Whipped Soap Base / Foaming Bath Butter

Whipped Soap Base / Foaming Bath Butter

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:

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:

  1. Weigh out and mix together the liquid ingredients (excluding the preservative), and then weigh and add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients mixture.
  2. Mix everything well.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Decant into jars or containers and enjoy!
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Juliette van der Meer

Fascinated with all things Nature, Science, Chemistry and Cosmetic Formulation; slave to four cats; my sweet tooth fuels my sweet nature.

I like to constantly learn new things. I also love crime series, which is totally not a red flag :)

I graduated from Rhodes University with a Degree in Geology but later switched to Cosmetic Science and haven't looked back - proof that flipping your life around can lead to much happiness.

BSc Hons, Adv. Dip. Cosmetic Science


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14 comments

Can this be pre-made and used in products later? If so, would one heat it up again, add colour and fragrance and whip it up again?

Thanks in advance.

Nadia

Hi Jean-Jacques, it acts as a thickener. You can leave it out if you like, but I like to add it!

Juliette

Hello there!

This is a lovely formula and I have had great fun mixing things up. What I would like to know is what is the purpose of the salt?

Jean-Jacques Rossouw

Hi Dane’, I’m sorry to hear that. However the recipe is quite specific, and unfortunately will not work with substitutes. You need to follow the exact ingredients and amounts.

Juliette

Good day,

I was so excited to attempt this recipe but it does not seem to be working in my favour. The final product does not want to whip up. I attempted the recipe twice each time in 100g batches. The first time I added some shea butter because i did not have stearic acid and started whipping when the mixture was half way solid, this left me with a very dense mix that would not pipe. The second bath i didn’tadd the shea butter and

Dané

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