Newborn Baby Skin: The Gentlest Handmade Soap Options

When caring for your newborn’s delicate skin, choosing the right baby soap is essential. Newborn skin is sensitive, thinner, and more prone to irritation than adult skin, so it’s important to use a gentle baby cleanser that protects and nurtures without harsh ingredients. Guidance from organisations like the American Academy of Dermatology and Mayo Clinic consistently recommends mild, fragrance-free products for newborn skin. As an experienced artisan soap maker, I’ve spent years perfecting recipes that cater to sensitive skin types, ensuring every bar is kind, soothing, and safe for even the most delicate users.

Below, I’ll share insights into the best handmade soap options for newborns, the natural ingredients to look for, and practical advice to help you make the right choice for your baby’s first cleanse.

Why Handmade Soap is Ideal for Newborns

Handmade soaps, especially those crafted using the traditional cold-process method, are often a better choice than many commercial options for babies. Unlike mass-produced soaps, which can contain synthetic detergents and strong fragrances, handmade soaps rely on natural oils, butters, and botanicals that gently cleanse without stripping the skin of its natural moisture. For a broader comparison of gentle bar options, you might find our guide to discovering the best soap bars for sensitive skin useful when you’re choosing products for the whole family.

In my own soap-making practice, I’ve found that cold-process soaps retain the natural glycerin produced during saponification. Glycerin acts as a humectant, helping the skin stay hydrated, which is especially helpful for newborns whose skin can lose moisture quickly. Clinical guidance on managing dry and eczema-prone skin in babies also highlights the role of humectants and emollients in supporting a healthy skin barrier. You can see this reflected in resources from the National Eczema Society, NHS Atopic Eczema guidance, and professional emollient summaries like NICE’s emollient and barrier preparations overview.

Handmade soaps also allow full control over ingredients, avoiding parabens, sulfates, synthetic fragrances, and other potential irritants. If you’d like to think more broadly about values as well as ingredients, our guide to ethical soap bars and why your choices matter is a good companion read.

If you’d prefer a ready-made option, you can explore our handmade soap collection for gentle, cold-process bars that are suitable for sensitive and family use.

Benefits of Handmade Baby Soap

• Gentle cleansing: Mild formulas that wash without stripping the skin.

• Moisturising properties: Rich in natural oils and glycerin to help lock in hydration.

• Customisable ingredients: Easy to avoid known triggers and cater to sensitive skin.

• Eco-friendly: Biodegradable recipes and minimal, plastic-free packaging.

• Handcrafted quality: Each bar is made in small batches with care and attention.

The Best Ingredients for Newborn Soap

Choosing the right ingredients is crucial when crafting or buying soap for a newborn. Over the years, I’ve refined my recipes to use only the most gentle and nurturing components.

Olive Oil

Olive oil is a classic soap-making base and can create a mild, conditioning bar with a creamy lather. For babies, an olive-oil-rich soap can provide a gentle cleanse without disrupting the skin’s natural barrier when properly balanced with other ingredients and rinsed off well. However, research suggests that leave-on olive oil (used directly on the skin as an oil) may not support barrier function in the same way and is best used cautiously on newborn skin. This has been highlighted in both adult and infant studies looking at the effect of oils on barrier integrity. You can read more in studies such as Danby et al. on olive vs sunflower oil in adults and infant work summarised by The University of Manchester and Cooke et al. on topical oils in neonates.

If you’d like to see how we approach gentle oil blends more generally, our guide to Castile soap body wash recipes and best practices explains how we balance different plant oils for mildness.

Shea Butter

Known for its moisturising properties, shea butter leaves the skin soft and hydrated. Its mild, non-comedogenic nature makes it ideal for delicate, newborn skin and it features in many emollient products recommended for dry or atopic-prone skin.

Coconut Oil (in Moderation)

Coconut oil helps create a bubbly lather and thorough cleanse, but in high concentrations it can feel drying. For baby soap, I recommend using it sparingly and balancing it with more conditioning oils like olive or sweet almond oil, in line with evidence that the overall oil blend matters for infant skin comfort and barrier function.

Oats

Finely ground oats are a wonderful addition for their soothing properties. Colloidal oatmeal, in particular, has a growing evidence base for improving dryness and atopic dermatitis in children and babies when used in washes and creams. A gentle oat-infused baby soap can help calm irritation and support the skin’s natural barrier, especially in families with sensitive or eczema-prone skin.

Chamomile Extract

Chamomile is traditionally valued for its calming and anti-inflammatory properties. Modern clinical trials and systematic reviews suggest chamomile-containing creams and gels can help with inflammatory skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis, though formulations and doses vary. A touch of chamomile infusion or extract in a rinse-off baby soap can contribute a gentle soothing element, used carefully and in low concentrations.

Unscented or Lightly Scented with Essential Oils

Newborns are particularly sensitive to strong fragrances. Most paediatric and dermatology guidance recommends fragrance-free, hypoallergenic products in the early months, and an evidence-based infant bathing guideline advises simple, mild cleansers and careful rinsing. You can see this approach reflected in evidence-based infant bathing guidance and in resources from Summer Health’s newborn bathing guide and National Eczema Society advice for babies with eczema.

Because essential oils are highly concentrated, I generally recommend completely unscented bars for newborns. Light, carefully dosed essential oils may be introduced later on in childhood, but should always be used with caution and preferably with professional advice, especially on already-fragile or inflamed skin.

Ingredients to Avoid in Baby Soap

Just as important as what to include is what to avoid. For newborns, I recommend steering clear of:

• Synthetic fragrances: A common cause of irritation and allergic reactions.

• Harsh detergents (like SLS/SLES): These can strip the skin’s natural oils and disrupt the skin barrier.

• High levels of essential oils: Even “natural” oils can be too strong for newborns if not extremely well diluted.

• Physical exfoliants: Things like salt, coffee grounds or pumice are far too abrasive for baby skin.

Clinical guidance for babies with eczema often advises avoiding standard soaps, bubble baths and perfumed washes altogether, in favour of emollient-based cleansers, which reinforces the value of keeping baby products very simple. You can see this in resources from the National Eczema Society, NHS Atopic Eczema guidance and paediatric eczema handouts such as this Derbyshire clinical guideline for children with eczema.

For a broader look at labels, sustainability and ethics on adult bars (which still helps train your eye for ingredient lists), our article on ethical soap bars and why your choices matter is a helpful reference.

How to Use Handmade Baby Soap Safely

Even with the gentlest bar, a few simple steps can help keep your baby’s skin comfortable:

• Patch test first: Try any new soap on a small area of your baby’s skin and wait 24 hours before using it more widely.

• Use sparingly: Newborns don’t need much soap. Often, plain water is enough for most of the body, with a little mild soap used for dirty areas. Evidence-based infant bathing guidelines emphasise short baths, lukewarm water, and simple, gentle products.

• Rinse thoroughly: Make sure all soap is rinsed off completely to avoid residue.

• Moisturise after bathing if needed: If your baby has dry or eczema-prone skin, applying a fragrance-free emollient after the bath can support the barrier. Emollient guidance from dermatology and paediatric services highlights how regular moisturising is key in managing dry and atopic skin in children.

• Store soap properly: Keep your bar on a well-draining dish so it can dry between uses and last longer.

If you’d like ideas on using one gentle base soap throughout your home in a low-waste way, our article on 10 everyday uses for Castile soap shows how a simple plant-based soap can support the whole household.

Our Recommendations for Gentle Baby Cleansers

At The Humble Shepherd Co., we focus on creating soaps that are as kind to your baby as they are to the planet. Our unscented baby-friendly bars are made with a blend of olive oil, shea butter and soothing botanicals like oats and chamomile, providing a calm, creamy lather for delicate skin. For slightly older babies, our very lightly scented options are formulated with the same care, keeping fragrance levels minimal and always within recognised safety guidelines.

You can browse our handmade soap collection for gentle, baby-friendly bars if you’d like a ready-to-use alternative to DIY recipes.

If you’d like to go deeper into vegan choices and baby-safe formulations, our guide on vegan baby soap and the top nine factors for choosing the best walks through labels, certifications and ethical sourcing in more detail.

Final Thoughts on Choosing Baby Soap

Newborn skin deserves the utmost care, and choosing the right baby soap can make a real difference. Opting for handmade, natural options helps ensure your little one’s skin is cleansed gently and supported rather than stripped. Whether you prefer a simple olive-oil-rich bar, an oat-infused formula or a chamomile blend, remember that less is often more when it comes to baby skincare.

If you’d like to keep the rest of your family’s routine just as gentle, our Castile soap body wash guide shows how to build simple, skin-kind body washes from the same philosophy.

If you’re unsure which soap is best for your newborn, you’re always welcome to get in touch. I’m happy to share my experience and help you find the perfect bar for your little one’s needs.