Soap Made With Grapefruit Juice. It's Possible. And Easy.

I never would have attempted this is it weren’t for stangemerlot’s video on YouTube. There’s a soap making myth that juices with high amounts of acid (like grapefruit and lemon) will neutralize the lye and prevent saponification.

Well, it’s simply not true.

I made this with 100% grapefruit juice (that I froze) and a recipe of 68.75% olive oil, 25% coconut oil and 6.25% castor oil—all at room temperature. The lye was added slowly (like when making soap with milk or beer) while sitting in an ice bath.

It took a bit longer to trace, but I’m sure that had to do with using cool ingredients. After I poured it into the mold (a cardboard tube lined with freezer paper), I put it the fridge overnight.

It popped out—hard as a rock—in the morning. And the grapefruit juice retained its gorgeous sunny color. Can’t tell if the scent stayed since I added a blend of grapefruit and clay sage essential oils.

I then slipped my grapefruit soap into a slightly larger lined cardboard tube and embedded it in a regular batch containing olive oil infused with garden sage, Russian sage and purple sage. A little charcoal added to half. An in the pot swirl.

I think my New Year’s resolution is going to be trying to do the impossible. It’s not as difficult as it seems. At least in the case of making soap with grapefruit soap.