DIY Exfoliating Soap Recipes with Essential Oils

If you're a DIY soap making fan, you'll love these exfoliating soap recipes. Or if homemade DIY isn't your jam, here's a ready-made exfoliating soap that's super awesome - the Young Living Lavender Oatmeal soap bar is a ready-to-go exfoliating soap that will have your skin glowing in no time.

For all you homemade aficionados, get your DIY on with these fantastic exfoliating soap recipes.

Why an exfoliating soap rather than regular soap? Because regular exfoliating makes the skin glow. Exfoliating soaps are perfect for renewing dehydrated, dry skin. Exfoliating helps to remove dead skin cells and is great for itchy skin. And it's not just the exfoliating scrub ingredients that help the skin, by adding skin-nurturing Young Living essential oils to your soap, you'll gain the skin benefits of therapeutic essential oils.

And make sure that the ingredients in your DIY homemade exfoliating soaps are all natural. Most conventional soaps and personal care products are loaded with synthetic chemicals that are linked to a host of health conditions from skin issues like dermatitis and skin irritation through to hormone disruption. So avoid the synthetic chemicals by using all-natural ingredients - you and your family are worth it.

These exfoliating soap recipes include ingredients to remove dead skin from the skin surface together with a combo of coconut oil and essential oils to soothe the skin as you scrub.

Plus as an added bonus, these exfoliating soaps look gorgeous thanks to the variety of natural ingredients like pink salt and poppy seeds. The way the exfoliator ingredients disperse throughout the soap adds to their charm - making these soaps display pieces as part of your bathroom decor or wrap them with a ribbon as a gift for your friends.

Homemade exfoliating soap is easier to customise when you start with a pre-made base. We used the same base - organic melt and pour glycerin soap plus coconut oil - for each bar and then changed up the exfoliating ingredients and essential oils.

We recommend using silicone soap moulds with circles approximately 6cm in diameter.

Yield: Approximately 3 soaps

Base Ingredients
 120ml suspended organic melt and pour glycerin soap
 1 tablespoon coconut oil

Mix-in Ingredients
 Exfoliating ingredient
 Young Living essential oils

1. Cut soap into about 3cm cubes.
 2. Put soap and coconut oil in a large microwave-safe bowl.
 3. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time until soap is completely melted, stirring in between to smooth clumps.
 4. Add Young Living essential oils and mix well.
 5. Add exfoliating ingredient slowly, stirring well to combine and remove all clumps. Work quickly before the soap gets too cool.
 6. Pour into moulds. Let sit until solid, approximately 1-3 hours.

The spicy, warm scent of Cinnamon essential oil and Ginger essential oil combined with the bright aroma of Orange essential oil, together with the rich brown colour of coffee make this exfoliating soap a real delight! Just keep in mind, coffee grounds provide more intense exfoliation than cornmeal; so scrub with care if you have sensitive skin. Coffee grounds tend to settle. If you’re not a fan of how the soap looks, use fewer coffee grounds so they don’t sink to the bottom of the bar.

Mix-ins

2 tablespoons organic coffee grounds
 15 drops Young Living Cinnamon essential oil
 10 drops Young Living Ginger essential oil
 10 drops Young Living Orange essential oil

This recipe is an American recipe that calls for cornmeal as the exfoliating ingredient. Cornmeal isn't called cornmeal in Australia. In Australia it is often called Polenta, so in Australia you'll need to look for the equivalent of cornmeal as your exfoliating ingredient. I haven't tried this recipe yet myself with Polenta to know if Polenta has the same texture as cornmeal.

Cornmeal is a gentle exfoliator, which makes it safe for sensitive skin. This recipe uses about 1 tablespoon of cornmeal to get the right amount of texture without it feeling too gritty. You can add more for a more intense exfoliation. Combining cornmeal with herb and citrus scents like Lemon essential oil, Rosemary essential oil and Sage essential oil. Lemon oil, Rosemary oil and Sage oil gives this soap a clean, earthy aroma.

Mix-ins

1 tablespoon cornmeal (or equivalent ingredient in your country)
 10 drops Young Living Lemon essential oil
 10 drops Young Living Rosemary essential oil
 10 drops Young Living Sage essential oil

Ingredients like Patchouli oil, poppy seeds and pink salt not only sounds gorgeous, but when paired with Young Living Joy oil and Geranium essential oil, you have a soap bar that sloughs off dead skin whilst the scent boosts your mood.

The finely ground pink salt exfoliates well but blends with the soap differently than the other ingredients. To add it, pour a thin layer of salt into your mould, then pour the soap on top of it. Also, like the coffee grounds, the poppy seeds in this mix may settle at the bottom.

Mix-ins

1 teaspoon poppy seeds
 1-2 tablespoons fine Himalayan pink salt
 15 drops Young Living Joy essential oil blend
 10 drops Young Living Patchouli essential oil
 5 drops Young Living Geranium essential oil

Why exfoliate. By exfoliating, you’re removing the layer of dead skin cells sitting on top of your skin. Once those skin cells are gone, the lower layers can come to the surface, resulting in a brighter the appearance of your skin.

Beyond healthier-looking skin, there are more benefits of exfoliating. By removing the layer of dead skin cells it helps the skin better absorb products like serums and lotions. For best results and silky-smooth skin, exfoliate 2-3 times a week and follow the exfoliation with a rich moisturiser like our Coconut-Lime Replenishing Body Butter or Young Living Lavender Body Lotion. By combining exfoliation and moisturisation it will help revitalise and rejuvenate the appearance of even the driest skin.

Tip: These exfoliating soaps are great for exfoliating the body, but shouldn't be used for the face, as the facial skin is more delicate and needs a gentle touch. For the face, use Young Living's Satin Facial Scrub.

Buy Orange essential oil here, Cinnamon essential oil here, Ginger essential oil here, Lemon essential oil here, Rosemary essential oil here, Sage essential oil here, Geranium essential oil here, Joy essential oil here and Patchouli essential oil here.