Today’s soap is in honour of Robbie Burns’ day, but it also doubles up nicely as a Valentine’s Day soap with its rosy scent and dusty pink layers. I had a lot of fun making this soap, even though it turned into a bit of a learning experience (a.k.a. things didn’t go precisely as planned!). Though it’s not quite what I had in my imagination when I started soaping I love how the rustic angled layers turned out in the end, and I hope you will as well!
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This soap employs (or was supposed to employ…) the super even layer technique I learned from Ariane. The general gist of the super even layer technique is this: bring the soap batter to a very thin trace in batches, pouring each layer and leaving it to set up a bit before bringing another portion to trace and gently pouring that over the previous layer. This allows us to ensure every layer is poured at an absolutely liquid trace so gravity can do all the levelling. Once you’ve got this down there’s lots of fun to be had with different angles, portion sizes, and so on.
The corner layer technique isn’t a new one for me, and I know from experience that a very thin trace is essential to success. As I was gathering ingredients for this particular soap I decided to use up my bottle of rose water lemonade fragrance oil, blending it with some rose fragrance oil to create a slightly citrussy rose medley. I googled the fragrance oil to find out if it was likely to cause any soaping disasters and all that was really noted was some slight warm/brown tinting over time and slight acceleration, which sounded like it should be fine.
Uh, spoiler alert… it was not quite as fine as I’d hoped. It turns out that the acceleration, which was pretty slight, was still enough to be troublesome for what I wanted to do. The bottom layer ended up much thicker than I’d been planning for, so that layer ended up rather… rustic. I smoothed it out as best I could, but nothing replaces a thin trace and gravity! For the second layer I brought it to trace first, and then stirred in the fragrance before pouring. That worked much better, and that layer has a pretty even top to it.
I did the same thing with the third layer, but in my haste to pour while the batter was as thin as possible I didn’t incorporate the fragrance oil and titanium dioxide as thoroughly as I thought I had, leading to some interesting white wispy bits and brown spots where we get quite a lot of that slight brown tinting happening all in one place. Whoops. If I was going to make this soap again I would avoid any fragrances that have even the barest mention of acceleration anywhere in the reviews—it’d make life way easier! Learn from my slightly blotchy soap and avoid any fragrance you aren’t sure about. And, if you do stir the fragrance in by hand, make sure you do a good job!
Here you can see a little brown hotspot or two and some white wispy bits. I’m a on the fence about using this soap due to concerns about those higher concentration spots of fragrance being potentially irritating—what do you think?
I let the top batter set up a bit before swooshing it around with the back of a spoon and studding it with some dried rose buds. A bit of a mica swirl or dusting would be lovely as well if you’re feeling it. Because this batter is designed to be softer to make it easier to achieve a very light trace I’d recommend aging these bars for at least four or five weeks after slicing, depending on ambient humidity. You might also consider a bit of a water discount if you’re feeling confident with the technique and your fragrance oils!
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Red Red Rose Soap
25% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
25% beef tallow (wondering why?)
45% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
5% castor oil (USA / Canada)Calculate to 5% superfat
Per 500g fats:
- 30g (1.06 oz) rose fragrance
- 7g (0.25 oz) white kaolin clay (USA / Canada)
To colour:
- Australian Pink Clay, pre-dispersed in olive oil (as needed)
- Titanium dioxide, pre-dispersed in olive oil (as needed)
Kick things off by calculating out your recipe for the amount of soap you’re making to get the finite amounts of the fats, lye, and water. Unsure about how to use SoapCalc? I made a video to walk you through it! Please ensure you’re familiar with standard soap making procedure before diving in (click that link if you aren’t!).
Prepare your mould—you’ll want a loaf mould for this soap. Melt your oils together in your soaping pot, and have one container with a pouring spout handy (I use these awesome funnel pitchers). Let your oils cool to slightly warmer than room temperature. Mix up your lye water and let that cool to about room temperature (you can use ice for part of your water to speed up the cooling process).
The set-up for this soap is a bit more involved. As your lye water is cooling and your fats are melting, it’s time to do some math. Add up the weight of the lye, the water, and the kaolin clay. Write that number down. Now, divide it into five, and make note of what 20% (or 1/5) and 60% (or 3/5) of that weight is. Do the same for the weight of the oils. So, if you were making a batch with 1000g of oils, the numbers you’d have for the oils would be 200g for 20%, and 600g for 60%. We’ll be doing two 20% sections (for a total of 40%) and one 60% section (40% + 60% = 100%).
You’ll also want to ensure all of your other ingredients are all ready so you aren’t left scrambling and don’t potentially end up with too thick of a trace. Lay out your work area so you can easily grab your pre-dispersed pink clay, and be sure to pre-disperse the clump-prone titanium dioxide in some extra liquid oil so you don’t have to over-blend the batter to smoothly incorporate it.
Prepare your mould by lining it (if required), and then propping one long edge of it up on something about 1”/3cm tall—the angle created by this propping is what will create our angled corner. Ensure the mould is stable and well balanced, and that it’s sitting somewhere you can easily access it, but won’t need to move it immediately after pouring.
Now you’re ready to get started! Begin by blending the kaolin clay into the lye water. Now, pour 20% (by weight!) of your lye solution and fats into a secondary container. Add 20% of your fragrance and enough pre-dispersed pink clay to create a deep pink and bring the lot to a very thin trace. Pour that into your mould (take care not to pour down the sides—pour straight into the bottom on the mould), and then leave it for twenty minutes (set a timer).
After twenty minutes have passed, bring another 20% of the batter to trace, adding another 20% fragrance and enough pre-dispersed pink clay to create a light pink. Pour the thin pale pink batter into the still-angled mould, breaking its fall by pouring it over a spatula held close to the surface of the darker pink layer.
After twenty minutes have passed, bring the remaining 60% of the batter to a very thin trace, adding some titanium dioxide to ensure it is relatively white (don’t forget the last 60% of the fragrance!). Level out the mould, and pour the thin white batter into the mould, breaking its fall by pouring it over a spatula held close to the surface of the blue corner.
Once the white batter has been poured, leave it to set for ten minutes before scooping and sculpting the top with the back of the spoon and studding the top with dried rose buds. Leave to saponify for about 36 hours before removing it from your mould and slicing; be sure to slice it through the side so you don’t drag rose bud bits through the bars from the top down. Place the soap somewhere cool and dry to age for at four to five weeks before using or gifting. Enjoy!
I would use this soap in a hot minute. It looks lovely and I’ll bet it smells divine!
Thanks so much, Deborah! It does smell pretty darn lovely—my whole house smelled like roses when we came home from Christmas 😀
You bet if use it! Its on and off and down the drain and its soap. Soap will pick it right back off your skin.
Not a lot of people know of Robbie Burns or I like Rabbie Burns better. More authentic and wasn’t he a handsome devil! His is just before my birthday, I like to give him a little toast in silence because no one would understand. But no haggis.
Beautiful soap!
Excellent point, Cristie! I really like doing Robbie Burns inspired DIYs—I used to do a Highland Fling at a school assembly in full regalia, but that’s not really a part of my life anymore haha.
Oh, and the scotch. Can’t forget about that!
This soap is beautiful. I don’t know enough about soapmaking to give advice about the fragrance brown spots being too irritating for use. You did an excellent job otherwise as always. I admire your work and knowledge!
Thanks so much, Christine!
Ughs, this is why I stopped making lye based soap. I don’t have the energy to deal with acceleration, ricing, fragrances disappearing or realising that the soap is not what I expected after four weeks of waiting. I’m done, I’ll stick to melt and pour and syndets (by the way, I’d love you to give some recipe of syndet bars!).
I’ve got one syndet bar up, and I’m working on another 🙂
Can’t imagine those little brown spots causing any irritation since soap is washed off with so much water. Love that things come out a little different than you were intending and that you still shared it with us!! Makes me feel better about some of my oops!
Thanks so much, Amy! I was on the fence a bit about sharing this one, but in the end I figured it’s still lovely and hopefully people can learn from my experience ha 😛
I like the “rustic” bottom layer. And the way you sculpted the top really compliments it. It is so pretty.
Thanks so much, Cheryl! I am such a sucker for those beautiful scoopy, sculpty soap tops I see on Instagram all the time, swoon 😀
I would use it. That’s happened to me with forgetting the fragrance & mixing it in late. And the soap didn’t hurt my skin. The water while washing diluted it.
Thanks for your feedback and for sharing your experience! 😀
Marie & HB & Me folks – First, Marie, thank you for showing us this batch of soap. It reminds us that you too experience challenges, have to think on your feet and not everything works out as expected. After learning from your challenges, I checked the fragrance oil info regarding acceleration and discoloration (wouldn’t have done had I not seen your challenges—– and your oils weren’t known to accelerate trace!) I combined 2 FOs from Brambleberry, White Rose and English Rose. They both were known to accelerate trace and one encouraged gel phase. I also decided to tweak the procedures and tried something I never had before: pre-coloring the oils w/Australian clay and titanium dioxide before mixing with the lye.
I put the kaolin clay in the fats (I always put the clay in the fats), blended well, then re-weighed. I took that weight and then weighed out two pitchers with 20% and one containing 60% of the fat/clay mixture.
Then, I took the pink clay dispersed in oil, and colored my two 20% pitchers the colors I wanted them whizzing in w/the stick blender. I also put the dispersed titanium dioxide into the 60% pot and whizzed it the way I wanted it (never done this before).
I separated my lye water & lactate (I add 1 tsp sodium lactate per 500g) by weight into 20%, 20%, and 60%.
I also had my fragrance oil separated by weight in to 20%, 20%, and 60% dishes.
Then, I combined by darkest oil/clay mixture with the lye. I added fragrance at light trace & poured in my tilted mold and let sit until it was set. I repeated this with the other two layers. I popped the loaf in the fridge to avoid gel. I will post a picture when I have it cut. So far, it looks great.
While looking on Brambleberry for the notes on the FO’s acceleration, she had a SoapQueen post that discussed tips for folks who still wanted to try using accelerating scents AND making designs that usually require soap at thin trace vs. pudding.
Here is a link to her SoapQueen article: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/how-to-work-with-accelerating-fragrance-oils/?_ga=2.45985508.154472085.1548550381-2139030902.1548109084
Thank you so much for all of the information you share with us and for showing us that you are human.
Thank you so much for all these great tips, Jill! I will definitely have to try all of this the next time I want to get fancy with a suspicious FO, ha. It definitely goes to show that prep goes a long way to ensuring success, especially with things that are prone to going off the rails a bit 😛
Hello Marie.
Thank you so much for your awesome work.
I was wondering if you could help me I love Palmers Cocoa butter. It has mineral oil. Could you kindly suggest a formula without mineral oil butter with the same moisturizering feel. I have really dry skin.
Good morning Ifeoma!
Marie has made a number of body butter recipes and a huge amount of lotion recipes! They are all amazing!