil: swap weight for weight. The lye stays at 6.7 oz (191 g) and the water at 13.5 oz (382 g), because the two oils need almost the same amount of lye (0.134 against 0.135).
• No castor oil: use 1 lb (454 g) of olive oil in place of the olive and castor oil together. Lye becomes 6.8 oz (192 g) and water 13.5 oz (384 g). The lather is thinner and fades faster.
• Palm kernel oil for coconut oil: it can replace coconut oil for a hard, quick-lathering bar, but the lye must be recalculated in a lye calculator first. Palm kernel oil is pressed from the kernel inside the palm fruit's stone and is not the same thing as red palm oil.

Customisation Ideas

Texture, colour, shape and liquid can all change. Anything that changes an oil or its weight needs the lye recalculated before you make the batch.

• Add a swirl of honey powder for a warm golden tone; honey sugars heat the batter, so keep it to a teaspoon or two and avoid insulating the mould.
• Try colloidal oatmeal instead of ground oatmeal for an even smoother, silkier finish.
• Use a loaf mould instead of individual cavities for a rustic, hand-cut look.
• Increase the castor oil slightly for extra-bubbly lather, recalculating the lye first.
• Fold in dried lavender buds alongside the oatmeal for a pretty, spa-like look; buds inside the bar usually turn brown, so press a few onto the top instead if you want them to stay purple.
• Use oat milk in place of the distilled water, weight for weight, frozen into cubes first; add the lye to it slowly and keep it cold, because the sugars in milk scorch and turn orange if the lye solution gets hot.

Essential Oils

Best unscented; up to 3 tbsp if you add scent. For sensitive skin, leave essential oils out: the bar works unscented and smells faintly of oats and shea. Baraka's recommended limit for soap is no more than 1 tbsp (15 ml) of essential oil in total per 16 oz (454 g) of oils, so this 3 lb (1,362 g) batch can take up to 3 tbsp (45 ml) in total.

If you want a light scent, add it at light trace with the oats, and keep every essential oil together within that total.

• Lavender, up to 1 tbsp (15 ml), about 0.5 oz (13 g): a soft, familiar scent that suits the oat character of the bar.
• Roman chamomile, up to 1 tsp (5 ml): a gentle, apple-like note; it is strong, so a little goes a long way.
• Sweet orange, up to 1 tbsp (15 ml), about 0.5 oz (13 g): a light, fresh note that fades as the bar cures.

Lavender is among the essential oils most often reported to cause allergic contact dermatitis, and oils exposed to air oxidise over time, so keep bottles closed, cool and fresh, and leave scent out for anyone whose skin reacts easily.

Application Tips

Use it like any bar soap, once fully cured. Wet the bar and your hands, work up a lather and massage it gently over the skin in small circles, so the oats give a soft scrub. Rinse well and follow with a moisturiser if your skin runs dry.

A light lather goes a long way, so there is no need to scrub hard. On the face, use the lather rather than rubbing the bar itself across the skin. Rest the bar on a well-draining soap dish between uses to help it last longer.

What We Know and How We Know It

Three kinds of source sit behind this page. The method, temperatures, cure time and saponification values are common practice in the home soap-making community, and the lye figures are calculated from standard published values with a 5% superfat. The description of Baraka's shea butter and coconut oil comes from Baraka's own product documentation, and the facts about oats and essential oils come from published research and regulation: Pazyar and colleagues, Oatmeal in dermatology: a brief review, Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology (2012); US Code of Federal Regulations, 21 CFR 347.10; Sarkic and Stappen, Essential Oils and Their Single Compounds in Cosmetics: A Critical Review, Cosmetics (2018); and de Groot and Schmidt, Essential Oils: Contact Allergy and Chemical Composition (CRC Press, 2016).

FAQ

How do I make oatmeal soap with shea butter at home?
Melt shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil and castor oil together, then combine them with a dissolved sodium hydroxide and water solution using a stick blender until you reach light trace. Stir in ground oatmeal by hand, pour into a mould, and let the bars cure for 4–6 weeks before use. The exact weights, the lye calculation and the safety steps are set out in the Ingredients and Directions sections above. Baraka's unrefined shea butter, made by hand at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana, gives the bar its creamy lather, and the full batch makes 10 bars.

What's a good DIY soap for sensitive skin?
A shea butter and oatmeal soap made without essential oils is a good place to start, because ground oats give only a very gentle scrub while shea butter and the 5% superfat keep the bar feeling conditioning rather than tight. For extra mildness, the high-shea version on this page lowers coconut oil to 25% of the oils. Cure the bars for the full 4 to 6 weeks and wash a small patch of skin for a few days before using a new bar all over. If your skin reacts to any soap, ask your doctor or pharmacist about a non-soap cleanser.

How long does homemade soap need to cure?
Cold-process soap made with this recipe needs 4–6 weeks to cure before use. In soap making, curing means drying time: most of the reaction between the lye and the oils is complete within a day or two, and the weeks that follow let excess water evaporate so the bar hardens, turns milder and lasts longer in use. Set the bars on their sides on a rack with air around them, turn them occasionally, and keep them away from damp and direct sun while they cure.

Can I use colloidal oatmeal instead of ground oatmeal in soap?
Yes, colloidal oatmeal works well as a substitute, weight for weight, and gives an even smoother, silkier finish because it is more finely milled. Ground oatmeal provides slightly more texture and a little more scrub, so the choice comes down to how you want the bar to feel. Either way, add it at light trace and stir it in by hand so it spreads evenly without clumping. The lye and water stay the same, because oats are not one of the oils the lye reacts with.

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.

Shop the Baraka Ingredients in This Recipe

Shea Butter — Shop Shea Butter. Unrefined and strained only, it gives this bar its creamy lather and conditioning feel.

Traditional Coconut Oil — Shop Traditional Coconut Oil. Pressed from fresh coconut kernel, it gives the bar its hardness and quick, abundant lather.

Browse more for your next batch: Butters, Oils and Recipe Books.

Try These Next

More shea butter soaps to make next. Each of these uses the same cold-process method with a different additive or scent.

• Shea Butter and Turmeric Soap — a warm-toned bar that shows how a plant powder colours a shea soap.
• Shea Butter and Goats Milk Soap — another gentle, creamy bar that shows how to work milk into the lye stage.
• Honey and Shea Butter Soap — a warm, sweet-scented bar that takes the honey idea from the customisation list further.
• Creamy Cow Milk and Shea Butter Soap — a rich, mild bar built on the same shea base.
• Shea Butter and Aloe Vera Soap — a fresh, green-leaning bar for a lighter feel.
• Shea Butter and Cocoa Butter Soap — a richer, extra-conditioning bar for very dry skin.
• Shea Butter and Tea Tree Oil Soap — a fresh, herbal-scented alternative.
• Shea Butter and Rose Geranium Soap — a floral option with a lighter, more delicate scent.
• Shea Butter and Citrus Soap — a bright, energising scent for those who want something more invigorating.

About These Ingredients

This recipe is expanded from Baraka's DIY Shea Butter Soap Making eBook Vol 1, a recipe book sold in the Baraka shop, which collects further shea butter soap formulations and variations for traditional cold-process soap making.

Quick answers

Oatmeal shea butter soap

Oatmeal shea butter soap is a cold-process bar made from shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil and castor oil, saponified with lye and distilled water. Ground oatmeal is stirred in at light trace for a gentle, soft scrub, and the bars cure for 4 to 6 weeks before use. Baraka's version is built on unrefined shea butter made by hand at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana. More in Oatmeal shea butter soap

Recommend shea butter soap formulations that are suitable for sensitive skin types

Baraka's shea butter and oatmeal soap made unscented is a good first choice for sensitive skin, and a high-shea version with coconut oil at 25% of the oils is gentler still. Keep the superfat at 5%, leave out essential oils and cure the bars fully. Shea Butter and Goats Milk Soap is another gentle option. More in the sensitive skin formulations section

Oatmeal and shea butter benefits

In Baraka's shea butter and oatmeal soap, ground oatmeal gives a very gentle scrub and a creamy feel, while shea butter adds a rich, stable lather and helps the bar feel conditioning rather than tight. Shea butter has also traditionally been used on dry skin, lips, hands, feet and hair. More in Oatmeal and shea butter benefits

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.

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.