Natural Purple Soap Recipe with Alkanet Root
Learn how to use the natural purple color in alkanet roots to create natural purple soap. Scented with essential oil and decorated with dried rose petals. Makes a small 12 oz (350g) batch with a 7% superfat and a 35.7% water discount. Equivalent to three bars.
Servings 3 bars
Cost 15
Equipment
- Stainless steel pan for melting the solid oils
- A large bowl for measuring the liquid oils into
Ingredients
For the alkanet-infused oil
Lye solution
- 47 g Sodium hydroxide 1.66 oz
- 85 g Distilled water 3 oz
- 1/2 tsp Sodium lactate (optional) liquid sodium lactate
Solid oils
- 88 g Coconut oil (refined) 3.1 oz
- 11 g Shea butter 0.39 oz
- 7 g Beeswax 0.25 oz
Liquid oils
- 227 g Olive pomace oil 8 oz - infused with alkanet root
- 18 g Castor oil 0.63 oz
Add after Trace
- 1.5 tsp Rose Geranium essential oil 7 g
- dried Rose Petals to decorate
Instructions
The Soap Making Process
- When I make handmade soap I think of the process as four main parts: Lye solution, Solid oils, Liquid oils, and everything that happens at 'Trace'. Trace is when your oils and lye solution emulsifies and kicks off the saponification phase. Instructions for this recipe are below but you'll find even more detailed information in my free 4-part Natural Soap Making for Beginners Series.
Make the alkanet-infused oil
- Combine 4 g ( 2 TBSP / 0.17 oz) of shredded alkanet root with 255g (8.99 oz) olive oil pomace. I don't recommend using extra virgin olive oil for this recipe because the natural color of the oil will affect the end color of the soap. EVOO is much more yellow-green than lighter-colored pomace olive oil.
- There are two ways to go about extracting the natural purple color from the alkanet roots into the oil. The first takes a little longer but is the way I do it. The second uses heat and will do the job quicker if you're pressed for time.
- Method 1: Combine the alkanet and oil in a glass container and set it in a warm place, out of direct sunlight. Leave to infuse for 4-6 weeks giving the bottle a gentle shake every few days.
- Method 2: Combine the alkanet and oil in a closed jar that will fit inside a slow cooker. Place a small kitchen towel at the bottom of the slow cooker and then place your jar inside. Fill the slow cooker with water just short of the level of the oil in the jar and then set the cooker on low with the lid on. Leave for 10-12 hours or overnight.
- The final step for either method: strain the alkanet root from the oil using a fine-mesh strainer, cheesecloth, or clean nylon. Discard the roots and keep the oil for soap making. The alkanet-infused oil has a shelf-life of the best-by date of the olive oil.
Prepare your Soap Making Station
- Put on your gloves and pre-measure the ingredients. The solid oils into a small stainless steel pan, the water into a heat-proof jug, the lye (sodium hydroxide) into another container, and the liquid oils into another jug. Measure the essential oil into a small ramekin/container.
- Set up your station with your equipment close at hand and now put on your safety goggles.
Make the Lye Solution
- Work in an area with good ventilation when mixing the lye and water together. Pour the lye into the water and then mix with a stainless steel spoon until the lye crystals are fully dissolved. There will be steam and heat in this step so be cautious. Don't breathe in the steam and ensure the lye solution doesn't get on your skin. If it does, rinse it with water thoroughly.
- Set the lye solution aside to cool -- I like to set the jug in a basin (or sink) shallowly filled with cold water to speed up the process. Take its temperature with a digital thermometer. You're aiming for it to get down to around 120°F (49°C). It will be much hotter than that initially but keep coming back to stir and take its temperature.
- When the lye solution hits 130°F (54°C), you can stir in the optional sodium lactate. This natural ingredient will help your soap to harden quicker. If you have powdered sodium lactate, use half the amount and make sure to stir it in very well. Keep cooling the lye solution, while also continuing to the next step.
Melt the Solid Oils
- Place the pan of solid oils on the hob and turn it on to the lowest heat setting. It will melt quicker than you expect, so stay with the pan, moving the oil around in the pan to help speed up melting. When there are a few small pieces of solid oil still floating, take the pan off the heat and set it on a potholder. They'll melt with the residual heat and a few stirs of your spoon/spatula.
Add the liquid oils
- Pour the liquid oils into the pan of melted oils. Use your spatula to get every last drop and stir well.
- Take the temperature of the mixed oils. You're aiming for around the same temperature as the lye solution*, but they can be within about ten degrees of one another.
Bringing the Ingredients to 'Trace'
- When the temperatures are right, pour the lye-solution through the sieve and into the pan of oils. All in one go, no need to dawdle. Next, insert your immersion blender's head into the pan at an angle. This allows the air in the head to escape and minimizes air bubbles getting into your soap.
- Stir the contents of the pan gently, using the stick blender as a spoon. Then bring it into the center of the pan and while it's at a standstill, pulse for a couple of seconds. Then gently stir. Repeat this pulse then stir process again and again until the soap thickens up to a light to medium trace. This means that it will be the thickness of warm custard or pudding.
- Don't be alarmed at the color of your soap right now -- it will likely be grey or a greeny-blue-grey. This is completely normal and the color will change to purple over time.
After Trace
- The soap will keep thickening up at this point so work quickly. Pour the essential oil into the soap and stir it together thoroughly. Then pour it into the silicone loaf mold. It should only fill the mold partially. Settle the soap so that it has a flat top. You do this by gently tapping the mold on the counter.
- Next, turn your oven on to the lowest heat setting. This is to create a warm environment to help the soap to gel and the purple color intensify.
- The final touch is laying your dried rose petals on top, though this step is optional. When sprinkling the petals on, make sure to think about how you want to cut the loaf up into bars. When this is finished, place the soap into the oven and make sure to turn the oven off.
Cutting and Curing
- Leave the soap in its mold for 48 hours. After this point, the soap will be the consistency of cheddar and will have almost fully completed saponification.
- Take it out of the mold with gloved hands and, in the case of a loaf, cut it into bars of the size you wish. A ruler helps here if you want bars all of the same size. Also, you may wish to cut your bars from the bottom of the loaf towards the top. This avoids drag marks from the rose petals being pulled by the knife through your block of soap.
- Next, find someplace in the house that's safe from animals and kids and that is airy and out of direct sunlight. Lay a piece of baking paper down and space your bars of soap out over it. You should leave your soap there for four to six weeks to allow excess water to evaporate out of your soap and for them to fully harden. This is called curing soap. When fully cured, you can begin using the soap and gifting it to others.
- Be aware that the color of your soap may look different from the point you cut it, to the point that it's ready to use. The purple color will continue to change over the curing time and the insides of your bars will eventually match the color of the outsides.
- Once made and cured, your soap can 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. Cold-process soap should be stored in the open during that time, as the natural glycerin in the bars can draw moisture to them if you put them in a sealed container.
Notes
*Beeswax has a melting point of 145°F (63°C) but once all of the oils are combined, the melting temperature decreases a bit. You will not see tiny pieces of beeswax solidifying in your pan.