Feeling festive? It’s the perfect time of year to make thoughtful gifts for friends and family, so why not impress with a handmade Christmas soap bar?
Using natural butters and oils, this soap is great for nourishing dry skin, especially during the harsh winter months.
We are using festive colours like red, green and white to make a beautiful colourful soap bar. To capture the scent of Christmas, we have chosen to blend cinnamon, orange, pine and cardamom essential oils!
Let’s have a go at our Christmas soap recipe…
Makes 9-10 bars of soap
Equipment:
- Gloves
- Goggles
- Digital scales
- Digital thermometer
- Stick blender
- Soap mould or DIY alternative (Try our silicone soap moulds for a clean and elegant look!)
- Silicone spatula
- Heatproof bowl
- Plastic measuring jugs, ideally 2x 1L and 1x 2L
- Small bowls x3
Ingredients:
- Olive oil 280g | 304ml
- Kokum butter 240g
- Coconut oil 240g
- Castor oil 40g | 41ml
- Water 240g | 240ml
- Sodium hydroxide 114g
- Cinnamon oil 5g | 5ml
- Orange oil 10g | 12ml
- Pine oil 9g | 10ml
- Cardamom oil 1g | 1ml
- Red oxide mica powder 10g
- Emerald green mica powder 10g
Method:
1. Make the sodium hydroxide solution
- Put your gloves and goggles on.
- Open the window, the fumes will be unpleasant.
- Weigh the water.
- Weigh the sodium hydroxide.
- Add the sodium hydroxide to the water, not the other way around.
- Mix well until combined.
- Leave to cool down, it will be hot.
2. Weigh and heat the oils
- Weigh the olive oil, kokum butter, coconut oil and castor oil
- Heat over a pan of boiling water, or using short bursts in the microwave
- Mix well until combined
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool
3. Weigh the essential oils and mica powder
- Weigh the cinnamon, orange, pine and cardamom essential oils
- Mix to combine
- Split the essential oils into three separate bowls.
- In one bowl, add the red oxide mica powder and mix with the essential oils.
- In the other bowl, add the emerald green mica powder and mix with the essential oils.
- You should then have one extra bowl with just essential oils in it.
4. Check the temperatures
- Test the temperature of your melted oils, they should be between 35C and 40C.
- Reheat them or leave them to cool more if necessary
- Test the temperature of the sodium hydroxide solution, it should be between 25C and 40C.
- Leave to cool if necessary, but don't reheat if it's too cool. Just heat the oils a little more to compensate.
5. Blend until trace
- When the temperatures are right, add the sodium hydroxide solution to the oil mixture
- Mix with the stick blender and blend with short bursts.
- Watch for the mixture starting to thicken.
- Test for light trace by dripping soap batter on the surface of the mixture. If the drips sit on the surface for a second, then your mixture has reached a light trace.
6. Add the colours
- When your soap has reached a light trace, split it into three portions.
- Add the red essential oil blend to one third and mix well until the colour and essential oils have fully dispersed.
- Add the green essential oil blend to the other third and mix well.
- Then add the remaining essential oils to the last third and mix well.
- The mixtures should have reached a normal trace by now. Test for trace by dripping soap batter on the surface of the mixture. If the drips sit on the surface then your mixture has reached trace.
- If they are not at this stage, give them a short burst with the blender until they reach trace.
7. Pour into moulds
- First, pour the red soap mixture into the mould and ensure it is evenly spread across the bottom of the mould.
- Then, pour the green soap mixture on top of the red soap. Don’t pour it from high up, I would recommend pouring it as close to the mould as possible.
- Ensure the green is evenly spread across the mould.
- If you want to add some swirls, carefully move the two colours around with a spoon handle. You can see how we create a swirl here.
- Finally, pour the white mixture on top of the green, ensuring to pour it as close to the mould as possible.
- Again, use a spoon handle to swirl the top two layers together.
- Tap the mould to get rid of air bubbles and cover with towels to insulate the soap.
- Leave on a flat surface for 48 hours before unmoulding
8. Unmould and cure
- Take your soap out from the mould and cut it into equal sizes.
- Put the bars with gaps in between them, and leave to cure for 4-6 weeks.
Continue Reading
Now you know how to make a Christmas soap, why not try more recipes?
- Want to try more cold process soap recipes? Try soap recipe using natural avocado oil here!
- Learn how to make your own face cream with our calendula face cream recipe!
- Read about the differences between essential oils and fragrance oils in this blog!
Let us know how you found this Christmas soap recipe in the comments!
