One of my favorite gifts to give (and get, if you are listening Santa,) is homemade soap. This year, I'm putting my lavender bushes to good use. I'm making quick and easy calming lavender soap to give as Christmas gift exchange/teacher/hostess gifts.
Pin this post to Pinterest! Share it with your friends!How to Make Lavender Soap
Two of the bars of soap in the photo above are off white because I scented them with my homemade lavender extract and it colored the soap a bit. The white bar of goat milk soap stayed pure white because I scented it with lavender essential oil. The bars perform the same, what you use for this project will come down to availability and color preference. (Disclosure: I am including some big bold affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)
I am using lavender I cut from my garden lavender and dried last summer. If you don't have home grown lavender, you can buy dried lavender flowers (you can find a variety of types here)
For each bar of soap, you will need:
4 cubes (each cube equals 1 ounce) goat milk soap base (learn more about it here) for each 4 ounce bar of soap you want to make
Lavender essential oil - use whatever brand you like. Personally use a variety of brands and buy my essential oils from Amazon here. That way I don't have to worry about a sale person constantly knocking on my door trying to get me to buy more stuff than I can use or need.
Dried lavender flowers
Glass measuring cup
Fork
Fork
Microwave oven or stove and double boiler full of water
Small spray bottle full of rubbing alcohol
Make it.
1. Sprinkle a few lavender flowers to each soap mold. This way the flowers will be distributed throughout each bar of homemade soap because add ins float to the top of melted soap base (which will become the bottom of your bar of soap.)
2. Melt one to four cubes of soap base in the microwave or double boiler on the stove. Since I am using as using such a small amount of soap base, it took 5 to 10 seconds in the microwave to melt the first layer of soap base for four bars of natural soap.
1. Sprinkle a few lavender flowers to each soap mold. This way the flowers will be distributed throughout each bar of homemade soap because add ins float to the top of melted soap base (which will become the bottom of your bar of soap.)
Use a light hand when you are putting additives in your soap. If you add too much the soap may not clean and lather as well as you might like.
2. Melt one to four cubes of soap base in the microwave or double boiler on the stove. Since I am using as using such a small amount of soap base, it took 5 to 10 seconds in the microwave to melt the first layer of soap base for four bars of natural soap.
I'm meeeeeeeeeeelting!
3. Add a few drops of lavender essential oil to the melted soap base. How much you use depends one how heavily scented you want your soap. The general rule for a heavily scented bar of natural soap is to add 4 to 5 drops of fragrance oil (less if you are using a concentrated pure essential oil) per ounce of soap base.
4. Pour a thin layer of melted soap base into the soap mold and allow it to harden.
5. Spray the soap in the mold with rubbing alcohol to remove any air bubbles if needed.
6. Melt the rest of the goats milk soap base in the microwave or double boiler on the stove.
7. Add a few drops of lavender essential oil to the melted soap base if desired.
9. Spray the soap mold with rubbing alcohol to encourage the next layer of soap to stick to the first layer of soap that is already in the mold.
10. Pour the soap into the mold. Caution: The lavender will float to the top of the soap mold. That’s why we are doing this in one to two ounce pours.
11. Spray the soap in the mold with rubbing alcohol to remove any air bubbles if needed.
12. Allow the soap to set for several hours until it is hard. I let mine set overnight because I had to pet Lacey for the rest of the day to make up for neglecting her for the 10 minutes or so it took to make this project.
I have Lisa wrapped around my little paw. She can't say no when I make this face!
13. After the soap sets release the soap from the mold by pressing on sides of mold to loosen the soap from the soap mold.
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If you'd rather buy than DIY check out the handmade lavender goats milk soap options - and more! - below!
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