Men’s Handmade Soap Recipe | Dr. Squatch Copycat Wood Barrel Bourbon

Sharing is caring!

This copycat men’s soap recipe might be your new favorite handmade soap. With a woodsy and clove fragrance and plenty of grit, this soap is sure to please your man or maybe even you!

Copycat Soap Recipes

I started making copycat Squatch recipes a couple of years ago. My son loves Dr. Squatch soap and I enjoy the challenge of trying to make something similar. This Wood Barrel Bourbon, along with the Pine Tar soap are my two favorites.

The other one I have made is a Goat Milk Soap.

Ingredients for Men’s Handmade Cold Process Soap Recipe

Soap Base Ingredients

• 9 oz coconut oil
• 10 oz palm oil (can substitute lard but decrease lye to 4.22 oz)
• 7 oz Olive oil
• 2 oz Shea Butter
• 10 oz distilled or filtered water
• 4.25 oz sodium hydroxide

Additives

• 1 tsp brewer’s yeast
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp annatto spice
• 1.5 TBS Cornmeal (use Jimmy Red if you can find it, if not, regular yellow cornmeal is fine)
• 1 TBS Pumice
• 2 tsp Kaolin clay mixed with 1 TBS water
• 1.5 tsp Red Iron Oxide
• 2 oz essential oils (I used .5oz sandalwood or cedarwood, 1 oz patchouli, .5 oz frankincense, 15-30 drops cloves)

Notes on the Fragrance

I couldn’t get this fragrance just right. The cloves seem to really take over and become the dominant fragrance. The actual Squatch ingredients use Guaiac wood essential oil. I did purchase this but it was a small bottle, it took a long time to arrive and the fragrance seemed lost in the soap. I found sandalwood to be an affordable and more accessible substitute. However, maybe that is why I couldn’t get it to smell just like the Wood Barrel Bourbon soap. Mine just didn’t smell as sweet. You could certainly play around with the oils to see if you can get it closer to the actual fragrance. My other thought is that perhaps Jimmy Red Cornmeal has a sweeter fragrance than regular yellow cornmeal. I wasn’t able to find any, if you have access to that, perhaps that would lend to a sweeter smell.

Maybe try more sandalwood or guaiac wood and eliminate the frankincense. The cloves make it smell lovely but if you find it still overpowering, maybe decrease it to 15-20 drops.

Notes on the Additives

The annatto spice and the raw oxide color this soap to the beautiful reddish orange. This color does show up in the shower. It hasn’t stained our tub or anything like that but it is seen in the water.

The cornmeal, yeast, and pumice add grit to this soap. It’s a nice fairly abrasive grit but not painful. If you absolutely do not like grit in your soap, feel free to eliminate any of the additives that you don’t care for. This does not change the amount of lye or oils in the soap. The additives are just additives and can be removed without altering the saponification process.

Steps for Making Men’s Squatch Soap Recipe

Step 1:

Make sure you are in a distraction-free frame of mind and that you aren’t rushed. Remember to wear safety glasses, gloves, and long sleeves.

Using a digital scale measure out all of your ingredients and additives so that they are ready to go. It makes it much easier in the long run.

Step 2:

Take the distilled water and gently pour the sodium hydroxide into the water, mix well, and set aside to cool to approximately 110-120 degrees F

Step 3:

Melt the fats and oils until all of them together reach about 110-120 degrees F

Step 4:

Once both the oils and the lye are around the same temperature 100 degrees or so, dissolve the salt in the lye solution. Next, pour the lye solution into the oils and use an immersion blender to mix until you reach a light trace.

Step 5:

When you reach a light trace, start putting in the additives. Make sure you mix well, you may want to grab a whisk and mix and scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure they are evenly distributed. Add in the essential oils. Continue to mix using the immersion blender until you reach a nice thick trace.

Pour into a mold and cover. I use a piece of cardboard and then wrap the whole thing with a towel. Let it sit for 24 hours before unmolding and cutting. Once cut, let the bars cure for at least 4 weeks.

Enjoy!