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Lingonberry Spice Cold Process Soap

September 21, 2018 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Cold Process Soap

This Lingonberry Spice Soap has a rustic-chic look that’s perfect for the holidays and beyond. The bars have a white base and activated charcoal pencil lines. To make the top look festive, there are rose hips and dried leaves.

It’s scented with Lingonberry Spice Fragrance Oil, which is a comforting mix of apple, cedarwood, lemon, balsam fir, cinnamon, and mountain air. It’s a part of the new Hygge Collection. Click here to explore all the new products, which include oils, packaging, and fragrances.

Of course, how the soap feels is just as important. The recipe is made with new lingonberry seed oil, which has a silky and lightweight texture on the skin. The soap also features skin-loving shea butter and cocoa butter.

Due to the large amount of titanium dioxide, the recipe has a 15% water discount to prevent glycerin rivers. The slow-moving oils keep the soap workable, but be ready to work quickly.

5 Pound Mold with Sliding Bottom
Silicone Liner for 5 Pound Wood Mold
2.8 oz. Shea Butter (5%)
7 oz. Canola Oil (12.6%)
1.1 oz. Castor Oil (2%)
2.8 oz. Deodorized Cocoa Butter (5%)
14 oz. Coconut Oil (25.1%)
2.8 oz. Lingonberry Seed Oil (5%)
14 oz. Palm Oil (25.1%)
11.2 oz. Sunflower Oil (20.1%)
7.8 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
15.6 oz. Distilled Water (15% water discount)
3 oz. Lingonberry Spice Fragrance Oil
Titanium Dioxide
Activated Charcoal
Rose Hips
Dried Leaves

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

5.0 from 1 reviews

Lingonberry Spice Cold Process Soap

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour

This recipe is perfect for the holidays and beyond.

Author: Bramble Berry

Recipe type: Cold Process

Serves: About 5 pounds of soap

Ingredients

5 Pound Mold with Sliding Bottom
Silicone Liner for 5 Pound Wood Mold
2.8 oz. Shea Butter (5%)
7 oz. Canola Oil (12.6%)
1.1 oz. Castor Oil (2%)
2.8 oz. Deodorized Cocoa Butter (5%)
14 oz. Coconut Oil (25.1%)
2.8 oz. Lingonberry Seed Oil (5%)
14 oz. Palm Oil (25.1%)
11.2 oz. Sunflower Oil (20.1%)
7.8 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
15.6 oz. Distilled Water (15% water discount)
3 oz. Lingonberry Spice Fragrance Oil
Titanium Dioxide
Activated Charcoal
Rose Hips
Dried Leaves

Instructions

FRAGRANCE PREP: In a glass container, measure out 3 ounces of Lingonberry Spice Fragrance Oil and set aside.

SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safe handling practices. That means goggles, gloves, and long sleeves. Make sure kids, pets, 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.

Slowly and carefully add 7.8 ounces of lye to 15.6 ounces of distilled water. Gently stir until the lye has fully dissolved. Set it aside to cool. 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 3.5 teaspoons sodium lactate.
Melt and combine 2.8 ounces of shea butter, 7 ounces of canola oil, 1.1 ounces of castor oil, 2.8 ounces deodorized cocoa butter, 14 ounces of coconut oil, 2.8 ounces of lingonberry seed oil, 14 ounces of palm oil (remember to fully melt then mix your entire container of palm oil before portioning), and 11.2 ounces of sunflower oil into a large mixing bowl. Add 4 teaspoons of titanium dioxide into the oils and use the stick blender to mix in the colorant thoroughly. Make sure there are no clumps.
Once the lye water and the oils have cooled to 130 degrees F or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils and stick blend the mixture to a thin trace.
Add 3 ounces of Lingonberry Spice Fragrance Oil. Use the stick blender to stir in the fragrance and pulse sparingly.
Once the soap is thick enough to support layers on top, spoon ¼ of it (about 20 ounces) into the mold. Tap down, and use a small spoon to create peaks and divots down the length of the mold.
Very carefully, spoon a small amount of activated charcoal into the powder duster. Then, use your finger to gently “tap” the duster, allowing a small amount of powder to fall onto the soap. Working quickly but carefully, cover the soap with a thin layer of charcoal.
Use a spoon or spatula to plop another 20 ounces of soap into the mold, covering the charcoal layer below completely. Use a spoon to smooth out the layer and create peaks and divots. Lightly cover this layer of soap with activated charcoal.
Repeat this process with another 20 ounces of soap, and one more layer of activated charcoal.
Plop the remaining soap into the mold. Use a large spoon to evenly distribute the soap and create a smooth top.
Use a fork to create texture from one side of the mold to the other width-wise until you have covered the complete length of the mold.
Place dried rose hips in the center of the mold. Place them where you want the center of your bars to be. Where you place the rose hips will decide how big you’d like the bars. Then, place 1-2 myrtle leaves next to the rose hip.
Spritz the top with 99% isopropyl alcohol to prevent soda ash. If you live in a very hot climate, place the soap in the fridge or freezer for several hours to prevent gel phase. If not, the soap can stay on the counter uncovered.
Allow the soap to stay in the mold for 2-3 days. Unmold, and cut into bars. Clean up the activated charcoal lines if necessary. Allow them to cure for 4-6 weeks and enjoy.

Baby’s Breath Soap Tutorial

March 5, 2018 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Cold Process Soap

Baby’s breath flowers are a delicate addition to any bouquet. They usually play second fiddle to larger flowers, but for this soap we let baby’s breath take center stage. We kept the design extremely simple – the entire batch is colored white and dried baby’s breath flowers are placed on top.

To get the bright white shade, we used only light-colored oils. We also added plenty of titanium dioxide, which does pose a few obstacles. Using a large amount of titanium dioxide can lead to glycerin rivers. They can be prevented by using a water discount, so this recipe is discounted by 15%.

Titanium dioxide is similar to clay in soap – it tends to dry it out. The wood mold also insulates the soap, causing it to become quite warm. We found the combination of titanium dioxide, heat, and a water discount led to cracking. After tweaking the recipe a few times, we found an amount of titanium dioxide that led to extremely white bars without cracking. The key was soaping with slightly cooler temperatures (100-110 ° F) and placing the soap in the freezer for 24 hours.

The soap is made with Baby’s Breath Fragrance Oil, which is a soft and delicate scent that doesn’t discolor. The Baby’s Breath Fragrance Oil is part of our Modern Floral Collection, which includes four new scents, extracts, dried botanicals, and more. Click here to see all the new products.

The baby’s breath flowers used on top were purchased fresh and allowed to dry for several weeks. We picked off the flowers to sprinkle on top prior to soaping. Interestingly, we found that the flowers bled a yellow hue onto the soap.

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Lavender Kombucha Soap Recipe

March 15, 2017 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Cold Process Soap

Last year, I experimented with brewing my own kombucha, which is a fermented and sweetened tea. I ended up with so much kombucha that I created kombucha soap with the SCOBY to use it up. This recipe uses kombucha produced by a local company, Kombucha Town. Kombucha Town has become a fixture in our community with their local brewery and products in local grocery stores. Using locally brewed products in your recipe highlights the town you call home.

This soap was made with Kombucha Town’s lavender kombucha, so it only made sense to create lavender soap! It’s scented with Lavender 40/42 Essential Oil for a calming scent. A mixture of titanium dioxide and Lavender Mica create a soft purple swirl. It’s topped with dried lavender for a finishing touch. It’s debatable whether or not any of the beneficial properties of kombucha tea hold up during the saponification process. But, the extra sugar does boost lather and kombucha soap is great from a marketing perspective.

If you’ve never made soap with alternative liquids like kombucha, they do require extra prep. First, the kombucha needs to be boiled to get rid of the carbonation. Then, it’s frozen to help keep temperatures cool when the lye flakes are added. You could add the lye to room temperature or cold kombucha if you prefer. Using room temperature or cold kombucha will result in a darker lye solution, and may require more titanium dioxide. This recipe contains a 3% superfat to compensate for the large amount of dispersed colorant in the recipe. The large amount of titanium dioxide can create glycerin rivers, so this recipe has a 10% water discount to prevent that.

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How to Make Soap Last Longer in the Shower

December 14, 2016 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Cold process soap is very different compared to soap made from surfactants. Cold process soap is made with natural oils and produces lather naturally. Lather from most store bought soaps come from surfactants or detergents. Synthetic surfactants are harsher on the skin, and can strip the skin of moisture. That’s why cold process soap is so fantastic for sensitive skin, and why soap from the store can leave the skin feeling dry and overly “squeaky clean.”

While cold process soap has many skin benefits, one downside is that cold process soap does not last as long in the shower as soap made from surfactants and detergents. When I give cold process soap to somebody who hasn’t used it before, I make sure to give them tips to prevent this. My number one tip is to make sure the soap sits in a soap dish, or shower rack. If the soap sits in water for too long, it will become mushy and soft very quickly. If you’d like more information on extending the life of your bars in the shower, check out my tips below.

Use More Hard Oils
In general, firmer bars of soap last longer in the shower. Using more hard oils helps create a firmer bar of soap. Hard oils refer to oils that are solid at room temperature such as palm oil, coconut oil, beeswax and palm kernel flakes. In general, soap with about 60% hard oils would be considered a firm bar of soap. That looks something like 30% coconut oil, 30% palm oil, 30% olive oil and 10% “something extra.” If your soap contains large percentage of soft oils, allowing it to cure for longer can help it last longer in the shower. For example, soap made with 100% olive oil (known as Castile soap) benefits from curing for six months to a full year.

Use Stearic Acid
Stearic acid is a great addition to soap recipes if you’d like to create an extra firm bar of soap. It’s usually used as a thickening agent in lotion. It’s a vegetable derived waxy substance that can be used at a 0.5% of your oils in cold process soap. That sounds like a very small amount, but a little goes a long way when it comes to stearic acid! Keep in mind if you use stearic acid in your recipe, it will trace faster and needs a hotter soaping temperature (at least 160 ° F) to make sure it stays melted.

Use Sodium Lactate/Salt
Sodium lactate is the liquid salt of lactic acid. It’s generally added to cooled lye water at a rate of 1 teaspoon per pound of oils. It does wonders for hardening up your bar, and really helps extend the life in the shower. I use it in just about every one of my batches! Learn more about sodium lactate here. If you don’t have sodium lactate on hand, you can also add table salt to your lye solution. In the Palm Free Vertical Twist recipe, we used about 1 tsp. of table salt per pound of oils in the recipe…just like using sodium lactate! Sodium lactate or table salt is especially great when the recipe tends to be a little softer (like a palm free recipe).

Sodium lactate creates a bar that is firmer, can be unmolded faster, and also lasts longer in the shower. Soap on the left contains sodium lactate, while soap on the right does not.

Use a Draining Soap Dish
When a cured bar of soap sits in water, it turns to mush pretty quickly. The best solution to avoid the soap from coming in contact with excess is water is to place it on a soap dish. The dish should elevate the soap and allow the water to drain. In the shower, placing the soap on a shower rack works as well. The key is to keep the soap dry. Without a dish, a fully cured bar of cold process soap will turn soft and mushy in about a day.

I received this beautiful bar from Tabitha in the Fall 2016 Soap Swap. I loved that Tabitha included a dish along with her soap. So clever!

Make Sure to Fully Cure
Making cold process soap takes patience. It needs time to sit in the mold to harden, which usually takes at least 2-3 days. Once unmolded and cut, the bars need to cure for about 4-6 weeks. During this time, excess water in the soap evaporates, which creates a firmer and longer lasting bar. The longer the bar cures, the better. This is especially true for soap made with mostly (or all) olive oil, also known as Castile soap.

Castile soap benefits from a longer curing time of abut six months to a full year. The longer Castile soap cures, the less “slimy” the lather feels. For “normal” cold process recipes, a cure time of 4-6 weeks does the trick. If you water discount your recipe, the soap may not need to cure quite as long. If you’d like to learn more about water discounting your soap, click here.

Do you have any recipe tricks for making your cold process soap last longer in the shower? While little changes like more hard oils and stearic acid make a difference, a soap dish is really key!

Why is My Cold Process Soap Soft?

December 7, 2016 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Cold process soap requires patience. It needs several days to harden in the mold. Then, it needs to cure for 4-6 weeks to allow excess water to evaporate. Curing creates a firmer bar that lasts longer in the shower. All this waiting can be the hardest part of cold process soapmaking! But, what if your soap takes longer than usual to harden? If your soap is still soft to the touch after a week or two, something might be a little off.

Soap can take anywhere from 1-15 days to harden in the mold, depending on a variety of factors. Two to three days in the mold is average. There are several factors that determine how long soap needs to harden. The first is the type of oils in your recipe. The more soft oils (such as olive, sweet almond, rice bran, canola, etc.) the soap contains, the softer the bars will be. It may take more time to harden in the mold. The more hard oils the recipe contains (such as palm, coconut, cocoa butter, beeswax, etc.), the quicker the soap will harden. For example, if the soap is made with 100% olive oil, it may take up to two weeks to unmold. But if the soap is 60% hard oils, it could be ready to unmold the next day.

Using more firm oils and butters in your recipe will result in a firmer bar of soap.

Another factor is the superfat of the recipe. Oil that’s not turned into soap by the sodium hydroxide lye is called the “superfat.” An average superfat is anywhere from about 1-7%. The higher the superfat, the more “free-floating” oils in the soap. The terms “superfat” and “lye discount” can be used interchangeably. This is because in order to create a superfat, you use less lye in the recipe. Extra oil creates a more gentle bar, but it can also make the bar softer. If you used a large superfat (generally 7% or more) and the bar feels soft to the touch after a few weeks, the superfat may be the culprit. Personally, I use a superfat of 5% in most of my cold process recipes. I have found this to be a good balance between a firm bar that’s also gentle on the skin.

Speaking of “extra stuff” in your soap, let’s talk additives. Colorants and fragrance oils are the most common “additives” and they can make soap soft if too much is added. Dispersing powdered colorants in lightweight liquid oil is a great way to avoid chunks and streaks of color in the final bar. But, if you add too much dispersed colorant it can soften the bar because you’re adding more oil as well. In fact, you’re technically increasing the superfat! If you calculate your recipe to have a 7% superfat and add lots of dispersed color for example, you may end up with a soft bar. Usually, colorants are dispersed at a rate of 1 teaspoon colorant to 1 tablespoon lightweight liquid oil. If you want to add a lot of colorant, you may want to decrease the amount of oil in your dispersion.

Adding too much extra oil (like with dispersed colorants) can lead to a soft bar of soap.

Adding too much fragrance oil can also lead to a soft bar of soap. That’s where the Fragrance Calculator comes in! Simply enter which fragrance oil you’re using, what you’re making and how much. The calculator will give the amount of fragrance oil that’s safe for skin. The amount given by the calculator won’t lead to a soft bar of soap. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so important to measure your fragrance oil by weight; it gives you the most accurate amount of fragrance oil for your project. Adding more fragrance than recommended could lead to a soft bar.

Soap might be soft if too much liquid is used. The Bramble Berry Lye Calculator creates recipes with 22% distilled water in the total recipe. Other lye calculators might have a slightly lower or higher percentage. That’s because the amount of water in your recipe can fluctuate, and still be totally fine. Using less water in your recipe is known as water discounting.

Water discounting has several benefits including decreasing the chance of glycerin rivers and creating a bar that unmolds faster. Learn more about water discounting soap here. On the other hand, if you use more water than suggested, it takes longer for the soap to become firm. This also applies to adding other liquid additives like milk or purees to your recipe. Too much extra liquid (milk, purees, etc.) on top of the water in the lye solution causes soap to not harden correctly.

Water discounting soap reduces the chances of glycerin rivers, shown above. It also produces a bar that hardens faster.

The type of mold also affects how quickly soap hardens. In general, cold process soap made in silicone and plastic molds takes longer to harden and umold. This is because silicone and plastic molds create an airtight seal that doesn’t allow for any air to touch the soap. The more airflow, the faster soap hardens. Soap made in wood molds lined with freezer paper has a little more airflow, which helps the soap release faster. In addition, wood molds tend to promote gel phase. If soap goes through gel phase, it becomes harder faster.

If using a silicone or plastic mold for cold process soap, use sodium lactate. Actually, I recommend using sodium lactate for all your batches! It’s a liquid salt that can be added to cooled lye water at a rate of 1 teaspoon per pound of oils in cold process soap. It’s optional, but I use it in 99.9% of my recipes. It facilitates the hardening of soap, making umolding faster and a longer lasting bar in the shower. For example in the photo below, the soap on the left contains sodium lactate while the bar on the right does not. The bar without sodium lactate was softer, and did not unmold as cleanly. Click here to learn more about sodium lactate.

The bar on the left contained sodium lactate, while the bar on the right did not.

So, what can you do about a soft bar of soap? The good thing about soft soap is that it’s very rarely lye heavy! Lye heavy soap usually has the opposite problem; it’s extremely hard, brittle and crumbly. If your soap is too soft, chances are you added too much of something…but not lye. It’s usually too much oil, fragrance, liquid or other additive. The bad news about soap that’s too soft? It’s a little tricky to fix. The only real option is to rebatch the soap. To help firm it up, you can add shreds of a firm bar. This helps balance it out. Learn more about rebatching soap here.

What can you do if you want to ensure your soap unmolds within about 2-3 days? Check out my tips below.

Use at least 40% hard oils in your recipe. These include coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter, etc. This post has a list of common soaping oils, with general recommended usage rates to aid in formulating your recipes.
Stearic acid at 0.5% of your oils can be used as a hardening agent in cold process soap. It does speed up trace, so keep that in mind!
Sodium lactate is your friend! Because I like to unmold my soap within about 2 days, I use sodium lactate all my batches. It’s a liquid salt that’s added to cooled lye water. It helps the soap harden more quickly, which helps it release cleanly from the mold. If I use sodium lactate, I can sometimes unmold my soap the next day.
Water discount your soap anywhere from 5-20%. Just keep in mind the more you water discount your recipe, the faster your soap will accelerate. Generally, I don’t water discount more than 15% unless I’m in a huge hurry to unmold. If you’re adding ingredients like purees, I recommend water discounting to take the extra water in the puree into consideration. Check out this post for more info.
Decrease the superfat. The more extra oil you have in your soap, the softer it will be. I have found 5% to be a good balance between firmness, and a skin-loving bar.
Promote gel phase. When soap goes through gel phase, it speeds up the saponification process. This results in a bar that is firmer more quickly.
Thicken the trace of your soap. Soap that is poured into the mold at a thin trace will need more time in the mold than thick traced soap.
Using an accelerating fragrance oil helps your soap harden in the mold faster.

How long do you usually wait to unmold your soap? In general I always recommend 2-3 days, but sometimes you can get away with unmolding the next day if you use some of the tips above!

How to Soap with Accelerating Fragrance Oils

November 21, 2016 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Last week, we put together a list of all the Bramble Berry Fragrance Oils that don’t cause acceleration. There are plenty to choose from, and I hope you find the list handy in the future! But, what if you fall in love with a fragrance and it accelerates? It doesn’t mean you can’t use it, but it does mean you may need to adapt your recipe in order to get the best results.

Tweaking your recipe to account for acceleration is a balancing act, and it takes practice. There are several aspects of the recipe you can change to make the acceleration more manageable, including changing the design and avoiding certain additives. If the fragrance accelerates slightly and you tweak the recipe to include more slow-moving oils, that can also counteract the acceleration. But if the acceleration is extreme enough, no recipe or method can prevent it. Acceleration depends on so many factors.

Change Your Design
Non-accelerating oils are necessary when you’re creating a design that requires lots of time to work. Techniques like the spin swirl, column pour and funnel pour require lots of pouring and movement. If the soap becomes thick and no longer fluid, the design just won’t work. When using an accelerating fragrance oil, choose your design carefully. Some designs actually work better with a medium to thick trace, making them perfect for that fragrance oil. Such designs are spoon plops, textured tops, lots of layers and designs with embeds.

If you’re determined to use an accelerating fragrance oil for a design that needs a well-behaving fragrance, sometimes you can get away with it if you tweak your recipe. But, I also recommend having a plan B in case the soap becomes thick. There have been many times I tried negate an accelerating fragrance oil with slow-moving oils, only to have it become pudding halfway through.

The Spin Swirl Technique is next to impossible with an accelerating fragrance oil. I learned this lesson when I tried to use Flower Child Fragrance Oil in the soap above. Notice it got too thick by the time I was done pouring!

One instance that really stands out was attempting the spin swirl. I was determined to use Flower Child Fragrance Oil (which accelerates) for the Psychedelic Spin Swirl Cold Process Project. How perfect would that have been!? But, even using a recipe with plenty of slow-moving oils and working quick, my soap was thick halfway through. After two attempts, I threw in the towel and used a combination of Kumquat Fragrance Oil and Patchouli Fragrance Oil. It worked great. The end result was a bar that had the look I wanted and still smelled great. Moral of the story? Sometimes you have to compromise either the design or the fragrance. Changing the recipe doesn’t always solve everything.

Change Your Oils
Tweaking the oils in your recipe makes a huge difference in how long it takes for soap to thicken. Some oils are considered “slow-moving.” Generally, these oils are lightweight and liquid at room temperature, like olive oil, rice bran oil, sweet almond oil and canola oil. If the oil or butter is solid at room temperature like palm oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, etc., you can assume it will make your soap thicken more quickly.

Firm oils like palm oil, coconut oil and butters tend to speed up trace.

When working with an accelerating fragrance oil, I plan my recipe around it and include more slow-moving oils than normal. I may avoid butters, because they can be a little bit more temperamental. I definitely stay away from beeswax and also soap with castor oil at 3% or less in the recipe. I have found that more than 3% castor in my recipe tends to speed up trace slightly. If I’m trying to avoid acceleration, my recipes are usually about 60% or more slow-moving oils, and 40% or less fast-moving oils.

Change Your Temperatures
The temperature of your lye solution and oils affects soap in many ways. For most soapers, the preferred temperature of soaping lye and oils is about 120-130 ° F. In general, warmer soaping temperatures speeds up trace, causing soap to become thick more quickly. If I’m creating a design that requires a lot of time to work, I tend to soap a little bit cooler than normal, around 100-120 ° F. If your recipe is moving a little bit faster than you’d like, try decreasing your soaping temperatures by 10-15 ° F. It can make a huge difference!

Change Your Additives
Some ingredients cause acceleration. If you’re using a fragrance that accelerates and want to prevent it as much as possible, skip these additives. Ingredients that contain sugar like honey, beer, wine, milk and purees increase temperature, which can speed up trace. Salt also speeds up trace, whether it’s added to the lye water (as shown here) or at trace (as shown here). Interestingly, I’ve found that sodium lactate (which is type of salt), doesn’t have a huge effect on trace when used at the correct usage rate. I use it in every single recipe, including recipes with accelerating fragrances and more complicated designs.

Additives with sugar (like honey) cause temperatures to increase, which will accelerate trace.

Ingredients that are known for their absorption properties also speed up trace. Such ingredients include clays, activated charcoal and titanium dioxide. Dispersing clay and other absorbing ingredients in distilled water can help negate some of the acceleration, but avoiding them completely is the best way to prevent acceleration.

Put Down the Stick Blender
Accelerating or not, I whisk in just about every fragrance oil at the very end. If I don’t care about the soap becoming thick, I might stick blend the fragrance oil in. But, if I’m trying to avoid acceleration at all costs, I put my stick blender down and use it very sparingly. Using the stick blender accelerates soap, because it speeds up the emulsification process. The fragrance oils at Bramble Berry are tested by whisking in the fragrance into the batter. If you choose to use the stick blender instead, be ready for the batter to become thicker whether or not you’re using an accelerating fragrance oil. =)

Avoid the Water Discount
Water discounting your recipe has a lot of benefits. It helps soap release from the mold faster and prevents glycerin rivers. But, removing water from the recipe causes soap batter to thicken more quickly. A water discount combined with an accelerating fragrance oil can lead to some pretty thick soap very quickly. If you’d like to learn more about how to water discount your soap and how it affects your batch, check out this post.

When you’re working with an accelerating fragrance oil, how do you tweak your recipe or design? Or, do you embrace the acceleration and use it to your advantage with textured tops, layers, etc.?

Simple Castile Cold Process Soap Tutorial

August 30, 2016 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Cold Process Soap

Cold process soap made with 100% olive oil is known as “Castile” soap. It is thought to originate in the Castile region of Spain – thus the name, Castile soap! Olive oil is a staple soaping oil that can be found in many cold process recipes. Olive oil contributes moisturizing properties to soap. It also gives the bars a gentle and creamy (read: small, lotion-like) lather, making it a great choice for dry or sensitive skin.

When you create soap with only olive oil (Castile soap), the batter takes quite a while to come to trace. Castile soap also takes longer to harden in the mold than most cold process recipes that contain hard oils like palm or coconut. In fact, Castile soap can require up to two weeks in the mold before it can be removed! But, there are a few tricks to help Castile soap harden more quickly. This recipe has a 20% water discount, which helps the soap harden much faster. To learn more about how and when to water discount recipes, click here.

Another trick for hardening Castile soap more quickly is sodium lactate. Sodium lactate is the sodium salt of lactic acid. It’s commonly used as a food preservative, and is also used in lotion recipes for its humectant properties. When added to lye water, sodium lactate helps cold process soap harden faster. I use it in almost all my cold process batches, especially when using a silicone mold. The usage rate is 1 teaspoon sodium lactate per pound of oils in the recipe. It’s an optional step but I highly recommend it, especially for this recipe! Learn more about sodium lactate here.

The final trick to helping this soap harden in the mold faster is gel phase. ‘Gelling’ and ‘gel phasing’ in cold process soap refers to a part of the saponification (soapmaking) process where the soap gets warm and gelatinous – up to 180 degrees. Heat speeds up the saponification process. Hot process soap, for example, can be cut usually within one day, and can be used right away. Soaping on the warmer side (about 130 ° F) and insulating the soap for 24 hours helps promote gel phase. If your room is cold, you may want to place the soap on a heating pad to keep it warm. Learn more about gel phase here. With a 20% water discount, sodium lactate and gelling, I was able to unmold and cut this soap in 2 days.

This soap is simple with no colorants or design elements. To give the soap a little interest, I stamped each bar with the Savon Soap Stamp. Savon de Marseille (aka: Marseille soap) is traditional soap made from vegetable oil and olive oil in Marseille, France. I thought it was very fitting for this recipe! For tips on stamping soap, check out this video. I scented this batch with Tomato Leaf Fragrance Oil, which is a wonderfully herby, green and fresh fragrance.

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Water Discounting Cold Process Soap: How & Why

November 2, 2015 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Water and lye are crucial components of cold process soap. Water is used to dissolve the sodium hydroxide lye so it can interact with the soaping oils to begin the saponification process. As the soap cures, some of the water evaporates and makes a harder, longer-lasting bar of soap. How much water you use in your soap will depend on the calculator you use. You may also choose to “water discount” the recipe and use less than what is called for. If you’re unfamiliar with how the saponification process works, click here to learn more about the balance of lye and oils.

Using less water than originally called for in a recipe is known as a “water discount.” There are several reasons why you may want to water discount soap. Water discounting helps the soap release from the mold faster. Using less water also results in a shorter curing and drying time, as there is less water to evaporate from the soap. Soapers may also choose to water discount if the recipe contains additives that naturally contain water, like fruit or vegetable purees. Using less water can reduce the chance of soda ash and glycerin rivers. In addition, water discounting affects the temperature at which soap goes through gel phase. Water discounting has plenty of benefits.

Water discounting is a great way to avoid glycerin rivers (shown above). Learn more about how to avoid glycerin rivers here.

You may be thinking, “If there are so many great reasons to water discount, why don’t soapers do it all the time?” Some soapers do choose to water discount with every recipe. The trick is that water discounting a soap recipe can cause the soap batter to thicken quickly. Generally, the more a recipe is water discounted, the faster the soap thickens. This is because the lye solution is more concentrated, which speeds along the emulsification process. The water content also affects when soap goes through gel phase and how it reacts to heat. A fantastic (and beautiful!) demonstration of this is shown in The Ghost Swirl by Clara of Auntie Clara’s Handcrafted Cosmetics. In this post, Clara demonstrates wonderfully how soap is affected by water content.

Because a water discount causes the soap to accelerate faster, water discounts can make a recipe difficult to work with. If your recipe contains a large amount of hard oils or an accelerating fragrance oil, you may want to avoid water discounts. I generally recommend water discounting for more advanced soapers who are prepared to work with a faster moving trace. If you’re looking for more information, the All About the Trace post is full of tips and photo examples of thin vs. thick trace.

Water discounting a recipe can cause the soap to accelerate, resulting in a thick trace.

Technically, there is not an “absolutely correct” amount of water to use in your soap recipe. In fact, if you plug in your recipe of soap making oils into various lye calculators, you may end up with slightly different amounts. Water is roughly 22% of the total recipe (oils + lye + water) when calculated with the Bramble Berry Lye Calculator. Other lye/soap calculators may give a slightly higher or lower amount. The amount of water in a recipe is determined by the amount of lye, not the amount of oils in your recipe.

The important part of determining how much water to use in your recipe depends on the ratio of lye to water you prefer. Remember, the lye solution is created by dissolving and diluting lye into distilled water. A common dilution rate is 30% lye and 70% water. In other words, the total makeup of the lye mixture is 1 part lye to 2.3 parts water. When the ratio of lye to water increases, the mixture is more lye concentrated. For example, a solution with 40% lye and 60% water (with a ratio of 1 part lye to 1.5 parts water) is more highly concentrated, because it contains less water in the total mixture.

The Bramble Berry Lye Calculator produces lye and water mixtures with a ratio of roughly 1 part lye to 2.4 parts water. This ratio will change slightly depending on the superfat percentage of your recipe. For example, let’s take a look at two similar recipes for the Basic Quick Mix. Both recipes contain 10 ounces of oils. One has a superfat of 5% (shown on the right) and the other has a superfat of 0% (shown on the left). As you can see below, the water amount stays the same. But, the ratio of water to lye changes slightly; the soap with a 0% superfat has a ratio of 1 part lye to 2.2 parts water, while the soap with the 5% superfat has a ratio of 1 part lye to 2.4 parts water. Soap with a higher superfat has a less concentrated lye mixture than soap with a lower superfat.

You’ll notice that in this example, the amount of water actually stays the same. This example is technically not a water discount; when you use a higher superfat in your recipe you are actually calculating a lye discount! Kinda cool right?

The lye to water ratio of the lye solution will depend slightly on the superfat percentage of your recipe.

Some soapers prefer to not use the water amount given by lye calculators at all! For example, Amanda of Lovin’ Soap Studio prefers to double the amount of lye in her recipe to get the water amount. Read more about her water calculation here. How much water you choose to use in your recipe depends on personal preference, in addition to the oils, fragrance, colorants and additives in the recipe.

If you have decided that you’d like to water discount your soap recipe, there are a few ways to go about it. Let’s take a look at the recipe below from the Creamy Orange Cold Process Tutorial:

13.6 oz. Olive Oil (40%)
8.5 oz. Palm Oil (25%)
8.5 oz. Coconut Oil (25%)
3.4 oz. Cocoa Butter (10%)
4.8 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
11.2 oz. Distilled Water
2 oz. 10X Orange Essential Oil

If you are looking at the total weight of this recipe (oils + water + lye), the water makes up 22% of the recipe. The lye to water ratio of the lye solution is roughly 1 part lye to 2.3 parts water. This is equivalent to roughly 30% lye and 70% water. Let’s do a water discount of 10%. Ninety percent of 11.2 is 10.08 (11.2 x .9 = 10.08). We can round this up to 10.1 oz. to make it easier to measure. This is the new water amount for your recipe. The amount of lye will stay the same. Remember, when you decrease the amount of lye, you are creating a lye discount which will increase the superfat of your soap. The lye and water solution will now have a ratio of 1 part lye to 2.1 parts water. Or, the mixture is now 32% lye and 67% water. This seems like a small change, but it can make a big difference.

It is possible to water discount too much. If your solution contains too much lye and not enough water, the mixture can become extremely hot and very, very dangerous. In addition, the lye may not have enough water to dissolve fully. In general, the absolute highest ratio of water to lye is 1:1. This means there is equal parts lye and water in the mixture, or 50/50. At this ratio, the lye is still able to dissolve, but will be very concentrated and somewhat difficult to work with. I do not recommend this ratio of water to lye. Some advanced soapers use a ratio of 40% lye to 60% water, but this is still an extremely concentrated solution, and may be very difficult to work with.

So, when should you water discount your soap? Technically, you can water discount any batch you’d like! Just be prepared to move quickly. You may want to have a backup plan if the soap becomes too thick. If you’re adding ingredients that give the recipe additional water (like purees) that’s also a good reason to do a water discount.

In the Pumpkin Spice Swirl Soap, pumpkin puree is added which gives the recipe extra water. A 15% water discount prevented the recipe from containing too much water.

A great example of water discounting a recipe to account for water-filled additives is the Pumpkin Spice Swirl Cold Process Soap. This recipe contains 2.5 oz of pumpkin puree, which contains water. It’s tricky to know for sure just how much of the puree is comprised of water, so it’s a bit of a guessing game. I went with a 15% water discount, which gave me a ratio of about 1 part lye to 2.1 parts water. I could have done a little bit of a steeper discount, but I wanted to make sure I had time to swirl. How much you water discount depends so much on your recipe, personal preference and comfort level.

If you have never worked with a water discount before, I would recommend starting with a 10% discount. This is a good starting point that you can increase once you get the feel for how your recipe behaves with a more lye concentrated solution. I would also recommend keeping your design fairly simple just in case! Layers are a good design option for experimenting with water discounting, because thick trace will help keep the layers separate. I rarely go above a 15% water discount; the only time I do is if I need my soap in a hurry and want to cut down on the drying time. =)

Just to summarize, below are some pros and cons for water discounting your soap –

Pros of Water Discounting:

Generally, the soap will be able to be removed from the mold faster.
Reduced water in the recipe cuts down on the 4-6 week cure time of cold process soap.
Less water can prevent glycerin rivers from occurring. This is particularly helpful if your recipe contains a large amount of titanium dioxide, or will become extremely hot. Click here to read more about what causes glycerin rivers and how to prevent them.
Water discounting your recipe can help prevent soda ash. Click here to read more about soda ash, including how to prevent it.

Cons of Water Discounting:

Water discounting can accelerate trace, which can result in very thick soap batter. Click here for more information on trace.
If your soap accelerates, it can make some complicated soap designs like swirls difficult to execute.
Water discounting can make it more difficult to work with accelerating fragrance oils. Read more about working with accelerating fragrance oils here.
Soap with a lower water content requires higher temperatures to go through a full gel phase. If you like your soap to go through a complete gel phase, water discounting makes this a little more difficult. See a beautiful example of this in The Ghost Swirl by Auntie Clara’s Handcrafted Cosmetics.

Do you water discount your cold process recipes? I would love to hear about your methods for discounting! It depends so much on personal preference, and I’m interested to know what works for you, and what doesn’t.

Lingonberry Spice Cold Process Soap

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