Lavender soaps

One thing I love doing is making my own soaps. I use them myself, but I like to give them to my friends as gifts too. There are a few ways to make soap and you can use lots of different fragrances and colours. Honey and rose petals, for example, but vanilla and orange too. I always like to make lavender soaps at this time of year.

Ingredients

for four lavender soaps, prepared using the cold process:

– 150 g olive oil

– 200 g coconut oil

– 45 g caustic soda (sodium hydroxide)

– 120 ml water

– 2 tbsp glycerine

– a couple of drops of lavender essential oil

– a little colouring if desired

There are a few different ways to make soap. With the ‘hot process’, the soap is set and ready to use the next day. In the ‘cold process’ you pour the liquid soap into a mould and it takes between six and eight weeks to set.

I made these pretty flower-shaped soaps using the hot process. As soon as I had mixed the ingredients (including lavender oil) and poured the soap into the mould, I carefully pressed in the lavender flowers.

Did you know that you can add some eye shadow to the mix too, to create a nice pastel-coloured soap?