Add elaborate details to your Cold Process soap easily with fun melt & pour soap pieces. In the bars above, I embedded a basic brown and black layered melt & pour loaf and some experimental marbliezed soap in green and white cold process soap.
Tip: To ensure your melt and pour does not ‘sweat’ in the CP soap, let it sit out for 24 hours under a running fan before embedding into your CP soap recipe.
What  You’ll Need
32 oz. Apricot Kernel Oil
20 oz. Palm Oil
18 oz. Coconut Oil
4 oz. Castor Oil
1.90 oz. Jojoba Oil
10.7 oz. Lye
25 oz. Distilled Water
4 oz. Hungarian Lavender
Tools:
Stainless steel or glass mixing bowls
Scale
Heat safe mixing spoon
Electric Stick Blender
Vinegar (in case of splashes)
Gloves, goggles and long sleeve shirt
Cardboard box lined with freezer paper or Bramble Berry Wooden Loaf Mold
Step 1:Â Gather all of your ingredients and tools. Weigh your oils and have all of your containers and molds ready before you even look at the lye. Also, plan out your embedds and make sure they fit in your mold the way you want.
Tip:Â You don’t need to invest in expensive molds to start making soap! We just used a sturdy cardboard box and lined it with freezer paper. To figure out how much soap your mold will hold, use this formula:Â Length x width x height x .55 = approximate soap in ounces. When calculating your height you don’t want to fill your box all the way to the top – so just put in the height you want your soap to be.
Step 2:Â SUIT UP! Put on your gloves, long sleeves, and eye protection.
Step 3:Â Wearing your full safety protection, mix your pre-measured lye into your water. Once it has cooled to between 120F to 130F, gently mix the lye water into your melted oils.
Step 4:Â Once your soap has reached light trace, add the Lavender essential oil and colorant(s) of your choice.
Step 5:Â Divide your soap into different bowls if you are making multiple colors.
Step 5:Â Pour about an inch of soap into your mold – if you are using multiple colors, pour both colors and give it a gentle swirl.
Step 7:Â Place your soap embeds in the CP soap. Wiggle them down a little (your gloves should still be on) to make sure no air bubbles are trapped.
Step 8:Â Pour more CP soap over the top to cover the embeds.
Step 9:Â Wait a minimum of 48 hours before attempting to cut. Remember, Cold Process Soap requires a full 4 to 6 weeks of cure and dry time before using.
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