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All Natural Carrot Soap Recipe with Real Carrots
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August 19, 2019 · 39 Comments

All Natural Carrot Soap Recipe with Real Carrots

Beauty· Soap· Videos

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How to make natural carrot soap using the cold-process method. It’s a simple homemade carrot purée that creates that sunny yellow color. Full DIY video included

There are so many natural colorants that you can use to tint soap that it’s ridiculous. Although some are a little exotic, others grow much closer to home. In fact, you might even have the key ingredient for this soap recipe growing in the garden.

Carrots, when added as juice or purée, color handmade soap yellow. They’re also mild, easy, and inexpensive to work with. In case you’re wondering, it’s natural beta carotene (Vitamin A) that tints both the carrots and your soap in the end. Though you can buy it as capsules, it’s far more rewarding to work with raw ingredients. It won’t tint your skin yellow but it will create lovely sunny bars that look vibrant for ages.

Natural carrot soap recipe using homemade carrot puree. This recipe creates mild bars that are tinted a natural buttery yellow #soapmaking #carrotrecipe #soaprecipe

Adding purées to soap

This is an intermediate soap recipe, albeit one that’s easy to replicate even as a beginner (check out my beginner soap making series). The key is in following the recipe and ingredients closely. Purées, especially made with fruit, have additional sugar. This additional sugar can heat up your soap after its molded and can cause all kinds of weird and wonderful (and annoying) things to happen. If soap gets too hot it can crack or discolor. If it stays a moderate temperature it can gel, and the color intensify.

Fortunately, carrots are relatively low in the sugars that cause soap mishaps. I’ve also introduced them into the recipe in the lye-solution stage so that any pieces can be filtered out before they’re added to the oils. Making homemade carrot purée is easy but missing chunks is easy too. Little pieces of carrots in soap would not only look and feel vile but could cause spoilage issues too.

Natural carrot soap recipe using homemade carrot puree. This recipe creates mild bars that are tinted a natural buttery yellow #soapmaking #carrotrecipe #soaprecipe

The freshly cut bars will need six weeks to fully cure

Water discounting with purées

Getting the moisture balance right when using purées in soap can be tricky. Fruit and vegetables contain water and if you don’t accommodate for that, then your batches might be wetter than you planned for. That’s why you use a reduced amount of water when making soap with fresh plant material.

Saying that, I’ve found that if you reduce the true water content too much then the soap can trace (harden) very quickly. The amount of moisture in this recipe is much higher than I’d use ordinarily but it gives more time to work with the soap.

The thing you should expect from this recipe is that the soap can be soft and sticky after unmolding. That extra water needs extra time to evaporate out. I recommend leaving the soap in the mold for a week or so before taking it out and cutting.

Natural carrot soap recipe using homemade carrot puree. This recipe creates mild bars that are tinted a natural buttery yellow #soapmaking #carrotrecipe #soaprecipe

After six weeks the bars will become very hard and produce a soft lather

Different shades of yellow

In the recipe we use a normal soaping temperature. We also allow the soap to cool down and harden at around room temperature. To get an even more vibrant yellow-orange color you can also gel this soap recipe. That involves using a slightly higher soaping temperature and insulating it to retain heat.

Lovely Greens Guide to Natural Soapmaking

To lighten the soap color you can use less carrot purée. There’s fifty grams, or three Tablespoons, is in the original recipe. You could instead use just one or two Tablespoons and get the color of bars that you see below. If you do opt to use less, then replace the missing Tablespoon(s) of with water. The total amount in weight of both purée and water for this recipe is 150g (5.29oz). Make sure that whatever adjustments you make they still add up to that.

All three shades that I’ve made are lovely in their own right. I’m thinking now that you could potentially layer up bars with different shades of carrot soap for an ombre effect. How pretty would that be?

Natural carrot soap recipe using homemade carrot puree. This recipe creates mild bars that are tinted a natural buttery yellow #soapmaking #carrotrecipe #soaprecipe

Using less carrot puree will create light yellow colored soap

Natural Carrot Soap Recipe

Lovely Greens
Small batch of natural carrot soap with carrot puree to add a sunny yellow color. Makes five to six bars. Technical information: 1lb / 454g batch -- 5% superfat -- water discount due to water content in purée

5 from 3 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
Curing time 35 d
Total Time 35 d 1 hr
Servings 6 bars

Equipment

  • Digital Kitchen Scale
  • Digital temperature gun (or thermometer)
  • Immersion blender
  • Stainless steel pan for melting the solid oils
  • A large bowl for measuring the liquid oils into
  • Heat-proof jug for the lye-solution
  • Measuring spoons
  • Rubber spatula for stirring and scraping
  • Small sieve (strainer)
  • Soap mold(s)

Ingredients
  

Lye water

  • 64 g Sodium hydroxide 2.27 oz
  • 100 g Distilled water 3.5 oz
  • 50 g Carrot purée 3 Tbsp / 1.76 oz

Solid oils

  • 140 g Coconut oil (refined) 4.94 oz
  • 59 g Shea butter 2.08 oz

Liquid oils

  • 225 g Olive oil 7.94 oz
  • 30 g Castor oil 1.06 oz

Add after Trace

  • 9 g May Chang (Litsea cubeba) Essential oil Optional / 2 tsp / 0.32 oz

Instructions
 

  • Make the carrot purée. The amount you'll need for this recipe is around half of a medium sized carrot. I'd prepare and cook a whole one though, just in case. Peel the carrot and slice it up as if you were going to make boiled carrots for a meal. Simmer in hot water until completely soft then remove from the water with a slatted spoon. Blend into a purée with your immersion blender. You can save the water the carrots cooked in to use to make the lye solution but make sure to cool it to room temperature first.
    How to make carrot soap using real carrots: carrot puree in a dish
  • Get yourself prepared. Wear long-sleeves, pants or a long skirt, and closed-toe shoes. Always wear eye protection, such as goggles, and rubber gloves, when handling lye or the soap batter once lye has been added.
  • Dissolve the lye (Sodium hydroxide) crystals in the water. In an airy place pour the lye crystals into the water and stir well. I prefer doing this step outdoors when possible because of the steam that will come off it initially. It's not pleasant if you accidentally breathe it in so avoid this by holding the jug well away from you.
  • When fully mixed and the steam has started to dissipate, add the carrot purée and gently mix well. Although other recipes will have you add it at another part of the process, I feel that the lye-solution helps break down any remaining fibers in the purée. The color is also unaffected.
  • Leave the lye-solution in a safe place outside or inside, but in a shallow basin of water, or sink, to cool. Ensure that children and animals cannot get into it.
  • Melt the solid oils in a stainless steel pan on very low heat. When melted, remove from the heat and set on a pot holder. Pour in the liquid oils and stir.
  • Measure the temperatures of the lye-water and the oils. You should aim to cool them both to be about 100°F / 38°C. You don't need to be on the dot but aim to have them at that temperature or slightly cooler.
  • Put your gloves and googles back on if you've taken them off. Pour the lye-solution through a sieve and into the pan of oils. The sieve will catch any rough bits of carrot and any undissolved lye. Discard the bits you strain out.
    How to make carrot soap using real carrots: sieve the carrot lye solution as you pour it into the oils
  • Dip your immersion blender into the pan and with it turned off, stir the mixture. Next, bring it to the center of the pan and with both your hands, hold it on the bottom of the pan and blitz it for just a couple seconds. Turn it off and stir the soap batter, using the blender as a spoon. Repeat until the mixture thickens up to 'Trace'. This is when the batter leaves distinguishable trails on the surface. The consistency will be like thin custard at first but it will thicken quickly so make sure to work quickly after this point.
    How to make carrot soap using real carrots: carrot soap at trace
  • If you'd like to add the optional essential oil, stir it in at this point. Pour it in and stir gently until fully blended in. May Chang is a gorgeous citrus scent that holds its fragrance in soap.
  • There are many types of molds that you can use but I'm using a simple set up. It's a chinese take-away container like you'd get rice or noodles in. To keep the soap from sticking inside, I've lined it in baking paper, shiny side up. The flaps on all sides are to help pull the soap loaf out. You can use your choice of silicone or other types of mold though.
    How to make carrot soap using real carrots: carrot soap poured into its mold
  • Pour the soap into the mold and set it on a heat-proof surface. I usually pop mine in the (cold) oven at least overnight. Leave the soap in the mold for at least two days. A week might be even better since this is quite a soft soap initially. Soap recipes that are high in extra virgin olive oil tend to start off soft and turn very hard over the curing phase.
  • Once that time has passed, you can pop the soap out and cut it into bars. Use an ordinary kitchen knife and if you find the soap is sticky just stop and let the soap sit for a few more days. This is a soap high in olive oil and has a lot of water content. It will be sticky and soft at first but over time will harden.
  • After cutting the bars cure them for six weeks. Curing means leaving the bars spaced out on a protected surface out of direct sunlight and in an airy place. This allows the extra water content to fully evaporate out. It also allows the bars to harden up. You might find that your soap bars look a bit oily or wet after cutting them up. This happened to one of my batches and I just left it. Over time the bars cured nice and hard and dry.
  • Once made, your soap will have a shelf-life of up to two years. Check the oil bottles that you're using though -- the closest best-by date is the best-by date of your soap.
    How to make carrot soap using real carrots: carrot soap is a soft buttery yellow color

Video

Keyword carrot, soap, soap recipe
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. clara says

    February 25, 2021 at 6:06 pm

    Great site. Excellent instructions and info. I do make soap and want to try your carrot recipe. I would like to make a large batch though. Can I quadruple the carrot recipe without glitches ? Thanks

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      February 25, 2021 at 6:34 pm

      There shouldn’t be any issue with quadrupling the recipe 🙂

      Reply
  2. rayna nadeem says

    February 15, 2021 at 4:26 pm

    Hello
    What a nice recipe, if I wanted to make double the batch of soap, is it as easy as doubling up the recipe ingredients too?
    Many thanks
    rayna

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      February 15, 2021 at 6:30 pm

      Yes, absolutely 🙂

      Reply
  3. Dragonfly.Drifter says

    January 21, 2021 at 11:21 pm

    I love your website! I’m new to soaping, having only done a few batches. Could I use the carrot pulp from making my own carrot juice, boiling it instead of a whole carrot.

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      January 22, 2021 at 5:01 pm

      I imagine so, but the soap could have a pulp-y texture if you use the same amount as is in the recipe. Experiment with half the amount first, or use some of your carrot juice instead.

      Reply
  4. Sarah Dan says

    January 5, 2021 at 8:02 pm

    Hi Dear,
    would it be ok if I replace the carrot with turmeric?
    I know you have a different recipe for that but I do not have the sunflower oil..
    And I cannot wait to try your recipes 🙂 they look so welcoming to a beginner 🙂

    lots of love,
    Sarah

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      January 11, 2021 at 4:52 pm

      Hi Sarah and interesting question. I’ve never used raw turmeric root in soap but don’t see why you couldn’t try it as a puree for this soap. If you wanted to use the powder, you can do that as well. Simply replace the weight of the carrot puree with distilled water and add that in to the lye solution. A little turmeric powder goes a long way so with a small 1-lb batch I’d recommend as little as 1/32 of a tsp for a nice sunny yellow color. More than that and you can get some pretty electric shades of orange 🙂

      Reply
  5. Gail Martin says

    August 29, 2020 at 2:46 pm

    Thanks for your clear instructions, Tanya. Can I use turmeric powder in this recipe and when would I add it? Also, can any essential oil be used; I was thinking of using carrot seed oil as i love the smell. Thanks!

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      September 9, 2020 at 6:17 am

      Hi Gail, I have a piece on making turmeric soap if you’d like to learn more. Carrot seed oil is a very deep, earthy, and some say pungent-smelling oil — it’s also expensive compared to other essential oils. I’d stick with using a few drops of it in lotions and creams, where it can help your skin more than in a wash-off product.

      Reply
  6. Christina says

    August 23, 2020 at 5:39 pm

    Hello!

    Love the recipe I will definitely give it a try! Just a quick question, won’t the carrot purée get scorched when mixed with the hot lye?

    Thank you in advance!
    Christina

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      August 27, 2020 at 11:36 am

      Nope 🙂 There’s a video that goes along with this recipe and you can see the entire process, step by step.

      Reply
  7. Irmgard Kuchernig says

    August 16, 2020 at 8:41 pm

    Could I replace the olive oil with another oil? And if yes, which one do you recommend? Thank you. Love your page!

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      August 20, 2020 at 9:35 am

      Hi Irmgard, adjusting soap recipes isn’t as easy as swapping out one oil for another. Have a read of this to understand why, and also how to customize a soap recipe: https://lovelygreens.com/change-customize-soap-recipe/

      Reply
  8. Stephanie says

    August 2, 2020 at 11:20 am

    Could this be made with the hot process method?

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      August 9, 2020 at 8:13 am

      Yes, most cold-process soap recipes can be made hot-process too.3

      Reply
  9. mirta says

    June 27, 2020 at 6:08 pm

    Hi Tanya
    can i change shea butter for cocoa butter; is hard to found shea butter here in Argentina.
    you are a great teacher
    Thank you very much.

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      July 10, 2020 at 4:59 pm

      Hi Mirta, it’s not as simple as replacing one oil/butter for another but it can be done. You have to recalculate your lye amount based on the new oil and the process of changing and customizing a recipe is explained here: https://lovelygreens.com/change-customize-soap-recipe/

      Reply
  10. Jennifer Orme says

    May 7, 2020 at 4:55 am

    I love this recipe! Adding carrot puree to my soaps sounds just so decadent 🙂 I use fresh (frozen) goat’s milk in all my recipes, can I substitute it for the water in this recipe or will it burn with the sugars in the carrots?

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      May 7, 2020 at 10:50 am

      Thanks, Jennifer andI’d choose one or the other just to avoid any issues.

      Reply
  11. janice hoffmeyer says

    April 26, 2020 at 11:35 pm

    I loved the video for carrot soap…You always make it look easy….question: do you get soda ash on your soap and what do you do to remove it??..thank you jan

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      April 28, 2020 at 12:55 pm

      I don’t get soda ash any longer because I use less water in my recipes than other soapers do. I build that into the recipes so that people have more success with them and no ugly soda ash 🙂

      Reply
  12. Natalia says

    April 26, 2020 at 3:44 pm

    Hi Tanja,
    Thank you so much, your recepies are wonderful, especially i loved the simple flower one. It came just perfect. I would love to make a big bulk of soap to fill a least a 800 gr mould. How do i recalculate the ammounts of ingridients needed? For Example if i need a double ammount (not 6 bars but 12 bars) do i simply double amounts of everything or it works diffrent way?
    Thanks again for your very helpful site.
    Regards,
    Natalia
    MaltA

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      April 28, 2020 at 12:45 pm

      Hi Natalia, what you would do is pop all the ingredients into the SoapCalc, then adjust the batch size for 800g. All of the main ingredients should be calculated for you. Alternatively, just multiple all of the ingredients by 0.57

      Reply
  13. Maria says

    March 10, 2020 at 9:07 pm

    Hello, Tanya.
    I made a small batch of this recipe and filled two cavities of a silicone mold, but I had a really hard time popping out the soap after 8 days in the mold. Should I have left it a bit longer? Is there something I can do make this soap a bit harder, or easier to unmold, besides adding sodium lactate?

    Thank you so much for all your recipes and information.

    Maria

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      March 14, 2020 at 1:12 pm

      I suspect that you’re using a hard plastic mold. Those types should be avoided for cold-process soap as it’s impossible to get the soap out. Stick with silicone and popping them out is a breeze.

      Reply
      • Maria Vasconcelos says

        March 16, 2020 at 4:04 pm

        Hi, Tanya! I used a silicone mold with 2 cavities but, going through my notes, I realized I did something that I had completely forgotten. I added 2 tsp of sweet almond oil after reaching a light trace and mixed it with a whisk just to make sure everything was well mixed. This was the only change I made to the recipe. Do you think that that might have been the “problem”?

        Thank you,
        Maria

        Reply
        • lovelygreens says

          March 18, 2020 at 10:26 am

          Hi Maria, it should be fine but please be careful about making changes to a soap recipe. Remember, it’s chemistry, and if you make changes without understanding what could happen, then things can go very wrong.

          Reply
  14. Julie says

    March 10, 2020 at 6:10 am

    Hi! I was wondering if you could substitute carrot juice for the purée and (some/all of the?) water? That way you wouldn’t have to filter out any chunks. Thanks!

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      March 10, 2020 at 6:07 pm

      Yes, you could do that. However, if you wanted to use homegrown carrots it would add another step (and machine) for the juicing part.

      Reply
  15. Gifty says

    November 6, 2019 at 10:28 am

    Hi Tanya,
    Thank you for the detailed recipe and video which I hope to practice this weekend.
    I intend to go into the soap business. My mission is to produce and sell soaps that can give a beautiful glowing skin and even cure some simple skin rashes. Would you mind recommending some vegetable and herbs I can use and if possible some sample recipes?

    I live in a country where coconut and soybean oils are produced by the local women as well as shea and cocoa butter. (these are the fats I intend to use)

    Thanks

    Gifty

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      November 6, 2019 at 10:53 am

      What a wonderful thing to use locally produced oils in soap making. All of those will be perfect to use in your recipes. As for curing skin rashes, soap is probably not the most effective since it cleanses rather than protects. In that case I’d recommend you look into using the shea butter, cocoa butter, and liquid oils to make herbal skin salves. Here’s one of my recipes to give you inspiration: https://lovelygreens.com/gardeners-healing-salve-recipe-diy-instructions/

      Reply
  16. Irene says

    September 24, 2019 at 4:38 pm

    Hello Tanya,
    Thank you for your wonderful site! I have made a few of your recipes and they have all turned out very well. I am a complete beginner and I have a few questions. There seen to be a lot of lemony essential oils and I wondered which one would be the best for using in cold pressed soap. Lemon verbena, lemongrass, lemon from the fruit and Litsea cubeba Essential oil all seem to smell the same to me. Are there any that retain their fragrance longer in soap? Also, I am wondering how to store the finished bars. Should they be kept in a dark place? In a cardboard box or a plastic tub? Thank you so much, Irene

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      September 25, 2019 at 10:25 am

      Hi Irene and thank you. Litsea cubeba lasts the longest of all the citrusy essential oils. As for storing, have a read of this piece: https://lovelygreens.com/how-to-cure-handmade-soap/

      Reply
  17. Jill says

    September 4, 2019 at 9:24 pm

    5 stars
    Hi Tanya,
    I really loved this recipe and made it a second time with double the quantities and with layers – a different amount of carrot in each. It looks fab! I have only just started my soap making journey and hope to be selling sometime soon. Your website has been a huge source of information and inspiration for me. I look forward to hearing more from you.
    Jill.

    Reply
  18. lovelygreens says

    August 30, 2019 at 12:25 pm

    5 stars
    You’re so welcome Mary and hope you have fun making the recipe 🙂

    Reply
  19. Irene blackwell says

    August 28, 2019 at 2:42 pm

    Can i ask what type of olive oil to use?

    Reply
    • lovelygreens says

      August 30, 2019 at 12:39 pm

      I used extra virgin olive oil for this recipe. You can use whatever type you’d like, as long as it’s 100% olive oil.

      Reply
  20. Mary says

    August 25, 2019 at 5:20 pm

    5 stars
    I appreciate how well you explain the soap making process, including the details, cautions to take and photos.

    Thank you!

    Mary

    Reply

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