Cold Process .... With a Twist!

Cold Process Soap

with a Twist!

Add elaborate details to your Cold Process soap easily with fun melt & pour soap pieces. In the bars above, I embedded a basic brown and black layered melt & pour loaf and some experimental marbliezed soap in green and white cold process soap. 

Tip: To ensure your melt and pour does not 'sweat' in the CP soap, let it sit out for 24 hours under a running fan before embedding into your CP soap recipe.

Ingredients:

• 32 oz. Apricot Kernel Oil
• 20 oz. Palm Oil
• 18 oz. Coconut Oil
• 4 oz. Castor Oil
• 1.90 oz. Jojoba Oil
• 10.7 oz. Lye
• 25 oz. Distilled Water
• 4 oz. Hungarian Lavender
• Blue Green Mica
• Super Pearly White Mica

Tools:

• Stainless steel or glass mixing bowls
• Scale
• Heat safe mixing spoon
• Electric Stick Blender
• Vinegar (in case of splashes)
• Gloves, goggles and long sleeve shirt
• Cardboard box lined with freezer paper or Bramble Berry Wooden Loaf Mold

Important: If you've never made Cold Process soap before, we highly recommend reading The Everything Soapmaking Book or watching our How to Make CP DVD, before you attempt the recipe below. Safety information about handling Lye is here. And, of course, SoapQueen.TV has FOUR free videos on making CP soap that I can't recommend enough.

Instructions:
 
Step 1: Gather all of your ingredients and tools. Weigh your oils and have all of your containers and molds ready before you even look at the lye. Also, plan out your embedds and make sure they fit in your mold the way you want. 

Tip: You don't need to invest in expensive molds to start making soap! We just used a sturdy cardboard box and lined it with freezer paper. To figure out how much soap your mold will hold, use this formula: Length x width x height x .55 = approximate soap in ounces. When calculating your height you don't want to fill your box all the way to the top - so just put in the height you want your soap to be. 

Step 2: SUIT UP! Put on your gloves, long sleeves, and eye protection. 

Step 3: Wearing your full safety protection, mix your pre-measured lye into your water. Once it has cooled to between 120F to 130F, gently mix the lye water into your melted oils.

Step 4: Once your soap has reached light trace, add the Lavender essential oil and colorant(s) of your choice. 

Step 5: Divide your soap into different bowls if you are making multiple colors. 

Step 5: Pour about an inch of soap into your mold - if you are using multiple colors, pour both colors and give it a gentle swirl.

Step 7: Place your soap embeds in the CP soap. Wiggle them down a little (your gloves should still be on) to make sure no air bubbles are trapped. 

Step 8: Pour more CP soap over the top to cover the embeds.

Step 9: Wait a minimum of 48 hours before attempting to cut. Remember, Cold Process Soap requires a full 4 to 6 weeks of cure and dry time before using.