This Cinco de Mayo Cold Process Soap was inspired by the Mexican flag. It's scented with a complex blend of Lime and Tobacco & Bay Leaf Fragrance Oil.
Ingredients
5 Pound Mold with Sliding Bottom
Silicone Liner for 5 lb Wood Mold (old version)
Multi-Pour Sectioning Tool
5.5 oz. Avocado Oil (10%)
8.3 oz. Canola Oil (15%)
13.8 oz. Coconut Oil (25%)
13.8 oz. Olive Oil (25%)
13.8 oz. Palm Oil (25%)
7.7 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
18.2 oz. Distilled Water
Titanium Dioxide
Merlot Sparkle Mica
Electric Bubble Gum Colorant
Green Chrome Oxide Pigment
1.4 oz. Lime Fragrance Oil
1.6 oz. Tobacco & Bay Leaf Fragrance Oil
Instructions
SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safe handling practices! That means goggles, gloves and long sleeves. Make sure kids, pets, and other distractions and tripping hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.
COLOR PREP: To ensure that the Titanium Dioxide blends smoothly into the soap batter, we recommend micronizing it before dispersing it in oil. Please note this is an optional tip but it does help with the titanium dioxide clumping in the soap. =) To micronize colorant, simply use a coffee grinder to blend the colorant to break up any clumps of color and prevent streaks of white from showing in the final soap. We like to use a coffee grinder that has a removable, stainless steel mixing area for easy cleaning. Then, disperse 1 teaspoon of the colorant into 1 tablespoon of sunflower or sweet almond oil (or any other liquid oil). Then in separate containers, disperse 1 teaspoon of the Merlot Sparkle Mica, Electric Bubble Gum Colorant and Green Chrome Oxide into 1 tablespoon of lightweight liquid oil. Use a mini mixer to get rid of any clumps.
FRAGRANCE PREP: Measure 1.6 ounces of Tobacco & Bay Leaf Fragrance Oil and 1.4 ounces of the Lime Fragrance Oil into a glass, fragrance oil safe container.
MOLD PREP: This project requires the old version of the Silicone Liner for the 5 lb Wood Mold. If you have the new, thicker version of the liner (created in March 2016), the Multi-Pour Sectioning Tool will not fit in the mold. It only fits with the old, thinner version of the mold. If you have the new mold, good news! The Multi-Pour Sectioning Tool still fits great when this mold is lined with freezer paper. For tips on lining your mold, check out this blog post.
Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water and gently stir until the lye has fully dissolved and the liquid is clear. Set aside to cool.
Melt and combine the coconut oil, canola oil, avocado oil, olive oil, palm oils (remember to fully melt then mix your entire container of palm oil before portioning). Once the lye water and the oils have cooled to 130 degrees or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils and stick blend until a very thin trace. If you’d like a harder bar of soap that releases faster from the mold, you can add sodium lactate to the cooled lye water. Use 1 teaspoon of sodium lactate per pound of oils in the recipe. For this recipe, you’d add about 3.5 teaspoons sodium lactate.
Once the batter has reached a thin trace, split the batch into three even containers.
Add the dispersed colorants in the following amounts to each container. Use a whisk to thoroughly mix in the colorants. Container A (White): All the dispersed titanium dioxide. Container B (Red): 2 tsp. dispersed Merlot Sparkle Mica + 1 tsp. Electric Bubble Gum Colorant Container C (Green): 1 tsp. dispersed Green Chrome Oxide.
Add the fragrance oil blend to each container equally, it’s okay to eyeball it. Use a whisk to thoroughly mix the fragrance.
f the soap is still very thin, give each container a few short bursts with the stick blender to thicken slightly. The mixture should be thin enough to pour and swirl, but having a little bit of thickness prevents the soap from seeping under the Multi Pour Sectioning Tool dividers. Begin pouring the various colors into the three sections. I like to pour a small amount of each color into each section, then move onto the next color to evenly fill up the sections. Be careful to not overfill any sections; you want each to have an equal amount of soap in each before you pull out the dividers to prevent on color from covering the color next to it.
Once each section is full and level, remove the center piece up and out. Then, slowly and carefully pull the long center dividers up and out. Set aside. Finally, pull the small end liners straight out and set aside.
Insert a dowel or chopstick into the very top of the soap between the red and white stripes. Use a small “S” shaped curve to swirl the colors together all the way down the length of the mold. Repeat this swirl between the white and green stripes of soap.
Spritz the top of the soap with 99% isopropyl alcohol to help prevent soda ash. To help the colors in this soap pop, I recommend promoting gel phase. Since my soaping area was on the cool side, I covered the soap with a lid and placed the mold on a heating pad set to medium for about 30 minutes. Then, I turned off the heating pad and let the soap sit covered overnight. Allow the soap to stay in the mold for 3-4 days. Remove from the mold, and cut into bars. Allow the bars to cure for 4-6 weeks to allow them to fully cure. Enjoy!
Recipe by Soap Queen at https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cinco-de-mayo-cold-process-soap-tutorial/