What You’ll Need:
White Base
1.7 oz. Sweet Almond Oil
1.7 oz. Cocoa Butter
8.3 oz. Coconut Oil
13.2 oz. Olive Oil
8.3 oz. Palm Oil
4.6 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
10.9 oz. Distilled Water
1 oz. Blackberry Sage Fragrance Oil
Titanium Dioxide
5 Pound Mold with Sliding Bottom
Silicone Liner for 5 lb. Wood Mold
PVC Pipes
Rainbow Embeds
1.3 oz. Sweet Almond Oil
1.3 oz. Cocoa Butter
6.5 oz. Coconut Oil
10.4 oz. Olive Oil
6.5 oz. Palm Oil
3.7 oz. Sodium Hydroxide
8.6 oz. Distilled Water
Merlot Sparkle Mica
Electric Bubblegum Colorant
Tangerine Wow! Colorant
Fizzy Lemonade Colorant
Green Chrome Oxide Pigment
Ultramarine Blue Pigment
Radiant Plum Colorant
1 oz. Blackberry Sage Cybilla Fragrance Oil
Optional: 6 Easy Pour Mixing and Measuring Containers
If you’ve never made Cold Process soap before, check out our FREE four part SoapQueen.tv series on Cold Process Soapmaking, especially the episode on lye safety. Bramble Berry also carries a wide range of books on the topic, including Soap Crafting. You can also checkout the digital downloads.
SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safety! That includes 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: To make sure the Titanium Dioxide blends smoothly into the soap, we recommend micronizing it beforehand. This is an optional step, but it does help prevent the Titanium Dioxide from clumping. To micronize the colorant, 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. Then, disperse 2 teaspoons of the colorant into 2 tablespoons of sunflower or sweet almond oil (or any other liquid oil).
MOLD PREP: Insert the PVC pipes vertically into your mold. Place the pipes throughout the mold, leaving space in between each pipe and from the edges of the mold. Where you place the pipes depends on the size of pipes being used. Use large rubber bands to stretch over the pipes and the mold to hold them in place. The rubber bands will help the pipes stay in place once the soap is poured around the pipes.
ONE: Carefully and slowly 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: Melt and mix the coconut oil, cocoa butter, olive oil, sweet almond oil and palm oils (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), slowly add the lye water to the oils and stick blend until thin trace. If you want a harder bar of soap that releases quicker 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 soap, you’d add about 3 tsp. sodium lactate.
THREE: Once the soap has reached a thin trace, add 1 oz. of the Blackberry Sage Fragrance Oil and whisk.
FOUR: Add all of the dispersed Titanium Dioxide and combine with a whisk. If your soap is a little thin, stick blend the soap for another few seconds to thicken to a light-medium trace. Thickening the soap will ensure the soap does not leak into the pipes when pouring into the mold.
FIVE: Slowly start pouring the soap into the mold and around the PVC pipes. Pour from different angles and areas in the mold to make sure the soap is evenly distributed.
TIP: Because the exact amount of soap will vary slightly depending on how large your PVC pipes are and how many you put in the mold, have an extra mold on hand in case you have leftover soap.
SIX: Tap the mold gently on the counter to help evenly disperse the soap and pop any air bubbles. Spray with 99% isopropyl alcohol to help prevent soda ash. Let soap sit in the mold for 3-4 days before trying to remove the pipes. After that time, the pipes should be fairly easy to pull up and out of the soap. If not, give them more time. If, after four days, the pipes are still difficult to remove, put the soap into the freezer for 3-4 hours. Take the soap out and try to remove the pipes again after a few hours.
Create the Embeds
Once the pipes are out of the soap, it’s time to make the colorful soap that will fill the space! It’s important to use the same oils and percentages as the original soap. This will help prevent the two batches of soap from pulling away from each other after they’re cut.
The amount of soap needed to fill the space may be different from this tutorial depending on how large your pipes are and how many pipes you use. For this technique, it can be tricky to estimate exactly how much soap will fill the holes. One way to estimate is to wait until the base soap has fully hardened, then place the entire mold on a scale and push the tare button. Pour water into one of the pipes until it’s level with the base soap. Record this amount and then pour the water out of the mold. This weight will be an estimation of about how much soap it takes to fill up one hole. Next, multiply by how many pipes you used. This amount will be about how much soap it will take to fill up all the holes. To be on the safe side, it may help to make a few extra ounces and have a small mold on hand for any extra.
SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safety! That includes 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: In separate containers, disperse 1 teaspoon of the Electric Bubblegum Colorant, Merlot Sparkle Mica, Tangerine Wow Colorant, Fizzy Lemonade Colorant, Chrome Green Oxide, Ultramarine Blue Oxide, and Radiant Plum Colorant into 1 tablespoon sunflower or sweet almond oil (or any other liquid oil). Use a mini mixer to get the clumps of color worked out smoothly.
ONE: Melt and mix the cocoa butter, coconut oil, olive oil, sweet almond oil and palm oils (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 ° F or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils and stick blend until thin trace.
TWO: Once the batter has leached a light trace, split the soap into six small containers. Each container will have about 200 mL of soap. Whisk in the dispersed colorants per container in the following amounts:
- Red: .5 teaspoon Electric Bubblegum + .75 teaspoon Merlot Sparkle Mica
- Orange: 1 teaspoon Tangerine Wow Colorant
- Yellow: 2 teaspoons Fizzy Lemonade Colorant
- Green: .5 teaspoon Chrome Green Oxide
- Blue: 1 teaspoon Ultramarine Blue
- Purple: 1.5 teaspoons Radiant Plum Colorant
THREE: Once all the colors are thoroughly mixed, divide 1 oz. of Blackberry Sage Fragrance Oil among the six containers (it’s okay to eyeball it!) and whisk.
FOUR: Start pouring the soap into the holes in the order of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. If the hole fills up before you can add all the colors, that’s just fine! Just continue the pattern in the next space.
FIVE: Continue pouring all the colors until every space is filled. Some of the spaces had all six colors, while others contained only the warm hues or cool hues. When cut, both look great!
SIX: Once all the spaces are filled, spray the soap with 99% isopropyl alcohol to help prevent soda ash. Unmold after about 3-4 days. When it’s time to cut, you can cut the loaf in the traditional way. However, to get the results shown in the photos, the bars need to be cut horizontally. If you’re not sure how to cut bars horizontally, check out a video on how to here. Allow to cure for 4-6 weeks and enjoy!
