Lavender flowers

by Anonymous

I'm new to this soap making and have just made a batch of lavender melt and pour soap. I stirred in some lavender flowers as the soap was cooling, but they all floated to the top of the soap-is there any way of getting around this? Also over the last few days the colour seems to have seeped out of the flowers and turned brown in colour-why has this happened?

Answer:

The density of the flowers is less than that of the soap and the flowers also contain air pockets so they tend to float.

Once you have added the flowers to the melt and pour soap they need to be gently stirred in until they stay suspended in the soap base. This may take a few minutes. The soap should be around 120 - 130 degrees or so when you pour it into the soap molds.

Some botanicals, like lavender, will react with the soap and turn brown. Unfortunately, there isn't anything you can do about it.

Cathy