How to Make Aleppo Soap at Home: Step-by-Step Recipe

Aleppo soap is made from olive oil, laurel berry oil, lye and water. Nothing else. At home, you make it using the cold process in an hour of work, then leave it to cure for at least six weeks. Here is the recipe to the gram, the safety precautions and the mistakes to avoid, explained by Alepia, a soap maker specialising in Aleppo soap.

At a glance

• Ingredients: olive oil, laurel berry oil, sodium hydroxide (lye), demineralised water
• Working time: about 1 h, plus 48 h to set in the mould
• Curing: 6 weeks minimum, longer for a milder soap
• Yield: 500 g of oils make about 6 bars of 100 g, depending on curing
• Difficulty: easy, provided you respect the quantities and safety rules

Traditional Aleppo soap vs homemade Aleppo soap: what changes

In the soap factories of Aleppo, olive oil is cooked with lye in a cauldron for several days. The paste is then salted out (salt is added to separate it from the cooking water) and washed, before the laurel berry oil is added, the soap is poured onto the floor and left to dry for about nine months.

At home, you work cold: you mix the oils and the lye solution, the reaction takes place in the mould, and nothing is removed. The oils are the same; the result is an Aleppo-style soap scented with laurel. Another difference: its glycerine stays in the bar, whereas traditional Aleppo soap loses it during washing. To choose a shop-bought Aleppo soap wisely, read our Aleppo soap guide.

Equipment

• Digital scales accurate to 0.1 g, essential for weighing the lye
• Safety goggles, nitrile gloves, long sleeves
• A stainless steel or hard plastic (PP or HDPE) container for the lye, ⚠️ never aluminium: lye attacks it
• A large stainless steel container for the oils, a silicone spatula, a stick blender
• A kitchen thermometer
• A silicone mould, or a box lined with baking paper
• A well-ventilated room, with no children or pets around during preparation

Ingredients and quantities

Three versions, depending on the proportion of laurel berry oil. The lye quantities are calculated for a 5% superfat (you use 5% less lye than all the oils would require, to keep a safety margin) and a 33% lye solution.

? The simplest version: just one oil to weigh. Alepia Aleppo oil is already blended, 90% olive oil and 10% laurel berry oil, organic. Three 100 ml bottles weigh about 270 g. For 270 g of oil actually weighed: 34.8 g of lye and 71 g of water, which makes about 3 bars. For a different weight, recalculate. Open this recipe in the calculator.

⚠️ Weigh everything, including the oil, and weigh the lye to 0.1 g: measuring by volume is not accurate enough. And never replace one oil with another without recalculating the lye: each oil needs a different amount. Our free soap calculator does it for you.

How to make it, step by step

1. Set up your workspace. Goggles and gloves on, window open, all ingredients weighed in advance
2. Make the lye solution. Weigh the water into the heat-resistant container, then pour the lye into the water, never the other way round. Stir gently without breathing in the fumes: the mixture gets very hot. Let it cool to around 35 to 40 °C
3. Prepare the oils. Laurel berry oil is often solid at room temperature: melt it gently, then mix it with the olive oil. Aim for the same temperature as the lye
4. Mix. Slowly pour the lye solution into the oils. Blend in pulses of a few seconds, stirring with the spatula in between
5. Wait for “trace”. The batter thickens to the consistency of custard: a drizzle poured on the surface leaves a trace. With a lot of olive oil, this can take 10 to 20 minutes. Add no fragrance or colourant: the laurel scents the soap on its own
6. Pour into the mould. Pour the batter into the mould, tap it to release air bubbles, then cover with a piece of cardboard and a towel
7. Unmould after 48 h. A soap rich in olive oil stays soft: if it is still sticky, wait one more day. Keep your gloves on, as the soap is still caustic for the first few days
8. Cut and cure. Cut into bars and place them on a rack, somewhere dry and out of the sun, turning them from time to time

Curing: six weeks minimum

During curing, water evaporates: the soap hardens and lasts longer in the shower. Six weeks is a minimum. Curing does not make up for a measuring error: only an accurate calculation and precise weighing give a safe soap. A soap very rich in olive oil keeps improving for months, which is why traditional Aleppo soap dries for about nine months. Like traditional Aleppo soap, your bar will turn slightly brown on the surface on contact with air.

Mistakes to avoid

• Pouring water onto the lye: risk of scalding splashes
• Using an aluminium utensil
• Measuring oil by volume instead of weighing it
• Changing an oil or the quantity without recalculating the lye
• Using the soap before curing is complete

Safety: sodium hydroxide (lye)

Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) is corrosive to skin and eyes. On skin: remove contaminated clothing, rinse immediately with water for at least 15 minutes, then see a doctor. In the eyes: rinse immediately under running water for at least 15 minutes and call the emergency services (999 in the UK, 112 in the EU) or a poison centre without waiting until you have finished rinsing. Store lye in a closed, labelled container, out of the reach of children.

This soap is for your personal use. To sell it, cosmetics regulations require in particular a responsible person, a product information file with a safety assessment, good manufacturing practice, compliant labelling and notification on the European CPNP portal.

Frequently asked questions

Can you make Aleppo soap without lye?

No. All soap comes from combining an oil with a base, and for a hard soap that base is sodium hydroxide. Correctly measured, the lye reacts completely with the oils during soapmaking: that is why it is weighed to 0.1 g. A measuring error cannot be fixed by waiting. The “lye-free” melt-and-pour bases on sale are soaps that have already been made, with lye.

How long should homemade Aleppo soap cure?

At least six weeks in the open air before first use. A soap rich in olive oil benefits from waiting longer: it keeps hardening and becoming milder for several months. Traditional Aleppo soap, for its part, dries for about nine months.

Where can I find laurel berry oil?

From suppliers of soapmaking raw materials. Simpler still: Alepia Aleppo oil is already blended, 90% olive oil and 10% laurel berry oil, organic. Three 100 ml bottles make about three bars.

What percentage of laurel should I choose?

5% for a mild, subtle soap, 25% for balance, 40% for a pronounced laurel scent. The amount of lye changes little from one version to another, but it does change: always recalculate.

How can you recognise genuine Aleppo soap?

Its ingredient list is short: saponified olive oil and laurel berry oil, water, with no added fragrance or colourant. The bar is golden on the surface, often green inside, and usually bears the soap factory's stamp. Our Aleppo soap guide explains these signs in detail.

Is my homemade Aleppo soap the same as traditional Aleppo soap?

It has the same oils, but not the same process. With the cold process, the whole batch stays in the mould, glycerine included. Traditional Aleppo soap is cooked in a cauldron, then salted out and washed: the glycerine leaves with the wash water, and the bar then dries for many months.

No time to wait?

Our Aleppo soaps have already been cured: 5% laurel for mildness, 25% for balance, 40% for laurel lovers. To help you choose: Aleppo soap with 5, 25 or 40% laurel. Fancy trying other recipes? Also read how to make Marseille soap at home and how to make liquid soap.