This recipe is the second of two that come with the quick start guide in Bramble Berry’s brand new Business in a Box kit, and the second of many that are possible when you purchase the full kit. Along with this unique In-The-Pot Swirl recipe, in the quick start guide you’ll also receive the Sunset Ombre Soap tutorial. The Business in a Box quick start guide is a handy, downloadable PDF that contains beginning soapmaking tips, some helpful forms for business, two advanced recipes tailored just for the kit, and tips for getting your business started. The kit also contains full ingredients, equipment, 7 books and more. We’ve updated the Business in a Box kit based on your feedback from when we first launched it and it’ s better than ever. Like all businesses, it will take hard work, perseverance, and has a learning curve but this kit will save a lot on the testing, experimenting and give you a library of my favorite books to learn from.
This technique is fabulous for achieving that “wow” factor in your soaps. It’s a very intense result for catching your customers’ eyes from across a room, and is quite photogenic if you plan on listing your soap online. By pouring three contrasting-colored batches of soap into one larger batch without overmixing them, an intricate-looking swirl emerges that has the feel of hours worth of painstaking work when really it’s super quick to get the hang of!
For those of you that don’t have a Quick Mix oil blend at home, a 3% Castor, 30% Coconut, 30% Palm, 34% blend of Canola and Olive for your recipe is where I’d start with this project. You can use the Lye Calculator at BrambleBerry.com to figure out recipes via percentages or do it from scratch using this blog post.
RECIPE:
54 oz Lots of Lather Quick Mix Oil
18 oz Distilled Water
7.8 oz Sodium Hydroxide
1/2 Tablespoon Titanium Dioxide
1/4 teaspoon Ultramarine Pink
1/8 teaspoon Black Oxide
1/4 teaspoon Green Chrome Oxide
3 Tablespoons Sunflower Oil (or any liquid oil)
4 oz Rosehip Jasmine Fragrance Oil
5 pound Wood Mold with Sliding Bottom
5 pound Wood Mold Silicone Liner
If you’d love to try out this tutorial but aren’t ready to purchase the full Business in a Box kit, click here to add the ingredients for just this recipe to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!
SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safe handling practices! Long sleeves, gloves, and eye protection are necessary when making cold process soap. Eye glasses are not sufficient protection. Be sure that kids, pets, and other tripping/distraction 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 the oil soluble colorants in sunflower oil as follows; 1/2 tablespoon Titanium Dioxide in 1-1/2 tablespoons oil, 1/4 teaspoon Ultramarine Pink in 3/4 teaspoon oil, 1/8 teaspoon black oxide in 3/8 teaspoon oil, 1/4 teaspoon Chrome Green in 3/4 teaspoon oil. Mix well using a mini-mixer, but make sure to saturate the pigment in oil with the tip of your mini-mixer before blending otherwise the color will turn into a messy cloud of pigment!
ONE: Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water and stir until clear. Set aside to cool.
TWO: Heat the entire container of Lots of Lather Quick Mix and give it a good stir. Measure the appropriate amount of oil into a heat-safe container.
NOTE: Reheat the entire container of Lots of Later Quick Mix before each use. Like with Palm Oil, separation can occur with the different ingredients, causing unequal amounts to measure out if the oils aren’t reheated and mixed properly.
THREE: When the lye water has cooled to 130 degrees or below (and is within 10 degrees of the oils), add the lye water to the oils and mix with a stick blender until a light trace is achieved. To eliminate air bubbles from being mixed into the soap batter, pour the lye down the shaft of the stick blender and burp the stick blender by tapping it on the bottom of your container before turning it on.
FOUR: Split the soap into 4 separate batches, three measuring 2 cups each and one measuring 4 cups. Tip: Pour the three 2 cup batches first, and you’ll be left with about 4 cups in your original container!
FIVE: Add the 2 tablespoons of dispersed Titanium Dioxide to the container with 4 cups of soap batter. Then add 1 teaspoon of dispersed Ultramarine Pink to the first 2 cup portion, 0.5 teaspoon of dispersed Black Oxide to the second 2 cup portion and 1 teaspoon of dispersed Chrome Green Oxide to the third. Mix all of the colorant in well using a whisk. Tip: Mixing the colors from lightest to darkest allows you to reuse the mixing tool (in this case, the whisk), leaving you with less dirty dishes to clean.
SIX: Fragrance each of the batches with Rosehip Jasmine fragrance oil. Use 1.6 ounces in the 4 cup batch and 0.8 ounces in each of the 2 cup batches. Mix in well using the whisk.
SEVEN: For the in-the-pot swirl, start by pouring the Black Oxide colored soap into the Titanium Dioxide colored soap in 4 places: 12:00 o’clock, 4:00 o’clock, 8:00 o’clock, and center. Repeat with the Ultramarine Pink and Chrome Green colored soaps. Pour from a high point so that the soap penetrates the entire depth of the soap in the pot, which will create a swirl throughout the soap. Using a spatula, chopstick or dowel, swirl the soap by running the tool through each of the entry points once. Only once! You want to swirl but not mix the soap.
EIGHT: Pour the swirled soap into the mold, keeping the pouring container in one place as the soap fills the mold. Tamp the mold on the tabletop to eliminate any air bubbles.
NINE: Spray the entire top with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol to help prevent soda ash. Cover and insulate for 24 hours and unmold after 3-4 days. Allow to cure for 4-6 weeks and enjoy!
