How to make Aleppo soap

Aleppo soap comes obviously from Aleppo-Syria. It is a ancient traditional cold process soap well-known to treat any type of skin condition eg. eczema, psoriasis, acne  . The key ingredient in this soap is Laurel berry oil which is quite expensive to get as it is an obtained oil- from manually pressing the laurel berries. This how Aleppo soap gets that distinctive beautiful dark earthy green color.

ALEPPO SOAP

Aleppo soap in Syria follows same recipe and method as basic olive soap – Castilla  or Marseilles  but using  Laurel berry oil /laurel fruit oil (which is very expensive ) therefore you have 2 alternatives options:

1. Buy small amount and  mix it with the olive oil in your basic olive oil soap recipe . Maybe you could start with 20-25% of laurel fruit oil in your olive oil soap recipe.
2. Use bay leaves (if you can not collect the berries)  infused oil instead (use hot infused method). You could also add Laurel essential oil (Laurus Nobilis) to the soap to enhance its benefits . But the active ingredients from the bay leaves are much less concentrated and different from the berries.

If you happen you have a laurel tree in your garden or where you live here is the artisan method to obtain the oil

Handmade Laurel berry/fruit oil

You need to collect laurel berries or laurel fruit , make sure you are collecting the right variety of laurel “Laurus nobilis”  not any other that are poisonous .

For example from 600 grms of laurel berries you will extract 30 grams of laurel berry oil . It is actually a butter-like. Very thick and sticky and smell horrible yet it is well-known to treat skin conditions.

1. Mash the berries up with pestle and mortar
2. Cover with water and simmer for 30 min
3. Sieve the berries by pressing the berries as much as you can.
4. The remain liquid is a mixture of water and oil extracted from the berries.
5. Leave the mixture to rest for 24-48 hours
6. The oil/butter like will separate/float over the water
7. Scoop the oil and paste (brownish colour) out
8. Put the oil paste to simmer again until the water residues evaporate
9. You will be left with the pure clean laurel berry oil with its distinctive dark green colour.
10. This laurel fruit oil is double concentrated in active ingredients than laurel bay leaves. But it all depends if you are able to find laurel berries where you live. If not then you have to infuse laurel bay leaves through traditional oil infusion method: cold or hot process . I suggest hot process because they are hard leaves.

Aleppo soap is ancient soap made in Syria well-known for its therapeutic properties  to treat all type of skin conditions. It is a great anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, healing and soothing soap.

If you do not know how to make cold process soap I invite you to enrol in my online soapmaking course here 

or if you prefer to learn by reading you can purchase my soapmaking ebook here

Enjoy!

La Mayca x

Mayca Fernandez@WapoBeauty  www.wapo.ie has created these skincare recipes, formula and information based on knowledge , training and experience . They are given in good faith and WapoBeauty is not taking responsibility in mistakes, faults or damages result from making these products.  These skincare recipes are for personal use ONLY. Please do not share or distribute for commercial purposes. If you are receiving these recipes from someone else that is not Wapobeauty please contact me info@wapo.ie

© Copyright 2019– WapoBeauty