Avocado and Milk Cold Process Soap

Avocado is one of my favorite purees to add to cold process soap. This avocado soap is made with real avocado, raw cow milk and a combination of french green clay & spirulina, for color. 

A combination of Rosemary and Peppermint essential oils give the soap a crisp, uplifting scent, and we textured the top and added jasmine flowers to give it a finished look. Once the soap was mixed and poured, it went in the freezer in order to prevent gel phase – since we did use raw milk, those milk sugars can heat up the bar quite quickly if you allow it to go through gel phase.

And that can sometimes darken the color of the soap.

The recipe for this soap is not complicated, but it does include several additional steps to compensate for the added puree.   The recipe adds liquid in two different ways:

• Approximately 1.52 oz of water was added to the avocado to help it puree really smooth in the food processor
• The avocado itself contains water, and since our avocado was well over 4 oz, we estimated that it held .8 oz of water.

That’s a total of 1.52 + .8 oz of water; we then gave the soap a 15% water discount (11.88 oz of original liquid – 1.78) making the liquid added to the recipe just 7.78.  (11.88 – 1.78 – 1.52 – .8).  For that liquid (7.78 oz), we used raw cow milk from our grass-fed dairy that we froze ahead of time – to do that, we simply poured the milk into an ice cube tray and allowed it to freeze for a few hours. Then we popped out the cubes and weighed them on our scale.

In order to add the avocado puree, we simply sliced the avocado in half, removed the pit, and scooped out the flesh into our food processor along with the 1.52 oz water (we noted above).After a few brief whizzes, the puree was smooth, without lumps.

Raw milk is something we always have in the fridge, and the healthy fats that we love to drink also work wonderfully to keep skin moisturized, too.

If raw milk isn’t an option in your area, feel free to substitute your own choice of milk – whether coconut, almond, or goat’s milk. Using raw milk is possible in any cold process soap recipe – it just requires that you weigh the milk and freeze in ice cube trays prior to starting your project. Milk has a considerable amount of sugar, and those sugars have a tendency to burn when combined with the lye.   

While milk can be made via gel process (insulating the log), the sugars will cause the bar to heat up to very high temps and the bar will indeed come out much darker in color.

Avocado and Milk Soap

Oils, Lye and Liquid:

• 2 oz castor oil
• 11 oz extra virgin olive oil
• 9 oz coconut oil
• 4 oz shea butter, refined
• 5 oz rice bran oil
• 5 oz avocado oil
• 5.01 oz lye 
• 7.78 oz oz milk 
• 1.52 oz water added to the avocado puree
• 1 avocado, halved and the flesh scooped out and pit removed (ours was 4.2 oz)
• 2 tsp sodium lactate (optional – but makes for a harder bar that’s easier to remove from the mold)

Optional: Essential Oils for Scent

• .75 oz rosemary essential oil
• .75 oz peppermint essential oil

Natural colorants

• 2 tsp french green clay
• 2 tsp spirulina

We topped the finish soap with dried jasmine flowers after pouring it into the mold – that’s completely optional!

#1: Suit up for safety. Put on goggles, wear gloves and don clothes that have long sleeves. Use a well-ventilated area.

 #2:  Weigh out the milk you will be using in a plastic cup or pitcher and pour into ice cube trays the day or night before making soap.  Milk needs to be frozen in order to prevent scorching when you stir in the lye.

#3: Prepare all of your ingredients – and have everything set aside to start:

• Thermometer (one that you don’t use for food)
• Silicone Mold
• Pyrex 8 cup measuring device – not required, but so handy to have!
• Immersion Blender – you don’t have to spend oodles but you will want something reliable with a metal stick, not plastic.
• Lye – this is the brand we use
• Digital Scale to measure your ingredients

#4:  Place your weighed ice milk/cubes into a non-reactive bowl.  

#5:  Sprinkle the lye into your milk ice cubes, a little at a time. Stir slowly as you continue to add little bits of lye. Stir, but don’t rush the melting.  Once completely mixed, add the sodium lactate and stir to combine.  Set the mixture aside towards the back of the counter.

#6:  Combine your oils that you have weighed out.  Melt your shea and coconut oil over low heat until melted, then add those in with the remainder of your (already liquid) oils.   I aim for my oils to be 120-125 degrees (otherwise if they are too cool then stearic acid spots will develop in the finished soap).

#7:  Pour the lye and milk mixture into the oils.  Add the (optional) essential oil, clay and spirulina. Use your immersion blender to stir the mixture together, making sure to pulse the immersion and take 15-20 second breaks – running it continually will cause it to overheat. 

*Do not run the immersion blender for the entire time – work in 5-10 second increments, then break, then work again. 

Once you reach trace (6-8 minutes), immediately pour into your log mold, making sure to scrape all of the batter out of your container. Carefully bang the mold on the counter to get rid of any possible air bubbles.  Texture the top. Gently place in the rear of the freezer 

If the soap is too soft to swirl the top, then place in the freezer for a few minutes until it a hardens up a bit. Allow the soap to remain in the freezer for 24 hours to avoid gel phase.  Remove from the freezer and allow to sit at room temperature an additional 24-48 hours before cutting.

After 48 hours (24 in the freezer, and 24 at room temp), slice the soap. Allow the soap to cure for at least 4-6 weeks.

This is my soap after the 5 week cure time ~ the white on the top is soda ash that I kept because I love how it added to the aesthetics. You can spray the top of your soap with a little Isopropyl Alcohol before tossing in the freezer to avoid soda ash.  

Want avocado soap without having to make it? I offer it in my online shop ~ it’s hard to keep in stock though because it’s pretty popular!