This laurel berry soap, or Aleppo soap copycat recipe, is a modified Castile soap that is mild, conditioning, and great for a number of skin conditions.
Why would you want to make Aleppo soap?
Aleppo soaps are one of the most prized, and most expensive soap bars, that you can find.
These soaps are said to help with a number of skin conditions like acne, eczema, psoriasis, and other dermatitis types. Some people use it on their hair and say that it helps with dandruff and other scalp conditions. It’s a mild soap that soothes the skin and may have natural antibacterial and antifungal properties.
Here is an example of a bar of Aleppo soap sold on Amazon:
What is Aleppo Soap?
Thought to be one of the first soaps made, Aleppo soap is a modified Castile soap made from olive oil and laurel berry oil. I call it a modified Castile soap because it isn’t made with 100% olive oil like my pure Castile soap recipe.
Laurel berry oil is a more expensive oil, and the price of a bar of Aleppo soap usually depends upon the percentage of laurel oil used. Soaps with a higher percentage of laurel oil tend to be darker in color and more prized. Most Aleppo soaps have between 5 and 30% laurel berry oil, but you can find them with other percentages too.
Being a Castile soap, it is usually cured for long periods of time to allow it to harden and for its quality to improve. During the curing time, the soap usually develops a golden hue on the outside while retaining it’s beautiful green color on the inside (which can be seen if you cut a bar of Aleppo soap in half). You can find photos of bars of Aleppo soap that have been cut in half in this article about Aleppo soap benefits.
Aleppo soap is associated with the city of Aleppo, Syria, where they have continued to make the soap for what is said to be thousands of years. Unfortunately because the war in the region has forced many of the soap makers to leave their businesses behind, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to buy authentic Aleppo soap made in Syria.
Some of the Aleppo soap makers who were forced to leave their city are trying to build their businesses again in new locations.
How is Aleppo Soap Made?
Aleppo soap is normally made using a type of hot process technique. It probably doesn’t use the hot process method as we know it today, though, but rather uses a boiled soap process in which the oils are boiled with the lye over a number of days. There is a bit of confusion outside of the Aleppo soap-making community about the exact technique and why the soap is boiled for so long.
After reading discussions in a number of forums, my guess is that part of the reason for boiling the soap for so long is that traditionally ashes were used to react with the oils, which is much different than making soap with a commercial lye. When using ashes, it is impossible to be able to calculate exact amounts needed to complete the saponification process of the soap.
It is very possible that part of the boiling process uses salt water as a sort of purifying step. I’ve read that salt water was often used in the production of Aleppo soap, so it would make sense that it may have been used in a salting out process which is sometimes used to rinse away any excess lye that may be left in soaps.
I found this thread in a forum with an explanation of the process of making Aleppo soap that would support those ideas.
Once the soap is formed, it is poured and spread over the floor of large rooms, where it is spread out to the desired thickness, and then smoothed. It is later stamped and cut, and the formed bars of soap are stacked and allowed to cure for several months.
This video shows the interesting process of making Aleppo soap:
While some of the soap makers seem to continue to use the same traditional methods for making Aleppo soap, others now use a more “normal” hot process or a cold process technique for making it.
What is laurel berry oil?
Laurel berry oil is an oil that is extracted from the fruit of the bay laurel tree.
What are laurel berry oil benefits?
This prized oil is known most for being used in Aleppo soaps, but also has muscle relaxant properties which makes it a great oil for massaging in areas of sore joints and muscles. It may also help improve arthritis symptoms.
Laurel berry oil is a soothing oil that helps improve skin and scalp conditions. Because it is said to help with dandruff and thinning hair, many people swear by using Aleppo soap on their hair. (I personally haven’t tried it as I haven’t found that my hair reacts well to using (any) soap on it.)
Apart from being known to improve skin conditions such as acne, eczema, rosacea, psoriasis, it’s antifungal and antibacterial properties may also improve fungal infections and bacterial dermatitis.
Apart from it’s other benefits, in soap, the laurel berry oil helps add a bit more lather to an otherwise very low-lather Castile soap. (Soaps made with only olive oil are very conditioning, but are also low lather soaps that aren’t as high cleansing as many other soaps.)
Watch me make this laurel berry soap
Why did I choose to make a cold process laurel soap?
Because we are using modern methods and a commercial lye for making our laurel soap, there is no need to complicate the process with boiling it down to remove excess lye. We can calculate the recipe to be superfatted, meaning that we will use more oils than what are needed to react with the lye in our recipe. My recipe below was calculated with a superfatting percentage of 5%. This means that we will end up with some unreacted oils in the soap that are conditioning for our skin and hair, and that our soap won’t have any unreacted lye in it.
While we could use a modern hot process technique, I don’t see any benefit to choosing it. A hot process technique cooks the ingredients to speed up the saponification process, meaning that the lye and oils have fully converted to soap before being poured into the molds. The problem with this method is that you end up with a thicker mixture that is more difficult to work with and that doesn’t pour or smooth as well in your molds. As we won’t be stepping on our soap to smooth it out as the Aleppo workers do, I prefer to use a cold method process to get a nice looking bar of soap.
Some people choose to use hot process methods in the hopes that they can use their soap sooner. I’ve found, though, that all soaps benefit from a curing process. During the curing process, the soap gets harder and other chemical processes continue. This is especially true of pure Castile soaps and other soaps with a high percentage of olive oil like Aleppo soaps. Note that Aleppo soap, despite being made with a hot process of sorts, is cured for several months (I’ve read between 9 months and a year) before being sold to the public.
Why is my soap green and not golden like the Aleppo soap?
During that curing process, the soap is said to change from green to golden on the outside. While I did wait a couple of months to take pictures and post them with this recipe on the blog, I haven’t waited anywhere near the 9 months to a year that Aleppo soaps are said to cure before being sold.
Being impatient, I tried a bar of my soap and have to say that I already really like it. Without any additives or scents, it has an unusual medicinal, but pleasant, scent that I actually quite like. I’m excited to see how it changes with time, though, and will update this post in several months with my findings.
It will be interesting to see if my soap takes on a similar golden color to the Aleppo soap I bought from the store. I’m also looking forward to seeing if they behave similarly when used. Only time will tell…
Laurel Berry soap (Aleppo Soap Copycat Recipe)
Materials
- 450 g olive oil
- 150 g laurel berry oil
- 228 g water
- 78 g lye aka. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH)
- 18 g fragrance or essential oils optional- I didn’t use any
Instructions
- Weigh out the lye and the water in separate containers. I now usually use stainless steel bowls for this step. (Other metals may react with the lye, while some plastics may be melted and some glass bowls may crack from the sudden heat of the chemical reactions when you mix the water and lye together.)
- Add the lye to the bowl of water. (Do not add the water to the bowl of lye.) Stir the water and lye together thoroughly in a well ventilated area. You will notice that the lye solution will heat up and get cloudy. It will also give off fumes that you should avoid inhaling.
- Allow the lye solution to set in a place where it won’t be disturbed by animals or small children while you measure out the oils.
- Weigh out the olive oil and laurel berry oils in a large bowl. At this point you can use ceramic, glass, stainless steel or plastic.
- Pour the lye mixture into the oils and gently stir them together. It’s OK if the lye mixture is still warm.
- Once you have thoroughly combined the lye solution and oils, you can begin to blend them with an immersion blender. As you blend the ingredients together, they will begin to thicken and become more opaque.
- Your mixture will thicken to the point of looking like a creamy salad dressing or light mayonnaise. This point is called “trace” in soap making. At this point you can add in any extra fragrances, essential oils, or other additives as desired.
- Pour the soap mixture into molds and allow to harden for a couple of days before unmolding. (You can unmold as soon as you feel the soap is hard enough. The amount of time will depend upon the temperature of your environment, humidity, molds used, etc.)
- Cut the soap into bars as needed. Don’t wait too long to cut the bars of soap or the soap will get too hard and brittle to cut easily.
- Allow the bars of soap to cure for at least a month before using it. Ideally you should wait several months. Olive oil based soaps like this one are normally allowed to cure for several months before using them. The soap will harden and improve with time.
Steve
Thanks for posting this recipe – it’s absolutely brilliant, and the smell reminds me of when I was based in Syria, years ago, when I worked for BP. It brought back some happy memories!. Whilst making this I thought I’d share my experiences. On the first batch, the Laurel Berry Oil was as thick as toothpaste, a really difficult to get out of the bottle. It didn’t blend with the olive oil at all, so I warmed the mixture up before adding the lye. This worked perfectly and when I started blending I got to trace almost immediately. On my second batch I stood the Laurel Berry Oil bottles in hot, not boiling water and it liquified. Much easier to blend but as I hadn’t heated the oil mix it took a lot longer to get to trace. So I reckon 1) Warm the Laurel Berry Oil first – it’s easier to get out of the bottle. Then 2) warm the entire oil mix through to get to trace quicker. I know this is a ‘cold’ recipe, but it doesn’t need boiling, just a few minutes over a low gas, and you get a cracking result. Thanks again!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Steve,
Awesome!
Thanks so much for your tips!
Jane
At what temperature should you mix the lye and oils?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Jane,
I don’t ever measure the temperature. I have found that it doesn’t really matter. The process will go faster if the oils are warm, but I just allow the heated lye mixture warm them. (The mixture of lye heats up on its own by chemical reaction when you mix the lye with water.)
I only actually warm the oils when I want to melt oils like coconut oil or butters or waxes or, of course, if I’m hot processing a soap.
Hannanne
I just happened to run across this again. Just to answer your questions, some big name, historic soap makers moved their whole operations (and their skilled soap makers). Tunisia and Turkey, are two places that I know of. There are still some smaller soap making families that were still going to Afrin, but nothing like the old days. From what I hear, a lot of the olive trees were damaged or used for heat/cooking fuel, so the oil harvest is reduced. Also, the laurel berry oil was getting harder to get from Turkey, as the boarder got more tightly controlled. Even with general conditions improved, I’m pretty sure it will be a long time until commercial production returns. It’s hard to find good soap, but pretty good Turkish-made ghar soap can be bought in stores in Syrian-American neighborhoods like Patterson, NJ. I’d avoid the soaps from Lebanon–they’re mostly fake color and “soap base”. ? We don’t have Syrian stores in our town, so I order online.
Zoya
And the other question: when the soap mixture into molds then just leave it or may be good to cover (wrap) it with towel/blanket or keep it the warm oven … I did others (2, :-)) cold processed soap and it was necessary to keep them warm for longer time….(I kept them with light on in the oven for night)…..
Tracy Ariza
The covering of soap is more about if you want your soap to gel or not. I personally prefer the appearance of a non-gelled soap because I tend to work with more natural soaps and don’t work with bright colors. I used to wrap mine too- just because it’s something others said you “should do” without really explaining it.
I think it really depends on the recipe and the temperature you are working in. If you’re working in a hot environment and are working with a soap that has a lot of sugar in it, the soap will start to gel. If you don’t either insulate it or stick it in the fridge, you’ll end up with a partially gelled soap. That means it will likely be darker in the center and lighter on the outside. If you stick it in the fridge, it will usually stay lighter throughout. If you insulate, you can get the whole soap to gel and be slightly darker.
If you are working with bright colored soaps, it can be good to get the soap to gel so that the colors end up brighter and more vivid.
Zoya
Thank you Tracy very,very much for your time! I’ll do this recipe and hope will have patient to wait, :-)…..
Zoya
Hi Tracy!
I would like to understand in general as a beginner, 🙂 – If I add more superfatt in cold process, like 15-20%, can it be better? Then as you say – more unreacted oils will be in the soap that are conditioning for our skin and hair….
And I read in others sources that in cold process better to add less % water but in this one you have 38% – why is it? I understood that more water takes longer time for soap to be harder….
Thank you…
Tracy Ariza
Hi Zoya,
Great questions. In a soap like this one, with only conditioning oils in the first place, you definitely wouldn’t want to go very high in superfatting! Superfatting is good in the sense that you mentioned- you end up with unreacted oils that will be conditioning BUT the higher you go, you also end up with a soap that doesn’t feel as cleansing and that can be too soft, and can end up going rancid or getting orange spots.
Many people already don’t like the feel of pure Castile soaps and soaps like this one that have more conditioning than cleansing and lather. If you were to give a high superfat content, it would be worse. Even with cleaning type oils like coconut oil, I don’t think I’ve ever gone over 10% (or not much more) to avoid having a soft bar of soap that will go rancid.
As for the water content… Yes, you can lower it if you want a harder bar of soap faster. For these soaps with conditioning oils- like the pure Castile and the Laurel Berry Soap, I have them curing for several months before using them anyway. These soaps don’t have a lot of lather and they improve with time- but, yes, you’ll end up with a harder bar of soap more quickly if you reduce the water content.
C.e.
Hi,
I like to do my own soap and I was searching for some receipe.
I thought that I had to add the laurel oil in a second phase and not together with the olive oil (like an old receipe in which you add almond oil 20 minutes after the first solution lye+oil).
When I find the laurel oil I’ll try your receipe.
Thank you 🙂
Tracy Ariza
Hi C.e.,
Where have you read that?
I’m pretty sure they add it all together, but I think they probably use more Laurel berry oil than I did. I need to update the pictures to show how my soap has aged to a more golden color, but mine is lighter in color than the one I bought. I think that’s due to the quantity of laurel berry oil to olive oil in each soap.
Some people will add certain oils afterward to try to force those oils into being the “superfatted” oils- the ones that aren’t used in the saponification reactions and the ones that will stick around and moisturize your skin in a way.
It makes sense, but some people think it works, others don’t. The saponification process will continue for at least several hours after you’ve finished making soap, so you can’t keep all of the last added oil unreacted, but most of it will take place right away so it’s probable that a good percentage of the unsaponified oils will be the last added oil. In any case, I normally just add all of my oils together. 😉
George
Dear tracy,
Can i do the same recipe for hot process.
Tracy Ariza
Hi George,
Yes, you can. But I’m not sure, exactly, why you’d want to?
Estela
I made the recipe, it seems to me that the soap leaves the skin dry, do you think I can add an additional oil for more moisture?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Estela,
That surprises me as this is one of the more conditioning soaps that you could make. Yes, there is the possibility of superfatting the soap at a higher percent. I’d run the new recipe through a lye calculator first, and make sure you stay below 10%. Even at 10% it’s probably very high for this sort of soap. While superfatting makes for milder, more conditioning soaps, it also makes for soaps that are softer and can go rancid more quickly. This soap isn’t particularly hard to begin with, although it can get pretty hard with time.
How long ago did you make your soap? Do you have problems with dryness with other soaps?
Some people have issues with the higher pH of soaps in general. If you are one of those people, you may be better off using a mild surfactant. I’m just now finishing up a course in natural surfactants and hope to be sharing recipes for products sing natural surfactants soon as a soap alternative.
Sara
Any update on your bars so far? Do they appear any more golden now that a couple more months have passed?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Sara,
Actually, they are still very green. I’m not quite sure why. I’m waiting to see what happens when the warmer temperature comes around. My house is like a fridge during the winter, and I have a feeling that changes the way soaps react enormously!
Hannanne
Our family is from Afrin (major oil producing area) and Aleppo. The climate in Aleppo lends itself to soap drying–because of humidity, not really temperature. Soap is mainly made every other year, in the fall. The moderately rainy season is November to March. There is rarely a single drop of rain from early April to late October, ergo the suggested minimum of a 9 month cure time. Unless you live in a seasonally (extremely) arid region, AND have a very good dehumidifier, with constant fans, you’d need much longer to get the same level of dryness. Boiling for days also all but eliminates the water added for processing. If you’re using silicon, or any highly detailed decorative molds, it is impossible to get the same level of uniform dryness. Good, dry ghar soap should have very little green visible, even in the center. Many cheap/fake brands color the core of the bar to appear greener to “city folks”, who think that means more laurel, or more pure oil.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Hannanne,
Wow, thank you so much for your insight!
Are you still there and are there still people making the soap?
Aleppo soap is the only bar soap I’ve actually bought in the last years. I love making my own soaps, but I also like to be able to support the people of the region. Plus, the original has its own charm. I love the look of the beautiful stamps, and just the rustic look of the soap itself.
That said, I also really like the soap I made, which was more of an experiment. I’m always experimenting and sharing my results here.
I really appreciate the information. It’s very interesting, and answers a lot of things I was curious about. I had done a lot of reading- hours of research, but couldn’t find as much information as I would have liked.
Stay safe!
Hannanne
I just happened to run across this again. Just to answer your questions, some big name, historic soap makers moved their whole operations (and their skilled soap makers). Tunisia and Turkey, are two places that I know of. There are still some smaller soap making families that were still going to Afrin, but nothing like the old days. From what I hear, a lot of the olive trees were damaged or used for heat/cooking fuel, so the oil harvest is reduced. Also, the laurel berry oil was getting harder to get from Turkey, as the boarder got more tightly controlled. Even with general conditions improved, I’m pretty sure it will be a long time until commercial production returns. It’s hard to find good soap, but pretty good Turkish-made ghar soap can be bought in stores in Syrian-American neighborhoods like Patterson, NJ. I’d avoid the soaps from Lebanon–they’re mostly fake color and “soap base”. ? We don’t have Syrian stores in our town, so I order online.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Hannanne,
Thank you so much for the update!
I did get a comment from somebody who knew people who worked in the industry. They were relocating to Turkey and trying to begin from scratch there. I hope things eventually settle down and they can make their wonderful soap in peace again!
Dildred
I will be trying your Soap Recipe Thanks for Sharing and by the way your kitchen is Beautifully. Thanks again
Tracy Ariza
Hi Dildred,
I hope you enjoy this soap. It’s becoming one of my favorites.
Thanks- I’m really excited to use the new kitchen! 🙂
greenlifenow
Can’t wait to make it. Cold process will work for me too:) Thank you! What is a superfat % ?
Tracy Ariza
The superfat percentage is the amount of excess oils in the soap recipe. A 0% superfat means that you are using the exact amount of oils for the amount of lye in the recipe. Most bar soaps are superfatted for a couple of reasons. One, it’s better to err on the side of too much oil rather than too much lye to ensure you don’t have unreacted lye in your soap at the end. Apart from that, the extra oils in the soap make a more conditioning, less drying soap for your skin. With this soap being a good soap for skin conditions, it’s a great soap to which you can add some extra oils. If you were making a laundry soap, on the other hand, there isn’t any reason to superfat the soap.
A 5% is a pretty general, common amount to add to a bar soap like this one. If you add too many extra oils, it can end up giving you a soap that goes rancid or is too soft.
greenlifenow
Thank you Tracy! 5% superfat sounds good to me!