How to Make Orange Pumice Soap

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This quick melt-and-pour orange pumice soap is great for mechanics, gardeners, painters and anyone who tackles messy jobs. It’s also great to take along on camping trips. The pumice helps to remove stuck on dirt and grime, while the orange essential oil cuts through grease and oil. It’s the soap I reach for, if I think I may have come into contact with poison ivy because I know I can count on it to remove the oil.

My girls use it to exfoliate their feet and elbows.

Buy you know the best part? You don’t have to be a skilled soaper to make your own pumice soap. This recipe starts with a block of glycerin soap base, so there’s no lye to mess with and no cure time. As soon as it hardens in the mold, you can start using it.

Make a batch for yourself, and I guarantee you’ll be making more to give as gifts. Here’s the recipe.

Orange Pumice Soap Recipe

One batch makes (4) 4-oz. bars of soap

What You Need:

You can buy special suspension or suspending soap bases that are designed to keep additives, like pumice, from sinking to the bottom of the soap, but I devised a technique that allows you to use any type of glycerin soap for this project. For me, that’s organic glycerin.

What You Do:

Clear a shelf in your fridge. Then, place your soap mold on a baking sheet. You’re going to be transferring your soap to the fridge, after you pour it. So, this will set you up for success later.

Cut your glycerin into cubes, so it’ll melt faster.

Then, place it in a microwave-safe container, and microwave in one-minute intervals, until it’s fully melted.

Add the soap color and essential oil, and stir to combine. I recommend adding enough colorant to create a vibrant orange. The pumice will mute the color slightly when you add it later.

Wait for the soap to cool to 135 degrees Farhenheit (stirring occasionally). I use a digital thermometer to check the temp, but a candy thermometer will also do the job.

Give the soap a good stir to incorporate any skin that’s formed on the surface of the soap, while it cooled. Then, add the pumice …

and stir, until the pumice is evenly suspended throughout the soap.

Immediately pour the soap into your mold. Then, carefully transfer your soap mold to the refrigerator. This is the key to getting the pumice suspended throughout the bar. If you just leave it out to cool at room temperature, all the pumice will sink to the bottom of the bars.

Pop your soap out of the mold, once it’s dry. Then, enjoy!

Glycerin is a humectant, which means it draws moisture to itself. So, be sure to wrap any bars that you don’t plan to use right away.

How to Make Orange Pumice Soap

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Here’s how to make your own melt-and-pour orange pumice soap. Just like the store-bought stuff, only better.

Total Time: 10 minutes
Yield: (4) 4-oz. bars

Ingredients

Scale

1 lb clear glycerin soap base
4 tsp fine pumice powder
1 tsp orange essential oil
Liquid soap dye

Instructions

Chop glycerin into cubes.

Then, place in a microwave-safe container, and microwave one minute at a time, until melted.

Stir in soap coloring and orange essential oil. Then, wait for soap temperature to drop to 135 degrees Fahrenheit.

Stir in pumice powder. Make sure it’s suspended throughout the soap.

Then, immediately pour into a soap mold, and move to the fridge. Cooling the soap quickly will keep the pumice from sinking to the bottom of the bars.

Remove from the mold once hardened. Then, enjoy your soap!