Calendula Tallow Soap: A Natural Skin Soothing Recipe
Infuse calendula’s soothing benefits into homemade tallow soap with this natural recipe for gentle, and nourishing skincare.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Skin Soothing – Calendula petals add skin soothing medicinal benefits to tallow soap.
Naturally Colored – This soap is free of chemicals, micas and dyes making it perfectly safe for your skin.
Top Tips For Calendula Infused Tallow Soap
- Prep Ahead– Having a clean kitchen and all tools & ingredients laid out and ready beforehand will streamline the soap making process.
- Trace – Trace is the term used when soap has blended to the consistency of pudding. This is where you can blend in soap additives like calendula flowers to customize the tallow soap before it begins to harden.
- Sourcing – Make sure your dried calendula blossoms and petals are free of pesticides and herbicides. Either check with your source for organic or grow your own. You do not want to add those chemicals to your soap.
- Dried Herbs – Always used dried herbs when infusing or adding directly to soap to prevent mold or spoilage.
How To Infuse Calendula Into Tallow
- Melt your tallow into a dutch oven or crock pot
- Add Dried Calendula blossoms at a ratio of 1 part dried her to 4 parts melted tallow.
- Infuse for 1-3 hours to insure infusion of herbal medicinal properties.
- Strain tallow mixture to remove petals and blossoms or immersion blend into tallow.
- If blended, calendula petals will serve as a colorant leaving flecks of yellow and orange throughout the finished tallow soap bar and lend to gentle exfoliation.
- Continue to create cold processed soap with the infused tallow.
Want to know more about tallow soap? Check out my How To Make Tallow Soap – Complete with recipe! In this post I go into detail on:
- Why Use Tallow For Cold Process Soap
- What Makes Tallow Soap A Nose To Tail Product
- Examples Of Soap Additives Besides Calendula Petals
- Step By Step Guide: How To Make Tallow Soap
Skin Soothing Medicinal Benefits Of Calendula
Calendula, aka marigold, can be found throughout the world. Named by the Romans, they grew it for its beautiful continuous blooms but Europeans have been using calendula for hundreds of years. In England it was added to stews and soups and used for more than only the medicinal properties it holds.
Calendula is often used for skin ailments. Due to having anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties it helps soothe eczema, rashes, burns and may help speed up the healing process of scrapes. In our household we love using a calendula salve for minor cuts and over any dry red rash spots resembling eczema.
If you like traditional herbal medicines check out the book Today’s Herbal Health, an excellent reference for modern herbal medicine.
How To Make Calendula Tallow Soap
Step 1
Weigh your water and lye separately and mix your lye water solution in a glass vessel. Set aside to cool, turning from cloudy to clear.
Step 2
Melt your weighed tallow into liquid form over low heat in a large pot. Roughly 100ºF (I have a separate dutch oven for soap making)
Step 3
Infuse calendula petals into melted tallow for 1-3 hours over low heat.
Step 4
With an immersion blender, blend calendula petals into tallow soap to create colored flecks and gentle exfoliation.
Step 3
Carefully add the lye solution to the melted tallow.
Step 4
Using an immersion blender, begin to mix the soap. Continue blending until soap reaches trace. Similar consistency to light pudding.
Step 5
Blend in desired scent (or leave unscented) and any additional additives, like Colloidal Oats.
Step 6
Pour soap batter into soap mold. Decorate top if desired and cool for 15-24 hours until bar has hardened.
Step 7
Once hardened remove soap from mold and cut into desired bar size. A 1″ Bar will weigh approximately 4 ounces when cured.
Cure bars in a cool well ventilated space for three weeks before use. Allowing your soap to fully saponify and harden.
Pictured is my Citronella essential oil scented calendula infused tallow soap with a cocoa powder pencil line.
Calendula Tallow Soap
Materials
- 32 ounces Tallow
- 9.52 ounces Water
- 4.26 ounces Sodium Hydroxide Lye
- 1.5 ounces Essential Oil optional
- 8 ounces Calendula Petals
Instructions
- Make sure to weigh all ingredients with a digital scale and wear safety equipment. Do not use metal pans (except stainless steel) to make soap as it creates a reaction with lye that gives off toxic fumes.
- Weigh 32 ounces of tallow and melt over low heat in a large pot. Roughly 100ºF (I have a separate dutch oven for soap making)
- Measure out 8 ounces of calendula petals and add into melted tallow. Infuse for 1-3 hours.
- Choose to strain or blend calendula petals and tallow. If blended they will add flecks of color and gentle exfoliation to your final product.
- Weigh 9.52 ounces of water in a glass measuring cup. A mason jar works well for this.
- In a separate container, weigh 4.26 ounces of sodium hydroxide lye.
- Slowly mix lye into the weighed water, stirring continuously to ensure lye completely dissolves. A chemical reaction will immediately begin giving off heat and fumes. Make sure to do this in a well ventilated area. Set lye solution aside to cool. It will turn from cloudy to clear.
- Carefully add the lye solution to the melted tallow.
- Using an immersion blender, begin to mix the soap. Continue blending until soap reaches trace. Similar consistency to light pudding.
- Blend in desired scent (or leave unscented) and any additives. Best to mix with a silicone spatula to prevent a hard trace.
- Pour soap batter into soap mold. Decorate top if desired and cool for 15-24 hours until bar has hardened.
- Once hardened remove soap from mold and cut into desired bar size. A 1" Bar will weigh approximately 4 ounces when cured.
- Cure bars in a cool well ventilated space for three weeks before use. Allowing your soap to fully saponify and harden.
