Lavender Buds Question

[Luckyone80]

So I bought some lavender buds and wanted to know besides using them as a "topping", can I grind them up finer and use them in the batter without them turning brown or turning the soap brown?

 

[HorseCreek]

They will go brown in the soap.

 

[judymoody]

Yep, brown. Unless you hot process and add them at the very end after it's done cooking.

 

[navigator9]

And they look just like mouse turds, so may turn people off who don't know what they are!

 

[Luckyone80]

Well **** it! I might HP then b/c I thought they would look good within the soap.

Would they still keep their color on top of the soap?

 

[shunt2011]

Yup, look like mouse poop. Tried it once. Never again. Pluse I don't like a lot of stuff in my soap. Oatmeal and luffa is about all I add these days.

 

[Seawolfe]

Aand Ill be the outlier - I coarsely ground some and added to my soap and I think they add a nice gentle scrubbiness. I didn't add them whole to avoid the mouse poop thang. I did this for both HP and CP, and honestly I like the CP better, but maybe that's just me - Ill scare up some photos. Oh and I soak them in my lavender EO before mixing them into the very thin trace batter (CP) or at the cooldown (HP), and I think it makes the scent stick better. But you WILL get drag marks when you cut, unless you use individual moulds.

Another thing you can do is dry them super well and grind them super fine and sift them after you pour half the soap to make a pencil line, that's worked very well for me.

 

[SplendorSoaps]

Aand Ill be the outlier - I coarsely ground some and added to my soap and I think they add a nice gentle scrubbiness. I didn't add them whole to avoid the mouse poop thang. I did this for both HP and CP, and honestly I like the CP better, but maybe that's just me - Ill scare up some photos. Oh and I soak them in my lavender EO before mixing them into the very thin trace batter (CP) or at the cooldown (HP), and I think it makes the scent stick better. But you WILL get drag marks when you cut, unless you use individual moulds.

Another thing you can do is dry them super well and grind them super fine and sift them after you pour half the soap to make a pencil line, that's worked very well for me.

I really like your idea about soaking them in the lavender EO prior to putting them in. I usually just add the dried buds to the top, myself. I like the idea of grinding them for a little exfoliating action, though!

 

[Luckyone80]

Aand Ill be the outlier - I coarsely ground some and added to my soap and I think they add a nice gentle scrubbiness.

So after you ground them up did they turn color?

 

[Seawolfe]

So after you ground them up did they turn color?

They are kind of a brownish purple - Ill try to get some decent photos tonight.

 

[xraygrl]

No matter if you add them in cp or after the cook in hp, they will turn brown. I agree, whole lavender buds look like mouse poop in soap. Ground buds only in soap, or sprinkle them on top.

 

[Luckyone80]

Ok I will nix putting them in the batter then. Glad I asked, thanks guys!

 

[Seawolfe]

Ok heres some soaps with ground or powdered lavender buds in them.

This was one of my very first soaps ever. It was an HP bastille with a powdered lavender pencil line and incredibly rustic. Its now a year old and I saved some and its really nice!

The two below are more recent. The purple one just has a pencil line in powdered lavender. The white one just finished curing, and you can see the drag marks from cutting. The individually molded ones are much prettier. But DANG its a nice soap to use - it has lard in it and I love it. But its not exactly a pretty soap.

 

[jules92207]

I put some on top and they still turned brown.

 

[Luckyone80]

Thankyou Seawolfe for the pictures, I love the pencil line soap! I made my lavender last night and just put the buds in a line on top so I hope the color lasts.

 

[snappyllama]

I have done a similar loaf on request (not a big fan of floral scents). My buds stayed fairly true to color. I had done a white top but in retrospect should have left it a darker color to hide the spots where the buds fell off and left the surface discolored. Yours came out lovely!

 

[Luckyone80]

I have done a similar loaf on request (not a big fan of floral scents). My buds stayed fairly true to color. I had done a white top but in retrospect should have left it a darker color to hide the spots where the buds fell off and left the surface discolored. Yours came out lovely!

Thanks! I will cut tonight, I layered uncolored soap with lavender colored and tried the spoon swirl for the first time so we will see how it turned out.