Lavender - Lemongrass Vegan Soap

My first soap, Coffee-Walnut Scrub Soap, turned out so well, that I immediately wanted to try another. Well, immediately after my first batch cured for 6 weeks anyway.

Being the chemist I am, I was not content with looking up recipes online.  By this time (6 weeks after falling in love with soaping), I had read everything I could find about oils, fragrances, and the chemistry behind soaping and I was confident I could create my own recipe. Typing this, I realize how impulsive this sounds, but this is very typical behavior for me in the lab - after all, the worst that can happen is that I fail horribly - remember my bath bombs?

I had not yet rendered my own animal fats to use, so I decided to stick with vegan oils for this batch.  Since I didn't want an enormous amount of soap, I scaled it to yield about a pound.  I also kept it pretty basic, to get a starting point from which I could tweak it to get the right combos and consistencies.

3.4 oz coconut oil
3.4 oz olive oil
3.4 oz Shea butter
0.7 oz sweet almond oil
3.6 oz water
1.5 oz lye

This recipe has a 7% super fat.  It seemed to take forever to get to trace, but finally got there.  It was a bright yellow, I'm guessing from the olive oil. I scented it at light trace with lemongrass and lavender essential oils - I'm obsessed with this combo.  I wasn't adding anything else to the soap, so I left it at light trace and poured it into individual silicone soap molds. It made 4.5 bars.

I covered them with a small box and threw a towel over that and set it on top of my dryer. The dryer was running and I hoped the extra vibration would help release any air bubbles from the soap while the heat would help with the incubation period.

The bars were very soft the next day and I was concerned I would leave some finger impressions on them if I tries to get them out of the mold, so I left them in the molds for a couple extra days until they had firmed up. When I did take them out, they clung a little to the molds and didn't have the smooth look I had hoped for, but oh well.

After two weeks of cure time, I could not wait any more. I had to know how it turned out. Would it lather? Would it fall apart? I cut my half-bar into thirds and gave my hands a quick wash. It lathered nicely - lots of little bubbles with very little effort - but it was still a little soft for a bar of soap. I wasn't too worried, though. It still had a lot of drying to do, and a couple weeks to cure.

Fast forward a week and a half later, I tried it again. So much firmer! There was a nice lather, lots of little bubbles, still. The bars were decently hard, but lacked a creaminess to them, which I was kinda expecting since it is vegan.  To touch the bars while dry, they were light and smooth, and didn't rub off on the skin, or feel slimy in any way.  Win!

Overall, I was very pleased. I gave it a good, all-over trial, including my face. I did NOT use any moisturizer after (so I could give a fair assessment of just the soap) and could feel the skin was a little tight, but not uncomfortable, despite the dry winter air. The scent of the soap is mild and really nice - so fresh and clean smelling.

I'll be giving these bars another week to keep drying - about 5 weeks total - to see if there is any change.  Then I'll be giving it out to some lucky followers on my Facebook page!  Be sure to follow me to have a chance to try this soap for free!

Is using vegan products important to you? Let me know in the comments.