Lavender buds (dried)

Elizabeth Letcavage and Melissa Harden, Natural Soap Making (Stackpole Books, 2013): calendula "is the only flower that will keep its yellow color through the saponification process. Other flowers ... will turn brown or black"; "Lavender flowers will have a nicer appearance in soap if they are slightly ground"; light additives "(such as seeds, grains, or lavender flower buds)" are added at "heavy trace" to stay suspended; "Leaves of herbs such as mint, nettle leaf, and lemon balm are dried before use"; "Ground Nettle Leaf 2–3 teaspoons", "Ground Oats ¼ cup" and "Ground Cornmeal ¼ cup" in recipes of 48 oz of oils, added at light trace; the Basic Three-Oil Soap, 48 oz of oils, takes "½ cup ground oats or other additive".

Anne-Marie Faiola, Soap Crafting (Storey, 2013): lavender buds sprinkled on top (p. 114): "some of the buds will sink into the soap a bit, and you want a layer to stay on top. Don’t spray with alcohol as it makes the herbs soggy"; Calendula Cleansing Bar (p. 158), 0.5–0.8 oz of calendula petals, about a cup, 0.3 oz of it infused in oil and the rest stirred in or pressed on top.

Bramble Berry, dried lavender, calendula and red rose petals: "Sprinkle on top of soap or mix the flowers into scrubs or bath salts. To infuse, heat the flowers and the oil of your choice in a slow cooker for 1 to 4 hours or place in an airtight container and leave at room temperature for 4 to 6 weeks. A general usage rate is about 1 tablespoon per pound of oil."

Alicia Grosso, The Everything Soapmaking Book, 3rd edition (Adams Media, 2013). Chapter 8, hot process: recipes on a "2-pound batch recipe of your choice" that each "YIELDS 3 POUNDS", the addition stirred "into the neutral soap" after the cook: "3 tablespoons baking soda" and "2 tablespoons lemon zest" (Lemon/Baking Soda Kitchen Soap), "2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal", "1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers", "1 tablespoon mint, dried and ground", "1 tablespoon dried yarrow"; "You can add liquid glycerin to hot-process soap to get it to flow more easily from the mold. Use 1 tablespoon for each pound of oils in the batch." Chapter 9, transparent soap: 19.5 oz of oils with "10 ounces (plus 2 ounces more if needed for clarity) 90 percent ethanol (190 proof vodka)" (190 proof is 95 %) and "5 ounces sugar"; "Alcohol fumes are highly flammable." Chapter 11, Lavender Oat Float: "1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers" for "1 pound casting soap".

David Fisher, The Complete Photo Guide to Soap Making (Creative Publishing International, 2018), p. 19: exfoliants, "Start with 1 to 2 teaspoons per 1 pound (454 g) of oils or soap base"; calendula petals "retain their yellow color nicely"; coffee grounds, "scrubbiness is determined by the coffee’s grind"; "Citrus peel (dried and ground): offers a medium scrub; add at trace"; cornmeal, "medium scrub; premix with oil and add at trace"; eucalyptus leaves, "a medium scrub, especially if not very finely ground"; lavender buds "will turn brown in cold process soap and look like mouse droppings; gently grind them first to avoid this"; loofah, "light to medium scrub"; mint is "prone to bleeding; steep as a tea first"; oatmeal, "like coffee, the scrubbiness is determined by how ground it is"; poppy seeds, "light to medium scrub"; pumice, "heavy-duty scrub; great for mechanic’s or gardener’s hand soaps"; rose hips, "medium to high scrub; also adds natural color"; rose petals "turn black in cold process soap"; sandalwood powder "gives a medium to high scrub, and makes a lovely purple color"; "ground stone fruit pits (apricots, peaches) and berry seeds (ground or whole) give a medium to high scrub factor"; walnut shells, "a nice medium scrub and a lovely medium brown color".

Lovely Greens, herbs and dried flowers in soap: "I tend to use 1-3 tsp of plant material per pound (454 g) of soap. One teaspoon for dense material, like poppy seeds, and three teaspoons for fluffier herbs, like calendula petals"; "Calendula flower petals don’t discolor in soap recipes"; "rose petals will turn rusty brown wherever they touch soap, and almost every herb turns dark brown when mixed in"; lavender, "Inside the soap, the buds turn brown"; "most fruit and vegetable juices or purees will turn your soap brown or fade to an unexciting tan or yellow"; "Botanicals can soften, mold, and rot if kept in moist or humid places"; "Too many dried seeds or herbs stirred in can feel scratchy or stop the soap from lathering properly".

Casey Makela, Making Natural Milk Soap (Storey, 1999; from Milk-Based Soaps, 1997): "Herbs will not keep their original color; most fade in reaction to the lye"; "½ cup (118 ml)" of cornmeal, "½ cup" of raw almonds blended "to a medium-coarse powder", ¾ cup of dried lavender flowers or rose petals, and "½ cup (118 ml) rolled oats" blended "to a medium-coarse powder", per batch of about 85 oz (2410 g) of oils, added "to the liquid when it’s blended for the first time"; "1 ounce (28.4 g) borax" in every recipe, added to the oils with the sugar and glycerin as the lye-milk goes in; soap "light brown if you use cinnamon and cloves".

Wholesale Supplies Plus, dried lavender, calendula, chamomile, rose, sage and eucalyptus: "Note: Some herbs and botanicals will brown overtime when exposed to hot liquids and high pH." On lavender buds: they "have a tendency to turn brown when mixed into soap of any kind. We have found that they are best used as decoration on the tops of a soap loaf."

Kelly Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners (Althea Press, 2017): "Replacing 25 percent of the water with juice gives the bar a more golden color without browning or causing sugar difficulties"; most juices "turn a dark color within the soap, typically brown"; juices frozen "to a slush" before the lye; "when adding purées, always remove the same weight in water"; 2 ounces of puréed strawberries at light trace for 33 oz of oils, all of it in half of the batch, where "the sugars from the purée can cause this soap to possibly overheat"; "Beet root powder starts off a pretty, bright pink, but when added to soap, it turns brown"; "most herbs turn brown when added at trace. If you want to avoid this, add them to the top of your soap right before it sets"; "Make sure your herbs are very dry before adding them to the soap, as moisture left within herbs can bleed into the soap over time, leaving a brown halo". "Green can be made with spirulina, comfrey leaf, and parsley leaf". Activated charcoal: "Add 1 teaspoon per pound of soap". Recipes, per 31–35 oz of oils: "2 tablespoons ground turmeric" blended into the whole batch (32 oz), and "3 teaspoons ground turmeric" in one of four equal parts (31 oz); "2 teaspoons woad powder" and "1 tablespoon white kaolin clay", each in one of three equal parts (34 oz); 1 tablespoon of dried nettle leaf, or 2 tablespoons; 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon; 1 tablespoon of dried peppermint flakes, "plus more to sprinkle on top"; 1 tablespoon of steeped chamomile flowers at light trace and 2 on top; comfrey, "1 heaping tablespoon comfrey leaf powder" infused in 8 ounces of olive oil, 3 ounces of that oil in the recipe.

Voyageur Soap & Candle, botanical product pages, "Approx. Cups/ Lb": lavender flowers 17; calendula petals 44; chamomile flowers, whole, 21; red and pink rose petals and buds 22; peppermint leaf, cut and sifted, 15; eucalyptus leaf, cut and sifted, 7; sage, ground, 8; kelp powder (Ascophyllum nodosum) 3; black walnut hulls powder 4. Peppermint and eucalyptus leaves "can be sprinkled into the soap mixture when at a light trace to create a speckled effect"; comfrey leaf goes "into the lye water to create even color distribution which produces a natural green bar, or sprinkle it into the soap mixture when at a light trace". Density = 453.6 g ÷ (cups × 236.6 mL).