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Christmas Soap Recipe with Festive Swirls

A Christmas soap recipe with peppermint essential oil and red, white, and green swirls. The design uses the 'In the Pot Swirl' and a simple linear technique. The base recipe makes a 28 oz (1.75 lbs /800 g) batch with a 5% superfat equivalent to ten bars. Make this soap at least four weeks before the holidays. The photos use a mineral pigment color option given in the recipe notes*.
Course Soap recipe
Cuisine Herbal soap
Keyword soap, soap recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Curing time 28 days
Total Time 28 days 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings 10 bars
Author Lovely Greens
Cost 20

Equipment

Ingredients

Lye solution

Solid oils

Liquid oils

Add after Trace

Instructions

Prepare Your Soap Making Station

  • Cold-process soapmaking is chemistry, and this recipe uses lye. Lye is a caustic substance that is completely neutralized in the soapmaking process, but it can be harmful if not handled correctly. Please read this soap making safety guidance before proceeding.
  • Ensure that your kitchen workspace is clean and set up with all of your tools, ingredients, and equipment. Please also prepare yourself by wearing long sleeves, closed-toe shoes, goggles, and plastic gloves.
  • Using a digital kitchen scale, measure the solid oils into the pan, the liquid oils into a jug, the sodium hydroxide (lye) into a jug, and the distilled water into the heat-proof jug.
  • Measure the colorants into separate jugs with one teaspoon of olive oil each. One jug gets the chromium green oxide, while the other gets the red iron oxide and madder root powder. Mix the powders into the oil with spatulas until no chunks are visible.

Make the Lye Solution

  • Work in an area with good ventilation when mixing the lye and water together. There will be steam and heat in this step so be cautious. Don't breathe in the steam and ensure the lye solution doesn't get on your skin. If it does, rinse it with water thoroughly.
  • Pour the lye into the water and then mix with a stainless steel spoon until the lye crystals are fully dissolved.
  • Set the lye solution aside to cool. I like to set the jug in a basin (or sink) shallowly filled with cold water to speed up the process. Take its temperature with a digital thermometer. You're aiming for it to be around 100°F (38°C). It will be much hotter than that initially but keep coming back to stir and take its temperature.

Melt the Solid Oils

  • Place the pan of solid oils on the stovetop and turn the hob on to the lowest heat setting. The oil will melt quicker than you expect, so stay with the pan, moving the oil around in the pan to help speed up melting. When there are a few small pieces of solid oil still floating, take the pan off the heat and set it on a potholder. They'll melt with the residual heat and a few stirs of your spoon/spatula.

Add the liquid oils

  • Pour the liquid oils into the pan of melted oils. Use the spatula to get every last drop out of the jug, and then stir the oils together gently.
  • Take the temperature of the mixed oils. You're aiming for around the same temperature as the lye solution, 100°F (38°C), but they don't have to be exact.

Bringing the Ingredients to 'Trace'

  • When the temperatures are right, carefully place the head of the immersion blender (stick blender) into the oils. Insert it at an angle so that any air inside the head can escape as you submerge the head.
  • Pour the lye solution through the sieve and into the pan of oils.
  • Gently stir the contents of the pan, using the immersion blender as a spoon. Then, bring it into the center of the pan and hold it against the bottom of the pan. Not moving the immersion blender, pulse for a couple of seconds. Then gently stir.
  • Keep repeating this 'pulse then stir' process until the soap mixture thickens to a very light trace. It will have the thinnest warm custard consistency. At this point, stop blending, tap off the immersion blender's head, and put it aside. You will not use it again.

After Trace

  • Pour in the peppermint essential oil and gently stir with a spatula until completely mixed in.

Mixing the Colors

  • Place the jug with the red color on the digital scale, tare the scale if necessary, and measure in a quarter of the soap batter. That will be about 290 g (10.2 oz). With the spatula, gently blend the soap batter into the color until completely mixed in.
  • Place the jug with the green color on the digital scale, tare the scale if necessary, and measure a quarter of the soap batter in. That will be about 290 g (10.2 oz). With the spatula, gently blend the soap batter into the color until completely mixed in.
  • Pour the rest of the uncolored soap batter into another jug. It can be the same jug you used for the liquid oils or a clean one.

Pouring the Soap to Create Swirls

  • What you do next will create the swirls in the soap. Work quickly and stay focused.
  • Place the jug filled with uncolored soap in front of you. You will pour the colored soap into it at four different spots. Think of the circular shape as a clock: red will go in at twelve and six o'clock and green at three and nine o'clock.
  • To pour, hold the jug of colored oil about a foot (30 cm) above the jug of uncolored soap. This will help the colored soap plunge down to the bottom. Pour about 80% of the red soap in spots at the top and bottom. Then, pour 80% of the green soap at the spots to the sides. Leave about 20% of the green and red soap in their respective jugs for later. Look at the photo for reference.
  • The next part is crucial. Insert a clean spatula into the jug of soap batter at 12 o'clock. Dip it in all the way to the bottom. Next, rotate it in one clean circular movement around the clock, and when you get back to 12, pull the spatula out. Do not stir any more than this, or the colors will muddle.
  • Place the loaf mold in front of you*. Choose a spot on one end of the mold and pour the batter only there until the mold is at least half-filled. At that point, you can continue filling from that one spot or move the pour around if you wish.
  • When filled, settle the soap batter by gently lifting the mold and tapping it on the counter.

Creating the Top Design

  • Preheat the oven on to 170°F (75°C)*
  • The top design on the bars is much easier to create than you'd think. The first step is to drizzle the remaining colored soap on top. First, one color, then a layer of the other. Use a spatula to scrape as much out of the jug as possible.
  • Gently tap the mold again to settle it, and clean the edges of the mold if necessary.
  • Beginning on one end, insert a skewer just under the surface of the drizzled soap. No more than that, or you can muddle the main swirl. Move the stick across in one stroke, slide it the tiniest bit over, and then move it back in a stroke, going the opposite way. Keep repeating until you reach the other side of the mold. Gently tap the mold to settle it again.

Ensuring vibrant color

  • Bring the soap to gel to encourage the colors to be as vibrant as possible. There are a few ways to do this, but the most dependable one for me is using the oven process method. I will continue with that process now but will mention other methods in the notes*.
  • Turn the pre-heated oven off, and place the soap mold inside.
  • Leave the soap inside for at least twelve hours, and the residual warmth will cause the soap to gel. It heats up from the inside out, intensifying the final colors. After the time is up, set the soap mold somewhere safe.
  • After two days, you can cut the soap into bars. The size is up to you and you may use an ordinary kitchen knife and a cutting board. After two days, the soap is safe to handle, but it's best to wear gloves to stop the soap from getting fingerprints.

Curing

  • Though the saponification process is complete after two days, the soap bars must be cured to make them gentle and have the best lather.
  • Next, find a place in your home that's safe from animals and kids and that is airy and out of direct sunlight. Lay a piece of baking paper down and space your bars of soap out over it. Leave the bars there for at least four weeks before using them.
  • When fully cured*, you can begin using the soap and gifting it to others. Try these ideas for eco-friendly soap packaging.

Notes

* The colorants used in this recipe are nature-identical mineral pigments and madder root, a plant-based colorant. Madder helps create a truer red than if you use red iron oxide alone.
* The silicone soap mold used has a cavity sized 8x3.5x2.5".
* Preheating the oven is intended for the oven processing step. If you wish to gel the soap without using the oven, you can place clingfilm over the soap mold, then swaddle it in a towel. Keep it in a very warm room or on top of a heat pad for the next few hours, at least.
* Once made and cured, your soap can have a shelf life of up to two years. Check all the oil bottles and ingredients that you're using, though. The closest best-by date is the best-by date of your soap.
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