What You’ll Need:
39 oz. Swirl Recipe Quick Mix
5.4 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
12.9 oz. Distilled Water
Ocean Rain Fragrance Oil
Titanium Dioxide
Fizzy Lemonade Colorant
Neon Blue Raspberry Colorant
Ultramarine Blue Oxide
Tall Narrow Wood Loaf Mold
Optional: Easy Pour and Measuring Containers (4)
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 tablespoon of sunflower or sweet almond oil (or any other liquid oil). Finally, disperse 1 teaspoon Fizzy Lemonade Colorant, Ultramarine Blue Oxide and Neon Blue Raspberry Colorant into 1 tablespoon of light liquid oil. Use a mini mixer to get the clumps of color worked out .
ONE: Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water and gently stir until the lye has fully dissolved and the liquid is fully clear. Set aside to cool.
TWO: Meltthe Swirl Recipe Quick Mix fully and pour it into a large bowl that holds at least 58 oz. 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 the batter until it reaches 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.
TWO: Once your soap is at a thin trace, split the batter into two containers of about 500 mL, one with about 600 mL and one small container with about 200 mL. To these containers, whisk the dispersed colorants using the amounts below.
- Container A (600 mL): All dispersed Titanium Dioxide
- Container B (500 mL): All dispersed Ultramarine Blue Pigment
- Container C (500 mL): 1 tsp. Neon Blue Raspberry Colorant
- Container D (200 mL): 2 tsp. Fizzy Lemonade Colorant
THREE: To the four containers, add 2 ounces of Ocean Rain Fragrance Oil evenly. It’s okay to eyeball it. Use a whisk to fully blend in the scent.
FOUR: Pour about half of the white soap into your mold. Tap the mold firmly on the counter to release any bubbles.
FIVE: Pour the dark blue soap into the center of your mold. Pour from about 10 inches above the mold. That helps the blue soap to drop to the bottom of the white soap, rather than sitting on top and creating layers.
SIX: Continue pouring the light blue, yellow, white and dark blue soap from above the mold. Pour enough of each color to make sure you can pour all colors at least three times. Save a small amount of the white soap for the top of the soap. Pour from various heights to help the colors reach various depths. Don’t worry about being too precise when you are dropping in the soap. As you pour, the soap will begin to thicken – don’t worry! Just keep pouring from high above the mold to make sure you don’t end up with layers. If it gets too thick, whisk it to help loosen up the batter.
SEVEN: Once you have poured all the soap into the mold, pour the saved white soap on top. Firmly tap the mold on the counter to release any bubbles.
EIGHT: Insert a chopstick or dowel into the top of the soap, and swirl in a S-shaped curve width-wise down the mold. Spray the top with 99% isopropyl alcohol to prevent soda ash, and place the lid on to help insulate. Let the soap to sit with the lid on for at least 24 hours to insulate the soap and make the colors pop. You can read more about that process in the Jazzed About Gel Phase post. Let it sit in the mold for 48-72 hours. To remove the soap, slide the bottom of the mold out and allow it to drop out. Remove the liner, cut and enjoy the soap!
