A bar of Aleppo soap is the end of a long year. The laurel berries are gathered in autumn, the soap is cooked in winter, and the bars are left to dry until the next autumn. In 2024 UNESCO added this craft to its list of intangible cultural heritage (UNESCO).
Here is how it works, step by step, followed by an honest look at making an Aleppo-style bar in your own kitchen. If you are new to the soap itself, start with what Aleppo soap is.
Key takeaways
- It is seasonal. Najel cooks from the end of November to the end of March (Najel).
- It is still largely done by hand: poured on the floor, cut in wooden shoes, stamped one bar at a time (UNESCO).
- It cures for months. Bars dry for 6-9 months or more and lose about 30% of their weight (Najel).
- You can make an Aleppo-style bar at home with olive oil, laurel berry oil, water and lye.
- Lye is caustic. Protective gear and a lye calculator are not optional.
The short answer
Aleppo soap is made by cooking olive oil with lye and water in large vats, adding laurel berry oil, pouring the hot soap across the floor to set, then cutting, hand-stamping and stacking the bars to cure for 6-9 months or more. The whole cycle takes most of a year. At home, a similar bar can be made by the cold process method with the same four ingredients.
A year in an Aleppo soap house
The season starts with the laurel harvest. UNESCO describes wild laurel berries being gathered in autumn, boiled and the oil skimmed off (UNESCO). It is slow work: one study of the traditional method in Hatay found it recovered about 10% oil from berries containing about 20% (Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, 2001).
Cooking is a winter job. The Kadah family, who now make Aleppo soap in Nizip, Turkey, work from November to March (New Lines Magazine, 2025), and Najel gives the same season (Najel). Cool, dry months help the freshly cut soap set before it goes into the towers.
How Aleppo soap is made, step by step
1. Cook the olive oil
Water and sodium hydroxide are heated in large vats, and olive oil is added. Najel describes 12 hours of heating (Najel); Wikipedia describes the traditional cooking as lasting around three days (Wikipedia). The lye turns the oil into soap and releases glycerin, a reaction called saponification.
2. Add the laurel oil
Laurel berry oil goes in later. At Najel it is added the next day, after a rest (Najel). How much is added sets the bar's strength, from 0% to 40% or more; our guide to the laurel oil percentage explains the options.
3. Rinse
Some makers rinse the soap paste with salt water to wash out excess lye. That is why traces of sodium chloride can appear on a label (Najel). Our ingredients guide decodes the rest.
4. Pour
The hot soap is poured across the factory floor in a thick, even layer and left to set (UNESCO).
5. Cut and stamp
Workers walk across the set slab in wooden shoes, using a rake-like tool to score it into cubes. Each bar is then stamped by hand with the maker's seal (UNESCO). Najel uses a traditional foot-operated cutting tool (Najel). Because it is handmade, no two bars are exactly the same shape.
6. Cure
The bars are stacked in open towers, with gaps for air, and left to dry for 6-9 months or more (UNESCO). Najel dries its bars for at least nine months in ventilated rooms, away from sunlight (Najel).
During that time, water evaporates, the bar hardens and the outside oxidises to a golden tan while the inside stays green. Our article on why Aleppo soap is cured goes deeper.
Pro Tip: The stamp tells a story. Many makers stamp their family name or seal on each bar, so the stamp is often the quickest way to see who made it. Our guide on how to spot fake Aleppo soap shows what else to check.
Why the method matters
Before the war, Aleppo had around 100 soap factories, according to AFP; by 2019 only about a dozen were working again (AFP via Business Standard, 2019). Many makers rebuilt in Turkey, Lebanon and France, using the same steps. The history of Aleppo soap and Aleppo soap and the Syrian war tell that story.
See the result. Traditional bars, cured for months, with the laurel percentage on every bar. See all Aleppo soaps
Can you make Aleppo soap at home?
Yes, you can make an Aleppo-style soap at home. It will not be identical to soap cooked for days in a cauldron and cured in a tower in Aleppo, but the ingredients are the same: olive oil, laurel berry oil, water and lye. Most home soap makers use the cold process method, where the oils and the lye solution are mixed at a moderate temperature and left to saponify in the mould.
Safety first
Sodium hydroxide is strongly caustic and can burn skin and eyes (CDC/NIOSH). Before you buy anything, read these rules:
- Cover up: gloves, goggles and long sleeves.
- Always add lye to cold water, never water to lye.
- Ventilate: mix outdoors or under an extractor; the fumes sting.
- Keep it away from children, pets and food preparation.
- Use a lye calculator and weigh everything on a digital scale.
Choosing your oils
An Aleppo-style recipe uses only two oils. Home soap makers often mirror commercial strengths:
- Mild laurel: about 90% olive oil and 10% laurel berry oil.
- Classic: about 80% olive oil and 20% laurel berry oil.
- Strong: about 60% olive oil and 40% laurel berry oil.
We deliberately do not give lye quantities here. The right amount depends on your exact oils, weights and the superfat you choose, so enter your recipe into a lye calculator such as SoapCalc and follow the result to the gram.
Curing at home
Cold process soap is usually cured for at least 4-6 weeks, and olive-rich bars are often left for several months to harden fully. Stand the bars on their edges somewhere airy, out of direct sunlight, and turn them now and then.
| Step | Traditional Aleppo method | Typical home method |
|---|---|---|
| Batch size | Tonnes, in large vats | About 0.5-1 kg of oils |
| Heat | Cooked for many hours (hot process) | Usually cold process, oils barely warm |
| Laurel oil | Added after the olive oil has cooked | Mixed with the olive oil before the lye |
| Moulding | Poured across the factory floor | Poured into a lined mould |
| Cutting | Walked on in wooden shoes and cut with a rake-like tool | Cut with a knife after a day or two |
| Stamp | Hand-stamped with the maker's seal | Optional |
| Curing | 6-9 months or more in open towers | At least 4-6 weeks; olive-rich bars often longer |
Pro Tip: Making soap to sell is a different matter. In the EU, soap sold as a cosmetic must meet Regulation 1223/2009, including a safety assessment and correct labelling (EU Regulation 1223/2009). Keep home batches for your own use.
Frequently asked questions
How is traditional Aleppo soap made?
The oils are cooked with water and alkali, and the soap is poured onto a prepared workshop surface. Once firm enough, it is cut into bars and stamped. The bars are stacked with spaces between them so air can circulate while they dry. The stamp and small differences in shape reflect manual work, but do not replace ingredient and origin information.
Why is Aleppo soap dried for months?
Drying allows water to leave the freshly made soap so the bar becomes firmer. Bars are stacked with air gaps rather than packed tightly together. ALEPO’s product pages state nine months of air-drying; traditional production times vary by maker. Soap sold as a finished bar has already been dried—you do not need to wait another nine months after delivery.
Why is sodium hydroxide used to make Aleppo soap?
Sodium hydroxide is the alkali that reacts with the oils during saponification to make hard soap. A label can list the starting ingredients or the resulting soap ingredients, such as sodium olivate. Seeing sodium hydroxide on an ingredient list does not by itself tell you how much free alkali remains. Product safety depends on correct formulation and testing, not on the length of curing alone.
Can I make Aleppo-style soap at home?
It is possible to make soap from olive and laurel berry oils, but the ingredient list is not a complete recipe. The alkali quantity must be calculated for the exact oils and weights, and sodium hydroxide requires appropriate training and protective equipment. Drying for longer cannot reliably fix an incorrectly formulated batch. A finished bar avoids handling raw lye yourself.
The bottom line
Aleppo soap is made in a slow, seasonal cycle: autumn laurel, winter cooking, hand cutting and stamping, then 6-9 months or more in open towers. That long cure is what turns a soft, green slab into a hard, tan-crusted bar.
You can make an Aleppo-style bar at home with the same four ingredients, but treat lye with respect and let a calculator do the maths. Or let the soap houses do the waiting for you. Once you have a bar, see how to use Aleppo soap and keep it dry on a draining soap dish.
Skip the nine-month wait. Choose from Pure Olive, 10%, 20% or 40% laurel, or try all four in the Discovery Set. Free EU shipping over €50.
Related reading: Aleppo vs Marseille vs Castile soap, the best Aleppo soap brands and where to buy Aleppo soap.
Sources
- UNESCO. "Craftsmanship of Aleppo Ghar soap." 2024. https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/craftsmanship-of-aleppo-ghar-soap-02132
- Najel. "Fabrication du savon d'Alep Najel." Accessed 4 October 2026. https://najel.net/en/pages/fabrication-du-savon-dalep-najel
- New Lines Magazine. "The resilient artisans keeping Aleppo soap alive." 27 February 2025. https://newlinesmag.com/spotlight/the-resilient-artisans-keeping-aleppo-soap-alive/
- Wikipedia. "Aleppo soap." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo_soap
- Wikipedia. "Saponification." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponification
- Hatay Mustafa Kemal University. "Defne meyvası yağ veriminin arttırılması ve bileşiminin gaz kromatografi cihazı ile belirlenmesi" (Increasing laurel fruit oil yield). 2001. https://openaccess.mku.edu.tr/items/c8cfe679-1e0e-47d1-a641-3fa218b1cadb
- AFP. "The scent of soap making returns to Aleppo." 22 March 2019 (via Business Standard). https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/the-scent-of-soap-making-returns-to-aleppo-119032201006_1.html
- CDC/NIOSH. "Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards: Sodium hydroxide." https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0565.html
- SoapCalc. Lye calculator. https://www.soapcalc.net/
- European Union. Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32009R1223
