This may seem a bit early for Christmas, but with soap’s minimum 3-week aging time, it’s actually a bit late. I made this soap the second week of November with my friend Jess to have it ready in time to give as Christmas gifts. It’s a great bar; seasonally coloured and scented with all my favourite Christmas smells. Cinnamon, cloves, oranges, and vanilla. Yum.
The recipe is pretty standard. I used oxides for the colours and vanilla flecks for a bit of texture and the vanilla scent. A bit of clay adds some slip and extra cleansing oomph, and unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) adds some luxury.
Christmas Stripe Soap
40% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
30% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
10% unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)
15% beef tallow
5% castor oil (USA / Canada)30g essential oils of clove, cinnamon, and orange per 500g oils
2020 update: Given the irritation potential for this essential oil blend, I’d recommend using a Christmas spice fragrance oil rather than the essential oil blend. Please refer to supplier documentation for maximum usage rates for the particular fragrance oil you’re using when used in soap.
1 tbsp white white kaolin clay (USA / Canada) per 500g oils
2 tsp vanilla flecks per 500g oils
Red and green chromium oxides
Follow my basic soap making instructions, adding the clay, vanilla flecks, and essential oils at trace. You’ll want a good, thick trace so you can get distinct layers. Divide the soap into thirds. Colour one batch red, one green, and leave one for your white/neutral layer. Layer them in the mould with the neutral in the middle. Sharply rap the mould on the counter to knock out any air bubbles.
Do you add all the essential oils at once or add them separately one to each layer?
I generally just add them all at once. I’ve gone to the trouble of making each layer a different scent before, and you simply cannot tell in the end, so now I simplify things and do it all together.
I was wondering, how much of each oil did you use? Clove can be so overpowering, I wouldn’t want to drown out the orange!
It was mostly cinnamon and orange, with just a hint of clove. For 500g of oils it would be about 15g orange, 12g cinnamon, and 3g cloves. Take that with a grain of salt, though—essential oils vary, so be sure to blend until you like it 🙂
I want to make this soap but am not sure what vanilla flecks are. Are these the seeds from the vanilla bean?
Hi Patty! You can buy vanilla bean specks/flecks here, they are the ground up shells leftover after the extract has been removed. They’re a nice way of using up what could be a waste product, and they’re pretty inexpensive given how light the powder is 🙂
Can you please tell me where you’re buying vanilla flecks? I can’t find them anywhere.
Saffire Blue sells them 🙂 (Link above in the big box).