At the beginning of February, I shared a picture of a large carrot with you. I asked if I should make a soap with the carrot. Your responses helped me decide that I would make a soap with carrot juice.
I wanted to make sure that my soap succeeded, so I chose to make the soap using the half and half method. The half and half method is called this because of all your liquids, you use half water, half alternative liquid, and add the alternative liquid half way through the blending of the batch.
Let’s go make some soap!
Collect needed items:
Recipe:
Recipe in ounces:
6 ounces Palm Kernel Oil
5 ounces Coconut Oil
4 ounces Olive Oil
1 ounces Shea Butter, Refined
3 ounces Water
3 ounces Carrot Juice
2.45 ounces Sodium Hydroxide (6% Superfat)
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Recipe in grams:
169.9 grams Palm Kernel Oil
141.6 grams Coconut Oil
113.2 grams Olive Oil
28.3 grams Shea Butter, Refined
85 grams Water
85 grams Carrot Juice
69.4 grams Sodium Hydroxide (6% Superfat)
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Recipe in Percentages
37.5% Palm Kernel Oil
31.25% Coconut Oil
25% Olive Oil
6.25% Shea Butter, Refined
q.s. Water
q.s. Carrot Juice
q.s. Sodium Hydroxide (6% Superfat)
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*q.s. = Quantity Sufficient. This is an ingredient that needs to have the amount calculated to match the size of batch that you are making.
Making Carrot Juice:
I made the carrot juice by chopping the carrot into small chunks and placing the chunks in a blender. I then added approximately 1/4 cup of hot water and turned on the blender. Unfortunately, I learned that the blender I was using doesn’t turn raw carrots and water into carrot juice. š It took nearly 15 minutes to get 6 ounces of carrot juice! Next time I make carrot juice with a similar blender, I will steam or boil the carrots first and then mix with water in a blender to make carrot juice. (Or use a high quality, high efficiency blender!)
Making Soap:
Measure fixed oils on your scale. Warm the fixed oils on the stove or in the microwave. I melted the oils on the stove in a double boiler. Add sodium hydroxide to the water. Mix well. Combine oils and lye solution. Mix until thin trace. Add carrot juice. Pour soap into the desired mold. Allow to sit until soap is firm. The next morning cut into bars. Stack to allow good air circulation. Allow to cure for several days before using. Longer curing will result in a harder bar.
Soap Notes: This soap had a light, clean, and sweet “soapy” scent that was around even after sitting around for a week. The soap color did change to a greenish color, but I still think the soap is very pretty! The soap had a wonderful lather that was a mixture of big and small bubbles that I made just with my hands. I loved the feeling that the soap left on my skin after washing. I tried this soap on my hands, body and face with no problems! I think I’ll make another batch of soap as a gift for my mother-in-law for her birthday!
What do you think? Would you try this soap?
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Cut bars of soap. Melted oils, lye solution, and carrot juice. Pouring the lye solution into the melted oils. Pouring the carrot juice into the raw soap. After pouring the carrot juice into the raw soap. |
I’ve been wanting to try this also. Thanks Andee for the recipe! Now off to the kitchen…
Andee,
If you’ve made this recipe before without the carrot juice, is there any difference? Any organic material I’ve ever added has been ripped apart by the sodium hydroxide. But I’ve never tried adding it like this 50/50 technique.
I’ve made this recipe before and I love it! This particular batch seemed to have a creamier feel to it, which is why I think it would make a good face soap. I hope this helps!
OOh! I’m definitely going to try a carrot soap! Thanks for posting and the tips on making the carrot juice!
Wow, it appears to be a very lovely muted green color. I love how you never know what the final color will be when you add tea, juice, etc. as always very informative post š
I wonder if adding the pulp would have made it turn orange or a yellow color?
I’m not sure! I’m going to need to try making it again!
Any reason you didn’t use carrot juice, instead of juicing the carrot? I do make soap with carrot juice, but not with the half and half method and it turns out a nice light orange color. I will try it 1/2 1/2 and see if the color stays the same.
Good idea! I think just juicing a carrot works well, it is better than buying a premade juice. I sometimes wonder how different we approach items like this based on what our stores sell and the tools in our kitchens.
This is a great idea for a spring inspired soap or to give as a gift to a gardner. Thanks.
An easy way to make carrot juice with a regular blender is to grate the carrots and then put them in a blender with some water. I was very surprised when I made carrot soap recently with the carrot juice that the lye did not burn the carrot juice. The carrot juice was very cold but not frozen. The soap was a lovely orange when it went into the mold and it came out a light, faded orange,
I’m going to need to try grating the carrots and then blending as I’m planning on making another carrot soap soon. Maybe I’ll get an orange or yellow colored soap!