Gorgeous Mint & Lavender Soap Recipe

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cold process soap with mint and lavender
cold process soap with mint and lavender
cold process soap with mint and lavender

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This gorgeous mint and lavender soap recipe is one of my favorites right now. It’s totally vegan friendly, and exactly what you need to get you going in the morning.

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I drag myself out of bed in the morning this soap is my go-to for a wake me up shower. The fresh mint invigorates my mind and senses and the lavender gives my skin a beautiful, floral aroma that I can smell for hours.

lavender soap recipe with mint

Why Make This Soap?

The simple, yet very effective aroma of Lavender and Mint is one that can appeal to a wide range of people. Of all the soap recipes I like to hand out as a gift, this is the one that most people come back telling me they love it. But as we know, essential oils are more than a nice smell, they have active properties too!

Lavender, for instance, is exceptionally soothing, inhibits fungal growth and even speeds the healing of minor wounds. Peppermint, on the other hand, reduces itchiness and revitalizing dull or tired skin, giving you back that youthful glow!

The choice of oils and butters are also a good combination that will nourish and rehydrate skin. The added botanical of dried mint leaves will help to exfoliate, ridding your skin of that dried, dead cells. They also give this lavender soap an interesting look, which would otherwise be a boring, beige soap that wouldn’t really demand anyone’s attention.

Watch How To Make Basic Cold Process Soap

Before you make this soap, take a few minutes to watch the video below for the basic method. For more detailed information see how to make cold process soap at home.

How To Make Soap AT Home - Basic Cold Process Soap
cold process soap with mint and lavender

Gorgeous Mint & Lavender Soap Recipe

This gorgeous mint and lavender soap recipe is one of my favorites right now. It’s totally vegan friendly, and exactly what you need to get you going in the morning
5 from 5 votes
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Prep Time: 15 minutes
Active Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Yield: 10 Bars
Author: Angela Wills

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Equipment

Ingredients

Instructions

  • If you’ve not made soap before, take a look at my full cold process tutorial here.
    Make sure you are making the soap in a well-ventilated area. Put on your gloves and eye protection, your mask, apron, and long rubber gloves.
    soapmaking PPE
  • I like to start off by weighing out my essential oils into a glass container now. This just makes it easier later on when we come to add them, as getting these minute measurements right can take some time.
    Weigh the distilled water into a glass jug. In a separate container, weigh your sodium hydroxide/lye crystals.
    When you’re ready, combine these by pouring your lye crystals into the water and stirring. This will result in a chemical reaction, and the lye water will begin to increase in temperature and release noxious fumes. Turn your head and lean away while stirring, so not to breathe any of the fumes in.
    Now place to one side, somewhere well ventilated, and allow to cool as we get on with our other steps.
    Last but not least, weigh out your oils and cosmetic butter. Melt the butter together with your oils in a microwave, using 30 second bursts.
    Step 2: Mix the lye solution
  • Now it’s time to balance our oils and lye water. Check the temperature of the oils and compare this to the temperature of the lye water. We want them both to fall between 90-120F. Don’t try to warm the lye water up, but you can heat up the oils a little bit if they’re too cold.
    How to make cold process soap with mint and lavender step 1: Blanace the temperatures of your oils and lye to between 90-120F
  • Once you’re satisfied they’re balanced, pour your lye solution into your oils and blend with a stick blender until you reach trace.
    Need a better description of trace? Take a look at step 5 of Soap Making – A Guide For Beginners Using Cold Process.
    Step 3: Blitz with and stick blender until light trace
  • Now we’re at trace, it’s time to add our essential oils and mint. Add your essential oils first, mix thoroughly and then add the mint. We don’t want all the mint to sink to the bottom, so I like to add it first.
    Step 6: Add your dried mint
  • Now all our ingredients have been mixed together, it’s time to get it into the mold. Once you add the essential oils, you’ll notice that soap begins to rapidly thicken. So, working quickly but carefully (as the batter is still caustic), pour or spoon the batter into your loaf mold.
    We’ll want to leave this to saponify for 24-48 hour before we can remove from the mold. I like to keep it well insulated during this period, just so gel phase is efficient. I do this by cutting a piece of cardboard to sit on top of the mold and then wrap it in an old towel that I only ever use for this purpose.
    Step 7: Pour into your mold and leave for 24-48 hours before removing
  • Once our soap has fully sapped, it’s okay to remove from the mold and cut into bars. You should be able to get between 10-12 bars from this batch, depending on desired thickness.
    Then, leave these to cure for 4 weeks, testing with a Ph indicator strip to ensure it’s safe to use (this is especially important if you gift or sell your soaps).
    Step 8: Remove from the mold and cut into even bars
Step 3: Pour into your soap mold

Soap Calculator & Formulation Guide

Select your chosen oils, along with the weight or percentage. The soap calculator will then show the total weight of lye and water required. The result can be instantly adjusted by changing your preferred superfatting level or water/lye ratio.

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Angela Wills

Angela is the founder and driving force behind Savvy Homemade. With over fifteen years experience in DIY home crafts, and a Diploma in skincare formulation, Angela brings a wealth of knowledge and dedication to every post she writes. She is fearlessly dedicated to creating tried, tested recipes & products that will work for everyone, and she infuses each DIY product with her passion and expertise.

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Discussion (18 Comments)

  1. Hello! I’m getting ready to make this, getting supplies. What kind of “mint” leaves do you use? Peppermint? I see there are a variety of mint leaves available. Thank you!! Also trying out Mountain Rose Herbs as a supplier, so thank you for that tip. I don’t have a soap store I can go to and don’t like to buy from Hobby Lobby or Michaels.

    Reply
    • Hi Kristine,

      There is no particular mint leaf that I use, I just use whatever I have to hand. I have even used mint from a good quality tea bag before and it is still lovely. As long as your mint is good quality, that is all that matters.

      Reply
    • Hi Miranda,

      Are you trying to work out percentages in order to amend the size of the batch? If so, did you know that you can easily adjust the yield using the slider on the recipe card? You can also change between grams and ounces.

      Reply
  2. Hi Angela,

    I just made cold process soap at home for the first time using your recipe. Thanks for sharing it! I weighed my essential oils but am surprised that the peppermint is so overpowering in the aroma profile. I can’t smell the lavender 40-42 at all. What kind of peppermint oil do you use? I only had triple distilled mint essential oil on hand, so I’m guessing that’s my problem. Maybe I should have used less. I’m hoping the strong scent will fade a bit more as the soap cures.

    Thanks again,
    Grant

    Reply
    • Hi Grant,

      Yeah, that sounds like the strength of your essential oil is the problem. I only use regular Peppermint essential oil for this recipe. Sometimes I use 2 or 5 fold essential oils in my crafts, but I always use much less so it isn’t so overpowering. Try halving the amount of Peppermint essential oil.

      Reply
  3. This recipe is extremely easy. Thank you!

    The struggle I have is getting enough of the lavender scent while I shower. There is a very light scent. I would like it a little stronger. I increased the lavender to 40grams and decreased the peppermint to 5 grams to get the light scent. How much lavender can be added to be deemed safe or won’t ruin the soap?

    Look forward to your response.5 stars

    Reply
    • Hi Lulu,

      This is difficult to say, as every soap recipe is different. I wouldn’t go much higher than you have at 45 grams of essential oil. You run the risk of your soap batter seizing, and your batter will become a lumpy mess that won’t harden into soap.

      Reply
  4. I think I messed up the measurements – the soap is a bit soft! Does it harden as it cures, or am I best to just ditch the whole batch?

    Reply
    • Hi Kimberley,

      Yes, it should harden some while it cures. That’s actually the most important part of the curing process, as some of the liquid inside your soap needs to evaporate so your soap doesn’t melt away after one use. So I would leave it for 4-6 weeks. After 6 weeks, if it’s still a bit soft, I would use it anyway providing it has a safe PH. It should still be lovely for your skin, even if it is a little on the soft side.

      Reply
      • Thank you – the scales I used weren’t the best so I thought perhaps I’d mis-measured! I also wasn’t sure I’d read the essential oil measurements correctly, as when I’ve made soap before it requires only a few drops, but with this it was a few bottles, did I read it right?! 🙂

      • Hi Kimberley,

        It does seem like a lot, doesn’t it? But I can assure you that it’s likely you did read the recipe right when it comes to the essential oil. Because soap isn’t a leave-on product, you can get away with using quite a bit for a gorgeous fragrance that will linger on your skin.

        As for having to use a lot of bottles, I’ve found buying the more common, basic essential oils (like lavender) in larger bottles from cosmetic suppliers (I use Plant Therapy, which you can find on amazon) to be the easiest option. That way you’re using less packaging and so on. When it comes to your more obscure or expensive essential oils (e.g. Rose essential oil or absolute) it’s totally fine to have the standard 10ml bottles, as I would never use a precious oil in soap, as it requires so much.

        If your soap is too soft, it is likely something went a bit wrong with the distilled water measurement. But this is something that happens to all of us soap makers from time to time, so don’t worry too much. As long as the PH is within a safe range, you’re good to go.

  5. Hi, thanks for the recipe, what olive oil was taken? Pulp or not? What Water as % of Oils and what Super Fat?

    Reply
  6. Hello! I’d love to make this. I have one query, I usually measure my EO in ml, do you know the ml equivalent. I could, of course, weigh them and see, but I’m not sure whether I have enough and weighing would mean tipping them out of the bottle.
    Thanks for your recipes, I’ve made two so far and they do work beautifully!

    Reply
    • Hi Jackie,

      I tend not to measure my essential oils in mls when it comes to making skincare products and soap. The reason for this is that different oils weigh different as they all have varying densities, so if I ever attempt to substitute one essential oil for another it can affect the weight of the end product. Its only a small margin of error when it comes to soap, but it just bugs me.

      So unfortunately, I can’t give you a very good or accurate conversion. I’m ever so sorry about that. Nevertheless, if you find you don’t have enough when you’re weighing out your oils, you could always use another one as well. You may end up with a blend of essential oils that becomes your new favorite fragrance!

      Anyway, I’m glad you’re enjoying making soap! Keep me updated on how this one turns out 😀

      Reply
5 from 5 votes (4 ratings without comment)

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