Homemade Lavender Soap - elegant, timeless, and a real crowd-pleaser! Learn how to make lavender soap using the cold process method. Find detailed step-by-step instructions on infusing lavender in oil and creating a "lavender tea" for your lye soliton.
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Cold process soap making requires lye which needs to be handled with care. But fear not, if you follow a few simple safety precautions (outlined below) you will be well on your way to making your own lavender soap.
If you prefer to make lavender soap using an easy melt-and-pour soap base, then I've got a great recipe for you.
If you've never made soap before, I recommend you start with my easy beginner's soap tutorial to familiarize yourself with the process.
To enhance this handmade soap with as much beneficial properties from the lavender as possible I infused dried lavender flowers in olive oil. I also used a lavender “tea” for my lye solution. These extra steps create a gentle bar of soap with a nice creamy lather.
This post contains affiliate links, find my full disclosure here.
Equipment
- gloves, goggles, and a long-sleeved shirt for safety
- digital kitchen scale - ingredients are measured by weight, not by volume in soapmaking, this ensures that the soap is safe to use at the end
- two heat-resistant containers (non-aluminum) - a smaller one to mix your lye and a bigger one (50 oz capacity) to melt your oils and mix your soap in
- mason jar or empty glass container with a lid for the oil infusion
- coffee filters, cheesecloth or fine mesh strainer
- stick blender
- Crafter's Choice silicone loaf mold
- silicone spatula
Ingredients
This recipe will yield around 42 oz of soap (8 average-sized bars), you can resize the recipe using a lye calculator.
- Distilled water: 8 oz.
- Lye (Sodium Hydroxide): 4 oz.
- Olive Oil (lavender-infused): 9 oz.
- Coconut Oil: 8 oz.
- Tallow: 5 oz.
- Shea butter: 5 oz.
- Castor Oil: 2 oz.
- Lavender essential oil: 25 g
- Patchouli essential oil: 6 g
- Kaolin clay: 3 Tbsp
- Lavender (dried): 1 cup (~¾ cup for the oil infusion + 1 tablespoon for the "tea")
- Optional: about 8 lavender twigs
How to Make Cold Process Lavender Soap
- Make lavender oil infusion: add ¾ cup of lavender buds into a mason jar, pour 9 oz. of olive oil on top, close the lid tight, and give it a good shake. 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, add your mason jar, put it on low heat for 2-3 hours. Check periodically to make sure water hasn't evaporated.
- Strain oil - you can use a colander that is lined with a coffee filter, a cheesecloth or a fine sifter instead. Note: I only recommend infusing DRY plant material into oil. The water content of fresh herbs and flowers is too high and will over time lead to mold.
- Soapmaking Safety First: Put on goggles and gloves, wear long sleeves and make sure you're not soaping around children and/or pets. Keep your space ventilated or soap outdoors
- Measure 8 oz. of distilled water (a little more than the recipe calls for) and boil it in a small saucepan. Add 1 tablespoon of lavender buds to the hot water, stir and let it cool to room temperature
- Filter out the lavender, again use coffee filter, cheesecloth, or fine sifter
- Weigh your water (aka lavender tea) and make sure you have at least 7 oz.
- Add the lye, gently stirring until fully dissolved
- Set aside
- Melt coconut oil, tallow and shea butter over low heat
- Add castor and infused olive oil to melted oils
- Add essential oil blend
- Add kaolin clay and stick blend until there are no more clumps
- Combine lye solution and oils, stick blend until medium trace (thin pudding consistency) is achieved
- Pour the soap batter into the mold and tap it down a couple of times to release air bubbles
- Decorate the top with lavender twigs or buds, and ensure that the soap is very thick at that point. For me, that was 10 minutes after I poured the soap. This will prevent them from leaving brown marks on the top of your soap.
- Insulate mold with a heavy towel to encourage gel phase, cut into bars after 24-36 hours and cure for 3-4 weeks
How to make lavender essential oil "stick" in cold process soap
Some essential oils lose their scent quickly when they go through the chemical reaction that is part of the saponification process. Lavender essential oil is one of them.
The alternative to using an essential oil would be to use a fragrance oil. If you choose to use a fragrance oil instead of the lavender essential oil, I suggest buying your fragrance oil from a reputable source, like Bramble Berry.
If you're committed, however, to using only natural ingredients in your body products then there are ways to make the scent last longer:
- Kaolin Clay: soap makers have reported in the past, that adding a small amount of clay to their homemade soaps has improved scent retention
- Anchoring: this refers to a tactic where a fleeting scent is paired with a heavier base note, this is also a great idea to create a more complex blend of essential oils
- Using 40/42 essential oil: this is a lavender essential oil blend that is specifically composed for cold process soap making. It has a chemical composition that ensures that the scent will last longer
How to color lavender soap naturally
Infusing lavender in oil or using a lavender "tea" for your soap will give you the wonderful skin benefits lavender has to offer, but sadly it won't transfer any color to your soap. You may choose to leave your soap uncolored and enjoy its natural creamy color. However, if you're looking for a natural blueish/purplish hue you've got several options:
- Purple Brazilian Clay: for this recipe up to 2 teaspoon can be added to melted base oils, or for an even stronger color straight to your hot lye solution
- Alkanet: is a popular colorant that needs to be infused in oil before adding to your soap. The longer it infuses the stronger the color will be. For the above recipe, I recommend infusing ⅓ cup of alkanet root powder into the olive oil anywhere from 3-6 months. Check out this post on infusing oils for color for more details.
- Ultramarine Purple: is a great stable and beautiful colorant. It's a mineral powder that has been dyed with a synthetic pigment making it not completely natural. But the purple color it will give you is far cleaner and less earthy than the other options. For this soap, you would use ¾ teaspoon added to base oils.
3. How to avoid lavender flowers turning brown on top of the soap
The trick here is to wait until the soap has almost completely set up (very thick trace) after you pour it into the mold. This might take a little waiting, but it's totally worth it. When the soap base doesn't give easily anymore when gently poked with a chopstick you can gently place the lavender flowers on top and press them down a little. This won't completely eliminate the browning, but it helps in my experience.
FAQs
In cold process soap the usage rate is 0.5 oz (14g) of essential oil per pound of oils. Beware that some essential oils can be skin irritants and need to be used more sparingly. These include bitter almond, cassia, cinnamon bark and leaf, benzoin, peru balsam, ylang ylang and some citrus essential oils. Always do your own research on essential oil safety before adding to soap.
You can't go wrong with lavender - it pairs well with basically every scent. Some of my favorite combinations are with bergamot, cedarwood, patchouli and sweet orange.
Until next time. Happy Tinkering!
How to Make Lavender Soap (printable)
Homemade lavender soap - creamy and soothing. A real crowd-pleaser! Learn to make lavender soap by infusing lavender in oil and making a lavender tea for your lye solution.
Ingredients
- Distilled water: 8 oz
- Lye (Sodium Hydroxide): 4 oz
- Olive Oil (lavender-infused): 9 oz
- Coconut Oil: 8 oz
- Tallow: 5 oz
- Shea butter: 6 oz
- Castor Oil: 2 oz
- Lavender essential oil: 25 g
- Patchouli essential oil: 6 g
- Kaolin clay: 3 Tbsp
- dried lavender flowers: 1 cup (~¾ cup for the oil infusion, 1 tablespoon for the "tea")
- Optional: about 8 little lavender twigs or buds for the top
Instructions
Equipment:
- two heat-resistant containers (non aluminum)
- stick blender
- digital kitchen scale
- mason jar or empty glass container with lid for the oil infusion
- coffee filters, cheese cloth or very fine sifter
- Crafter's Choice silicone loaf mold
- silicone spatula
Instructions:
- Safety First: Put on googles and gloves, wear long sleeves and make sure you're not soaping around children and/or pets. Keep your space ventilated or soap outdoors
- Measure out 8 oz. of distilled water (a little more than the recipe calls for) and boil it in a small saucepan. Add 1 tablespoon of lavender buds to the hot water, stir and let it cool to room temperature
- Using a coffee filter, cheesecloth or fine sifter filter out the lavender
- Weigh your water again and depending on how much has evaporated either add or take away as much as needed, you need at least 7 oz
- Slowly and carefully add the lye, gently stirring until fully dissolved.
- Place lye solution in an ice bath (if the lye water turns too brown it will color your soap brown as well)
- Melt coconut oil, tallow and shea butter over low heat
- Add castor and infused olive oil to melted oils
- Add essential oil blend (lavender and patchouli essential oil)
- Add kaolin clay and mix until there are no more clumps
- When lye solution and oils are about room temperature combine the two and stick blend until medium trace (thin pudding consistency) is achieved
- Pour soap batter into soap mold and tap it down a couple of times to release any air bubbles
- If you wish to decorate the top with lavender twigs or buds, 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 leaving brown marks on the top of your soap.
- Insulate mold with a heavy towel to encourage gel phase, cut into bars after 24-36 hours and cure for 3-4 weeks
Liz Ellis says
hi Celine
i am so going to try this over the winter - i am always tinkering and playing with soaps - thought i had settled on my favourite recipes - but heavens abvoe - there is always another out there tempting me - so your lavender soap has gotten to me and i am going to try it - thanks for sharing - Liz
Annabelle says
How many grams of soap does this recipe produce?
Celine says
1190 grams
Jary says
If you use 8.7 oz of olive oil and add the lavender -it will be less than 8.7 oz when the lavender is strained out of the oil. I had to add plain olive oil to get the right amount. Also-it immediately came to a thick trace which I had to finish mixing to combine. I highly doubt this will work for me although I was meticulous with measurement.
Celine says
Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I will add a note to the recipe. The thick trace is likely due to the high water discount that I like to use. I don’t mind thick trace.