This lavender oatmeal soap is soothing and calming for your skin. And any recipe that uses my garden-grown lavender rates especially high in my books! Lavender is my favorite ingredient, especially when it comes to natural beauty recipes, a slight addiction which can be seen in a simple search for lavender crafts. But along with being one of my favorite scents, dried lavender buds make this soap as beautiful to look at as it feels when you lather up.
To make this soap as a gift for holiday gift-giving or for someone special, make it in cupcake molds and then wrap it in a cupcake wrapper. Who wouldn’t want to get a lavender oatmeal soap cupcake as a gift? I can imagine even the burliest person out there would want to suds up with these!
Making these lavender oatmeal soap cupcakes can work with both cold process recipes and with melt and pour. If you choose to make cold process soap, please follow the recipes and the instructions in this article on how to make cold process soap. Cold-process soap is my go-to skincare bar, but it does take a long time and a lot of equipment to make.
Today, I’ll demonstrate a speedier soap-making project using melt and pour soap. Melt and pour soap kits are very easy to work with and simply require you to cut up the block into cubes, melt it, add your scents, and pour it into molds.
Materials
- Silicone cupcake mold for 12
- Heatproof container
- Microwave
- 1 kg / 2 lbs oatmeal melt and pour soap base
- 1 tsp lavender essential oil
- 1-2 tbsp dried lavender buds
- Cupcake liners (optional)
Make it!
The melt and pour soap base should come as a block and have a list of the ingredients. You can choose from a number of different formulations such as glycerin soap, milk soap, and fat- and/or butter-based soaps. I chose a natural soap base that had shea butter and oatmeal in it. If you would like to add oatmeal separately, then grind a few teaspoons of organic oats and add it to the melted mixture when you add the lavender buds.
Use a sharp knife to cut your soap base into 1-inch cubes or smaller. Put the cubes in a heatproof container like a Pyrex measuring cup and put that in the microwave.
Melt the soap base on medium-high in the microwave for 3 to 4 minutes. Stop the microwave occasionally and check the soap base. It should be melting but not steaming. Take the soap base out of the microwave before it’s completely melted and use a metal spoon to stir it until it has no lumps.
Add one teaspoon of lavender essential oil and 1-2 tablespoons of dried lavender buds.
Stir the ingredients well and pour the soap into silicone cupcake molds. I chose a cupcake mold that was quite tall but I only filled each cupcake section halfway so that the soap was a nice manageable size when finished.
Add a few extra lavender buds on the top of the soap if you think it needs it and allow the soap to dry undisturbed for at least an hour. When the soap is hard you can unmold it and use it right away or wrap it up for gifts.
A simple parchment paper cupcake liner makes a great wrapper for these lavender oatmeal soap cupcakes. I like the natural look of parchment paper but you can use any cupcake liner that you think would add to the presentation. Use a bit of garden twine to tie it up and if you have a stem of lavender add that as well.
For more beautiful recipes inspired by the garden, pick up a copy of my Natural Beauty Recipe Book. It comes as an instant download that is filled with 5 chapters of over 40 natural beauty recipes for the whole family. Read more about the Natural Beauty Recipe Book here.
Even more soap recipes:
This tutorial is so clear that I now have the confidence to make soap for the very first time!! Thank you sooooooo much!!! 😁👏👏👏👏👏
You are so welcome!
Won’t the lavender turn brown in the soap, looking like mouse droppings?
How do you make the soap lather more? What would you need to add as I have read that oatmeal melt and pour soap base barely lathers
Can you make a copy of this soap recipe printable?
I’ve read that the lavender buds discolor the soap – it looks pretty but will discolor the soap so it doesn’t look so pretty after a while. Do u know how long before this happens. Would luv to try this for gifts but don’t want it looking bad after a while since it is for gifts. Could throw ppl off. Can u tell me if this is true? Many tks. Wud really luv to try this.
Hi Helen, yes it does happen after a few months. A few options are to add some purple dye to the soap so the brown discoloration doesn’t show as much, or swap the lavender buds for centurea (cornflower) petals.
Even, cornflower petals will turn brown and muddy and mucky looking, do not use. The heat from the melt and pour soap base destroys the flower petals. The soap turns a brown colour within a few days,
Hi Debby, not in my experience. I use them on the top of many of my soaps. Have a look at these: https://gardentherapy.ca/wildflower-soap/