Natural Cinnamon Soap Recipe

Natural Cinnamon Soap Recipe

Cinnamon with its antibacterial, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory properties is a perfect substitute for soap. By adding ground cinnamon to the soap you also get a nice scrubbing effect!

We recently started making our own soap and because at Amuura everything is all about cinnamon I made a cinnamon hand/body wash soap!

I am sharing the recipe here. Making your own soap is actually quite easy. All you need to do is following the instructions and the weight of ingredients precisely.

Safety tips for soap boiling

Soda lye is needed to turn fat into soap. This basic solution is very caustic and can hurt your skin, it is particularly dangerous if it comes into contact with the eyes. You should therefore protect yourself against skin contact with the alkali. The safety equipment therefore includes:

• protective gloves (preferably acid / alkali resistant) 

• long trousers and top

Children, pets and maybe the partner should not be in the same room when boiling. Good ventilation is also important, since the hot alkali initially also produces irritating gases. If possible, mix the lye outdoors.

Boiling the soap

Classic solid soap is created by mixing oils and fats with a precisely calculated amount of a solution of sodium hydroxide, also called caustic soda (NaOH). The amount of NaOH also determines the degree of overfatting, i.e. the proportion of fat that is not saponified. A great care soap, for example, is over-greased by eight to ten percent.

For the cinnamon soap I used these ingredients, which should all be weighed as precisely as possible with a precise, electronic kitchen scale:

400 g pure organic virgin coconut oil 

75g cocoa butter

250g sesame oil

250g olive oil

25g cinnamon leave essential oil

25g Amuura organic Ceylon cinnamon powder

for the lye:

142 grams of NaOH (caustic soda, sodium hydroxide) 

335 grams of distilled water

Note: I used coconut and sesame oil because they are locally available in Sri Lanka. You can alter the recipe with another oil available where you live. Please always recalculate the required amount of NaOH yourself if you try other recipes. There are online soap calculators that can do the calculation quickly and conveniently.

I used the following soap calculator for my recipe: https://sr.naturseife.com/index.php (German website)

You also need:

•a stainless steel saucepan (at least 3 liters) 

•a mason jar (1 liter) 

•a spoon

•Hand blender

•narrow-mesh kitchen sieve 

•shape for the soap glue 

•baking paper or cling film

With the forms for the soap glue you can let your imagination run wild. You can use pretty much anything: a wooden box, old plastic cans or a cleaned tetra pack. It is important that the materials do not contain aluminum. This is especially important for the pot.

Prepare soap glue

First, the lye is mixed in a large glass. The sodium hydroxide is always added to the water, never the other way around. Otherwise there would be a lot of heat, which could cause the glass to burst or the highly concentrated lye to spurt out of the vessel. Ensure good ventilation, irritating vapors develop at the beginning. If you put the glass in the sink, you can avoid possible splashes on sensitive surfaces.

Now stir with a spoon until the NaOH has completely dissolved in the water. Considerable heat is generated during the process. Let the lye cool down in the glass.

In the meantime, the fats in the pot can be melted over a low heat. Tip: First melt the solid fats and then remove the pot from the stove. Then add the liquid oils, so the mass is not too hot.

If both liquids are approximately lukewarm, the alkali is added to the soap glue. It's best to pour them through a fine-mesh stainless steel kitchen strainer. This will prevent NaOH crystals that may not have completely dissolved from getting into the soap. They could cause slight irritation when using your soap. It is very important to stir the lye thoroughly.

Now stir with a hand blender until the mass reaches a uniform, pudding-like consistency. The soap glue is perfect if you can trace the surface with the spoon.

Then add the cinnamon powder to the mixture and stir it well.

Now you can put the soap mixture in the mold and put it in a warm place. After at least 24 hours, the soap is firm and ready to take out of the mold. This is the best time to cut them into handy pieces. Set up dry, the soap is ready for use after about four weeks.