Lavender Herbal Infusion Soap
This lovely soap contains a special herbal infusion of alkanet and olive oil that results in a deep purple hue (see page 72 for instructions).
Lavender is very soothing and calming to the skin and mind, and it helps relieve stress and headaches. A wonderful soap to start your day with, lavender aids in the healing of burns. It can also reduce acne, heal blemishes, and calm inflammations.
Ingredients:
7.6 oz distilled water
2.9 oz lye
2 oz alkanet-strained olive oil (page 72)
6 oz olive oil
8 oz coconut oil
Method:
SAFETY CHECK!
Weigh your water in a heatproof, non-reactive bowl and weigh lye in a separate container. Take these outside to a well-ventilated, safe area and add your lye to your water, mixing thoroughly with a non-reactive spoon. Set in a safe spot to cool.
Meanwhile, weigh your oils and keep over medium heat until thoroughly melted. Remove from heat, add essential oils for scent. Check that your lye and oil temperaturess are both around 100°F and 110°F and then blend your lye/water into your oils. Mix these thoroughly with a stick blender until you have reached trace, then mix a little longer, just to be certain. Pour your soap into pre-lined soap mold.
At this point, spritz the tops of your soap with alcohol to keep soda ash from forming. Set aside in a safe spot to harden for 12 to 24 hours. After this time, remove your soap from the mold, peel off the freezer paper, and cut your soap! Set aside to cure for 4 to 6 weeks. Enjoy!!
Lavender
Lavender is very soothing and calming to the skin and mind, and it helps relieve stress and headaches. A wonderful soap to start your day with, lavender aids in the healing of burns. It can also reduce acne, heal blemishes, and calm inflammations.
Recommended Scent Blend: Lavender
The following is based on a variety of some of my favorite lavenders on my shelves. The varieties of available lavender distillations is vast, but if you don’t have a variety of lavenders and have just one, that will work great, too—just be sure to add the benzoin to “fix” the lavender or your scent will evaporate rapidly.
• 20 drops benzoin
• 40 drops lavender angustifolia (Hungary)
• 40 drops lavender angustifolia (Russia)
• 40 drops lavandin abrialis (France)
• 40 drops lavandin grosso (Oregon, USA)