Citrus Sunrise Soap: A Rustic Vegan Cold Process Recipe with Dried Orange Slices

🤎🍊Grandma’s Journal: Citrus Sunrise

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Welcome to the soap shed. Today we are taking about a fall soap from the archives. You’ll notice I didn’t have my usual protective nitrile gloves on in the making of this soap. It is from my past camera roll and with all the soaps I currently make, I am surely wearing them.

I prepared the citrus slices in my dehydrator a few months ahead. I used the orange slices with an orange essential oil for this bright sunshiny soap. I had pictured something bright and sunny when I started this batch, soft lemon yellow, warm orange, and a rich contrasting layer, all topped with those pretty dried citrus slices. But once the colors settled into their places, I stood back, looked at that loaf, and had to laugh. “Well now… I believe I’ve made candy corn looking soap.” And you know what? Sometimes that surprise is half the fun of soapmaking.

Those cheerful layers of yellow, orange, and deep brown weren’t quite what I had imagined in my head, but together they made such a warm, old-fashioned bar. The dried citrus slices across the top gave it that rustic touch that  I love so much. Once it was cut, every bar had its own little personality, with a slice of dried citrus peeking up over the top like a tiny sunrise.

This was a vegan cold process recipe, made with a generous 72 ounces of oils. I used olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, avocado oil, and castor oil, with a 5% superfat. The recipe also included kaolin clay, colloidal oats, and sea salt, the sort of simple additions I like keeping around the soap shed.

For the colors, I divided the batter into portions and used lemon yellow, orange, and a dark brown mica, then finished the loaf with dried citrus slices and a little decorative sprinkle of cranberry seeds across the top.

There is a lesson tucked into this batch that Grandma would have understood well: handmade things don’t always turn out exactly as we pictured them. Each batch has a story and a memory from the time spent creating it.

And around here, the batch that accidentally looked like candy corn became a bright, rustic, a little unexpected, and most certainly one I’ll remember.

-Soapmaking Hobby 🍊🤎

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• Oil & Butter Blend

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🍊 A Little Side Note About Dried Citrus

Dried orange or lemon tucked into the top of a fresh loaf of soap is quite a beautiful site. It gives a bar that old-fashioned, handmade look that I love, the sort of thing that makes you think of a sunny kitchen, a basket of citrus on the table, and something you just know was made by hand. But dried citrus has its little quirks, too.

On the good side, properly dried citrus slices add natural color, texture, and rustic charm without needing much fuss. They’re especially pretty on lemon, orange, grapefruit, and other bright, farmhouse style bars. When the soap is photographed or given as a gift, those little slices can make it feel extra special. However, when those dried fruit slices come back into contact with water and moisture, they do reconstitute and become squishy once again. The natural sugars in fruit are another reason I wouldn’t bury citrus flesh pieces inside a bar. And even a perfectly dried slice won’t necessarily stay as pretty as the day the soap was made; over time, it may darken considerably.

Dry it thoroughly, use it sparingly, and keep it mostly for decoration. Thin slices on the very top are easier to remove before using the soap and less troublesome than fruit tucked down inside the bar. You can even tie a slice on the cured bar with some twine so it can easily be removed before washing. It really does make for a beautiful, rustic bar.🤎

🍊 Citrus Sunrise Vegan Soap Recipe

72 ounce Batch or use a similar premixed oil blend here

• Olive Oil 28.8 oz (40%)

• Coconut Oil, 76° 18 oz (25%)

• Palm Oil 18 oz (25%)

• Avocado Oil 3.6 oz (5%)

• Castor Oil 3.6 oz (5%)

Lye & Liquid

Distilled Water 27.47 oz

Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) 10.16 oz

Additives

Sea Salt 2 Tbsp

Kaolin Clay 2 Tbsp

Oats 2 Tbsp

Fragrance

The formula allows for 4.5 oz fragrance and suggests either a citrus blend or orange essential oil. Always check with manufacturer for usage rates.

🤎Grandma’s Design Notes

Separate the batter into three containers. Keep one portion yellow for the base, color another with brown mica, and the third orange.

Pour the yellow base first, then alternate the brown and orange batters to create those warm layers. Decorate the top with dried orange slices and a light sprinkling of dried cranberry seeds.

🍊 Citrus Sunrise Soap:

Quick FAQ

🍊Is Citrus Sunrise a vegan soap?

Yes. This recipe uses only plant-based oils and butters, including olive, coconut, palm oil, avocado, castor.

🍊Why add kaolin clay?

Kaolin clay is a gentle soap additive that also helps anchor fragrance, especially, essential oils and gives the finished bar a lovely silky feel.

🍊What do colloidal oats add?

Colloidal oats give the soap a gentle exfoliating, comforting quality and fit beautifully with this gentle farmhouse-style recipe.

🍊Why use sea salt?

Sea Salt can help the bars become firmer and make unmolding a little easier.

🍊Can I put dried citrus slices on cold process soap?

Yes, but they should be thoroughly dried before use. Because they are natural plant material, they can darken, soften, or deteriorate over time, especially in humid conditions. I like them best as a removable decoration on top.

🍊Will dried citrus scent the soap?

Not very much. Dried fruit is mainly decorative, so use a soap-safe fragrance or essential oil if you want a noticeable citrus scent.

🍊How long should Citrus Sunrise cure?

Give the bars about 4–6 weeks in a cool, dry place with good airflow.

Grandma’s Tip: Don’t fret when a batch doesn’t look exactly like the picture in your head. Sometimes an accidental “candy corn” soap turns into the prettiest story in the soap shed. 🍊🤎

🤍Choose your next soap journal entry…

✨ Charred Rose Bouquet- floral elegance

✨Huckleberry Harvest Vegan- berry charming

✨Bluebird Lane-a blueberry scented- farmhouse bar

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