It’s crazy how many different types of swirls you can create with cold process soap. Crazy awesome that is! It’s impossible for me to choose a favorite, but if I had to choose my top five, the Circling Taiwan Swirl would probably be included. It’s a variation on the classic Taiwan Swirl that was named after the first YouTube video that showcased it. The main difference between the Taiwan Swirl and the Circling Taiwan Swirl is the Circling Taiwan features the extra step of swirling around the edge of the mold. This motion “pulls” the swirls, and gives them a curved appearance. It was created by Elaine Wright of Misty Springs Bath & Body, you can see her gorgeous soap here.
This technique requires first making long sections of color. To do so, I used the Multi-Pour Tool for 10″ Silicone Loaf. If you don’t have this tool on hand, you can construct dividers using cardboard (as shown in this tutorial) or other soap-safe material. But, this tool sure makes it easy. 😉 This technique requires a thin trace and a fragrance oil that gives you plenty of time to work. To make sure I had time to swirl, I used the Swirl Recipe Quick Mix that contains plenty of slow-moving oils, and the Electric Lemonade Cocktail Fragrance Oil which behaves well in cold process soap. To see this swirl in action, check out the video below!
What You’ll Need:
10″ Silicone Loaf Mold
Multi-Pour Tool for 10″ Silicone Loaf
33 oz. Swirl Recipe Quick Mix
10.9 oz. Distilled Water
4.6 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
2 oz. Electric Lemonade Cocktail Fragrance Oil
Zippy Blue Pigment
Nuclear Orange Pigment
Titanium Dioxide
Fizzy Lemonade Colorant
Click here to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!
Find the supplies you need for this project below
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, Pure Soapmaking. 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.
FRAGRANCE PREP: Measure 2 ounces of Electric Lemonade Cocktail into a glass, fragrance oil safe container. Set aside.
MOLD PREP: Place the two end pieces of the Multi-Pour Tool for 10″ Silicone Loaf into the mold. Then, insert the three long divider pieces into the end pieces. Tap them firmly on the bottom of the mold to secure.
Tip: If this is the first time using your multi-pour tool, you might need to prep it a little first. Slide the dividers through the end pieces a few times to make sure they slide out smoothly. The dividers may stick a bit during the first few passes, this is normal.
COLOR PREP: To ensure that the Titanium Dioxide blends smoothly into the soap batter, we recommend micronizing it before dispersing it in oil. Please note this is an optional tip but it does help with the titanium dioxide clumping in the soap. =) To micronize colorant, simply use a coffee grinder to blend the colorant to break up any clumps of color and prevent streaks of white from showing in the final soap. We like to use a coffee grinder that has a removable, stainless steel mixing area for easy cleaning. Then, disperse 1 teaspoon of the colorant into 1 tablespoon of sunflower or sweet almond oil (or any other liquid oil). Then in separate containers, disperse 1 teaspoon of the Fizzy Lemonade Colorant, Zippy Blue Pigment and Nuclear Orange Pigment into 1 tablespoon lightweight liquid oil. Use a mini mixer to help get rid of clumps.
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. For this recipe, I highly recommend using sodium lactate. Sodium lactate will hep you remove the soap from the mold much faster. Use 1 teaspoon of sodium lactate per pound of oils in the recipe. For this recipe, you’d add about 2 teaspoons sodium lactate. Add the sodium lactate to the cooled lye water.
TWO: Fully melt the bag of Swirl Recipe Quick Mix until there is no cloudiness. Shake to mix and measure 33 ounces into your mixing bowl. Once the lye water and the oils have both cooled to about 120-130 degrees (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils and stick blend until you reach a very light trace. Be careful to not over stick blend this recipe, as you need plenty of time to swirl.
THREE: Split the soap into four equal containers. Add all of each dispersed colorants (Titanium Dioxide, Zippy Blue, Nuclear Orange and Fizzy Lemonade) into each separate container and use a whisk to mix in the colorants.
FOUR: Pour the Electric Lemonade Cocktail Fragrance Oil evenly into each container of soap. It’s okay to eyeball it. Use a whisk to fully mix in.
FIVE: Begin pouring each color into the four sections of the mold in the order of yellow, blue, white and orange. I like to pour a small amount of each color in equal amounts, to keep each section filled evenly. I have found that if one section is completely full and the others are empty, the soap is more likely to leak into the other sections.
SIX: Continue pouring each color until all the soap is in the mold, and the colors are filled equally. Work carefully but quickly.
SEVEN: Carefully, pull the three long divider pieces up and out of the mold. Try to do this as “cleanly” as possible. In the video, you can see some of my colors got into the other sections. This is fine, and once the colors are swirled together, you can hardly notice. But, the swirl look a little more crisp if there are no drips. Pull out the end divider pieces as well.
EIGHT: Insert a dowel or chopstick into the bottom of the mold, and swirl back and forth down the length of the mold.
NINE: Clean the chopstick/dowel and insert it into a corner of the soap all the way to the bottom of the mold. Begin swirling the chopstick or dowel around the outside of the mold in a circle. Continue this motion over and over again to “pull” the swirls in a circular motion.
TEN: Continue moving the chopstick around the mold until you’re happy with the effect. The more you swirl, the more curved the design will be. Eventually, there will come a point where the swirl isn’t moving anymore – this is a good place to stop.
ELEVEN: Spritz the top of the soap with 99% isopropyl alcohol, and cover the soap to insulate if you’d like to promote gel phase. Allow this soap to stay in the mold for 2-3 days. Then cut! This design benefits from a horizontal cut; the bars shown here were cut horizontally. The Wire Soap Slicer makes this process incredibly easy! If you don’t have this tool, see the horizontal cut in action in the Infinity Swirl Soap Video (around the 11:05 mark). Once cut, allow to cure for 4-6 weeks. Enjoy!
- 10″ Silicone Loaf Mold
- Multi-Pour Tool for 10″ Silicone Loaf
- 33 oz. Swirl Recipe Quick Mix
- 10.9 oz. Distilled Water
- 4.6 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
- 2 oz. Electric Lemonade Cocktail Fragrance Oil
- Zippy Blue Pigment
- Nuclear Orange Pigment
- Titanium Dioxide
- Fizzy Lemonade Colorant
- 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. For this recipe, I highly recommend using sodium lactate. Sodium lactate will hep you remove the soap from the mold much faster. Use 1 teaspoon of sodium lactate per pound of oils in the recipe. For this recipe, you’d add about 2 teaspoons sodium lactate. Add the sodium lactate to the cooled lye water.
- Fully melt the bag of Swirl Recipe Quick Mix until there is no cloudiness. Shake to mix and measure 33 ounces into your mixing bowl. Once the lye water and the oils have both cooled to about 120-130 degrees (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils and stick blend until you reach a very light trace. Be careful to not over stick blend this recipe, as you need plenty of time to swirl.
- Split the soap into four equal containers. Add all of each dispersed colorants (titanium dioxide, Zippy Blue, Nuclear Orange and Fizzy Lemonade) into each container and use a whisk to mix in the colorants.
- Pour the Electric Lemonade Cocktail Fragrance Oil evenly into each container of soap. It’s okay to eyeball it. Use a whisk to fully mix in.
- Begin pouring each color into the four sections of the mold in the order of yellow, blue, white and orange. I like to pour a small amount of each color in equal amounts, to keep each section filled evenly. I have found that if one section is completely full and the others are empty, the soap is more likely to leak into the other sections.
- Continue pouring each color until all the soap is in the mold, and the colors are filled equally. Work carefully, but quickly.
- Carefully, pull the three long divider pieces up and out of the mold. Try to do this as “cleanly” as possible. In the video, you can see some of my colors got into the other sections. This is fine, and once the colors are swirled together, you can hardly notice. But, the swirl look a little more crisp if there are no drips. Pull out the end divider pieces as well.
- Insert a dowel or chopstick into the bottom of the mold, and swirl back and forth down the length of the mold.
- Clean the chopstick/dowel and insert it into a corner of the soap, all the way to the bottom of the mold. Begin swirling the chopstick or dowel around the outside of the mold, in a circle. Continue this motion over and over again to “pull” the swirls in a circular motion.
- Continue moving the chopstick around the mold until you’re happy with the effect. The more you swirl, the more curved the design will be. Eventually, there will come a point where the swirl isn’t moving anymore – this is a good place to stop.
- Spritz the top of the soap with 99% isopropyl alcohol, and cover the soap to insulate if you’d like to promote gel phase. Allow this soap to stay in the mold for 2-3 days. Then cut! This design benefits from a horizontal cut; the bars shown here were cut horizontally. The Wire Soap Slicer makes this process incredibly easy! If you don’t have this tool, see the horizontal cut in action in the Infinity Swirl Soap Video (around the 11:05 mark). Once cut, allow to cure for 4-6 weeks. Enjoy!
I love your Taiwan swirl soap, but I can never get my white to turn out that white what’s your secret?
Titanium dioxide is the key to getting that nice, bright white. You can find it here: https://www.brambleberry.com/Titanium-Dioxide-Pigment-P4040.aspx In the post above we explain how to further micronize it, and how much we used to get that shade. Best of luck with your next swirl project.
I just bought my sample colorant from you so excited to try it, my question is it seems the powder really likes to cling to bags Is there any easy way to get it out of the bags and off the sides
You could pour a little alcohol into the bag to get the remaining colorant out.
Do you pour a little alcohol in it pour it in another container and let the alcohol evaporateevaporate?
If you’re making melt and pour the entire mixture can be added to your soap. If making cold process soap you can use one of the oils from your recipe instead of alcohol to pour into the bag, then add that entire mixture to your batter as well.
Does it make a difference if you add the oils to the lye rather than the Lye mixture to the oils?
As soon as they come in contact they start turning into soap, so we prefer adding the lye to the oils. Pour them in slowly and start stick blending. You can see that process in these videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR6ttCSrLJI&list=PLAADF6209996265D2
I am not sure what I am doing wrong, please help my soap keeps getting to thick before I can get in the mold to do any kind of a swirl. Here is my recipe and how I am mixing everything. Any tips are greatly appreciated,
3oz avacodo
4 oz refined Shea butter
8 oz virgin coconut oil
8 oz pomice olive oil
7 oz grapeseed oil
5 oz goats milk
4.9 oz filtered water
4.37 lye
1 oz sweet pea fragrance oil
Next I measured out all my oils put them in a pot
I took a tbls of oil for the 2 colors I was using and 1 tsp of color mixed with mini mixer and set asideaside
I then slowly started adding my lye to the water and frozen goat milk, once it was all mixed and lye mixture and the oils were at 110 degrees I added the lye to the oils, mixed with stick blender for about 10 seconds, at this point it was still very thin trace, I wisked in the fragrance and poured part in the two colors and got ready to whisk the color and pour in molds and it was already like pudding. I’ve tried different fragrant oils with same results. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated
Did you use the Sweet Pea from Bramble Berry? Let me know and I’ll help you troubleshoot.
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
No it was a brand from hobby lobby craft store strictly for soap, I have used other fragrances from a lady that makes soap, but have the same issue, it hits thick trace really quick.
I’m wondering if it may be the fragrance. The temperatures are just fine, and the oils in your batch may speed up a bit but it shouldn’t be tracing that quickly. How long are you stick blending for?
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
10 to 15 seconds it’s thin when I pour it into separate containers with the color, as soon as I tried to wisk it together it was thick enough it clung to the wisk
Just one more question if you don’t mind, what color are you using? Do you know if it has any alcohol in it?
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
To answer question about the color it is ultra violot colrant I don’t think its the color because even the mix with no color was thick, what if I would put the fragrance after I pour it in the mold and mix it as I swirl the color?
I would recommend making a small test batch without any fragrance. If the soap performs just fine, that is likely the culprit. If so, this post has some great tricks for working with accelerating fragrances: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/soap-behaving-badly/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Thanks so much for help, the next time I need supplies I will definetly look here. I just don’t order much on line.
You’re welcome Lisa, happy to help!
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Where do you find the containers with the longer pour spouts?
You can find them at BrambleBerry.com! They’re perfect for intricate designs like this. 🙂
Easy Pour Mixing and Measuring Container: https://www.brambleberry.com/Easy-Pour-Mixing-and-Measuring-Container-P5428.aspx
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
It says ultra purple colorant on the label from MO soap and candle, I don’t think it’s the colorant because even the none colored was that thick.
You may try a small test batch without any fragrance, just to be sure. If you have enough time to work with the design it’s likely the fragrance. If not, it may be something else. Let me know how the unscented test batch performs and we can troubleshoot from there if need be. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I love experimenting with different swirl techniques. My question is what fragrance oils are best? I know some can accelerate trace super fast like citrus oils or should I say almost to late to get it in the mold trace! That’s what happened to me on a test batch. I am hand mixing my separate colors. Any suggestions are appreciated so I can be order them from you.
Absolutely! All of the descriptions on BrambleBerry.com say how the fragrance performs. If it doesn’t have any acceleration, that’s the best option to use for swirls. Some of our favorites include Energy, Cranberry Fig, Crisp Cotton, Champagne and Tobacco and Bay Leaf. 🙂
Energy Fragrance Oil: https://www.brambleberry.com/Energy-Fragrance-Oil-P3861.aspx
Cranberry Fig Fragrance Oil: https://www.brambleberry.com/Cranberry-Fig-Fragrance-Oil-P3933.aspx
Crisp Cotton Fragrance Oil: https://www.brambleberry.com/Crisp-Cotton-Fragrance-Oil-P6192.aspx
Champagne Fragrance Oil: https://www.brambleberry.com/Champagne-Fragrance-Oil-P4374.aspx
Tobacco and Bay Leaf: https://www.brambleberry.com/Tobacco-Bay-Leaf-Fragrance-Oil-P5801.aspx
This post on swirling soap has some great tips as well: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/five-tips-swirling-cold-process-soap/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
These are really beautiful swirls but the color combination is so striking! Do you have any tips on color selection? Thank you so much for all of the great tutorials and inspiration!
Thanks Dana! If you’re looking for color inspiration, or need some help choosing colors that look good together, the blog post below has plenty of tips 🙂
Color Palette Tips + Color Resources: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/color-palette-tips-color-resources/
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
Thank you Amanda!
I have made this before with a very similar color pattern. It is simply a personal preference, but I like the swirls wider with a neat rim, but it is the same idea. I love this BB sectioning tool for this mold and highly recommend it. I found it easier and neater to pull the whole assembly out at once, by pulling on the end pieces simultaneously.
So glad you’re enjoying the sectioning tool! We love the designs it creates. Thanks for the tip too! 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Help. This is off subject but…I ordered Dark Rich Chocolate and Vanilla Select Fragrance Oils but can’t for the life of me find the recipe I was going to use the oils in! Anyone have any ideas for finding the recipes. It is definitely a Bramble Berry recipe. Thanks, Jo
Hmm, I don’t know off the top of my head. Do you know if it was soap, lotion, a scrub, etc? Let me know and I can look for that recipe. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Hi, Kelsey. It’s definitely for cold process soap cause that’s all I make. I’ve been making soap since the day after 9/11. When I started, I bought a book and came up with seven recipes that I altered a little bit and still really love and just ran with them year after year! And then I heard about Soap Queen and Bramble Berry! Love at first sight.
I’ve searched our archives and can’t find any cold process recipe with both of those fragrances. Do you remember what it looked like? Also, do you know if it was on the blog, through email or in Soap Crafting? Thanks Jo! 🙂
This Neapolitan Cold Process Recipe uses Dark Rich Chocolate and Non-Discoloring Vanilla: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/neapolitan-cp-for-valentines-day/
Could that one be it?
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Hi, and thanks for your help. That’s not the one but I’ll try to incorporate them into some recipe and see how that goes! Thanks, Jo
You’re welcome! If I find that recipe I’ll make sure to post it here too. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Hi, Kelsey! I found the recipe!! I am thrilled. It’s called ‘Cupcake Cuties’ and it’s on page 114 of Anne-Marie’s book Soap Crafting. Yea! Jo
Oh good I’m glad you found it! Also thanks so much for letting me know. That’s an adorable recipe. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I notice that most of the recipes featured these days use Brambleberry’s mixes. Care to share what oils and butters and percentages are in this one?
The recipes for the quick mixes are here https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/sunday-night-spotlight-quick-mixes/#more-53606
Thank you!! I must have missed that blog!
The link that Nitza provided has the percentages for each Quick Mix so you can recreate them with oils at home! Thank you Nitza. 🙂
Sunday Night Spotlight: Quick Mixes: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/sunday-night-spotlight-quick-mixes/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Thanks Kelsey!
You’re welcome!