Queen of Hearts Cold Process

Anne-Marie Faiola — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 21:01:00 +0000

Inspired by the regal character from Alice in Wonderland, this Queen of Hearts Cold Process soap is full of eye-catching contrast. Created with melt and pour embeds, a cold process base and soap frosting, this sophisticated soap will make a fantastic Valentine’s gift (it will be here sooner than you think!). LoveSpell and Baby Rose fragrance oils create a rosy, warm and slightly juicy scent blend that is wonderfully feminine.

This project does require a little extra preparation, but it’s completely worth it! The heart embeds and soap frosting should be prepped a day ahead of time. This gives the melt and pour embeds time to harden, and the frosting lye and oils time to cool. LCP melt and pour soap is used for the embeds because it contains less glycerin, which results in reduced sweating and shrinkage.

If you’ve never made cold process frosting before, check out the Whipped Cold Process Soap Frosting episode on Soap Queen TV. The key to soap frosting is to allow the lye water and oils to completely cool to around 60-70 °F. Made with cocoa butter and shea butter, this frosting is palm free and skin-loving.

Note: The Large Heart Silicone Mold used in this tutorial has been discontinued. Instead, you can use the Floral Heart Mold for the middle red embeds.

What You’ll Need:

Base and Embeds
Mini Heart Silicone Column Mold (Three molds)
10″ Silicone Loaf Mold
Floral Heart Mold
7.4 oz. Coconut Oil
6.3 oz. Olive Oil
1.1 oz. Avocado Oil
2.1 oz. Cocoa Butter
4.2 oz. Meadowfoam Oil
2.9 oz. Sodium Hydroxide
6.9 oz. Distilled Water
.6 oz. LoveSpell (Type)Fragrance Oil
1 oz. Baby Rose Fragrance Oil
Black Oxide Pigment
Titanium Dioxide
Perfect Red Block
Black Oxide Color Block
13.5 oz. LCP White Melt and Pour Soap
17.5 oz. LCP Clear Melt and Pour Soap

Frosting
3 oz. Cocoa Butter
3 oz. Olive Oil
3 oz. Shea Butter
6 oz. Coconut Oil
2.2 oz. Sodium Hydroxide
4.9 oz. Distilled Water
Disposable Frosting Bag
4B Frosting Tip
Titanium Dioxide
1 oz. Baby Rose Fragrance Oil
Iridescent Glitter

Click here to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!

Make the Heart Embeds

ONE: In a heat safe container, melt 13.5 oz. of the LCP Clear Melt and Pour base. Add shavings of the Black Oxide Color Block until a dark, rich black is achieved. Stir in .2 oz. of the Baby Rose Fragrance Oil until thoroughly mixed. Place the three Mini Heart Silicone Column Molds into a cup in order to hold them upright. Pour the black soap into the embeds and spritz the top with 99% isopropyl alcohol to disperse any bubbles. Once the soap is completely cool and hard, remove from the molds. The reason this project uses Low Sweat, Like Cold Process Melt and Pour is because traditional melt and pour tends to get soggy or glycerin dewy when embedded in cold process soap.
TWO: In a heat safe container, melt 13.5 oz. of the LCP White Melt and Pour base. Stir in .2 oz of the Baby Rose Fragrance Oil until thoroughly mixed. Place the Mini Heart Silicone Column Molds into a cup in order to hold them upright. Pour the white soap into the three embeds and spritz the top with 99% isopropyl alcohol to disperse any bubbles. Once the soap is completely cool and hard, remove from the molds.

THREE: In a heat safe container, melt 4 oz. of LCP Clear Melt and Pour base. Add shavings of the Perfect Red Color Block until a rich red color has been achieved. Pour about .5 oz. of soap into each cavity the Floral Heart Mold (formerly the Large Heart Silicone Mold). Each cavity will be about half a centimeter full. Spritz with 99% isopropyl or rubbing alcohol to disperse any bubbles. Allow to fully cool and harden, and remove each heart from the mold.

FOUR: Cut each heart embed to the same length as the 10″ Silicone Loaf Mold. With the extra black heart embeds, cut them into small heart slices. These will later go on the top.

Make the Cold Process Base

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 2 teaspoons of the Titanium Dioxide into 2 tablespoons of sunflower or sweet almond oil (or any other liquid oil). Disperse 1 teaspoon Black Oxide into 1 tablespoon of light 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: Combine the coconut, olive oil, avocado oil, cocoa butter and meadowfoam oil. 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 2 tsp. Sodium Lactate. Because this soap is palm free, sodium lactate is recommended.

THREE: Once a thin trace has been achieved, split the soap into two equal containers. To one container, add all the titanium dioxide and .6 oz Baby Rose Fragrance Oil. Stir with a whisk to completely incorporate.
FOUR: Pour about half of the white soap into the mold, and tap down to evenly distribute.
FIVE: Insert the three black heart embeds into the white soap, leaving a small space between each embed.
SIX: Pour the remaining white soap on top of the embeds, and use a spatula to smooth and evenly distribute the soap. Be careful to not move the heart embeds.

SEVEN: To the remaining soap, add 1 tbs. black oxide and .6 oz. LoveSpell (Type) Fragrance Oil and whisk to thoroughly combine.
EIGHT: Pour a small amount of the black soap over the white layer until the white layer is covered. Insert all three white heart embeds into the black soap, leaving a small amount of space between each embed. Be careful to not press the embeds too far into the soap, as this may disrupt the layers below. Cover the white embeds with black soap, and use a spatula to create a smooth top. Set aside, and make the soap frosting.

Make Soap Frosting:

LYE & OIL PREP: In order to get soapy frosting to actually look like frosting, the lye and oils must be very cold. We recommend making the lye water a full day ahead of time, clearly labeling it (*poison* *danger* *do not drink!*) and keeping it in a refrigerator not used for food. Alternately, you can use frozen water (eh hem: ice) to add your lye flakes to but the lye will still need to cool down. The lye should be around 60 degrees F before adding it to the oils. Additionally, you want your oils to be around 70 degrees F. You can even refrigerate them for several hours too! They should be semi-solid at this temperature. If your oils become completely solid, don’t worry! Soap frosting can be created with solid oils as well.

COLOR PREP: Disperse 1 teaspoon of the Titanium Dioxide 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 pour the lye into the whipped oils, and use a spoon to incorporate. Be super careful not to splash any lye at this point before the lye water is fully incorporated into the hardened, slushy, cool oils. Turn the hand mixer or Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer on low, and continue to whip oils until a fluffy, frosting texture is achieved. Scrape any batter that has splattered on the side of the container and then turn the mixer to a medium setting. Continue to whip for another 3-7 minutes.

TWO: Once the oils have begun to harden, add all the titanium dioxide and 1 oz. Baby Rose Fragrance Oil. Continue to whip until the mixture is thoroughly mixed.

THREE: Once a frosting texture has been achieved, cut off about a half inch from the tip of the frosting bag and push the tip through. Scoop the frosting into the bag until full. You will have some frosting left over, and will need to fill the bag again during the frosting process.

FOUR: Beginning at the end of the mold, begin piping in a circular looping motion across the mold widthwise. Continue piping down the length of the mold. Keep in mind that each row of loops will be one bar of soap. We made eight bars.

FIVE: Once the bottom layer of frosting is complete, add two mounds on top of each bottom row of frosting.

SIX: While the frosting is still soft, place the large heart embeds slightly behind each frosting mound. Plan on cutting the bars slightly behind the large heart embeds.

SEVEN: Place two black heart embeds on either side of the large heart embeds, slightly in front.

EIGHT: Sprinkle iridescent glitter on top. Allow the soap to harden for 3-4 days before unmolding. Allow it to cure for 4-6 weeks and enjoy!
NOTE: As you can see, we experienced a little spillage with the black soap. That’s okay! Once the soap is removed from the mold and cut into bars, you can trim the sides as well.

Have you started thinking about Valentine’s Day yet? It may seem far away, but it will be here in no time!