Homemade Lavender Soap Recipe (Cold Process)

Homemade Lavender Soap - elegant, timeless and a real crowd-pleaser! This cold process soap recipe is infused with lavender essential oil and lavender buds and packed with skin loving shea butter, hemp and olive oil.

In order to enhance this handmade soap with as much beneficial properties from the lavender as possible I infused dried lavender flowers in olive oil and used a lavender “tea” for my lye solution. These extra steps create a gentle bar of soap with a nice creamy lather.

Now, infusing lavender in oil or steeping it in water is not enough to carry any of the calming lavender scent over. And what would a lavender soap be without the scent of lavender essential oil?

How to make lavender essential oil "stick" in cold process soap

Some essential oils tend to loose 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 or The Sage. These companies specialize in soap making and have tested their fragrance oils for cold process soapmaking. They should also be able for to tell you the exact usage rate based on the amount of base oils you're using.

If you're committed, however, to using only natural ingredients in your body products than 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 essential oil, this is also a great idea in order to create a more complex blend of essential oil
• 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

In the past I, too have experienced the disappointment of having the lavender essential oil scent completely vanish from my soap. The soap we're making today, however, surprised me with its sticking power. I used two tactics here: I added Kaolin clay and anchored the scent with patchouli essential oil. The essential oil wasn't a 40/42 blend and it still held up the fragrance for a long time.

How to Replace Palm Oil in Cold Process Soap

Palm oil is a popular oil used in soap making since it produces a hard bar of soap with a creamy lather. This soap recipe is palm oil free (as are most of my recipes).

To use or not to use palm oil is a topic, however, that oftentimes leads to heated discussions amongst soap makers. The controversy evolves around the fact that palm oil is commonly produced in ways that are not ethically sound or environmentally friendly. The destruction of rain forests and habitat loss, especially for orangutans, being the main concerns.

There is the option to use palm oil that is sustainably sourced, but if you decide that you want to omit palm oil altogether from your skin care there are certainly great alternatives.

Palm oil has a high percentage of palmitic fatty acid which makes it quite unique in that regard. Other oils and fats can be used in combination with each other in order to achieve the same properties in a bar of soap that you would get from palm oil. Great choices for that are cocoa butter, tallow and lard, for example.

How to avoid lavender flowers turning brown on top of the soap

The trick here is to wait until the 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 pocked with a chop stick 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 a great deal in my experience.

Also, Try these Natural Soap Recipes:

• Oat Milk and Lavender Cold Process Soap
• Goat Milk Soap Recipe (with AND without Lye)
• Lemongrass Calendula Soap (Exploring Natural Colorants in Cold Process Soap)

Now, let’s dive into the recipe, shall we?

How to Make Lavender Soap (Cold Process)

I you've never made cold process soap before, make sure to carefully read through my posts on lye safety and check out my beginner's tutorial and list of equipment needed.

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, will I earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. What you'll need:

Equipment:

• 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
• stick blender
• 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

How to Make 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 ¾ cup of lavender buds, place them on the bottom of a mason jar, add 8.7 oz. (247 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 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.

Note: I only recommend infusing DRY plant material into oil. The water content of fresh herbs and flowers is too high and will overtime lead to mold and a very bad smell. Don't even ask how I found that out 😉 So, if you grow your own lavender at home, make sure you dry it hanging upside down in a dry, cool and dark place for at least 2 weeks.

Lavender Soap Recipe:

This recipe will yield around 42 oz of soap (8 average sized bars), you can resize the recipe to your heart's desire using a lye calculator. It is always a good idea to run every recipe you find online (including this one) through a lye calculator.This recipe is superfatted at 6% and uses a 38% lye concentration (this, I find, keeps soda ash from forming)

• Distilled water: 6.8 oz. / 193 g
• Lye (Sodium Hydroxide): 4.2 oz. / 118 g
• Lavender infused Olive Oil: 8.7 oz. / 247 g (29%)
• Coconut Oil: 8.1 oz. / 230 g (27%)
• Tallow: 5.4 oz. / 153 g (18%)
• Shea butter: 4.5 oz./ 128 g (15%)
• Castor Oil: 1.8 oz. / 51 g (6%)
• Hemp Oil: 1.5 oz. / 43 g (5%)
• 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:

1. 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
2. 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
3. Using a coffee filter, cheesecloth or fine sifter filter out the lavender
4. Weigh your water again and depending on how much has evaporated either add or take away as much as needed
5. Slowly and carefully add the lye, gently stirring until fully dissolved.
6. Place lye solution in an ice bath (if the lye water turns too brown it will color your soap brown as well)
7. Melt coconut oil, tallow and shea butter over low heat
8. Add hemp, castor and infused olive oil to melted oils
9. Add essential oil blend (lavender and patchouli essential oil)
10. Add kaolin clay and mix until there are no more clumps
11. When lye solution and oils are about room temperature combine the two and stick blend until medium trace (thin pudding consistency) is achieved
12. Pour soap batter into soap mold and tap it down a couple of times to release any air bubbles
13. 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.
14. Insulate mold with a heavy towel to encourage gel phase, cut into bars after 24-36 hours and cure for 3-4 weeks
15. 15. Enjoy!

Until next time. Happy Tinkering!