Oat Milk and Lavender Cold Process Soap

A new spin on the traditional lavender soap recipe with the addition of oat milk and a dash of geranium essential oil. So soothing!

In the wintertime I find myself gravitating to everything that helps relieve dry skin (or at least doesn’t make it worse!) and soothes itchiness. My go to remedies are frequent milk baths and the use of body butter and gentle face masks. And, of course, soap that’s gentle and supercharged with skin loving ingredients. Hence this recipe.

Let’s take a closer look at how to prepare your ingredients for this soap.

What is oat milk?

Oat milk is simply rolled oats and water blended together.

How to Make Homemade Oat Milk

1. Place 1/4 cup of old fashioned rolled oats in a high speed blender (a not so high speed blender works too;)
2. Add a cup of water
3. Blend on high for 20 – 30 seconds
4. For this soap I didn’t strain the milk, but for food purposes strain the oat milk through a clean shirt and discard the pulp

Can I replace the entire water amount with oat milk?

For this cold process soap recipe the oat milk is added to the oils to replace a part of the water content. Making the lye solution with oat milk doesn’t work. It will result in a stringy glue like mess. I suspect it’s due to the amount of starch that reacts badly with the lye.

Skin Benefits of Oats

• They contain lipids that nourish skin and replenish oils that have been lost from the skin
• They have moisturizing properties
• They contain avenanthramides which are anti-oxidants solely found in oats
• They’re anti-inflammatory
• They are well known for their ability to soothe itchy skin
• They have cleansing properties thanks to a small amount of saponins

How to Make a Lavender Oil Infusion

There are two ways to infuse dry herbs or flowers into oil: Cold or heat infusion. Both methods start with combining plant material with oil in an airtight container (preferably made out of glass).

So, for this recipe you would take 3/4 cup of lavender buds, place them on the bottom of a mason jar, add 8.9 oz. (252 g) of olive oil, close the lid tight and give it a good shake.

Now, depending on how much time and patience you have, you can either:

a) place the mason jar on a sunny window sill for 3-4 weeks, or

b) fill a saucepan with a couple of inches of water, stand your mason jar in it, put it on a very low simmer for 2-3 hours. For this method you will have to check on your oil frequently and make sure the water hasn’t evaporated.

After the lavender is done infusing the oil, it’s time to strain the lavender buds. I used a colander that I lined with a coffee filter, but you can use a cheese cloth or very fine sifter instead.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you will I earn a commission if you decide to click through and make a purchase.

If you’ve never made cold process soap before I recommend you read my posts on lye safety, equipment needed and my beginner’s tutorial first.

What you’ll need:

• Gloves and goggles
• 2 Medium sized containers (not glass)
• Immersion blender
• Accurate digital kitchen scale
• Single cavity soap mold
• Spatula
• Small spoon (to texture top)

Ingredients (for 6 regular sized soap bars, 24 oz / 680g of soap):

This recipe is superfatted at 7%

• Distilled Water: 2.56 oz / 73 g
• Lye: 2.46 oz / 70 g
• Lavender Infused Olive Oil (48%): 8.9 oz / 252 g
• Tallow (20%): 3.7 oz / 105 g
• Coconut Oil (15%): 2.78 oz / 79 g
• Shea Butter (10%): 1.85 oz / 53 g
• Castor Oil (7%): 1.3 oz / 37 g
• Dried Lavender Buds: 1/4 cup
• Lavender Essential Oil: 17 g
• Geranium Essential Oil: 4 g

For the Oat Milk:

• Rolled Oats: 1/4 cup
• Distilled Water: 1 cup

Instructions:

1. Prepare the Lavender Infused Olive Oil by following the steps outlined in the above text
2. Prepare Oat Milk: place 1/4 cup of oats on the bottom of your blender, top off with 1 cup of water and blend on high speed for 20 -30 seconds
3. Safety First: Put on your googles and gloves and make sure you’re not soaping around children and/or pets. Keep your space ventilated or soap outdoors
4. Mix Lye Solution: Slowly and carefully add the lye to water, gently stirring until fully dissolved, set aside
5. Melt coconut oil, tallow and shea butter over low heat in a water bath
6. Add castor and infused olive oil (make sure you have the right amount of olive oil after straining the lavender)
7. Add essential oils
8. Add 2.43 oz (68g) of oat milk
9. When lye solution and oils are about room temperature combine the two and stick blend until medium trace (thin pudding consistency) is achieved
10. Place soap mold on a cutting board
11. Pour soap batter into mold and tap it down a couple of times to release any air bubbles
12. Mount the soap on top of each bar and texture using back of a small spoon
13. If you wish to decorate the top with lavender twigs, buds or oat flakes, make sure that the soap is at VERY thick consistency at that point. For me that was 10 minutes after I poured the soap. This will prevent them from turning brown on top of your soap.
14. Place mold in freezer overnight
15. Unmold after 48 hours and cure 4-5 weeks
16. Enjoy!

Looking for more natural soap recipes? Why not try:

• Smoky Vetiver Soap
• Rose Clay and Coconut Milk Facial Soap
• Banana and Cream Soap

Until next time. Happy Tinkering!