Tutorial: Fresh Peaches and Cream Soap Recipe with Coconut Cream and Peach Puree

This tutorial comes to you courtesy of Leanna Blacher.

Is there anything more classic and pure than peaches and cream? Consider this peaches and cream soap recipe a twist on the classic!! Instead of using traditional cream, we're going to dive in using coconut cream. To double up the peaches and cream, we'll puree our peaches and create a batch of soap. Then, shred it all up into confetti before combining it with coconut cream soap. Delightful!

This soap involves preparing your own coconut cream and your own fresh peach puree, but you can certainly purchase unsweetened peach puree or frozen peaches to save time! If you want to do that, skip down below the tutorials for preparing your ingredients to dive right into the peaches and cream confetti soap tutorial!

Preparing the Fresh Ingredients

Before we can use fresh ingredients in our cold process soap, we need to prepare them! Here's what you'll need to make our two fresh homemade ingredients: peach puree and coconut cream.

Ingredients Used

• 1 small peach (or frozen peaches, if you wish!)
• 1 can of organic coconut milk (I prefer the Thai Kitchen brand!)
• distilled water

Other Tools Used

• cutting board
• knife
• vegetable peeler
• blender or food processor
• cheese grater or box grater

Making the Peach Puree

PREP THE PEACHES: Peel and cut peach into wedges. You can use frozen or fresh peaches for this step.

Place the cut peaches into the blender with enough distilled water to cover the blades. Blend until silky and smooth.

 Slice and peel fresh peaches, or thaw frozen peaches for the peach puree.

 Puree the peaches in a blender with just enough distilled water to cover the blades. The result? Your fresh peach puree!

Now that you've created your own peach puree, we'll be using it as an additive in the peach soap later on. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it!

Preparing the Coconut Cream

CHILL: Place the unopened can of coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight or longer. We are trying to allow the cream and water to separate in the can. Do not shake the can! Remove from refrigerator and open the can.

 After sitting in the refrigerator at least overnight, your can of coconut milk should look like this. The coconut cream has risen to the top, while the coconut water has separated underneath.

 Gently scoop out the coconut cream and set it aside to come to room temperature. Save the coconut water remaining in the can, too!

Once at room temperature, the coconut cream will be soft and luxurious. You will be left with about half a can of coconut water. Let's not waste it! We'll use it as a water replacement in the coconut portion of our peaches and cream confetti soap. You may choose to freeze the coconut water, if you wish, but I did not.

Making the Peaches and Cream Soap Recipe

Now that we've prepared our fresh ingredients for our soap recipes, let's get down to business.

The fresh peaches and cream soap recipe is sized for a 11.25" Essential Depot silicone mold. You can resize it using a lye calculator for whichever mold works for you. (If you aren’t sure how much soap your mold holds, you can find out with this guide to resizing your soap recipes to fit your mold.)

For this confetti soap, I made two separate batches of soap - one for the confetti and one for the outside! Both recipes are the same formula with the same percentages of oils. However, the overall sizes of the batches are different to account for embedding the confetti soap. For the peach soap, I used 32 ounces of oils. For the coconut cream soap, I used 24 ounces of oils.

Our prepared food ingredients are going in both batches of soap. The peach puree is used in the peach confetti soap portion, and the coconut water and coconut cream are used in the coconut portion.

Since our peach soap is the confetti part of the soap recipe, let's make that one first:

Peach Soap Recipe

• 11.2 ounces of Coconut Oil (35% of the oils)
• 9.6 ounces of Olive Oil  (30% of the oils)
• 3.2 ounces of Avocado Oil (10% of the oils)
• 3.2 ounces of Shea Butter (10% of the oils)
• 3.2 ounces of Rice Bran Oil (10% of the oils)
• 1.6 ounces of Castor Oil (5% of the oils)
• 4.35 ounces of Sodium Hydroxide (10% superfat)
• 6.6 ounces of distilled water

** I know that this is a steep water discount. I like to do this so that my soaps harden quickly and cure quickly. Please feel free to adjust this recipe for more water: a 33% solution would use 13.2 ounces of water total.

I buy most of my soaping oils from Soaper's Choice and Wholesale Supplies Plus.

Fragrance Oil Used in the Peach Soap

• 1 oz of Almost Paradise Fragrance Oil (As this fragrance oil has a high vanilla content, we expect it to discolor brown.)

Looking for essential oil blends to use instead? Check out the Essential Oil Blending Calculator.

Colorants and Additives Used in the Peach Soap

• 2 ounces of fresh peach puree
• 1/2 teaspoon Mango Tango mica (Nurture Soap)
• 1/4 teaspoon Bold Yellow mica (Maple Street Soap Supplies Co-op)
• 1/4 teaspoon White Satin mica (Micas and More Co-op)
• 2 teaspoons of Sodium Lactate (Soaper's Choice)***
• 2 teaspoons of White Kaolin Clay (Wholesale Supplies Plus)***

*** Optional ingredients

Making the peach soap is simple, as it is a solid colored soap that will be shredded after saponification!

WHIP UP THE PEACH SOAP: Prepare your oils, lye solution, and additives as normal.

Pour your lye solution into the oils slowly. Add your additives, fragrance, peach puree, and colorants. Stickblend your peach soap to a medium trace, and pour into the mold!

 Even though the fragrance oil will likely discolor the soap brown, I mixed up a peach color using yellow, orange, and white micas. Can't hurt to hope it will stay orange!!!

 Using your stickblender, bring the peach soap to trace. Easy peasy!

 Once at trace, pour the peach soap into the mold and allow it to saponify overnight.

SHRED IT: Once your peach soap comes out of the mold, cut it into manageable pieces. If you have a multi-bar wire cutter, use that - but you may need to cut your bars in half!

Use a cheese grater, a box grater, a salad shredder, or even a food processor with a grater attachment if you have one dedicated to soapmaking, to shred your peach soap into small pieces. You need about 23.5 ounces of peach soap shredded for the confetti soap, enough to fill your mold about halfway to two-thirds of the way.

The amount of peach soap is enough for two batches of peaches & cream confetti soap, so you may choose to double the coconut soap portion to make two batches. Or you can use half the peach soap as is!

After shredding your peach soap, set it aside while you make the coconut cream soap.

 When your peach soap is ready to unmold, cut it into bars or smaller chunks.

 Half of my peach soap shredded filled up my mold. You could double the coconut soap portion, and make two loaves for this peaches and cream recipe, if you wish!

Now, we'll make the coconut soap! To use all of the coconut milk contents, I incorporated the coconut water as my liquid in the lye solution, but you can use distilled water, if you wish.

Coconut Soap Recipe

• 8.4 ounces of Coconut Oil (35% of the oils)
• 7.2 ounces of Olive Oil  (30% of the oils)
• 2.4 ounces of Avocado Oil (10% of the oils)
• 2.4 ounces of Shea Butter (10% of the oils)
• 2.4 ounces of Rice Bran Oil (10% of the oils)
• 1.2 ounces of Castor Oil (5% of the oils)
• 3.25 ounces of Sodium Hydroxide (10% superfat)
• 4.9 ounces of Coconut water

** I know that this is a steep water discount. I like to do this so that my soaps harden quickly and cure quickly. Please feel free to adjust this recipe for more water: a 33% solution would use 13.2 ounces of water total.

I buy most of my soaping oils from Soaper's Choice and Wholesale Supplies Plus.

Fragrance Oil Used for the Coconut Soap

• 1 oz of Coconut Cream fragrance oil (This fragrance oil is extremely fast-moving. It is great for confetti soap because it keeps the confetti from sinking to the bottom when mixed, but remember that you will have to work somewhat fast.)

Looking for essential oil blends to use instead? Check out the Essential Oil Blending Calculator here on Modern Soapmaking!

Colorants and Additives Used for the Coconut Soap

• 1.5 ounces of coconut cream
• 1 teaspoon of Titanium Dioxide(Micas and More Co-op)
• 1.5 teaspoons of Sodium Lactate (Soaper's Choice)***
• 1.5 teaspoons of White Kaolin Clay (Wholesale Supplies Plus)***

*** Optional ingredients

MIX UP THE COCONUT SOAP: Pour your lye solution into the oils, add your additives (kaolin clay and sodium lactate). Stick blend to a very light trace.

At light trace, add titanium dioxide and coconut cream. Stick blend briefly to incorporate.

Add fragrance oil and stir by hand, as this is a very fast moving fragrance oil. Add peach soap confetti to the coconut cream soap, mix well, and pour into mold.

 The coconut cream is added at light trace to the coconut soap, and stick blended briefly. We want to keep the soap as fluid as possible before adding the fast-moving fragrance oil!

 Using a spatula, thoroughly incorporate the peach soap shreds into the coconut soap portion. Make sure to scrape down the sides of your soap pot!

 Smooth the top of the peaches and cream soap. Make sure to tap the mold down on your work surface to remove any air bubbles created by the confetti embeds!

DRESS IT UP: I added a drizzle of the peach mica mixture to the top and swirled it with a skewer to give the top a bit more interest.

Cover your mold and wrap it in a blanket overnight to fully gel. Cut, cure, and enjoy!

 Peaches and Cream Soap Recipe with Fresh Peaches and Coconut Cream

The peaches and cream confetti soap recipe featured in this tutorial is palm free and vegan-friendly. It uses a 10% superfat and a 40% lye solution. Feel free to adjust as necessary!

I really enjoy using interesting foods and liquids in soap! Let me know in the comments below if there is a food item or liquid you'd like to see in my next Using Food in Soap tutorial!