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- Holiday DIY
- Homemade Gift Ideas
- Soapmaking
Learn how to make a homemade pumpkin soap recipe using canned pumpkin puree to craft a homemade soap for your natural skin care routine this fall.
This cold process homemade pumpkin soap recipe is handmade using real organic pumpkin making it aperfect soap for the fall season! Pumpkin isn’t just cool because it’s autumn, though. It’s also great for your skin too! Pumpkin is packed with fruit enzymes and alpha hydroxy acids which are shown to help smooth and brighten skin. In addition pumpkin also contains vitamins A and C which have been shown to help soften and soothe skin as well as boost collagen production which helps to prevent signs of aging.
So what are you waiting for? Stop by your local grocer for a can of organic pumpkin andget to work on this homemade pumpkin soap recipe to help keep your skin looking bright and beautiful throughout the fall season and beyond. Plus these homemade pumpkin soap bars make lovely homemade gift ideas for the holidays! So be sure to make enough to share!
Homemade Pumpkin Soap Recipe
© Rebecca D. Dillon
Ingredients:
These are the ingredients you need to make this homemade soap recipe with pumpkin puree:
- 10.5 oz. pomace olive oil
- 6.6 oz. sustainable palm oil
- 13 oz. 76° melt point (refined) coconut oil
- 5 oz. rice bran oil
- 1.5 oz. shea butter
- 1.3 oz. cocoa butter
- 5.1 oz. lye/sodium hydroxide
- 8.8 oz. distilled water
- 2.5 oz. organic canned pumpkin
- 2 oz. fragrance oil of choice, optional
- pinch each of yellow oxide and red iron oxide pigment powders, optional
How to Make Pumpkin Soap:
To create this homemade pumpkin soap recipe you’ll need to follow my basic cold process soapmaking instructions to learn how to make soap from scratch. This recipe will fit inside one of my DIY wooden loaf soap molds and will yield approximately 10-12 bars of homemade pumpkin soap depending on how they are cut.
Here is how to make pumpkin soap using the cold process soapmaking method:
- Begin by mixing your lye water. Weigh out the water and lye using a digital scale then slowly pour the lye into the water. Mix well until all the lye has dissolved then set aside to cool.
- Now weigh out the soapmaking oils and butters and combine in a large stainless steel pot on the stove. Heat over medium heat until all oils are melted, then remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Once your lye-water and soapmaking oils reach around 95°F-100°F you’re ready to make soap.
- If you are planning to add a colorant to your soap, start by adding a pinch each of yellow and iron oxide pigment powders to your soapmaking oils and then mix well with a stick blender.
- Next slowly pour the lye-water into the soapmaking oils and mix until you reach a light trace. Add the pumpkin and mix again until it is fully incorporated then add the fragrance oil if desired and continue mixing until your soap has reached a full trace.
- Pour the soap into your prepared mold, cover and insulate. After twenty-four hours have passed you can unmold your soap and cut it into bars. Allow soap to cure 3-6 weeks before using then wrap and label as desired.
You can find more of my homemade cold process soap recipes here. Also be sure to follow my DIY Bath and Body Pinterest Board for more great homemade soap recipes and beauty DIY’s from both Soap Deli News blog and around the web.
Keep up with all of my new DIY bath and beauty posts and homemade soap recipes by following Soap Deli News onFacebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Rebecca D. Dillon
Rebecca D. Dillon is a soapmaker, DIY-er and blogger whose life is controlled daily by a dachshund. You can learn more about Rebecca by checking out her bio. Or discover more great skin care & beauty recipes by subscribing to Soap Deli News blog via email.
29 Comments
Marie
September 24, 2014 at 11:00 pm
Hi! Just wondering if you’re from Northeast Pennsylvania? Thanks
- Rebecca D. Dillon
September 25, 2014 at 12:02 am
No, I’m actually in SW VA.
Swee
September 28, 2014 at 12:20 am
Hi Rebecca,
Do you mash the pumpkin before adding? Can you share on how the pumpkin is prepared? I am thinking of using pumpkin bought from the market. Thanks.- Rebecca D. Dillon
September 28, 2014 at 4:10 pm
The canned pumpkin is pureed. If you’re using fresh I’d cut it into chunks then run it through a blender or food processor first.
Emily
October 3, 2014 at 12:01 pm
Gorgeous soap! Have you tried it with fresh pureed pumpkin instead of canned? You gave tips to another commenter on how to puree the fresh pumpkin, but I was curious if you had tried it in your soaps? I usually like to roast pumpkin in my oven myself instead of using canned for homemade pumpkin pis, but I wasn’t sure how it would fare as a soap ingredient (maybe due to more or less processing, liquid content, etc.). I’d be curious to hear your thoughts! 🙂
- Rebecca D. Dillon
October 3, 2014 at 5:25 pm
I haven’t with the pumpkin but I did so with tomatoes at one point. It won’t matter if its 100% canned pumpkin or fresh the results should be the same.
Emily
October 3, 2014 at 6:40 pm
Thanks! I’ll probably give it a try with canned. To tell you the truth, making pumpkin pies with fresh pumpkin still tastes *exactly* like if you used the canned version. I’m thinking I’ll save myself the trouble of roasting a sugar pumpkin this year on both accounts! LOL
Tammy
October 3, 2014 at 3:27 pm
This looks WONDERFUL, but I have a question… How do you think it would work using vegetable glycerin rather than lye? My daughter and I are both allergic to lye, so we’ve been using liquid soaps. I did find a local soap maker who uses vegetable glycerin. I tried it and no rash! YEA! I’d love your ideas on converting this to a glycerin-based recipe. Thanks!
- Rebecca D. Dillon
October 3, 2014 at 5:27 pm
You can use glycerin to make soap. All soap is made with fats (oils) and an alkali (lye). There is no lye left in the final soap as it’s used up in the saponification process. You can’t use fresh pumpkin in any melt and pour glycerin soap as it’ll go bad. Everyone is “allergic” to lye as it causes chemical burns when in pellet, liquid or flake form. It shouldn’t make any difference to skin in the resulting product.
Aaron
October 7, 2014 at 11:05 pm
Just tried making it, the moment I added the pumpkin to the recipe, the oil separated. It’s in the molds but dosent look like it will come out good at all, any suggestions?
- Rebecca D. Dillon
October 8, 2014 at 6:53 am
Once you added the pumpkin did you mix it again until full trace? You can try rebatching it. Or if you try it again, try mixing the pumpkin into the oils prior to adding the lye-water.
Lisa
October 20, 2014 at 1:20 am
Could you make this pumpkin soap using the crock pot hot process method?
- Rebecca D. Dillon
October 20, 2014 at 8:24 am
I can’t say for certain as I’ve never made HP soap, however I don’t see why you couldn’t.
Moonie
November 1, 2014 at 11:21 pm
I’m sorry, I read through the comments here and am just a tad confused. Is it possible to use glycerin, melt and pour, with the *canned pureed pumpkin* or is the canned (store bought) still considered “fresh”?
- Rebecca D. Dillon
November 2, 2014 at 12:29 am
You can’t use pumpkin, canned or fresh, in melt and pour soap as it will spoil.
Shanna
November 11, 2014 at 12:10 am
Can I replace the other oils with coconut and olive oil and it still come out okay?
- Rebecca D. Dillon
November 11, 2014 at 8:09 am
You’d essentially be creating a new recipe. You’d have to run it back through a lye calc for the new lye amounts and depending on the oils used it could completely change the outcome of the final bar based on the properties of those oils in soapmaking.
Karimi
December 2, 2014 at 4:37 am
very beautiful soaps …
could u attach the website of the lye calculator that u use???
i would love to try the pumpk
in soap but not use all the oils- Rebecca D. Dillon
December 2, 2014 at 8:31 am
I share some of the lye calcs I use in my CP soap tutorial here.
Elaine
December 16, 2014 at 9:54 am
If I use my simple recipe of Olive oil, Coconut oil. Castor oil.
Do I have to discount the distilled water for the pumpkin ?- Rebecca D. Dillon
December 16, 2014 at 2:47 pm
Yes.
Melissa
June 28, 2015 at 8:50 pm
hi I’m just wondering what would be the ideal fragrance combinations for this soap?
Kelly
August 30, 2015 at 10:34 pm
I was curious as to what the best oil to use in place of rice bran oil. I have sunflower, safflower, and olive oil
- Rebecca D. Dillon
August 31, 2015 at 9:20 pm
Olive oil is going to be your closet substitute. Be sure to run the oils back through a lye calculator however when making any changes to the recipe.
Stephanie
August 31, 2015 at 11:21 am
How many pounds of soap is this recipe for? I have a 4lb. mold and I’m wondering if it will fill the mold? Thank You
- Rebecca D. Dillon
August 31, 2015 at 5:37 pm
Just add the weight of the oils for the weight. This one is definitely under a 4lb. batch.
Lynn
September 3, 2015 at 7:02 pm
i substituted olive oil for the pomace. I don’t know how to recalculate the lye water ratio with the pumpkin purée. Lye calf does not offer the option of adding pumpkin.
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