Homemade Soap with Lavender – the Perfect Gift

Lavender impresses us all with its strong, exotic scent. But its olfactory qualities can be easily materialized into a natural soap, simple and easy to make at home, which will sooth our tired skin by hydrating it. Lavender soap has relaxing qualities thanks to the lavender oil, known for its calming, healing and emollient effects. Moreover, the essential lavender oil, the main ingredient in making the soap at home, is recognized for its relaxing effects, bearing antiseptic and antibacterial properties. Therefore, the lavender soap helps fight insomnia and headaches.

We chose a simple recipe to make lavender soap at home, as detailed on Homemade-gifts-made-easy.com, saving money while fully enjoying the qualities of an organic product. For this project you need white soap base (you can also turn to goat’s milk, olive oil, clear soap etc.), lavender essential oil, dried lavender buds, mortar and pestle or food processor, a microwave glass bowl and various containers for molds.

To make six small hand soaps you should use 300g of soap base, ¼ cup of lavender buds to mix into the soap and another ¼ cup to sprinkle on top and 5 ml (about 100 drops) of lavender essential oil. Grind the first ¼ cup of dried lavender buds either by using the mortar and pestle or a food processor until broken down into pieces and release the essential oils and fragrance at the same time.

The second step is chopping the soap base into small pieces and then melt them, either in a bowl suspended over boiling water, or heating in short bursts in the microwave. Stir in lavender essential oil, and ground lavender buds and then pour the mixture into the mold, preferably a thin plastic container so you can later remove the soap block more easily.

Sprinkle the other ¼ of lavender buds and press to make sure they stay in place. Let the mixture set for a couple of hours and then remove it from the mold. Cut it in different shapes and, if you want to turn the soap bars into an original present, use strips of raffia, as suggested in the pictures below.