Marigold petals – also known as calendula petals – are an excellent additive for soap. Sprinkling a few of these golden petals into your recipe makes a plain bar of soap into a beautiful floral gift. Calendula petals are delicate enough to stay suspended in soap without sinking or floating to the top. And with their pretty gold color, they can be used as natural pigment. On top of that, marigold petals don’t change color when added to most soap recipes, which gives you predictable results.
Techniques for Using Calendula Petals in Soap
There are a few ways to incorporate marigold petals in your soap recipe. Here are a few of our favorite ideas:
- Sprinkle the petals on top of your soap as an embellishment.
- Add a few tablespoons of petals to your recipe to suspend them in the soap (2 or 3 tablespoons per pound of soap is usually a good amount).
- Crush or grind the petals to create a golden pigment that you can use to help tint your soap.
Whether you crush your marigold petals or not, the color may bleed slightly depending on your recipe. This isn’t a bad thing, and can actually look quite beautiful in your finished product. The color that may bleed out simply looks like a golden halo around your petals. If you want to minimize this effect, you can add mica powder to your recipe to reduce the appearance.
How to Make Marigold Petal Soap
Ready to make some beautiful soap with calendula petals? Follow along as we make this fun and easy recipe.
Difficulty Level: Easy
Hands-On Time: 30 minutes
Cooling Time: 2-4 hours
Yield: 6 bars of soap (6.5 oz each)
Supplies & Ingredients
- 38 oz white Melt & Pour Soap
- 4 to 6 tablespoons Calendula Petals
- 8 micro scoops Satin White Mica
- 1 oz Marigolds & Sunshine fragrance oil
- Square Silicone Soap Mold
- 28 oz Mix & Pour Funnel Pitcher
- 2 1 oz Measuring Cups
- 1/2 oz Measuring Scoop
- Micro Scoop
- EZ Grip Nylon Whisk
- Plastic Pipette
- Digital Scale
- Straight Edge Soap Cutter
- Face Mask (for working with mica)
- Nitrile gloves
- Rubbing alcohol (at least 91%) in a spray bottle
- 6 Square Soap Boxes for packaging - optional (available in Kraft or White)
Note: The mica powder is optional. Adding a little white mica can help keep the soap bars looking fresh once they get used. As the soap is used, it naturally takes on a more yellow shade over time.
Directions for Making Calendula Petal Soap
Note: This recipe is completed in two phases due to the large capacity of this soap mold.
- Use your digital scale to weigh 38 oz of soap base.
- Cut the soap into approximately 1” cubes.
- Add 19 oz of the soap cubes to your funnel pitcher.
- Microwave the soap in the funnel pitcher in 15-second intervals. Remove the soap and stir it after each interval. Stop heating as soon as the soap is completely melted.
- Place a 1 oz measuring cup on the digital scale and tare it to zero.
- Use a plastic pipette to transfer 0.5 oz of fragrance to the measuring cup.
- Add the fragrance to the melted soap base and stir with a whisk.
- Wearing a mask, mix 4 micro scoops of mica with a small amount of rubbing alcohol in a clean 1 oz measuring cup.
- Pour the mica mixture into the melted soap and stir with the whisk.
- Use the ½ oz measuring scoop to add 2 to 3 tablespoons of calendula petals to the melted soap. Stir until they are evenly distributed.
- Spritz 3 cavities of the square soap mold with rubbing alcohol, then pour the melted soap into those three cavities.
- Immediately after pouring the soap, spritz it with rubbing alcohol to remove any bubbles.
Repeat steps 3-12 with the remaining soap base, filling the other 3 cavities of the mold with exactly the same process.
When done, let the soap set up until hard. You can then remove the soap from the mold. These soap bars will fit perfectly into one of our square soap boxes for professional-looking packaging! If selling your creations, remember to label them accordingly.
NorthWood is not responsible for any products that you make with our supplies or recipes.