Make oatmeal soap with orange essential oil for an astringent yet moisturizing exfoliating bar. I made my oatmeal bar with orange essential oil but you can use lavender, or a blend of orange and lavender – a nice and refreshing yet relaxing bar.
The question often is about what size to have the oatmeal. Some people leave it whole and others chop it into smaller pieces in a blender. I’ve tried both and the whole oatmeal grains are visible as actual oatmeal making it nicer looking and less scratchy than a bar with all the small pieces.
make oatmeal soap with orange, could be easily changed to a Lavender-Oatmeal:
- Basic #2 recipe: other base recipes here
51.2 oz Olive/Canola blended oils
6.2 oz Coconut oil
6.2 oz Palm oil
23.4 oz water
8.6 oz lye crystals - for this scented bar, add:
- 6 T of orange essential oil
- 3/4 cup of whole grain oatmeal
- 1/2 T of orange color
- if making a lavender-oatmeal bar:
- 2.5 T – 3 T of lavender essential oil
- colorant:
- 1/2 tsp purple liquid colorant – for the lavender version, or
- 1/2 tsp orange liquid colorant – for the orange version
- Remember to mix the base color in one cup of base, mix well, and add back in
- Place the oatmeal in a larger cup or bowl with 2 cups of base, mix well, and add back to pot, mix well, pour into molds.
I love the way the following soap was made. Whereas most bars are square or a horizontal rectangle, this one is a vertical rectangle, with vertical 2 tones. This method would involve the separating of the mold with a rigid plastic board (I’ve used just carboard), pouring the 2 differently tinted soap base into each side, then remove the separating board.
What if you make oatmeal soap with no color? or any soap?
When making a batch of oatmeal soap with orange, I decided to make half of it without any colorant. Because our motto was to be as natural as possible, we thought this would sell just as well, if not better. The soap base is ready, the oatmeal is in, and the scent is in, so I pour half of the pot into a mold, cover and leave to cure. With the remaining half of the soap, I add the orange colorant, pour this one in another mold and cover.
Later we have both soaps our on the shelf, when a customer stated that she thought the bars without the colorant did not smell as strong as the orange colored bars. I explained that they were the same batch, just one colored and one not. Nope, she says, the one with no color definitely has less scent (seriously, even after I told her I made it). That was a very important lesson for us in the world of marketing and perception.
Below are my soaps from my store, the top-right bar is the colored Orange-Oatmeal, and the bottom left is the uncolored Orange-Oatmeal. There still is a slight orange color from the natural tint of the orange essential oil. (The other bars, top-left is a lavender, and bottom-right is a hemp soap with hemp seeds and calendula petals).
Here’s a Lavender soap recipe without the Oatmeal, but you could add oatmeal and lavender petals.
More uses for oatmeal and health care can be found on this hildablue blog post.
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