This was one of my favorites, and one that always flew off my shelf – I just couldn’t keep it in stock!
Lavender essential oil has been known to be soothing to dry, itchy skin; calms the mind and eases stress. Lavender eo has been used to treat various skin disorders because of it’s antiseptic and anti-fungal properties, such as acne, wrinkles, and psoriasis. Adding lavender oil to chamomile helps eczema.
I used a few different base recipes, but my all-time favorite was a very simple one. Momma Muse has several lavender soap recipes – many are, or can be made, vegan friendly.
2 pounds
24 oz. Olive Oil (75)
8 oz. Palm Kernel Oil (25%)
4.38 oz. Lye (6% superfat)
8.8 oz. goat milk *
1.5 oz. lavender essential oil
2 TBSP lavender powder
* This is your lye amount x 2.
Freeze the goat milk in the container used for your lye mixture. Once frozen, very slowly add your lye. Stirring, and slowly adding – this helps prevent the milk from getting hot too fast. I also put my container in a bowl with ice to keep the goat milk and lye mixture as cool as possible.
Once mixed and set to cooling, put aside (in a safe place!).
Measure your Palm Kernel Oil (PKO) and melt (not hot, just melted) – I have used a microwave in the past to do this, just make sure your container is microwave safe. If you are able, a stove top works well.
While your PKO is melting, measure your lavender essential oil and lavender powder into separate containers (I always use glass for my essential and fragrance oils).
Have your mold clean, lined and at the ready.
When your PKO is melted, add the olive oil. Feeling the side of the pot, it should not be hot. A little warm is fine, but generally a the cooler the temperature the better when mixing a goat milk soap (actually, I prefer working with cool temps all the time – more time to mix).
Now, your lye mixture should be cooler to the touch and your oils cooler to the touch… think “luke-warm”.
Have your stick blender (immersion blender) at hand and ready. Slowly add your lye mixture to your oils (note: always add the lye TO the oil). Blending while you pour…
Bring your soap mixture to trace (trace is when your spoon or blender leaves a trail and takes a minute to disappear back into the mixture). Once trace has been reached, add your lavender powder, mixing, then your essential oil, mixing..
Everything should be mixed well, now pour into your mold. I do not insulate my soap, I put it on a shelf for about 24 hours before I unmold and cut. Once cut, I leave on a shelf for another 24 hours before I bevel edges.
Give it a couple weeks before using, though a good month would be best as the soap will harden up nicely over time.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
I am always looking for new soap recipes – especially with my favorite essential oil lavender. Great info – can’t wait to try this out.
great recipe I never knew that goat milk could be used to make lavender :)
I’m going to try this recipe, but can I substitute shea butter for the palm kernel oil?
thanks
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I know some people use high percentages of shea, I just haven’t tried it. I’ve read it’s a comedogenic, so I’m leery of using too much of it… that said, if you want to try it, go for it.. a small batch first and make sure to run through a calculator again to get the correct lye solution. Best thing to do, imo, is give it a try.
Yep, it’s similar to making goat cheese….
Funny how easy it is to spot the spam… I deleted the contact info (it was about acne)… but honestly, you can’t use goat milk to make lavender.
Can you use this recipe follow a crock pot hot process? I’m thinking that once you reach cold process trace the goat’s milk is part of the mixture and no longer subject to curdle. I may give it a try. The goat’s milk/olive oil combo makes a fabulous soap!
Sure – any of my recipes can be used to make crock pot / hot process soap. Just follow the Instructions for Crock Pot Hot Process Soap using the ingredients from this recipe. It’s super simple… and you know when it’s done, it’s good to use – though, letting it cure a few weeks to even a few months will allow it harden quite a bit more.
I made this recipe using the crock pot method on this site and it turned out wonderfully! I didn’t have lavender powder so I just added lavender flowers and it looks great. I tested the recipe and it lathers so nice and feels so good. And my hands are nicely cleaned! Thanks for the wonderful instructions and recipe!
Could rose eo and rose powder be substituted for the lavender and still be safe for the face? I’ve been wondering about that and your recipe seems to be the nicest I’ve seen so far. Also, even though the rose powder would tint the soap, what about a couple of drops of soap dye or food coloring? Thanks so much.
Absolutely! This is one of my favorite soaps, and I’d completely forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder!
What I’d suggest is using rose (pink) clay. It’s good mixed with water and aloe as a face mask too. But use in your soap for the skin properties as well as to achieve a lovely pink soap.
To scent, rose eo would be nice – though, sadly, it is very cost prohibitive. You’d want to use around a 1/2 ounce per pound of soap otherwise it won’t do much… and depending on what type of essential oil you purchase, you could be looking at around $100 – $300+ per half ounce. That’d be a seriously expensive bar of soap!
So if you can add all the other best of ingredients, and use a light amount of fragrance oil, it’d be much more cost effective. You could use rose water, but I don’t think the rose scent would carry through the saponification process.
Do some searching on it – maybe you can find the essential oils a little cheaper than what I’ve found. Oh, and if you try it, let me know how it turns out! I’d love to see it!
Thank you, Judi, for the very quick response! I’m new to soap making and wanted to make some of both rose and lavender since both are my favorite scents. I have fo, but wanted to try eo. I found 1/3 oz. pure for $45, but don’t know if I want to put it into soap or not. I also have a large bottle of fo. I’m going to try a batch of each without the powder, just soap dye, and a batch of each with the powder and send all 4 pics to you and let you know how they turn out! I have a beautiful rose bud opening mold that would look gorgeous with the rose soap (and maybe the lavender, too!!).
Hi,
I’m relatively new to soap making. On the Lavender Goat Milk Recipe what does 8.8 oz goat milk*
*this is your lye amount x 2 mean?
Don’t mean to sound ignorant. Just wanted to know so that I don’t mess up another batch.
Thanks so much
Gloria – hi.. sorry it sounds confusing. If you look, the lye amount you need for this specific recipe amount is 4.38 ounces. To determine how much goat milk I need to use, I have doubled the lye amount and just rounded up for ease. 4.38 x 2 = 8.76… or 8.8 ounces.
This was the usual way to figure lye to water ratio when I learned how to make soap. Lye x 2 = liquid needed
As I got more use to my recipes, how the fragrance or liquid (in this case goat milk) reacts to the lye, I was able to reduce how much liquid I used… thus reducing the cure time a bit. But when using goat milk, or other liquids aside from water, you want to use the (lye x 2) method until you are used to things too. If you don’t use enough liquid, your soap can “seize” on you.. meaning it gets almost instantly hard, and you can mix things well enough for it to be safe. Not good.
Also, with goat milk, it’s recommended to freeze it, and then add the lye to the milk.. I usually freeze it to a little more frozen than “slushy”.. the lye added to the frozen milk will still heat up as it mixes.. so adding it to just cold milk can end up kind of gross – or bubbling up and over-flowing.
Thanks for asking this question. I think I’ve had other ask it too, and I never really explained. I hope this helped. If not, do feel free to message back and I’ll try to explain better or differently. :) Good luck.. and.. don’t worry over the messed up batches. We’ve all had them… they happen, and we learn from them. And kick ourselves for wasting the oil, fragrance, time, haha.
What about substituting coconut oil for PKO? It’s a lot easier for me to find.
You can use coconut oil, but you don’t really want to use more than 15 or 20% – even at 20% it can be drying. Regardless, whatever you do to substitute, make sure you run the recipe back through a lye calculator. Each oil is different and requires a different amount of lye to make soap – soap that won’t burn ;) .
MY friend and I just made your soap, but we used coconut oil instead of PKO b/c we couldn’t find PKO. Now the soap seems really soft, and I can’t get it out of the molds. Will it harden up over time? In the meantime, how do I unmold it? Do you think putting it in the freezer would harden it enough that I could get it out of the mold, then leave it somewhere to cure for a few weeks?
Oops – wish I’d seen the comment above mine before using coconut oil!
A few important questions…
How long has it been since you made the soap?
– Ideally, you want to let it set up in the mold around 24 hours. That said, I sometimes un-molded mine at 12 hours.. but yes, it will be softer.. just handle it gently.
What did you use to line the mold?
– If nothing, then… ouch.. it may be difficult to get it out. Assuming you lined the mold, I’d take a butter knife and slide it around all accessible sides of the mold, then, I’d slowly try working it out.
– If it isn’t lined, then, I’d consider grabbing a couple melon ballers and make a lot of soap balls. ;) And it’d be best to do that while it’s still semi-soft.
Since you change the posted recipe, did you remember to run it through a soap/lye calculator?
– If not, then it may not have enough of the lye solution to allow it to harden up. It is *very*extremely* (made up stress word) important to run all recipes through a lye calculator. Even one that is posted (what if *I* made a mistake in copying my recipe to the post?) and even more so if you change a recipe. The lye amount is determined by each individual oil property – and all oils have different, even if similar, properties.
– So.. if you didn’t check the recipe before, and now you have soft soap.. go ahead and check it now. If the amount of lye isn’t correct, then it may not harden up even given time. :(
I saw your second comment and wanted to let you know, it’s not a bad batch, even if you did use a lot of coconut oil. Coconut oil IS good. And it makes for a great soap. But if there is too much in your soap, it might cause drying to your skin. You can try it, see what happens.. it might be ok. But if you find it’s too drying, then you could use it in my laundry soap recipe. Or you can re-batch it (I can’t remember what the proper term for it is) where you shred the soap, water it down, cook it on the stove – you’d have to search for it for specifics, but my understanding is it makes a nice gentle soap. Or another option is to shred it/slice it, and add to new batches of soap for ‘design’.. like white chunks in a darker soap.. uh.. like if the batch is scented vanilla, add shreds or chunks to a chocolate soap, and giving it a creative name, Chocolate Marshmallow – for a simple example.
If none of these ideas or suggestions help, feel free to email me.. and we can try to hash out a solution together. :)
Here is my experience with substituting PKO with coconut oil:
When I made this soap I used 75% olive oil, 20% coconumt oil, and 5% lard. I ran this recipe through a lye calculator and used the suggested amount of lye to produce a 6% superfat. The resulting soap was very hard and very beautiful. Next time, however, I will not use so must coconut oil as it is slightly drying.
Megan – thanks so much for your input! I’m sure others will appreciate your findings.
Your site is the most awesome site I have found. I have researched soap until I had almost talked myself out of trying to make my own batch… but your rescued me.. I love your straight forward answers and you much needed explanations and the fact you are not a soap snob to newbies makes you number one special to me. Thanks for all the advice. I love making up my own recipes, so far only one flop, but i milled it and saved it. God Bless…
Oh thank you for your sweet comment ncsunny! You made my day when I read this! I’m sooo not a soap snob. It’s competitive if you’re in soap for business, but I got out of that several years ago. Keep soaping and have fun!