# Acne Soaps



## gsc (Aug 18, 2016)

I'd like to make soap for my grandson and daughter - grandson has typical teenage acne breakouts and daughter has very oily skin.   I don't have a recipe but had thoughts of incorporating coconut milk, benonite clay, grapeseed oil and anything else someone could recommend.

Am torn on whether I should use coconut oil.  If you have a tried and true recipe and would care to share I would be very appreciative.


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## dibbles (Aug 18, 2016)

Activated charcoal is supposed to be helpful for acne. Sorry I can't offer any advice on the rest.


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## fuzz-juzz (Aug 18, 2016)

In my experience with two teenagers and husband with acne (yes, even though he's in 40s) what I found that works best is activated charcoal.
It doesn't have to be fully black bar, I usually add AC to 1/2 of batter only.

I use normal soap recipe that I use in most of my soapmaking. Just your usual regulars like coconut, olive, rie bran, castor oils and shea/cocoa butters.
I keep SF really low, since you don't really want more oil on already oily skin. 
Too much coconut and soap might be too harsh and stripping too much oil which might then increase oil production.

I like clay as well, I use either yellow or kaolin. I found bentonite too harsh and scratchy.


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## shunt2011 (Aug 18, 2016)

I can only speak for myself and my daughters, we use salt bars 3-4 times a week and then a regular soap with activated charcoal and tea tree.  My skin is the best it's ever been. Everyone's skin is different so it may take some experimentation to find what works best for you kids skin.


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## Obsidian (Aug 18, 2016)

Salt bars has helped my adult acne and my aunt who has very oily skin, uses nothing else. 80% coconut, 20% olive oil with 35% salt.


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## Arimara (Aug 18, 2016)

I will suggest against bentonite clay unless the soap's recipe has a low cleansing level AND no one with dry(ish) type skin will use it. That stuff is no joke (I used one of my sister's soaps and it had bentonite clay in it. Not too bad but it was a little much for my skin). Grapeseed oil is also known to be a major culprit where DOS is concerned. Activated Charcoal is good as it's clearing my skin up my skin and coconut milk is lovely in soap. The only thing I can ad is tea tree EO or Rosemary EO. Some people don't think it would work but it's been effective for my combination skin.


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## DapperDan (Aug 30, 2016)

I make a TeaTree coconut bar for my son and he really likes it. He freaks out when he runs out and gets a little breakout. 

80% coconut oil
20% olive oil
Superfat at 20%
Tea Tree oil
French green clay
I make it hot process.
Lathers really nice and leaves you feeling clean with no residue.

Good luck.


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## DianaPopova (Mar 9, 2017)

I can't provide you with a certain recipe ( cos I make soaps from a base ), but such ingredients like Avocado oil, Tea Tree essential oil, Kaolin Clay are very helpful.


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## randycoxclemson (Mar 9, 2017)

The "swimmer soap" I made for a teenager who can't get the chlorine smell out turned out to be a perfect acne soap.  We've used it on a white head for my son to draw it out and just a dab of lather left on did the trick.  It'll suck every bit of oil and whatever else right out of your skin. 

Anyway, here's the recipe I used.  When I make it again (and I will), I'll swap water for the double-brewed coffee.

Double-brewed coffee 16.32 oz
NaOH 7.01 oz
Sea salt in the liquid 4.0 oz (dissolved in coffee before lye was added)
2 tsp honey in lye/salt/coffee solution
Big wad of tussan silk fibers in the lye solution (strained out when adding lye to oils)
Olive Oil Pomace 16.8 oz
Palm Kernel Oil Flakes 12 oz
Coconut Oil 9.6 oz
Castor Oil 4.8 oz
Shea Butter 2.4 oz
Neem Oil 2.4 oz (I'll use something else next time)
4.5 teaspoons of activated Charcoal
2 teaspoons bentonite clay
Plus a couple of scents--doesn't matter what

The stuff looked like mud but cured to a grey color and it hardened in a hurry and was ready to cut in less than a day.  

Now, I use it on my face to get oils out and it really has drawing power.

I have also made a pine tar soap which seems pretty good for acne, but I haven't had a chance to test it as much (need to recruit some neighborhood teens).


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## cherrycoke216 (Mar 9, 2017)

randycoxclemson said:


> Double-brewed coffee 16.32 oz
> NaOH 7.01 oz
> Sea salt in the liquid 4.0 oz (dissolved in coffee before lye was added)
> 2 tsp honey in lye/salt/coffee solution
> ...




Bentonite clay is quite drying, thus the drawing power. Haven't tried it, but read it here to use a light hand.( do you feel 2 teaspoons in your batch very powerful? I'm gonna try it next. )
The recipe looks promising! 
And hahaha to the recruit neighborhood teenager, have to reply because of this!!!


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## CTAnton (Mar 9, 2017)

"Neem Oil 2.4 oz (I'll use something else next time)"
Just wondering why you might look to replace this oil Randy....everything I read it's 1 of the oils highly touted in skin care...I wonder if you'll have the same results without it....


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## christost7 (Mar 10, 2017)

Few months ago I happened to read in a dermatologists paper that you should not use extremely cleansing soap on an overly oily skin because that just causes the skin to produce more oil..
Better off with a mild, balanced recipe. Activated charcoal and tee tree EO highly recommended.


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## Bamagirl (Mar 10, 2017)

I make a salt bar for my son. I also use it when my skin is oily. It seems to work pretty good. I let it cure for eight weeks before we tried it. Also, it seems to last a really long time, I'm not sure if that is because we only use it as a facial bar or if it's the nature of the salt or what. Anyway here's my recipe. (Also, I put some pictures in the photo gallery earlier this week if you want to see it.)

80% coconut oil
15% olive oil
 5% castor oil
4 oz salt (I used non-iodized table salt)
1 tablespoon activated charcoal (I had charcoal capsules that I took apart)

38% water as percent of oil weight, SF 15%

I blended the charcoal with the melted oils. Then proceeded as usual and added the salt at trace. It makes a really dark gorgeous bar--- until the soda ash sets in, then it is a lovely grey color.


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## earlene (Mar 10, 2017)

I make a powdery substance for my granddaughter, that really works exceptionally well to rid her of acne breakouts.  It may not work for everyone, of course, but it works for me, too when I get a pimple, to hurry it along and clear it up faster than when left alone.  

It contains a variety of food products that you may already have on hand, and are fairly easy to obtain at grocery and/or health food stores.  I have also added it to bar soap at my granddaughter's request because she didn't like making the paste every time she washed her face.  I also tried pre-mixing some in a tube with added preservative, but besides being an invitation to bacteria with the added water, it's also hard to figure out a way to do a good mix of water to dry ingredients for ease of application.  The bar soap with the ingredients added does not work as well as the powder made into paste on an as needed basis.  I am sure that is because of the percentage of actual ingredients used at a given time as well as possible effects of lye on the ingredients.

Ingredients include turmeric, fenugreek powder and various other items that I don't recall because I am traveling and don't have my notebook from 2015-2016 with me.  But I got the recipe from Steph Arizona on You Tube and thought I'd give it a try.  She has made lots of videos, so finding the right one may be a challenge.  I'm in a KOA for the next couple of days and the internet is so slow here, I doubt I'll be able to find the right video.  Oh, cool, I just realized I saved it to my bookmarks, so here it is if you are interested in trying it out:  [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7cDZ6zFNOo[/ame]


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## toxikon (Mar 10, 2017)

CTAnton said:


> "Neem Oil 2.4 oz (I'll use something else next time)"
> Just wondering why you might look to replace this oil Randy....everything I read it's 1 of the oils highly touted in skin care...I wonder if you'll have the same results without it....



I agree, neem is seriously amazing. It has very strong anti-fungal/anti-bacterial properties. I'm allergic to many antibiotics (like polysporin) and I had an infected-looking cut on my hand. I slathered it with neem and put a bandaid on top, and the next day it looked WAY better. And continued to heal up extremely quickly.

It smells god-awful (rotten fish + chicken ramen comes to mind...) but it's a very effective oil. If I was making an acne bar for myself, I'd HP it and use a bit of neem as the superfat.


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## SaltedFig (Mar 10, 2017)

toxikon said:


> It smells god-awful (rotten fish + chicken ramen comes to mind...) but it's a very effective oil. If I was making an acne bar for myself, I'd HP it and use a bit of neem as the superfat.



I'm so glad you said this, because neem is one of the few oils I cannot stand! Just recently I tossed the left-over oil I had from neem soap experiments, because I was not going to be putting it in anything!

Murphy's Law kicked in almost immediately of course - two days after I threw the neem oil out, the local vet suggested that I put it in a dog wash soap.

PS. I agree that a gentle soap is best for acne prone skin - I find my formulations aren't too different from something I would use for elderly skin.


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## toxikon (Mar 10, 2017)

SaltedFig said:


> I'm so glad you said this, because neem is one of the few oils I cannot stand! Just recently I tossed the left-over oil I had from neem soap experiments, because I was not going to be putting it in anything!
> 
> Murphy's Law kicked in almost immediately of course - two days after I threw the neem oil out, the local vet suggested that I put it in a dog wash soap.
> 
> PS. I agree that a gentle soap is best for acne prone skin - I find my formulations aren't too different from something I would use for elderly skin.



I've applied neem oil directly to my face... boy, that was a mistake. What a smell! And it sticks with you a long time.

I wonder what EOs/FOs would nicely mask the scent in soap. There must be a way...


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## randycoxclemson (Mar 10, 2017)

toxikon said:


> I agree, neem is seriously amazing. It has very strong anti-fungal/anti-bacterial properties. I'm allergic to many antibiotics (like polysporin) and I had an infected-looking cut on my hand. I slathered it with neem and put a bandaid on top, and the next day it looked WAY better. And continued to heal up extremely quickly.
> 
> It smells god-awful (rotten fish + chicken ramen comes to mind...) but it's a very effective oil. If I was making an acne bar for myself, I'd HP it and use a bit of neem as the superfat.


The main reason I'll swap it out is that I have only a tiny amount (someone gave it to me) and yes, it does smell horrible.

The reason for including it in this recipe was not for skin qualities, but for deodorizing properties (to cover the chlorine).  Plus, it's a little expensive.


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## Zany_in_CO (Mar 11, 2017)

gsc said:


> I'd like to make soap for my grandson and daughter - grandson has typical teenage acne breakouts and daughter has very oily skin.


You've gotten some good advice from others, but I just wanted to add that if your grandson drinks a lot of Coke (or whatever sugary soda) and eats chips or french fries with that, then he needs to stop. I know, I know, who can tell a teenager anything?! They know it all! LOL

That being said, I would use different soaps for the grandson vs. the daughter. 

100% lard soap is very good for all types of skin problems. I might add 10% coconut oil (cleansing) and 5% castor (healing) for lather; soap at 5-6% SF. To offset the odor of lard/tallow, I use Oakmoss absolute 10%, diluted in 90% jojoba (to extend shelf life) at 1 oz PPO. Maybe a blend of Rosemary, Lavender & Tea Tree for fragrance and their beneficial qualities?

Another thought: Take out about 1/6 of the soap batter, add 1-1.5% activated charcoal, dump it back in the soap pot, give it a quick swirl, and pour.

Okaybye


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## VonnieDeak (Jul 29, 2017)

*Keeping Coconut Oil at 60 %*

I have terribly oily skin and hard water so I usually keep my coconut oil anywhere from 50 to 60 percent in a recipe.  Here is a tried and true simple recipe:

4 oz. castor
10 oz. coconut
2 oz. shea butter
8 oz. aloe vera gel
2.34 oz. lye

Both shea butter and aloe vera gel are noncomedogenic.  In other words they don't block pores.  Castor is low in comedogenicy.  Coconut is high but it is only used at about 60 %.  The other oils balance it out.  I have tried this recipe and it makes a nice bar of soap so you can try it and tell everybody how you like it.  The high amount of castor in it brings it to trace fast so you have to work fast with this recipe but other than that nothing should hold you back.  Also, I put rosemary, lavender and tea tree oil in it to give it a herbal scent.  About .5 oz. of each.  The tea tree oil prevents break outs.  You can also alter this recipe and use 2 oz. of neem oil instead of the 4 oz. of castor use 2 oz. of castor.  Neem oil is wonderful for acne prone skin.  I know other people in the group has said that, also.  ANYWHO!!! If you try it let me know


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