Lavender Flowers Soap

Lavender always makes me smile. It’s a fragrance I enjoy smelling.

Lavender Flowers Fragrance Oil is a beautiful, spring-fresh scent of lavender without excess or the medicinal smell often associated with lavender essential oil. I love that Lavender Flowers Fragrance Oil plays nicely in cold-process soap with no discoloration and only slight acceleration.

Today I decided to make a simple, elegant soap with just a hint of Lavender Fields Color added to the batter. I will top the soap with dried lavender buds.

Join me!

What you’ll need

Basic soaping instructions

Before getting started, please prepare to soap safely! Long sleeves, gloves, eye protection, and close-toed shoes are a must. If you have never made cold process soap before, we’re glad you’re here! Please check out this blog post, which is the first in a series on beginning soapmaking.

Weigh all the oils into a microwave-safe container; set aside.

Weigh the fragrance oil into a small glass container; set aside.

Weigh the lye.

Weigh the liquid you will be using.

All oils weighed into a soap bucket.

Everything set out ready to make soap.

Slowly add the lye to the liquid, stirring. Do this in a well-ventilated area. It will give off toxic fumes that you do not want to inhale. Once the lye is completely dissolved, set the mixture aside to cool.

Pop the oils into the microwave to melt, using 30-second increments. Once they are completely liquid, set them aside to cool.

Here is your break to clean up your work space, set out the mold you will use, visit the rest room. Then you can mix your colors. Here’s how I do it. I use a piece of plexiglass and an art spatula. I scoop the colorant onto the plexiglass, squirt a little olive oil over it, and then use the art spatula to blend the colorant into the oil until it is smooth. Then I scrape it into a small cup for coloring soap batter.

Once the oils and the lye mixture are within 10 degrees of each other and have cooled to about 90-100 degrees F, you’re ready to make soap.

Carefully pour the lye mixture into the oils, taking care not to splash. Stir with your soap spoon, then pulse the stick blender a few times. Alternate stirring with the stick blender and pulsing it for short bursts to mix the soap well.

Add color to the soap; stick blend a few short bursts to fully disperse it. Add fragrance, and stir well. If your soap batter is still fluid enough, pulse the stick blender a bit.

Pour the soap into the mold, using the silicone spatula to scrape all the soap out of the bucket. Wait until the soap is firm enough to hold a shape, then sculpt the top. Decorate with a sprinkle of lavender buds.

Because this soap has a top taller than the top of the mold, I won’t cover it with plastic. I’m also not going to oven process it. I’ll just place it in a warm spot and let it saponify.

Adding color to the soap.

Adding fragrance to the soap.

Pouring soap into the mold.

Soap in the mold after decorating the top.

Notes

I love the barest hint of lavender color the soap has! The buds I sprinkled on top stayed pretty, too, which is nice. It’s no fun when the buds end up looking like mouse droppings!

The soap stayed in the mold for a good 48 hours before I got back to it. That was not a problem; it still unmolded and cut easily. I’m loving the fragrance in this one! Hope you’ll give it a try.