The part of the world I currently live in is not known for having amazing summers. Amazing summer days? Sure. But summers on the whole? Reliable beautiful days, all in a row, without question? Not so much. We’re moreso known for “Monsoon June”, mild to severe flooding, crazy car-destroying hail and thunderstorms, and then the odd beautiful day that makes you forget it all. Our reprieve is often September, and sometimes even early October, which can be downright beautiful. That’s what this soap celebrates.
This period of time can be known as an “Indian Summer”—a rather dated term. It is generally acknowledged to be a spell of unseasonably warm weather after a hard frost. Last year we had a solid dump of (unseasonably early) snow in early September that was soon followed by temperatures close to 30°C/86°F—I’d say that qualifies. The Farmer’s Almanac has several other defining characteristics, including “As well as being warm, the atmosphere during Indian summer is hazy or smoky, there is no wind, the barometer is standing high, and the nights are clear and chilly.” I liked that bit.
Those bubbles are why we rap the mould on the corner. They aren’t really noticeable in the final soap, but it’s still best to avoid them if we can 🙂
So, to start with this soap is blue, fading to yellow and gold, like the autumn sky fading into the foliage. I’ve gone with paler tones to avoid making a bar of soap that leaves you wondering where that striking yellow streak on your thigh came from some morning in the shower.
Blue ultramarine is INTENSE!
Layer one of the soap goes down.
The scent of the soap is bright, warm, and spicy, with a hint of smoke. It’s both intriguing and comforting. A blend of fresh camphor, spicy cinnamon, smokey cade, and sweet benzoin comes together for a nice “hmm… what is that?” sort of blend that’s really lovely.
There are four distinct layers in this soap, though you could do more if you were feeling inspired. Because the soap batter ends up being a bit golden on its own I started by colouring a good portion of the batter blue, laying down a blue layer, and then adding some uncoloured batter to the remaining blue to fade the colour towards yellow. The center layer is plain ‘ol batter toned, and the top layer has yellow iron oxide added to amp up the golden hue.
A golden swirl topping is easy enough to do—just blend about half a teaspoon of golden mica with whatever liquid oil you have on hand. Drizzle that over the top of the soap, and then drag a toothpick about in it until you have a bunch of lovely swirls.
All in all, if you’re reasonably comfortable with cold process soap I think you’ll find this a reasonably simple soap to make—and a beautifully layered one to unmould and share 🙂
Second Summer Soap
25% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
25% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
30% beef tallow (why beef tallow?)
15% unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)
5% castor oil (USA / Canada)Per 500g (1.1lbs) of oils:
- 1 pinch tussah silk or ½ tsp silk peptides
- 2 tsp sodium lactate (USA / Canada) (optional—hardens the bars)
- 1 tbsp white white kaolin clay (USA / Canada)
- 13g | 0.46oz camphor essential oil
- 10g | 0.35oz cinnamon bark essential oil
- 6g | 0.21oz benzoin essential oil
- 2 drops cade essential oil (vetiver essential oil or birch tar essential oil are good alternatives)
- Blue ultramarine
- Yellow iron oxide
- For the gold topping swirl: ½ tsp gold mica + 1 tsp liquid oil of choice
2020 update: Given the irritation potential for cinnamon essential oil, I’d recommend using a cinnamon-y fragrance oil rather than the essential oil. Please refer to supplier documentation for maximum usage rates for the particular fragrance oil you’re using when used in soap/rinse-off products.
Kick things off by calculating out your recipe (unsure about how to use SoapCalc? I made a video to walk you through it!) for the amount of soap you’re making to get the finite amounts of the fats, lye, and water. Ensure you’re familiar with standard soap making procedure before diving in.
Follow my standard soap making instructions. Add the tussah silk to the lye water, pulling it apart into smaller bits to encourage it to dissolve. If using, add the sodium lactate (USA / Canada) to the lye water after it has cooled and stir to combine. If you’re using the sodium lactate (USA / Canada) I strongly encourage you let your fats and lye water come to room temperate before combining. I haven’t tried using the sodium lactate (USA / Canada) above room temperature, but I do notice a much, much faster trace than I would usually get at room temperature, and it’ll only get faster at higher temperatures.
Once your soap batter has reached trace, blend in the clay and essential/fragrance oils. Then, pour about 1/3 of the batter into another bowl.
Using an immersion blender (important! Don’t do this without a blender if you want even, uniform colour), blend a small amount of blue ultramarine into the batter until you have a pale, yet distinct, blue. You’ll be amazed at how potent the ultramarine is—you can see in a photo above how much I used.
Pour about 70% of the blue batter into the bottom of your mould and smooth it out. This is your deep blue layer.
Add some more of the uncoloured batter to the remaining blue and combine. This is your paler blue layer. Add a wee bit more ultramarine if you need to. You’re aiming for a colour that’s roughly halfway between the blue and the uncoloured batter. Spread the pale blue over the dark blue, taking care not to stir the layers together.
Use about half the remaining uncoloured batter to create your next layer (the first yellow layer). Blend a bit of yellow iron oxide into the last of the batter (go by eye—add and blend until you have something slightly but noticeably darker than the previous layer) and use that to create your top layer.
Be sure to firmly rap your mould against the counter to knock out as many air bubbles as you can—this is especially important if your batter is very thick.
For the topping, drizzle the gold mica/oil mixture lightly over the top of the soap, and then swirl the drizzles into pretty patterns with a toothpick.
Cover and let the soap saponify for at least 24 hours before removing it from the mould and slicing. Let the soap age for at least 3 weeks before using. Enjoy!
So beautiful!
Thanks, Signe!
I have made your L’Occitane lotion. I love the recipe but some bottles overflow after they have been bottled . Am I whipping them too much?
Hmm, odd. Which emulsifying wax are you using?
I use Emulsifying Wax NF
From Dr. adorable
Ok, I’m familiar with that wax and haven’t had this problem. Are you letting them cool to room temperature before bottling? Have you added anything not in the recipe, like a preservative?
I didn’t add anything other than what your recipe calls for. Your L’Occitaine recipe.
I wonder if I whip it too much? It is at room temp when I bottle it. It doesn’t happen every time, but when it does it is like Mt. Vesuvius! I love your website.
Hmm. I’m afraid I’m out of ideas, then—I’ve never had this happen to me :/ I did find this, though, and it’s really interesting reading!
Thanks for all of the info. I made another batch of lotion with Patchouli EO in it and had mold in it within 2 weeks. Oh well, will keep working on it. It also “erupted”. I’m going to try to not whip it so much and see what happens.
It sounds like you need to include a preservative—here’s an article on ’em 🙂 That might solve your volcano problem, too, if it’s caused by bacterial growth.
May be the prettiest soap I have ever seen! I don’t have tallow. What is a good substitution?
Thank you, Linda! Read more about using tallow in soap & alternatives here 🙂
This soap inspires me. Bravo, Marie! It IS exactly what my early Autumh days are feeling like where I live.
(No more putting off buying ultramarine oxide. )
Thank you!
Cj
Thanks, Cristie! I had a lot of fun with this one 🙂
Hello Marie,
I can’t imagine how this will smell as I’ve never used camphor but am intrigued enough to order some and intend to give this a go.
Quick question. Do you have any problems with Benzoin making the soap batter seize? The reason I ask. I’ve made a couple of batches of a soap with verbena, lavender, mandarin and benzoin essential oils and each time it has hardened up pretty much as soon as the essential oils are added to the mix. I’ve used the base soap recipe loads of times with other essential oils and never had this happen. I’ve managed to work round it and layer the soap with veins of cocoa powder to create a great marble effect as I can get wonky layers. Just wondered if you had this problem with benzoin?
With very best wishes,
Jonathan
Hmm. I never have, but I know there are all kinds of benzoin available. Do you have a link to a product page for the one you’re using? I use this one.
This was maybe the worst tasting fudge I ever had.
🙁 …. 😀 Hahahahahahhahahha
Hi there,
Just tried this recipe in a silicone mold but the corners and bottoms all stuck to the mold. Maybe this recipe isnt hard enough for silicon molds, any suggestions to make it a harder bar?
Hi Britt! It just sounds like you didn’t leave it in the mould long enough. I find that soaps in silicone moulds take longer to set up (probably because silicone doesn’t insulate as well as wood). I left my fruitcake soap in the mould for about 4 days before taking it out to guarantee it would be hard enough to safely remove. You can also try popping the whole lot in the freezer for an hour or two before removing the soap from the mould.
Where do you get your tallow? Thanks
I’ve ordered it from Saffire Blue and got it from my local grocery shop and rendered it myself 🙂
hi! love your recipes! I have decided to finally make this my first CP soap 🙂 but of course the flash bright gold mica is being discontinued 🙁 I have looked at a few other gold mica colors but not sure what would give me the same gold effect, any suggestions? Thanks!!
sorry I posted this on the wrong soap recipe haha I meant for the cp soap pink lemonade soap lol!
Honestly, just use what you can get. It’ll still be pretty, I promise! There’s no magic rocket science behind this 🙂
Hello,
I’m a longtime follower of your blog and really enjoy your recipes.
I’m really sad to see the name you chose for this soap. Indigenous peoples is the preferred term (not Indian, which can feel derogatory).
Would you reconsider the name of this soap, and changing it to something else that does not refer to an entire group of people who have been historically marginalized and oppressed?
Thank you!!
Natalie
Good idea—done! And sorry for the delay; leaving the comment unapproved was a good way of keeping this on my to-do list until I could find the time to dig through my photography archives for several years so I could re-make the header image 🙂