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To learn how to make these stunning flower embeds, check out Creating Piped Flower Embeds for Cold Process Soap blog post.


Flower Garden Soap Recipe

This recipe is 1000 grams of oil and fits into a 10″ silicone loaf mold from Bramble Berry.

Base Oils

  • Coconut Oil (76 deg) – 300 grams (30%)
  • Cocoa Butter – 150 grams (15%)
  • Olive Oil – 400 grams (40%)
  • Avocado Oil – 100 grams (10%)
  • Castor Oil – 50 grams (5%)

Lye Solution (5% superfat)

  • Water – 284 grams
  • Sodium Hydroxide – 142 grams

Additives

  • Lavender Essential Oil – 20 grams
  • Geranium Essential Oil – 10 grams
  • Mica – I simply used a white mica to whiten up the base. I used about 1 tablespoon.

If you are new to soapmaking, please download our basic soapmaking guide to learn how to make soap. Be sure to wear safety gear when soaping.

Step 1: Lay out your embeds to figure out how you’ll top your loaf. You want this done and ready to go (unless you want to just randomly throw them on top after you pour).

Step 2: Create your lye solution. Weigh out the sodium hydroxide and water into two separate containers. Slowly sprinkle the sodium hydroxide into the water while stirring. Be sure to stir in a well-ventilated area and wear your safety goggles and gloves. Set your lye solution aside to cool down.

Step 3: Prepare your oils. When working with cocoa butter I always melt it first by itself. It has such a high-melt point and requires a TON of heat to melt. I don’t want all of my oils exposed to that much heat, requiring them to cool down before I can soap. I melt the cocoa butter and then add the coconut oil. Stir to melt the coconut oil into the melted cocoa butter. If you need to heat it a bit more to completely melt the coconut oil, then heat a bit.

Step 4: Add the liquid oils to the melted coconut oil/cocoa butter. Stir.

Step 5: Add the essential oil (or fragrance oil) and white mica to the oils.

Check your temperatures.

Take the temps of both the lye solution and oil mixture. I like to mix when they are both anywhere from 80-95 degrees F.

Step 6: Once your temperatures are in range, pour your lye solution into the oils and bring your soap to medium trace.

Step 7: Pour into your mold and allow to thicken a bit.

TIP: Mark your mold with lines where you cut so that you can make sure your embeds will be lined up on each cut bar of soap. I marked mine every 1 inches.

Step 8: Place your embends on top and push down slightly. Your soap needs to be firm enough to hold the embeds. If you place an embed on and it sinks, then obviously your soap is too thin. Let it sit.

Allow your soap to sit overnight and saponfiy.

After 24 hours cut your soap. Cure your soap for 4-6 weeks.

Happy Soaping!

-Amanda Gail