This soaping technique is really easy, it just takes a bit of extra time. You’ll need at least three days; not all of that is active time, of course, but you will be making two separate batches of soap. One for the dots, and one to suspend them in. For this you’ll need to know how to make soap, so check out my tutorial if you don’t.
Once the first batch has set up (but not hardened fully, maybe 20ish hours after the pour), roll the soap into little balls. You can do a variety of sizes or make them uniform, but keep in mind the size of the bars you’ll be making. I probably made my balls a bit big for these bars—they kind of take over the bar.
Suspending batch time! Woo. The only real trick here is making sure your trace is thick enough to support the balls of soap so they don’t all sink to the bottom. You can test this by dropping one of the soap balls into the pot of raw soap. If it sinks, keep blending.
Time to polka-dot! Grab your lined mold and start with a thin layer of the suspending soap. Sprinkle a few of the soap balls in, and then some more suspending soap. Keep this up, being fairly random (but even) with the dot distribution.
Let the soap saponify as usual. Slice, and let cure for at least three weeks. Voila!
Hello, I’ve been following your blog and enjoyed reading and learning about soap making and other DIY ideas. I remember reading specific dimensions of the soap mould your dad made you, but I am unable to find it now, do you mind sharing the dimensions of your rectangle soap mould or point me to the blog? thank you!
Hi Amy! The inner measurements of my mold are 15″ long, 3.5″ across, and 3.5″ deep. I have a series of dividers that support the lid; they are 2.75″ high, giving the mold an effective depth of 2.75″ (the lid is 0.75″ thick). Each inch of the mold holds 100g/oils of soap; so the entire mold holds a 1500g of oils batch of soap. It’s also exactly as long as sheets of parchment are long, meaning it’s super easy to line as well. Basically, it’s the perfect size!