Whipped Soap Base / Foaming Bath Butter

September 22, 2022 Juliette van der Meer

Whipped soap base, also known as foaming bath butter, is a simply fabulous invention!

What Is Whipped Soap?

Made from mild and eco friendly surfactants and gentle glycerine, this bath & body whip is non-stripping on the skin and is pH balanced. It has a myriad of uses, is surprisingly simply to make, is super fun to use, and also makes for a cool gift as well as a great product for resale. What's not to love!

You Can Use The Foaming Bath Butter Base As:

A shaving cream
A whipped cream soap for any cleansing purpose
A hand wash - only a tiny bit required for clean and moisturised hands
A facial polish/cleanser - it is gentle enough for use on the face
Use at bath time to make a soft, moisturising bubble bath
A whipped body scrub
As 'frosting' on soaps and bath bombs
You could even use it as a body wash or shampoo!

Customise Your Whipped Base for WOW Factor

To make foaming scrubs and polishes, you can add jojoba beads or another exfoliant such as apricot kernel scrub.

Make it really pop by adding colour from mica colours (we love multi colours!), add in essential oils for fragrance, biodegradable glitter, or even add in a bit of carrier oil for extra nourishment*.

*I wouldn't go above an extra 10% additional oils as oils and surfactants are enemies (surfactants wash away oils and become less bubbly the more oil is used).

Packaging ideas For Your Foaming Bath Butter

A popular presentation idea is to pipe your whipped soap into a clear jar. The piping gives a great aesthetic look, and the clear jar allows the colours to shine.

Or spoon it into a container and create your own swirls/designs!

Whipped Soap Base / Foaming Bath Butter

Scale this recipe up as required. It whips up approximately double in volume.

Read more about working in percentages here.

Ingredients:

21.5% deionized water
22.5% vegetable glycerin
16% cocamidopropyl betaine
34% sodium cocoyl isethionate (make sure to powder it first by grinding it up in a coffee grinder or powdering function on a food processor)
3% stearic acid
2% salt
1% Euxyl 940

Equipment:

Large glass beaker - I used a 1L size based on 100g of product and it was perfect
Gloves are a good idea
Whisk and spatula
Scale
Electric beater

Method:

Weigh out and mix together the liquid ingredients (excluding the preservative), and then weigh and add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients mixture.
Mix everything well.
Heat the mixture in 30 second - 1 minute bursts in the microwave. You will need to keep a beady eye on the mixture as it heats, as sometimes surfactants bubble up when heated. Remove from the microwave and give it a good stir every minute. The beaker will be very hot so make you use a cloth or oven gloves to protect yourself.
When there are absolutely no solid bits left (this is important!) and everything is fully melted, then stop heating and stir it slowly while it cools. It will thicken up and start to solidify. Once cooled, add in the preservative and stir well to incorporate it. Add any essential oils, mica colours or any other additives now as well.
When the mixture has just about solidified completely, get out an electric beater and beat it on low speed until whipped and fluffy. The longer you beat it the more airy and mousse-like it will be, so just decide when you are happy with the texture. It whips up into approximately double the original volume.
Decant into jars or containers and enjoy!