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 Activated Charcoal into 1 tablespoon of light liquid oil. Then in separate containers, disperse 1 teaspoon Yellow Oxide and 1 teaspoon Fizzy Lemonade Colorant into 1 tablespoon light liquid oil. Use a mini mixer to get the clumps of color worked out smoothly.
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.
Combine the coconut, olive oil, avocado oil, castor oil, rice bran oil, palm oil and cocoa butter (remember to fully melt then mix your entire container of palm oil before portioning). 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 you reach a very light 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 3 tsp. Sodium Lactate.
Once the batter has reached a very light, split the batch evenly into three separate containers. To each container, add the following dispersed colorants in the amounts below. Use a whisk to fully mix in each colorant. Container A: 2 tsp. dispersed Activated Charcoal; Container B: 2 Tbs. dispersed Titanium Dioxide; Container C: 1 tsp. dispersed Yellow Oxide + 1 tsp. dispersed Fizzy Lemonade Colorant
Add the Pure Honey Fragrance Oil into each container evenly. It’s okay to eyeball it! Use a whisk to fully mix in the fragrance oil.
Pour the black soap into the funnel. We like to count to 3 to ensure even pours.
Pour the white soap in the funnel, again counting to 3. Pour down the side of the funnel to help the color pour on top of the black soap, rather than mixing with it.
Pour the yellow soap on the side of the funnel and count to 3. If you notice your soap getting grainy, whisk it until smooth.
Continue to pour the black, white and orange soap in that order, counting to 3 each time. If you notice the soap starting to pool in the middle, give the mold a shake to even the soap out.
Once all the soap has been poured in the mold, remove the funnel. Tap the soap on the counter to disperse any air bubbles.