Black Licorice Soap 2

Chinese Star Anise reminds me of two dissimilar food concepts. The first being the black licorice sweets that are generally made from licorice root and aniseed. I remember my dad keeping a jar of the black licorice jelly beans on his desk and feeling a little disgruntled that he didn’t keep any yummy treats for me in that jar. The second is in Chinese food where the Chinese Star Anise is used to flavor meats. When I first was introduced to beef dishes in Beijing, I was surprised by my delight in the flavor that Chinese Star Anise contributed.

Cut bars of Black Licorice Soap.

Today, I decided to make a batch of soap that is inspired by the black licorice jelly beans of my childhood. I wanted a little more contrast than just a plain black soap, so I decided that I would swirl two batches of soap together. The black color would be made with Activated Charcoal Powder and the white would be the natural color of my soap formula since it would look very white against the black.

Grab your goggles and come on over to the blog kitchen and we’ll have fun making this gorgeous soap!

Recipe:

black portion

natural color portion

Start by weighing all of your oils into two separate batches. Heat those oils gently until liquid. While the oils are heating in the microwave, weigh out your lye and mix with your water. This is also a good time to measure your Chinese Star Anise Essential Oil and Activated Charcoal. Remember to add your lye to your water, not the other way around. Your safety is our first concern! Allow the warmed oils and the lye solution to cool to a temperature range of 110°F-120°F.

My oils, lye solution and Chinese Star Anise are all ready to go!

Mixing the two batches of raw soap.

While allowing your oils and lye solution to cool, I like to put away my buckets of oils and set up my mold during this period. This helps keep my counters clean and my distractions to a minimum. When your oils and lye solution are both around 110°F-120°F, add your lye solution to your oils. Don’t worry about having your temperatures match as that will drive you crazy! I highly recommend no more than a 10°F difference for best results.

Mixing the Activated Charcoal into my raw soap.

The Activated Charcoal is almost completely mixed in!

Using your immersion blender, mix both batches of soap until you reach a light trace. We want them to be at similar thicknesses for the best swirling potential. When a light trace has been achieved, add the Chinese Star Anise Essential Oil and Activated Charcoal into the correctly designated soap pot. I used the immersion blender to quickly mix the Chinese Star Anise Essential Oil into the natural color soap and then moved to the black batch so I didn’t have to worry about accidentally adding color to my natural soap!

My soap after being poured into the mold.

Don’t forget, trace doesn’t denote a viscosity, it just means that we aren’t seeing the oils float to the top and separate out. Often we pour our soap into the mold when it is the viscosity of whole milk. That is extremely fluid!

Pour the two colors into your mold in an alternating fashion until all of your soap is in the mold. Now you can use your swirling implement (I used a chopstick for swirling) to marble the soap as you desire.

Allow your soap to sit in the mold undisturbed for 12-24 hours. Then cut into bars and place out on a shelf where they can dry. You can use your soap immediately but it will last longer if you allow it to dry completely. It will also keep longer if you store it in an area where it doesn’t sit in water constantly. A great aid in determining if your soap has fully dried are our Cure Cards. The best part is you can have them included in qualifying orders for free! If you want a set, let our order desk know, they are awesome at taking care of special requests.

Once the soap has fully cured, package it and give it away or use it yourself.