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Rainbow Squirty Swirls – The Most Popular Soap Ever?

Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Difficulty: Advanced
Time: 60 minutes
Yields: 12 bars

We hope that everyone had a fantastic holiday yesterday — we sure did, and today we’ve got a very special cold process recipe for you. If Instagram ‘likes’ equal popularity, this Rainbow Squirty Swirls soap may be our most popular soap yet (see for yourself — more than 120 ‘likes,’ wow)! This tutorial uses the same technique as the Squirty Swirls recipe in the Soap Crafting book, and it’s an easy process that results in beautiful soap every time.

One thing to note about this recipe is that it can take 10 – 15 minutes to squirt all the soap into the mold, so it’s important to use a slow-moving recipe and a fragrance you know won’t accelerate trace. In this case, we used our new Amazon Lily & Rain Fragrance Oil, which performed beautifully and gave our rainbow soap a little tropical flair.

What You’ll Need:

5.2 oz. Sweet Almond Oil

7 oz. Canola Oil

10.5 oz. Coconut Oil

1.7 oz. Hazelnut Oil

1.7 oz. Mango Butter

8.75 oz. Palm Oil

4.9 oz. Sodium Hydroxide

11.5 oz. distilled water

2.2 oz. Amazon Lily & Rain Fragrance Oil

Tangerine Wow

Fizzy Lemonade

Ultramarine Violet

Chrome Green

Ultramarine Blue

Titanium Dioxide

Electric Bubblegum

Merlot Sparkle Mica

10″ Silicone Loaf Mold

Optional: 8 Squirt Bottles

Click here to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!

If you’ve never made Cold Process soap before, stop here! I highly recommend checking out our FREE four part SoapQueen.tv series on Cold Process Soapmaking, especially the episode on lye safety. And if you’d rather do some reading, Bramble Berry carries a wide range of books on the topic, including my newest book, Soap Crafting. You can also checkout the digital downloads for that instant gratification factor. This is an advanced technique and should not be attempted without a few recipes under your belt.

SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safe handling practices! That means goggles, gloves and long sleeves. Make sure kids, pets, and other distractions and tripping hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.

COLOR PREP: Disperse 1 teaspoon of each color except Titanium Dioxide, Electric Bubblegum and Merlot Sparkle Mica into 1 tablespoon of liquid oil (we like Sweet Almond or Sunflower oils). Prep double the amount of Titanium Dioxide, so disperse two teaspoons of colorant in two tablespoons of liquid oil. To create Bramble Red, disperse 1 teaspoon Electric Bubblegum colorant and two teaspoons Merlot Sparkle Mica into three tablespoons of liquid oil.

Prepping your colors in the beginning will allow you to work quickly and give you more time to work with your soap. Use the mini mixer to get all those clumps worked out smoothly.

ONE: Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water, and stir until clear. Set aside to cool. If you’d like a harder bar of soap that lasts longer in the shower, you can add Sodium Lactate to the cooled lye water. Use 1 teaspoon of Sodium Lactate per pound of oils in the recipe.

TWO: Melt and combine the Canola, Coconut, Hazelnut, Mango, Palm and Sweet Almond oils in a large glass container. Once the lye water and the oils have cooled to 130 degrees or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils and stick blend until thin trace.

THREE: Split off about half the batter (3 cups) into a separate container. Into the newly separated batch, add 4 teaspoons of dispersed Titanium Dioxide.

FOUR: Now add the colorants to the squirt bottles. We added one colorant per bottle in the following measurements:

  • 2 teaspoons dispersed Fizzy Lemonade
  • 2 teaspoons dispersed Tangerine Wow! and 1/8 teaspoon dispersed Bramble Red
  • 1 teaspoon dispersed Bramble Red
  • 1 teaspoon dispersed Chrome Green
  • 1 teaspoon dispersed Ultramarine Blue
  • 1 teaspoon dispersed Ultramarine Violet

FIVE: Split the fragrance roughly in half between the white and uncolored batches of soap. Mix in the fragrance with a wire whisk or spoon.

SIX: Pour the container of white soap batter into two condiment bottles. Pour until both bottles are full (our bottles hold about 12 oz.)

SEVEN: Pour the uncolored soap into the color bottles, filling each about a third of the way full. Then, cover the tip with your finger and shake vigorously, releasing your finger with the tip pointing away from your face.

EIGHT: Now comes the fun part! Take your first color (we chose red) and drizzle it into the mold. Once the bottom has been covered with a thin layer of squirty swirls, drizzle a layer of white. Repeat this process with all the other colors, repeating the same order (we followed roughly the order of a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, purple, blue). Alternate between layering a color, white and then another color until the bottles have been emptied. Because this is a time intensive recipe, your batter may begin to thicken as you get closer to the top. If you need to, pop the bottles in the microwave for 10 seconds to keep the batter liquid enough to work with.

NINE: We finished the top of this soap by simply drizzling purple and white together. Tamp the mold on the table several times to disperse bubbles, and then cover and insulate for 24 hours. Unmold after 3-4 days and allow to cure for 4-6 weeks.

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31 Comments

  1. Thanks so much!
    I have learned so much from this website. And, I am still learning. As a newbie, I not only read the articles, but I also read the comments. I would not be at the level that I am on in soapmaking if this website did not exist.
    Keep up the excellent work that you provide to so many; especially to newbies like me.

    • You’re very welcome Connie! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave this sweet comment. We love being able to help people out, and it means a lot to us that we can help you. You’re going to be a soapy expert before you know it! 🙂

      -Kelsey with Bramble Berry

  2. Hi. I love colors which is why I love swirls in soap. In this recipe you use more than one colorant. I actually want to use herbs, spices, and clay in my soap recipe for a natural color.
    I am wondering if I use multiple herbs , spices, or clay to achieve a multiple color swirl in a recipe, would it be harmful?
    Thanks

  3. Hi. Could I use plastic kitchen sauce squirt bottles, or would the fresh soap dissolve it?
    Thanks, Cadence.

  4. Could you substitute the hazelnut oil with anything else or just bump up one of the other ingredients.
    Thanks so much 🙂

  5. I’m always confused when it comes to prepping the colorants…..am I supposed to use oil that has been accounted for in the recipe or is the colorant oil separate from the measures called for in the recipe? Very few just come right out and say … Please help
    Diane

    • Hi Diane!

      This is a great question! When preparing colorants, that oil is separate from the oil in the recipe. Because it is usually such a small amount, we assume that will create a small amount of superfat in the soap, but not affect how the soap will set up. We like to use light oils to disperse our colorants, like Sweet Almond Oil or Sunflower Oil. I hope this answers your question, and I have included a link to help explain what exactly superfatting is 🙂

      Superfatting Soap, An Explanation:
      http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/superfatting-soap-an-explanation-2/

      -Amanda with Bramble Berry

      • Awesome Amanda!!!!!!
        Thank you so much for the help. Now that I know why, it will be easy to remember.

        Kudos to you from the bottom of my soapy little heart!
        Diane

  7. Not sure what I did wrong with this, followed the directions to the letter and it ended up hardening in the squirt bottles (even microwaving didn’t help)and I glopped it into the mold. It came out okay, not what I was expecting but still pretty.

    • Hi Krystal!
      I believe you shared your photos with me on Facebook, correct? This recipe requires you to be fairly speedy, but practice makes perfect! Your soaps till turned out great! 🙂

      -Amanda with Bramble Berry

  8. I can’t seem to find the ” bramble red” red has been eluding me for months, I need help! Thanks so much for the great new ideal!

  9. This soap is beautiful, I used the technique on a batch of soap last week, red & white were my color choices and Moroccan Mint, so it is sort of candy cane like. Waiting anxiously to cut it. I will be taking when it is cut.
    I would like to make this colored batch but could you give me a couple other scent options that will give me enough time to do the technique and not accelerate, or discolor?

  10. This is so spectacular I just had to email you.The colors are so bright and beautiful I thought it was melt and pour too.If I worked fast could I double the recipe and use a bigger mold.If so could you recommend a mold for me.Great job guys.Thank you.

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