Pumpkin Soap Recipe

Pumpkin Soap Cold Process Recipe

Today’s recipe is for Pumpkin Soap! For this batch, I added a vanilla spice swirl to give the bar just a hint of warm, fresh-baked scent.

Because I have several sensitive family members, I usually leave bars unscented or very lightly scented with natural ingredients only. If you want your soap to have a more detectable smell, you’ll need to greatly increase the amount of essential oils I list, keeping in mind that vanilla absolute will color your soap brown.

This is a Cold Process Soap recipe. An overview of directions can be found in my Soapmaking 101 post. I also recommend my ebook Natural Soap Making: Cold Process Basics & Recipes in order to learn more about the craft, how to color your soaps naturally, 25 of my favorite palm-free soap recipes, and more!

Natural Soap Making 275 px

The recipe is sized to fit a homemade wooden loaf mold, that my husband made for me. The inner dimensions are roughly: 8″ long x 3.5″ wide x 3.5″ tall if you’d like to make your own. You can also use a regular glass bread loaf pan, lined with parchment paper, instead.


Pumpkin Soap CP Cold Process Recipe
Pumpkin Soap Recipe

Liquid & Lye Portion:

    4.19 ounces lye (6% superfat)
    8 ounces distilled water
Oil Portion (30 ounces total):

    16 ounces olive oil (53%)
    8 ounces coconut oil (27%)
    3 ounces sunflower oil (10%)
    3 ounces cocoa butter (10%)

Make according to general cold process soap making directions. (See Soap Making 101 for an overview.) I buy my lye (100% sodium hydroxide) from my local Tractor Supply Store. You can also order HERE from Amazon.com.

At light trace, blend in:

    2 ounces canned pumpkin

Portion out roughly 1/3 of the batter in a small plastic container (I use a large recycled yogurt container.) Blend in 1 teaspoon vanilla absolute and 20 to 30 drops clove essential oil. (Adjust per your personal scent preference.) You can buy both of these items from Mountain Rose Herbs.

Pour half of the pumpkin soap into the parchment paper lined mold, add the vanilla spice layer next, then top with the rest of the pumpkin soap. Cover and let sit undisturbed for two to three days.

I found this soap needed a longer dry time than most, so don’t worry if it seems too soft at first. Once unmolded, let the soap log sit out in the air for an additional few days before slicing into bars and allow for plenty of cure time.

If you like this soap recipe, let’s keep in touch! You can find me on Pinterest and Instagram or subscribe to my once-a-month newsletter, HERE.

 Some links in this post may be affiliate links. That means that if you click on one and make a purchase from the web site (Amazon.com or Mountain Rose Herbs), I will get a small commission for sending a customer their way. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but does allow me to earn income from this blog. (So, thank you for helping me to keep doing what I’m doing!) :)