The National Cherry Blossom Festival is taking place this month in Washington DC! I love the Cherry Blossom fragrance oil that the S.O.A.P. Floral Edition approved, so I thought it perfect to make a great project with for March. Plus, it made for a great opportunity to soap with one of our newest silicone molds!
Ingredients
1.0 oz Castor Oil
6.6 oz Coconut Oil
22.1 oz Olive Oil
3.3 oz Palm Oil
4.4 oz Sodium Hydroxide Lye
10.1 oz Distilled Water
3.3 oz Cherry Blossom Fragrance Oil
½ teaspoon Merlot mica
½ teaspoon Electric Bubble Gum colorant
½ teaspoon Fizzy Lemonade colorant
2 ¼ teaspoons Super Pearly White
0.9 oz Avocado Oil
Soap Making Buddy (optional)
Get everything you need for this project with the click of a button!
If you have never made cold process soap before, I strongly suggest getting a couple of basic recipes under your belt before diving in. Check out Soap Queen TV on Cold Process if you want to get started with cold process. It’s a 4 part series that will take you through the basics (and be sure to watch the episode on Lye Safety). You need gloves, goggles, and safety is the most important part of any soap recipe. If you’re a book worm, Bramble Berry also has some helpful reading on the cold process technique.
Color prep: Disperse Merlot mica, Bubble Gum Pink pigment and Fizzy Lemonade in 0.3 ounces of Avocado oil for each color. Use your mini mixer to make good work of those powders, but be sure to saturate them in the oil a bit before turning on the mixer, otherwise you’ll create a cloud of colorant!
ONE: Suit up! Kids and pets out of the way, long sleeves, gloves and goggles on. Carefully add your lye to your water (never the other way around!) and stir until clear. Set aside to cool.
TWO: Melt (when necessary) and mix together Castor Oil, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil and Palm Oil.
THREE: Slowly add the lye to your oils when both are under 130 degrees. Pulse your stick blender so you reach a very light trace. I wanted a nice pastel look to the colors, so I also added the 2.25 teaspoons Super Pearly White mica to the base oils.
Tip: when adding powders directly to your oils, dump them in a heap so they are sitting on top of the oils, then capture them with your stick blender as it enters the oils. Here’s what I mean:
FOUR: Split and color your batch as follows: one 16 ounce batch colored with ½ teaspoon of dispersed Bubble Gum Pink pigment, one 8 ounce batch colored with ½ teaspoon of dispersed Merlot mica, one 5 ounce batch colored with one teaspoon of dispersed Fizzy Lemonade pigment, and the remaining soap will stay as-is, with just the Super Pearly White. Mix in your fragrance oil. Use a whisk for mixing at this point, so you don’t accelerate trace. You still want a light to medium trace when you start to make the soaps!
FIVE: Fill each of the cavities of the 12-bar silicone mold about ½ way with the Super Pearly White soap. It’s time to create some Cherry Blossoms! Pour enough of the soap colored with Electric Bubble Gum so that it’s almost to the edge of the mold, but with still a little bit of white showing. Be sure to pour close to the mold so that the soap stays on top. Follow the pink with Merlot colored soap, leaving a good amount of pink showing. And then with the Fizzy Lemonade, just a teensy little bit toward the middle of the soap (like the center of a flower). The circles don’t necessarily have to be perfectly in the center, a little off-centered can add character to your blossoms! Tap, tap, tap that mold on the table to settle the soap colors flat and so they nicely blend into each other.
Tip: It might be helpful to pour each of the cavities individually and have a buddy do the next step to allow for faster working time.
SIX: With a chopstick or dowel, drag through the soap starting at the outer edge of the circle and ending at the yellow dot. Do this around the soap five times, wiping your tool off between drags. Ta da! Instant blossom petals! Repeat with all of the cavities in the mold.
SEVEN: Let the soap sit in the mold for 24-48 or until it’s ready to come out. Allow to cure for 4-6 weeks and enjoy!
Would it be OK to use labcolors instead of powder colorants? Or would you recommend any other replacements like natural colorants (eg pink clay, indigo, etc)? Thanks…
It is definitely okay to use LabColors instead of the powder colorants! Just be aware that LabColor do bleed, so they may not give you the exact look in this tutorial that you want.
Here is a list of our LabColors that work wonderfully in CP soap: https://www.brambleberry.com/LabColors-for-CP-C172.aspx
You can use natural colorants but they will not give you that vibrant and bright color that the pigments in this tutorial give. Happy Soaping!
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Super cute tutorial! Another fab soap Anne-Marie:)
Those are gorgeous! And so easy.
I like how your original merlot “circles” came out as little upside down hearts.
Aren’t they fantastic? I love them!
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Anne-Marie,
This looks like a very nice one! Already pinned its pic…
I have a few questions regarding the tutorial:
– You say mix below 130F, does it mean to mix right below 130F or anywhere below, ie would 100F be ok too?
– Should the soap be poured at light trace or rather thick trace?
– And lastly, if I would use palm kernel oil instead of coconut, other than adjusting the lye amount of course- would it have an effect on the recipe – I figure palm kernel speeds the trace a bit?
Many thanks, Pelin
You’re going to want to pour at medium trace, or light trace if you can; you want as much time to work with the soap as possible. Palm Kernel Oil will accelerate trace a bit, so that may not be your best option. 100F might be a little low, again since we want the soap to stay thinner for longer. =)
thanks Anne Marie…
On step four you say~ ‘Split and color your batch as follows: one 16 ounce batch colored with ½ teaspoon of dispersed Bubble Gum Pink pigment, one 8 ounce batch colored with ½ teaspoon of dispersed Merlot mica, one 5 ounce batch colored with one teaspoon’
But with what?
Fizzy Lemonade is the missing color name. Sorry about that!
Very cute. I am going to try this one for sure.
I see somebody already asked when the FO was incorporated but didn’t get an answer. Also, I am curious how the Cherry Blossom behaved. Most florals accelerate and was wondering about this one. Thanks 🙂
The Cherry Blossom does accelerate a little bit, so you’ll need to work quickly. But the result is soooo worth it! =)
Anne-Marie, I just adore cherry blossoms! They are one of my favorites, and this post made my day. The end result is gorgeous! Thanks for this tutorial!
Love the colors with this fragrance it’s adorb.
At which step was the fragrance added in this recipe? Or did I miss that part? Thank you.
Add the fragrance after you split the batch into the separate cups. Thanks for pointing that out!
Those I are the CUTEST soaps! What a Clever Idea,
-thanks so much for sharing. I think I may just have to try this…
Carefully add your water to your lye (never the other way around! I thought you should add lye to water not water to lye ?
You are totally right, Sisi. Always add your lye to the water and never the other way around. Thanks for catching that typo. All fixed now =)
Courtney from Bramble Berry.
I like the round shape of these soaps. That pink stick blender is so cool, I love it.
I just used the free sample I got of Cherry Blossom FO and it smells so good! I soaped it with some Bramble Berry Vanilla Select in a separate color. Can’t wait to cut it tomorrow!
That fragrance combo sounds delightful! Wish I could smell it through the computer 🙂
Jean
Your Cherry Blossom fragrance is amazing. It’s a good seller for me. I love this technique and the way your soap turned out. Cherry Blossom is the perfect fragrance for this. I might have to give it a try with the Pikake Flower fragrance. Love that stuff and am thrilled it’s now for sale on your site (there’s some in my cart for my next order)
Jean
The Pikake is delicious – so yummy – and nice in soap which is a plus! Keep me posted if you try this project or recipe.