ByTanya Anderson July 7, 2024March 11, 2026

How to Make Calendula Soap with Flower Petals

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Recipe and instructions for how to make calendula soap the easy way. This cold-process soap recipe uses either dried or fresh flower petals—it’s your choice! You mix the petals into the lye solution and oils as they heat on the stove, creating about ten bars of naturally yellow soap. The bars are also decorated with gorgeous flecks of orange flower petals.

Recipe and instructions for how to make calendula soap with dried or fresh flower petals. This calendula soap recipe turns out a natural yellow-orange color #soaprecipe #calendula #soapcolorant

Anyone who has been with me for long will have heard me talk about calendula flowers. Calendula officinalis is a skin-beneficial plant with an astonishing list of uses. It’s edible, can dye fabric, looks pretty in the garden, and is a medicinal herb. Though it has skin-healing properties, we mainly use calendula in soapmaking to naturally color soap. It’s also exciting to use in soap decorations because it’s one of the few flowers whose color can withstand the soapmaking process. While other flowers fade or turn brown, calendula comes out the other end unscathed and as vibrant as ever!

When buying dried calendula petals, they often come as light yellow petals. I don’t recommend using these in soap recipes since they often lack color. Instead, use vibrant orange petals for this recipe. If you can grow them yourself, that’s perfect. If not, you’ll need to source them from a soap or herbal supply shop. I’ve left a link to orange calendula flowers in the recipe card, which should be of help.

Using Calendula in Soap Recipes

There are several ways to make soap with calendula petals, and you can use either fresh or dried flower petals. When using fresh petals, you need to chop them finely and mix them into the soap batter. Larger pieces of petals might not preserve well and could cause mold or rancidity. You can chop them either before soapmaking or use the stick blender while making soap. Avoid using fresh petals to decorate soap tops since they will most likely mold or rot. Moldy soap not only looks terrible, but it can also affect the shelf-life of soap.

Dried calendula petals can be used freely when making soap. The easiest ways are to stir them into the soap batter or scatter them on the tops of bars as decoration. The petals add vibrant color that’s 100% natural! You can even grow calendula, dry it, and use it throughout the year to make soap. It’s one of the easiest flowers to grow and, if you let it go to seed, can regrow every year.

A yellow soap bar is lathered up in a hand. There are small speckles of orange flower petals in the soap. — Calendula petals create little golden speckles in soap bars.

You may even already grow this cheerful flower in your garden! In some regions, it’s called the pot marigold because you can add it “to the pot” for food recipes. It’s an edible flower, companion plant, dye plant, and soap colorant. One other thing – calendula flowers are not related to the typical marigold bedding plants (tagetes) that you might be familiar with. Make sure that you use calendula officinalis flowers for this recipe.

Woman in an apron picks calendula flowers from a raised bed. — Fresh calendula petals are thin enough to be preserved in soap recipes.

Another way to make calendula soap is to first make calendula oil and then use the colored oil to make soap. This method involves soaking the petals in a carrier oil, which I cover in my second calendula soap recipe. Lastly, you can make a calendula-flower water infusion and use it in place of the water for the lye solution. This can further enrich the color of the bars.

Does Calendula Soap Heal Your Skin?

Calendula is a well-known skin herb that helps to heal cuts, acne, inflammation, and eczema, among other things. However, when used in soap recipes, it’s doubtful that the soap has any medicinal effect. The main reason is that it’s almost completely washed off your skin when you’re using it.

Calendula soap recipe + instructions on how to make calendula soap — Calendula flowers are used by herbalists to treat skin conditions.

It’s also unlikely that there are enough active constituents in the recipe or that they survive the soapmaking process. Calendula is used in soap recipes to naturally color soap, not for any further skin benefits.

More Calendula Flower Recipes

If you would like to make calendula recipes that can help your skin, I have some in the ebook and recipes below. Leave-on products like salves, balms, lotions, and creams are the best ways to nourish skin with calendula’s healing properties.

How to Make Calendula Soap

Lovely Greens

Instructions for how to make simple calendula soap using whole flower petals. You can use fresh or dried petals for this recipe, and the lemony essential oil also helps color the soap. This recipe makes about 10 bars. Technical information: 1.76 lb / 800 g batch with a 6% superfat and 33% water discount. Full DIY video at the bottom.

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Author Lovely Greens

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Equipment

safety goggles
gloves (nitrile or rubber)
digital kitchen scale
digital thermometer
immersion blender (stick blender) (also called a stick blender)
medium stainless steel pot (2.5 quart/liter) (for melting the solid oils)
bowl or jug (for measuring the liquid oils) (for measuring the liquid oils into)
heat-proof jug
silicone spatula
silicone loaf mold (28 oz)

Materials

Lye solution

109 g sodium hydroxide 3.86 oz
218 g distilled water 7.69 oz
1 TBSP dried calendula petals (orange color) 0.8 g or 2 TBSP fresh petals

Solid oils

200 g coconut oil (refined) 7.05 oz / 25%
120 g shea butter (refined) 4.23 oz / 15%
80 g cocoa butter 2.82 oz / 10%
1 TBSP dried calendula petals (orange color) 0.8 g or 2 TBSP fresh petals

Liquid oils

360 g olive oil (light colored or pomace) 12.7 oz / 45%
40 g castor oil 1.41 oz /5%

After Trace

5.25 tsp may chang (litsea cubeba) essential oil 20.7 g – optional

Instructions

Cold-process soapmaking is chemistry, and this recipe uses lye. Lye is a caustic substance that is completely neutralized in the soapmaking process, but it can be harmful if not handled correctly. Please read this soap making safety guidance before proceeding.
Measure the solid oils and calendula petals in a stainless steel pan and the liquid oils into a bowl. Measure the water and sodium hydroxide into separate heat-proof plastic jugs. The other ingredients and equipment can be set out at the ready. Now you’re ready to make soap.
Preheat the oven to 170°F (75°C). Ensure nothing is inside.
Put on safety goggles and rubber gloves. In a well-ventilated area, pour the sodium hydroxide into the water. Hold it away from your face so you don’t breathe in the steam, and stir until it’s all dissolved. There will be a lot of heat and steam released during this process, so be prepared.
Once dissolved, set the jug in cool water to help speed up cooling. I usually place mine in the sink. Pour the calendula flower petals into the hot lye solution and give it a stir.
Put your pan of solid oils on the stove at the lowest setting possible. Stir it gently to help the larger chunks of oil to melt. When the solid oil has completely melted, take it off the heat and place it on a potholder. Pour the liquid oils into the pan and stir it together.
Next, take both the oil and lye solution’s temperatures. You’re aiming to get them to around the same temperature of 100°F (38°C). It doesn’t have to be exact, though.
Pour the lye solution into the pan of oils – flower petals and all. Now dip the stick blender into the pan, and while off, use it as a spoon to stir everything together.
Bring the stick blender to the middle of the pan, and at a standstill, turn it on for a few seconds. Stop and then use it (turned off) like a spoon to stir the soap together. Keep doing this until the soap thickens to ‘Trace.’ The blending action also chops up the calendula petals.
Light trace is when the calendula soap batter thickens to the consistency of warm custard. If you lift the blender out and let the batter drip down, it will leave trails on the surface of your soap. When your soap is at Trace, it’s time to add the essential oil. Stir it well with a spoon or rubber spatula.
Pour the soap batter into the mold(s) while it’s still runny. Move quickly, or the soap will begin to set inside your pan.
Turn off the oven and place the soap mold inside. Close the door and leave it inside, undisturbed, for twelve hours. Then, take it out and set it on the countertop. This oven-processing step ensures a more intense final color in your homemade calendula soap.
Leave the calendula soap for another day (or two) before popping it out of the mold. Afterward, cut it into bars using a thin kitchen knife. Alternatively, use a dedicated soap cutter.
Next, space the bars out on grease-proof paper to dry out and cure. The soap will be completely saponified (fully soap) 48 hours after you make it, but your bars need four to six weeks to ‘cure’ before you use them.
The best place to cure your soap is in an airy, cool, yet dim area. A bookshelf out of direct sunlight would work a treat. Space your bars out and enjoy the lemony fragrance of the essential oil for the next month.
After the cure time is up, store the soap in the open air until you’re ready to use them.

Video

Notes

Are you a beginner soapmaker looking for more guidance on how to make handmade soap? Enroll in the Natural Soapmaking for Beginners Online Course to get up to speed quickly. You’ll learn all about soap ingredients and equipment and be guided through step-by-step soap recipe videos.

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