Mild Unscented Soap Recipes (2024)

These mild unscented soap recipes are extra gentle and can be made especially for loved ones who have allergies, eczema, or are going through cancer treatments and have sensitive and more fragile skin.

The goal here is to especially avoid irritants such as fragrances, overly cleansing ingredients, or scratchy exfoliants.

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Choose a Recipe:

Extra Gentle Unscented Soap with Aloe

This soap has a mild creamy lather that won’t leave your skin feeling tight or dry. Aloe liquid (like this kind) adds an extra soothing element to the recipe, but if you don’t have any, you can use distilled water instead. You could also use milk in its place; see How to Make Soap With Milk for information on how to do that.

• 8.25 oz (234 g) aloe liquid (or distilled water)
• 3.78 oz (107 g) lye (sodium hydroxide)
• 14 oz (397 g) olive oil (50%)
• 5.04 oz (143 g) coconut oil (18%)
• 4.2 oz (119 g) sunflower or sweet almond oil (15%)
• 3.36 oz (95 g) shea, cocoa or kokum butter (12%)
• 1.4 oz (40 g) castor oil (5%)

Creamy Shea Butter Unscented Bastille Soap (coconut free)

This recipe can also be found on page 33 of my Simple & Natural Soapmaking print book.

This skin nourishing soap contains a high amount of olive oil, plus shea butter for its fantastic ability to condition and moisturize skin, along with castor oil to help boost lather. As with the recipe above, you could also use aloe liquid or milk in place of the water.

• 8 oz (227 g) distilled water (or aloe liquid)
• 3.55 oz (101 g) sodium hydroxide (lye)
• 21 oz (595 g) olive oil (75%)
• 4.5 oz (128 g) shea butter (16%)
• 2.5 oz (71 g) castor oil (9%)

If shea butter isn’t available, you can substitute with mango butter, cocoa butter, lard or tallow. The lye amount will still fall within an acceptable range and will not need to be changed.

Information on the soap mold I used can be found in my 15+ Pretty Silicone Molds for Making Handmade Soap article.

Directions to Make

1. Wearing protective gloves and eyewear, carefully stir the lye into the aloe or distilled water. Avoid breathing in the temporary strong fumes.
2. Set the lye solution aside in safe place to cool to around 100 to 110 degrees F (38 to 43 degrees C).
3. Melt the solid oils and fats.
4. Mix the melted oils/fats with the other liquid oils in the recipe.
5. Pour the cooled lye solution into the warmed oils.
6. Using a combination of hand-stirring and an immersion blender, stir the soap until it reaches trace*.
7. Pour the soap into the mold and cover lightly with a towel or blanket.
8. Keep the soap in the mold for about 2 days or until it releases easily.
9. Slice into bars and cure in the open air for at least 4 weeks before use. Soaps higher in olive oil, like the bastille soap, will improve as they age, so benefit even more from a 3+ month cure time.

(*Trace is when the soap batter thickens enough so that if you drizzle some across the surface of itself, it will leave a faint design or “tracing” before sinking into the soap batter.)

+ 3 More Recipe Ideas

Three other simple unscented soap recipes on my website include:

• Chamomile “Almost” Castile Soap – This recipe contains just two oils – olive and castor. You can omit the chamomile for a completely unscented soap.
• Oatmeal Honey Soap – This easy recipe is made in a crockpot so that it’s ready to use sooner. Omit the lavender essential oil so that it will be unscented.
• Basic Soap Recipe – You can find this simple soap recipe in my article on How to Create Custom Soaps.

For more natural soap recipes, tutorials and inspiration, be sure to check out my Natural Soap Making Ebook Collection.