I love the speckled effect and the scent given by crushed kalonji or black seeds. This cold processed soap is made with both Blackseed oil and crushed Nigella sativa seeds. It also has Shea butter, olive, castor and coconut oil which makes a fairly hard bar with a generous foam. I have kept it unfragranced so that the spicy pepperiness of the black-seed shines through. Being unfragranced, this is a good soap for sensitive and inflammed skin or for people who do not like scent in their products.

The following formula has a total of 500g/just over 1 lb of oils. To increase the batch size simply chose the amount needed for your particular mould and run it through a lye calculator to get amount of sodium hydroxide needed for your oils.

I tend to soap at cold or room temperature, the highest I would probably go is tepid. To ascertain the temperature I simply touch the side of the containers containing the oil and lye to make sure it is cool enough.

To crush the black seeds, I used a coffee grinder to make fine to semi-fine grounds. I purchased the black seeds from the supermarket.

This guide assumes you know the basic soap making process and know how to handle lye safely. If you are a beginner I suggest you not try this until you have some experience.

Please follow the column entries for 500g rather than the percentage column.

Formula

Superfat: 5%

Method:

1. Weight out the water and sodium hydroxide in separate containers.

2. Carefully pour the sodium hydroxide into the water and stir until dissolved

3. Set aside and leave until it reaches a luke-warm or cold to touch temperature. You can feel the side of the container to gauge the temperature.

4. In a separate container, weigh the shea butter and coconut oil and melt, either in the microwave or over a double boiler.

5. Weigh all other oils and add to the shea and coconut oil. At this point you can stick blend it to ensure the mix is homogenous.

6. Pour the lye (sodium hydroxide and water) into the oils and stick blend.

7. When you have reached a medium to thick trace, add the crushed nigella seeds. This is to ensure they are suspended in the soap batter and don’t sink to the bottom of the vessel.

8. Stir and pour into moulds.

9. Leave to set for 24-48 hours and unmould

10. Place the soap onto a tray and leave for a further 4-6 weeks to cure.