I seem to have a thing for turning my favourite beverages into soaps. Café Latté, Gin and Tonic, and now a Chai Latté. This wonderful, rich soap is scented with ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and vanilla. I blended white kaolin clay (USA / Canada) with milk powder, ground cloves, ground ginger, and ground cinnamon to give a hint of exfoliation. And, with the help of Annie and Sven, we got the mysterious red soap thing sorted out!

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The magical red colour is a result of milk and cinnamon bark essential oil (cinnamomun cassia blume) mingling together in a bar of soap. The red colour isn’t as pronounced here as it is in the Cinnamon Oatmeal soap I made a few months ago because all the spices and essential oils made the initial soap darker. It’s still got a very distinct red tint to it, though.

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These bars have a warm, rich lather, making them wonderful for shampooing and shaving. The blend of spices and essential oils will also help increase circulation when the soap is used on your skin, so don’t be surprised if you feel a bit of a warming tingle.

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Chai Latté Soap

35% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
25% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
15% lard
15% unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)
10% castor oil (USA / Canada)

Per 500g (1.1lbs) oils:

Blend the clay, milk powder, and spices together.

Follow my standard soap making instructions (calculate for a 6% superfat). When the soap reaches trace, add the essential oils and clay mixture. Pour the soap into the mold. Let saponify in the mold for 24 hours before slicing and curing for at least 3 weeks.

Before saponification, just after pouring into the mould. You can see it's not red at all here.

Before saponification, just after pouring into the mould. You can see it’s not red at all here.

After saponification—the bars are now a deep, russet red!

After saponification—the bars are now a deep, russet red!