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Christmas Tree Swirl Cold Process

Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Difficulty: Advanced
Time: 2 Hours
Yields: 5 pounds of soap

Handmade cold process soap makes a fantastic gift. Everybody loves the beautiful designs, fun colors and skin loving properties. Because many people have never experienced handmade soap before, it’s extra fun to give! This festive Christmas Tree Swirl Cold Process features a reverse hidden feather swirl, made popular by Handmade in Florida. Topped with Sparkle Gold Mica, this cold process project would be perfect under the tree.

Cold process soap requires a four to six week cure time, making now the optimal time to create soap for the holidays. If you are looking for more holiday project ideas, check out the Handmade Holiday Gift Inspiration post. From lip balm to melt and pour, there is a gift for everybody on your list.



What You’ll Need:
1.8 oz Avocado Butter

10.2 oz Canola Oil

1.8 oz Castor Oil

14.4 oz Coconut Oil

13.2 oz Olive Oil

14.4 oz Palm Oil

1.2 oz Palm Kernel Flakes

3 oz Sweet Almond Oil

6.44 oz Sodium Hydroxide

15.1 oz Distilled Water

3.5 oz Christmas Tree Cybilla Fragrance Oil

Hydrated Chrome Green Pigment

 Green Chrome Pigment

 Black Oxide Pigment

Super Pearly White Mica

Sparkle Gold Mica

5 lb Wooden Log Mold with Sliding Bottom

Silicone Liner for 5 lb Wood Mold

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.

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 colorant into 1 tablespoon of sunflower or sweet almond oil (or any other liquid oil). Use a mini mixer to get the clumps of color worked out smoothly.

ONE: Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water and gently stir until the lye has fully dissolved and the liquid is clear. Set aside to cool.

TWO: Fully melt and combine the coconut, olive oil, canola, castor, avocado, sweet almond, palm kernel flakes and palm oils (remember to fully melt then mix your entire container of palm oil before portioning). 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. If you’d like a harder bar of soap that releases faster from the mold, you can add sodium lactate to the cooled lye water. Use 1 teaspoon of sodium lactate per pound of oils in the recipe. For this recipe, you’d add about 5 tsp. sodium lactate.

THREE: Once you have reached a light trace, pour 100 mL of soap into 3 small containers.
FOUR: To the large container of soap, add 2 tbs. of the dispersed Super Pearly White Mica and 3/4 of the Christmas Tree Fragrance Oil. It’s okay to eyeball it! Use a whisk to thoroughly combine the pigment and colorant. Pour 500 mL of this soap into a separate container and set aside. This soap will later become the top. Portioning out this soap now ensures you will have soap left for the top!
FIVE: To one 100 mL container, add 1/2 tsp Hydrated Chrome Green, 1/8 tsp. Black Oxide, 1/2 tsp. Super Pearly White Mica and 1/4 tsp. Chrome Green Oxide. To the second container add 1/2 tsp of Chrome Green Pigment. To the third container add 1/2 tsp Hydrated Chrome Green Pigment. Use a whisk to thoroughly incorporate the colorants.
SIX: Pour each green shade of soap into a squeeze bottle. Doing so allows you to create clean, even lines.
Left to right: dark green, medium green and light green soap.
SEVEN: Place the hanger tool in the center of the mold. You may find taping the wire hanger tool to the mold helpful. Slowly and carefully, pour the white soap over the hanger. During the entire pouring process, it’s important to not move the hanger. Pour soap until hanger is just covered.

EIGHT: Using the hangers edges as a guide, squirt a line directly over the hanger with the dark green soap. After making the first line, squirt a second line directly next to the first, to create one line that is two lines thick.
NINE: Slowly and carefully, pour a thin layer of the white soap over a spatula. Pouring over the spatula helps avoid breaking through the layers below. Continue to pour until the green line is just covered.
TEN: Using the medium green soap, squeeze two, side by side lines over the hanger and dark green soap line.
ELEVEN: Slowly pour the white soap over a spatula until the medium green line is lightly covered. Using the light green soap, squeeze two side by side lines down the length of the mold, over the hanger and medium green lines. Continue the process of squeezing lines over the hanger and covering with a thin layer of white soap until you have two lines of each green color.
TWELVE: Once two lines of each color have been drawn, cover with a thin layer of white soap. Slowly and carefully, pull the hanger straight up and out of the mold. Do your best to keep the hanger straight while pulling out of the mold. Set hanger tool aside.
THIRTEEN: Add the rest of the fragrance oil and stick blend the remaining 500 mL white soap until a thick trace is reached.
FOURTEEN: Gently spoon the thick white soap on top, and use a spoon to create a textured top. Be careful to not disrupt the layers below.FIFTEEN: Using a powder sifter, dust the top with Sparkle Gold Mica.
Allow the soap to harden for 3-4 days before unmolding. Allow it to cure for 4 – 6 weeks and enjoy!

I love giving cold process soap as gifts. Everybody uses soap, and very few people have ever tried handmade soap before. What is your favorite kind of bath and body product to give or receive? 

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43 Comments

  1. This is gorgeous and my friends would love it! I’m going to try something similar, just make it my own. Thanks for the inspiration for beautiful Christmas gifts. 🙂

    • You’re welcome Manda, so glad you like this soap! Have fun making something similar. I’m sure your friends will love their handmade gift. 🙂

      -Kelsey with Bramble Berry

  2. Hi,
    This might be a silly question, but the lye calculator says the final yield is 88oz for this, but the mold only holds 76oz. Does the mold actually hold that much more, or do you just have a ton of soap leftover? Or do you have not much left over because of the soap that stays on the inside of the bottles and containers, etc?

    I’m trying to resize this for my 10″ silicone mold but want to make sure I make enough soap but not too much!

    Thanks! 🙂

    • Hi Robin!

      That’s a great question! The extra soap amount is because of the squeeze bottles. When sectioning off the extra soap for the squeeze bottles, it can be tricky to know the exact amount you need. In order to have enough, we like to make extra. Also, some soap will get stuck in the bottles. We tested this recipe a couple times, and found that making a bit extra gave us enough for the lines and the fun top.

      When resizing this recipe for the 10″ Silicone Mold, I would recommend making some extra (5 ounces or more) so you have enough for those lines. Then, keep another mold nearby in case you have any leftovers. 🙂

      -Kelsey with Bramble Berry

      10″ Silicone Loaf Mold: https://www.brambleberry.com/10-Silicone-Loaf-Mold–P5199.aspx

  3. Hello there! I have all my ingredients and am ready to go. Do you let this get to gel phase, or should I soap colder? I would like to get the colors just like you have in the picture. Thanks.

    • Hi Karen!

      So glad you love the soap! You can definitely use Titanium Dioxide if you like. It helps whiten the soap as well. The amounts may differ slightly. I would recommend prepping the same amount (1 teaspoon of colorant into 1 tablespoon of a lightweight oil). Then, add that dispersed color 1 teaspoon at a time until you get the shade of white you like. 🙂

      Titanium Dioxide: https://www.brambleberry.com/Titanium-Dioxide-Pigment-P4040.aspx

      -Kelsey with Bramble Berry

  5. i’m almost ready to make this soap, however I had to buy Shea butter because avocado butter was on back order. Do you foresee any problems? Do you think it’s okay to substitute straight across?

    • Hi Bridget!

      You can definitely use shea butter instead. Shea butter is a little harder than avocado butter, so your recipe will be slightly harder.

      Also, each oil and butter has a different SAP value, or the amount of lye it takes to turn it into soap. Make sure to run your recipe through the Lye Calculator again so you get the right lye amount. 🙂

      -Kelsey with Bramble Berry

      Lye Calculator: https://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Lye-Calculator.aspx

    • Hi Jan!

      You add the rest of the fragrance oil to the thick white soap that goes on top. Thanks for catching that, those instructions are added now. 🙂

      -Kelsey with Bramble Berry

      • Actually, I made this soap yesterday and I just added all of the FO to the entire batch at very light trace. It performed beautifully with no acceleration at all – and I had plenty of time for my swirls! And I have to say, your Christmas Tree Cybilla FO smells awesome!! LOVE it!! I love the look of this soap too – I was able to unmold and cut it at 24 hours – I used 2 silicone molds instead of the 5-pound mold (which I still need to get by the way)!

  7. Oh mercy! I am obviously a newbie soap maker! ANOTHER question….It mentions at start of tutorial that you prepare colorants in 1 TBS oil. Later it says to add colorants in the proportions given. I read that as you pull those amounts from the already prepared colorants in 1 TBS of oil. Am I correct in this line of thinking? Or should those amounts for the “color recipes” be your color prep guide?

  8. One more question- can we substitute titanium dioxide for the pearly white mica? I need to get this made in the next few days, don’t have time to order! :o(

  9. I am going to try making this soap and just ordered all the stuff. I have a question about the hanger. What is the yellow thing around the hangar. Is it necessary to make it thicker.

    • Hi Bridget!

      The yellow around the hangar are drinking straws. We used those to make the line a little thicker. You can add those to make the middle line thicker. 🙂

      -Kelsey with Bramble Berry

  10. Ok, just want to clarify the color steps. So every color, put a stripe down the center of hanger, and then another next to it on one side. Do you leave any gap at all or do you lay it out right next to it? Also, do you or did you alternate sides- center then right, white layer, center then left? Would it matter or come out more even do you think? Thanks for your input!

    • Hi Sabrina!

      We laid the stripes of color right next to each other. We did this to create a thicker line in the finished soap.

      After you have done your two lines side-by-side, you put a layer of white over the top. This creates the “branches” of the tree. Alternating those lines left and right would create a branch on one side of the tree, a white layer and then a branch on the other. If that’s a look you’re going for, you can definitely try that! 🙂

      -Kelsey with Bramble Berry

  11. Definitely want to try to make this soap. But, I don’t have any avocado butter. I have hemp, mango, shea. Could I make this using any of these butters? If so would the ounces be the same? Thank you.

    • Hi Sharon!

      Good news – you can replace the avocado butter with any of those products listed! Keep in mind those butters are a little harder, so your recipe overall will be a little harder.

      Also, make sure to run your recipe through the Lye Calculator again so you can get the correct lye amount. 🙂

      -Kelsey with Bramble Berry

      Lye Calculator: https://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Lye-Calculator.aspx

    • Hi Angelica!

      You can use a plastic hanger for this. With the wire hanger, we took it apart so it was one long line. This may be more difficult with a plastic hanger. If you do try it, let us know how it goes! 🙂

      -Kelsey with Bramble Berry

  14. This soap looks like so much fun – I can’t wait to try it! What essential oils would work instead of the listed fragrance oils?
    Thank you for all of the great ideas that you put out there for us:)

  16. What do you do if you get ash on top of soap that you sprinkled with mica or anything else? If you try to wash it off, does the stuff on top wash off too?
    Thanks.

  17. This is amazing! And perfect timing too, I was just wondering how I’d go about getting a “forest-like” look, since I have both Woodland Elves and Santa’s Spruce and want to use one of them this season. Okay, a forest would probably be too crowded, but one tree us still pretty awesome! 😀

    Ooh, as a bonus u think I’ll have enough leftover supplies after my planned projects to make this without buying more… just gave to wait on the soap already in my mold (still only have the one liner haha).

    I love Soap Queen and Bramble Berry so much, so many creative ideas and great quality supplies I can only dream of being as creative as you. 😀

  18. This soap is gorgeous, I want to make some so bad! All these holiday soap projects are getting me into the Christmas spirit! 😀

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