Sunflower Melt & Pour Soap
This melt and pour soap is 100% naturally colored with sunflower petals!
Sunflowers are often added to body care products for their skin-conditioning properties, but they also add a gorgeous natural yellow color that will last for many months.
If you’re new to infusing melt and pour soap with fresh herbs and flowers, this is a perfect recipe to start with, since it’s easy and yields beautiful results.
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Recipe Notes & Tips
If fresh sunflower petals aren’t available, try using dried petals, or fresh or dried calendula, chamomile, goldenrod, dandelion, or forsythia flowers instead, for different shades of yellow soap.
Have extra sunflowers to enjoy? Check out my article:
10 Things to Make with Sunflower Petals
In keeping with the sunshiny theme, these soaps are scented with a cheerful bright citrus blend, but you could use 2.45 g (about 1/2 + 1/8 teaspoon) of a single citrus essential oil, such as orange, lemon or grapefruit, if you’d like, or you could leave them unscented.
How to Make Sunflower Infused Melt & Pour Bars
Yield: three 2.6 ounce (74 g) oval soaps
Ingredients you’ll need:
- 1/4 cup fresh sunflower petals
- 2 tsp (10 ml) water
- 8 oz (227 g) clear soap base, cut into 1″ (2.5 cm) cubes
- 1 g (abt 1/4 tsp) orange essential oil
- 1 g (abt 1/4 tsp) grapefruit essential oil
- 0.45 g (abt 1/8 tsp) lemon essential oil
- Silicone mold (Silly Pops ellipse soap molds pictured)
- Rubbing alcohol, for spritzing
Directions to make:
In a heatproof jar or container, combine the sunflower petals, water and soap base. Cover it loosely with a canning lid or small heatproof saucer. Place the jar in a saucepan containing a few inches (at least 5 cm) of water, forming a makeshift double boiler.
Heat over medium-low heat until the soap is almost melted, 15 to 25 minutes. Lower the heat to low and infuse for an additional 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the soap takes on a golden yellow hue.
Remove the container from the heat and strain the hot soap through a fine mesh sieve into a clean container or jar. Add the essential oils and mix well.
If you notice a lot of air bubbles in the soap base, spritz a few sprays of alcohol into the jar or container and mix gently to dissolve the air bubbles.
Pour the soap into the molds and spray the tops with alcohol.
Keep the soap in the molds until they’re completely cooled and hardened, 2 to 3 hours, then unmold and wrap them tightly.
Store the soaps in a cool, dry place, out of direct sunlight.
Looking for more creative melt and pour soap ideas?
Check out my print book, Easy Homemade Melt & Pour Soaps. It’s filled with helpful tutorials, natural colorant galleries, essential oil blends, plus 50 recipes with full color photos of each project!
Available from your favorite bookstore or the following online shops:
- Bookshop.org (supports indie bookstores!)
- Amazon (US)
- Barnes & Noble
- Books-A-Million
- Book Depository
- IndieBound
- Amazon (UK)
- Amazon (CA)
- Booktopia (Australia)
Are there recipes for the melt and pour soap base in this book? Or, is it something you buy and then add your own ingredients?
Hi Donna! You can make your own melt and pour soap base or buy some from places such as Soap Goods, Wholesale Supplies Plus, or Bramble Berry.
I have a recipe for homemade soap base here:
https://thenerdyfarmwife.com/diy-melt-pour-soap-base/
Homemade soap base does act differently though – it’s thicker, sets up faster, and is a little harder to work with, but the plus side is that you can control the ingredients. ?
If you add water to melt and pour base will it cause it to sweat? Also by adding water, could bacteria grow on the soap? I read that adding water to homemade body products like body butters etc, it can. Is it the same with melt and pour soap bases?
Hi Elisabeth! I haven’t found that adding water makes the soap sweat any more than normal, and it shouldn’t cause any bacteria to grow.
The high pH of the soap base will keep it pretty well preserved.
(I’ve even done tests adding straight cow’s milk to melt and pour soap base and was convinced it would mold and turn icky, but it’s still in nice shape one year later, and still counting…)
You’re exactly right about body products though – If you add water or aloe to oil based items, like body butters, then that can definitely create a cozy place for mold and bacteria to flourish.
Fortunately soap’s high pH means we don’t have to worry about preservatives as we do with using water in body care products. :)
Thank you Jan so much for the information.
I really like your website so much information that is really helpful for beginners. Also I have two of your books also very helpful.
Thank you so much
Hi Elisabeth, Thanks for the kind words! I’m so happy that the site and books are helpful! ❤
Hi,
Can I skip the essential oils.
Also is rubbing alcohol must?
Thanks,
Rains
Hi Rains! Yes, you can leave out the essential oils.
When you pour the soap, oftentimes little bubbles develop on the top surface – the rubbing alcohol helps those disappear so you have a smoother surface on the back of your soap.
You can completely leave that out though if you don’t mind a possibly bumpier texture on the back. (I personally don’t mind for our own home use & skip using it myself sometimes!) :)
You could also instead use something like vodka.