Preparing for Christmas presents! With cold process soaping, this of course must be done almost immediately after Halloween to give the soap time to cure and to get it cut, labeled, and packaged before the holidays.
I tried a similar technique once before called the coat hanger swirl… failed MISERABLY. I tried to use my own recipe but it turned into a gloppy mess that separated and ruined all my efforts!
But for Christmas this year I was inspired to make peppermint soap.. which has swirls in it! So I used the recipe for Cucumber & Aloe Circling Taiwan Swirl Soap, the only changes of which I made were that instead of Cucumber Seed Oil I used Castor Oil (I’m all about making soap bubbly!) I also of course changed the colors and fragrance.
Per my husband’s request, it’s not purely peppermint soap. He loves anise, which I’m ok with it, so I made a blend of oils, using mostly Young Living except as noted
- 12 g Peppermint YL
- 2 g Myrrh (Grateful Desert- Jenny Q’s Handmade – from a store in Joshua Tree)
- 2 g Lavender YL
- 8 g Juniper YL
- 1 g Christmas Spirit YL (I ran out 😦
- 22 g Anise (Now EO)
- 20 g Cinnamon Bark Oil in Clove Oil (Aveda- from forever ago!)
Let me tell you- it smells AMAZING! Definitely has a Christmas feel to it without smelling like anything at Yankee Candle or any other fragrance I’ve encountered.
OK so down to the day of making the soap: I wondered about sizing up to 5 lb because that’s the size of my mold. I didn’t and I’m so glad! Using 3 lb of soap in a 5 lb gave me room to maneuver and though I slopped some, I hope it turns out ok.
For the colors, I used the black oxide as the recipe advises, but for the red I used 1 tsp each of burgundy pigment and brick red oxide in 2 tbsp of sweet almond oil. For the white I wanted a little sparkle, so I put 2 tsp titanium dioxide and 1 tsp sparkle violet mica in 3 tbsp sweet almond oil and used 1 1/2 tablespoons in the 350 ml container of soap batter. I used 1 tsp each in the red containers- I thought about combining these but worried it’d be too much mixing…
Given I’m still a novice, I wondered when to make the lye so that it would cool down past 130 the same time as the oils would. I mixed up the oils and put them on the stove in a double boiler as I mixed up my colorants. I made the lye when the oils read 168, but the lye cooled fast so I ended up having to put the oils in an ice bath to cool them as the lye cooled.
I followed the recipe, and tried to stir as little as possible so there would be a super thin trace. Upon pouring it into the mold, I wasn’t sure if I should pour right or left handed! Also I got frazzled trying to work fast and kept working around the middle place holder thing when I should have just taken it out.
The divider also worked for 3/4 colors, but I noticed under of them, it ran into the next channel. Boo.
I had my husband run and get Q tips to clean up smaller spills. Seemed to work pretty good, but couldn’t reach deep to the bottom to pick up the ooze under the lower divider. We’ll see how it turns out when I unmold…
One thing I would have done differently: Moving the chopstick back and forth with closer crossings. I tried to cross about every inch but honestly every 1/2 inch probably would have been prettier.
The black, which I poured first, seemed to thicken more by the time I was ready to swirl. The red next to it too! Since it was thicker, it created a funny build up with the swirl, which I’m not very satisfied with- not sure how to fix this besides work faster! Maybe I should have swirled each channel before I pulled the dividers to thin the batter again?
The recipe advises covering the mold to push gel phase. I went ahead and did this- my last batch had glycerin rivers which turned out great given it was a ocean surf theme! But I’m not going for that look now, so I covered it with paper towels and cotton towels. You can see the large utility sink in which I throw all my soaping dishes- I let them sit for a few days (ahem…. maybe a week?) until it’s solidifed and more like actual soap!
And now for the unmolding!
All the soap lined up plus a detail of the soap shavings.
Definitely a lesson learned: more back and forth, and the bottom layer may not swirl so much!
As for fragrance, it is a very masculine scent (in my opinion!) But I definitely love how deep and complex it is, definitely attracts and draws you in while thinking of a snowy winter day!
Up next: Let it cure on the rack for 4-6 weeks then think about labeling. Gonna get paper crafty now and come back in another blog post. Busy month between Thanksgiving and Christmas my oh my!
The Inspired Dr.Mom 