I have a confession to make. When I first started making soap I hated the thought of making a lavender soap. It just seemed so cliche and I personally didn’t really like lavender. I refused to make it. I sold my soap at the local farmers market. After the 100th customer asked for it (ha!) I decided to break down and make lavender soap. It was certainly my best seller. It is a classic; people just love it.

And now I’m a fan! I LOVE lavender soap. This soap recipe is scented with lavender essential oil and colored using different shades of purple mica.

Lavender soap recipe

Lavender Soap Recipe

This recipe fills 3 10″ loaf molds from Bramble Berry.

  • Coconut Oil – 32 oz.
  • Shea Butter – 9 oz.
  • Olive Oil – 32 oz.
  • Avocado Oils – 3 oz.
  • Castor Oil – 4 oz.
  • Rice Bran Oil – 16 oz.
  • Sodium Hydroxide – 13.6 oz.
  • Distilled Water – 26 oz.
  • Lavender Essential Oil – 4 oz.

Colorants (All from Bramble Berry! They have the best purple mica.)

  • Lavender Mica – 2 teaspoons
  • Orchid Mica – 2 teaspoons
  • Queen’s Purple Mica – 2 teaspoons
  • White Mica – 1 tablespoon
  • Charcoal – 1 teaspoon

Safety Warning: This recipe is for soapmakers who have a basic knowledge of the soapmaking process and know the correct safety procedures to use when handling lye. If you are new to soapmaking, visit our free soap making guide or check out our Basic Soapmaking eBook. Be sure to wear safety goggles and gloves while soaping.

Step 1 – Create your lye solution and set aside to cool.

Step 2 – Weigh and melt the coconut oil and shea butter.

Step 3 – Add the liquid oils to the melted oils. This helps to cool the temperature of your base oils down.

Step 4 – Add your fragrance or essential oils to the base oils.

Step 5 – Once your lye solution and oil mixture are down to 90° F, emulsifiy the mixture. You don’t want to mix to trace or you might not have enough time to color your soap.

soap emulsified

Step 6 – Divide your soap out and color. I use a mini-mixer (coffee frother) to mix each color. You can eyeball how much you want of each color.

soapmaking

purple mica for soap

purple mica soap swirl

Step 7 – I simply poured the base into each of the three molds.

loaf soap mold

Step 8 – The soap thickened up a bit so I just plopped each color into each mold. I rotated through them about three times.

soap swirl loaf lavender swirl soap

Step 9 – I used the handle of a plastic spoon to swirl the inside of each soap.

purple soap purple swirl soap

Aren’t these colors just beautiful!

lavender soaps

After your soap has saponified for 24 hours, unmold and cut.

purple soap swirl purple swirl soaps lavender soaping

(I cut my soap waaaaaay to soon because we’re going out of town tomorrow. That’s what the drag-smoosh marks are. 🙂 )

Cure your soap for four weeks!

Happy Soap!

-Amanda Gail