Homemade Eucalyptus Mint Tallow Soap (Cold-Process)

You are going to love this recipe for Eucalyptus, Mint & Dead Sea Salt Tallow Soap. It’s an energizing, skin-loving bar that smells like a breath of fresh air—literally. Plus, it’s made with tallow, which gives it a creamy lather and old-fashioned charm that modern skin truly loves.

The combination of eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils gives this soap a minty-menthol spa scent that opens your sinuses and clears your mind. It’s cool, fresh, & herbal. Bonus: Both essential oils have antimicrobial and soothing skin benefits.

You may also like our how-tos on making 3 Sugar Tallow Soap, Spiced Honey Vanilla Tallow Soap, Coffee Scrub Tallow Soap, Tallow Laundry Soap, Tallow Shampoo Bars, or Tallow Balms.

Why You’ll Love This Minty Soap

The scent gives you instant spa vibes. Mint and eucalyptus? Say no more. Dead sea salt offers a gentle exfoliation and a mineral-rich glow your skin will love.

Tallow gives you a creamy yet firm bar, and it’s even great for sensitive skin. And you won’t want to skip on those beautiful blue and white swirls that make these usable art pieces that are perfectly gift-ready.

Benefits of Tallow in Homemade Soap

If you’re new to tallow, here’s the deal: it’s rendered beef fat—and yes, that sounds weird, but hear me out. When properly rendered (low and slow), it becomes a clean fat that makes hard, long-lasting soap bars that don’t dry out your skin.

Tallow is rich in stearic and oleic acid, both skin-friendly fatty acids that offer a creamy, conditioning lather. Plus, it’s a great way to reduce waste if you’re sourcing it locally with your beef purchases.

You can render it yourself or buy pre-cleaned tallow from soap-making suppliers or farms. I won’t judge either way (I’ve done both—and spilled both).

Benefits of Dead Sea Salt in Soap

Dead Sea salt is rich in minerals like magnesium, potassium, and calcium—all great for the skin. It makes the soap bar harder (so it lasts longer) and adds gentle exfoliation.

Just make sure to use fine grain salt so it doesn’t scratch sensitive areas. Avoid super coarse salt unless you’re exfoliating elephant skin. Kidding (kind of).

• Beef Tallow (60%) – Tallow provides a hard, long-lasting bar with excellent conditioning properties
• Olive Oil (20%) – Olive oil is a mild, moisturizing oil that creates a gentle lather in soaps
• Coconut Oil (20%) – Coconut oil gives you both cleansing and bubbles

Homemade Tallow Soap Instructions

Infuse Tallow: I like to weigh and infuse my tallow with chamomile in a small crockpot on the warm setting for 24-48 hours before I plan to make my soap.

Preparing Ingredients

Melt Fats and Oils: When I am ready to make soap, I will measure and add my olive oil and coconut oil to the crockpot of tallow and allow them to come to the same temperature. This is usually somewhere between 130-165 degrees. 

Prepare Your Work Area: Wear gloves and goggles, and work in a well-ventilated area when using lye. 

Dissolve Salt: Measure out warm water and add in your Dead Sea salt, stirring until dissolved. Place in the fridge to cool for 20 minutes.

Make the Lye Solution: Place salt water in a heat-resistant bowl and lye crystals in another bowl. Slowly add sodium hydroxide (lye) to the water (never the other way around!). Stir until fully dissolved. Allow the lye solution to cool to around 100 degrees. This will take about 15-20 minutes. 

Cool Oils: Strain oils using mesh strainer and a cheesecloth into a soap-safe bowl and let the oils cool to around 100 degrees. This will take around 15-20 minutes.

Making the Soap

Combine Lye Solution & Oils: Slowly pour the lye solution into the oils while stirring with a spatula. Using an immersion blender, keep it submerged, and pulse for about 15 seconds. Then use a spatula to stir the mixture, switching between pulsing and stirring.

Add Scents to Soap Batter: Add in the essential oils and give a couple of pulses to incorporate until you’ve reached a very light trace (a thick milk consistency). 

Color Soap Batter: Add 2 teaspoons of indigo to the first container, 1 teaspoon of indigo to the second, and none to the third. Evenly divide the soap batter into the 3 soap-safe containers.

Working with one container at a time (starting with the darker blue), use an immersion blender to mix until a medium trace is reached. The batter may thicken quickly!

Layering Soap Batter: First, pour the darkest blue batter into the soap mold, followed by the lighter blue, and then the white. Go slowly so layers don’t split. I like to reserve a bit of the dark blue batter to swirl on top of the loaf, but this is optional.

Texture the Top: After all of the batter is poured into the mold, use a spoon, skewer, or spatula to texture the top of the soap as desired. Sprinkle a bit more Dead Sea Salt on top.  

Curing the Soap

Saponify and Cut: Lightly covered soap with plastic wrap (to help prevent soda ash). Allow it to fully saponify for 24 hours before unmolding. Cut into bars of desired size.

Cure Soap: Place cut bars in a dark, dry area for 4-6 weeks for best hardness and lather. 

Customization Ideas

Feel free to play with the essential oil blend. Add rosemary for an herbaceous twist, lavender if you want to mellow the mint, or even try spearmint instead of peppermint for a softer note. You can also try:

Cure Time and Storage

Cure your soap for 4–6 weeks (or more) in a well-ventilated, dry area. This allows the soap to fully saponify, harden, and become gentler. I like to a cardboard box lined with parchment paper to store my bars.

Keep bars away from direct sunlight or humidity. Soap with salt will draw moisture from the air if it is humid and may bead up on the soap. After the first couple of uses, the salt on top will dissolve.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Too much salt = crumbly mess. Stick to around 1/2-1 teaspoon of salt per pound of oils.

Pouring too late. Salt speeds things up—get it into the mold quickly or it’ll be tough to pour!

Unmolding too late. 24 hours to saponify is ideal, as any longer it may become too hard to cut. Some people like to use individual molds when using salt in soap to prevent this.

Whether you’re gifting these bars or hoarding them like a treasure troll (no shame), you’ve now got a natural soap that’s as functional as it is fabulous!