This simple, warm, wintery soap is just the thing for January. The first month of the year is typically hit with at least one cold snap here in Calgary, necessitating hot tea and warm baking and a general refusal to leave the house for anything less important than a tropical vacation (or a dog walk). I might, however, make an exception for some warm spiced bread pudding, good whiskey, and good company. While devoid of both whiskey and raisins, this Winter Custard soap can be your sudsy cold snap respite, with its lovely sparkly top and warm, creamy yellow colour. Mmmm.

How to Make Winter Custard Soap

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These bars are pretty simple, so if making your own soap is one of your new year’s resolutions, this is a pretty good place to start. The batter traces well, but not too quickly, and we aren’t doing anything too fussy with it (other than some pretty toothpick swirls on top, which aren’t very stressful at all).

How to Make Winter Custard Soap

How to Make Winter Custard Soap

One of my favourite things about this soap is how it changes colour as it saponifies. When you’re making it, it’s a lovely creamy white, but when you cut it—bam! It has magically become a warm, custardy yellow. This is thanks to the inclusion of cinnamon bark essential oil, which I think is pretty darn nifty. The cinnamon bark essential oil transforms our creamy white soap into a custardy yellow soap that leaves me craving this one particular breakfast place that pours custard over waffles along with a mountain of fresh fruit. Swoon.

How to Make Winter Custard Soap

How to Make Winter Custard Soap

The rest of the essential oil blend is warm, woodsy Himalayan cedarwood, and bright, punchy peppermint. The cinnamon bark plays a surprisingly small role in the scent department considering its impact on the soap’s colour, warming up the blend and adding a hint of spice. If you don’t have cinnamon bark essential oil (it has gone up in price quite a lot since I purchased mine), you can try cinnamon leaf or cassia essential oils instead, though I can’t make any promises on if the colour change will still happen.

How to Make Winter Custard Soap

How to Make Winter Custard Soap

Alright—let’s go make some Winter Custard soap! If you’re new to soaping, I definitely recommend watching the video as well 🙂

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Winter Custard Soap

40% rice bran oil
25% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
20% beef tallow (wondering why?)
10% avocado oil
5% castor oil (USA / Canada)

Calculate to 5% superfat

Per 500g oils:

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  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 then 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).

While everything is cooling, weigh out your essential oils, and measure out the clay. In a small bowl, whisk together about 1/2 tsp white sparkly mica/glitter and a tiny bit of blue mica with some extra rice bran oil.

Once the melted fats and lye water are just slightly warmer than room temperature, follow standard soap making procedure to bring them to trace. Once you have a relatively thin trace, blend in the essential oils and kaolin clay. Pour the batter into your mould and leave it to set up for 10–15 minutes before we do the topping.

When the batter has had the chance to set up a bit, scatter the bluish mica mixture over top, sprinkle with glitter, and finish it off with some toothpick swirls. Let the soap saponify in the mould for 2–3 days before slicing. Age for 4–5 weeks before using. Enjoy!

How to Make Winter Custard Soap

How to Make Winter Custard Soap