Beginner Soap Making – Lavender Soap Recipe

Richly creamy and beautifully fragrant, this Lavender soap recipe is my favorite to date from the batches I have made. I am a beginner soap maker, having recently commenced creating my own soap. I still have much to learn about the art and process as I progress and learn with each batch. I have spent many months researching, making numerous batches and testing recipes and ingredients. If you are looking for a place to start, for a recipe to get you started this post may assist, so please read on.

Prior to beginning to make my own soap I was already very comfortable working with all of the ingredients, with the exception of lye. This ingredient I have had to learn to use and adjust my thinking about. When I read the facts about lye it scared me (alot!). I found it very difficult to get my head around using it. I took me some time to contemplate combining it with some very high quality ingredients that I would loathe to waste. This was on top of the thought that I was using a highly caustic ingredient on my family’s skin.

Lye, as an isolated ingredient is highly caustic and will cause burns. It will burn your skin, it will burn a hole in a bench top surface. It must be used with appropriate care and safety. The good news is that lye is broken down as part of the saponification process that takes place when the soap is setting in the mold.

I made a few attempts to prove the soap makers of the world wrong and create soap without lye before I conceded (kind of) defeat and started to work on understanding the process of soap making a little more.

Soap making is a satisfying skill to add to those of making skin care and many food recipes from scratch. I find it empowering to know that the ingredients I am using are of the quality that I have chosen. For me that is a key driver in making anything from scratch. I can avoid unnecessary harsh additives and ingredients of limited or no value.

I have much to learn about making soap, I am at the beginning of my journey. The items listed below are some of the things that I have learned along the way. I hope that if you are starting out they help you also.

Beginner Soap Making Tips:

These are the key learnings I have derived whilst experimenting with soap making:

Safety is critical:

Ingredient quality is important:

I find it empowering to be able to make the choice and add the quality that I know and appreciate to products that I will be using. For example, I use organic Coconut oil, cocoa butter and shea butter in my products. I love that I get to choose, I have defined the product that I am using and know exactly what is in it.

Find a good soap calculator:

I use this one and have make numerous batches, all have worked well.

I have also been recommended this one, by a fellow blogger who has been making soap for some time now. I but am yet to try it.

If the calculator seems too confusing follow my recipe below for my favorite Lavender Soap

Accuracy is important:

Use the correct equipment:

I have a bowl, spoon, plastic bucket and stick blender that I use only for soap making.

Be Creative, Make it your Own:

The beauty of making your own products is that you can create them as YOU please.

I collected the lavender from our garden that I used in this recipe and my recent recipe for a herbal bath soak. Lavender is one of my favorite essential oils I use it on a daily basis.

I suffer from very sensitive skin that is prone to eczema. I choose to use nourishing oils and ingredients that are gently and soothing on my skin.

Read Widely:

I found Australian Soap Makers provided clear and logical process steps and information. I used their guidelines when I commenced my first batches. The method below is based on those steps.

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{ 4 comments… add one }

Very inspiring. I haven’t made the leap yet but I’m very tempted x

Nice clear article Kyrstie. You are inspiring me to get back on the wagon
If you are happy with Soapcalc I would keep using that. It is a good calculator, used by many soap makers.
A couple of suggestions for your next batch. You might like to consider dropping the amount of Almond oil and increasing the coconut. Coconut oil in soap creates a beautiful lather and a harder bar. Almond oil will give you a much softer bar. Don’t drop the almond completely if you love it. Just wiggle your percentages. I also add 5% caster oil to every batch as it helps boost lather. Don’t use more than 5% though as it will give you a softer bar.
Your point on protective equipment is so timely for me. I somehow managed to splash liquid lye on my skin when making liquid soap this week and now have a lovely small burn to show for it. It pays to never be complacent around lye.

I too am a newbie and want badly to make soap but I just don’t understand how you would know what size mold to use. Most recipes don’t say. How do you figure that out?

Hi Merry,
Good question. With this recipe I used an old tupperware square container lined with baking paper. It is 16cm x 16 cm. I hope this helps. Kyrstie

Beginner Soap Making – Lavender Soap Recipe

Beginner Soap Making – Lavender Soap Recipe