Dreaming in Purple Soap

Finished soap.

I’ve been playing around with a different swirling method to see if I could do something different. I struggled with putting this idea to work, but I had a very strong hunch that I was on the right track and I just needed to adjust some things. After three batches of soap, I finally figured it out! A swirl was possible with a plastic bag, I just needed a tiny hole in the corner and multiple layers in the mold I was using.

Collect needed items:

Ingredients
Sweet Almond Oil
Coconut Oil
Palm Oil
Shea Butter
Sunflower Oil
Dream Fragrance Oil
Lavender Fields Dry Color
Liquid Glycerin

Equipment
Scale
Soap Spoon
Gloves
Mold
Immersion Blender
Plastic Bag
Sissors

Time spent:
Weighing time: 8 minutes
Adding lye to water: 15 seconds, followed by 60 seconds of stirring
Heating of oils time: 90 seconds
Pouring lye solution into the fat mixture: 10 seconds
Using immersion blender to mix soap solution: 90 seconds
Adding 1/2 pound of raw soap to the plastic bag: 45 seconds
Adding Liquid Lavender Fields Color to raw soap bag and mixing well: 45 seconds
Pour into mold: 90 seconds
Allow soap to rest: 24 hours

Recipe in ounces:
4 ounces Sweet Almond Oil
8 ounces Coconut Oil
8 ounces Palm Oil
4 ounces Shea Butter
8 ounces Sunflower Oil

4.53 ounces Sodium Hydroxide
12 fl oz water

0.7 ounces Dream Fragrance Oil
q.s. Liquid Lavender Fields Color*

Adding the lye solution to the melted oils.

* To make these soaps, I did need to do some work just to prepare the colors I would use. I mixed the Lavender Fields Dry color with Liquid Glycerin and then mixed well. From now on, I will refer to this as Liquid Lavender Fields Color. I used the amount I desired to color my soap, but you can use more or less as you desire. This item has been marked as q.s. “Quantity Sufficient” for this purpose.

Measure fixed oils on your scale. Warm the fixed oils on the stove or in the microwave. I melted the oils in the microwave. Add sodium hydroxide to the water. Mix well.

Beginning to mix the oils and lye solution.

Combine oils and lye solution. Stir until thin trace. Upon light trace, add the fragrance and mix well. Once the fragrance has been added, remove 1/2 pound of raw soap and place into the plastic bag. Added the desired amount of Liquid Lavender Fields Color to the soap in the bag and mix well. Pour half of the uncolored soap into the mold. Cut a small portion of the corner off the bag and gently squeeze the bag, forcing the colored soap down into the uncolored soap. After you have used about 1/4 pound of the colored soap, add another layer of the uncolored soap and empty your soap bucket. Repeat the swirling by using the bag and force to swirl the soap. I used a different style of the Guerrilla Mold from Dirk’s post. (Maybe we can get a blog post about making this one!) Allow to sit until soap is firm.

The next morning cut into bars. Stack to allow good air circulation. Allow to cure for several days before using. Longer curing will result in a harder bar.

Notes:
This soap requires two layers of pouring otherwise you will end up with a half colored bar of soap. The pressure from squeezing the bag can only force the colored soap shallowly into the uncolored soap.