Cherry Taffy Soap with Oatmeal

I’ve had one of our 16-ounce Basic Bar Soap Kits sitting in my cupboard for a while now. Today I decided to pull it out and make some soap with it!

I’m going to scent the soap with Cherry Taffy Fragrance Oil and add some Rocket Red Day-Glo color and a tablespoon of ground oatmeal for a gentle exfoliation effect in the soap.

Using our Basic Bar Soap Kit could not be easier! Each kit comes with instructions for use including how much lye and water you’ll need. The instruction sheet includes some ideas to jazz up the basic bar including Fresh Lemon Soap, Heavy Duty Pumice Scrub Soap, and Chocolate Peppermint Soap. There are seven different ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Going to make this soap with me? Let’s head up to the workroom.

What You’ll Need

1-pound Batch

1 Basic Bar Soap Oil Kit
4-6 ounces Distilled Water
2.24 ounces Sodium Hydroxide (5% superfat)
0.4 ounce Cherry Taffy Fragrance Oil
1 teaspoon Rocket Red Day-Glo color
1 tablespoon ground oatmeal

Instructions

Before getting started, please prepare to soap safely! Long sleeves, gloves, eye protection, and close-toed shoes are a must. If you have never made cold process soap before, we’re glad you’re here! Please check out this blog post, which is the first in a series on beginning soapmaking.

Open Basic Bar Soap Oil Kit and remove inner seal.

Measure oatmeal into a small container; set aside.

Weigh the fragrance oil into a small glass container; set aside.

Weigh the lye.

Weigh the water.

Slowly add the lye to the water, stirring. Do this in a well-ventilated area. It will give off toxic fumes that you do not want to inhale. Once the lye is completely dissolved, set the mixture aside to cool.

Pop the oils into the microwave to melt, using 30-second increments and stirring after each heating. Once they are completely liquid, pour into the soap bucket and set aside to cool.

Here is your break to clean up your work space, set out the mold you will use, visit the rest room. At this point I like to premix my colorant with a small amount of olive oil and have it ready to add to my soap batter.

Once the oils and the lye mixture are within 10 degrees of each other and have cooled to about 100 degrees F, you’re ready to make soap.

Stick blending lye solution and oils.

Adding Rocket Red Day-Glo color.

Carefully pour the lye mixture into the oils, taking care not to splash. Stir with your soap spoon, then pulse the stick blender several times to emulsify the soap batter.

Once the soap batter has reached emulsion, add colorant, and stick blend to combine. Hand stir in fragrance and oatmeal.

Pour soap batter into mold of choice, and set it in a safe spot to saponify. You can reduce the chance of soda ash on the top of the soap by covering it with plastic wrap or spraying with 99% isopropyl alcohol once the top of the soap is no longer shiny.

Give the soap at least 24 hours in the mold to ensure it’s nice and hard.

Blending color into soap batter.

Adding ground oatmeal and Cherry Taffy Fragrance Oil.

Pouring into our Oval Soap Mold.

This batch of soap filled all 8 cavities of our Oval Soap Mold.

Notes

I really didn’t think it would be that much faster using the Basic Bar Soap Oil Kit – I was wrong! I highly recommend using this kit when you need to get a batch of soap made up in a hurry.

The color was exactly what I was hoping for. I wanted this soap to look like cherry taffy. I’m looking forward to giving it a try in a few days to see how the soap lathers and how the oatmeal feels in it.

Do you like to add exfoliants to your soap? Which are your favorites?