This beautiful dusty-blue gradiated Winter Wonderland Christmas Soap is my last soap of the 2016 Christmas soaping season, and I love it. I tried a new technique for the first time, and while I’m super excited to play with it more and improve, I’m still really happy with how these bars turned out.
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I’ve been really inspired by the work of Linda O’Sullivan on Instagram lately (seriously, go creep her feed and prepare to be awed!), so that’s where the inspiration for these bars came from. She makes the most stunning ombre/gradient soaps and I’ve been swooning over her beautiful bars for months now, and I finally worked up the courage to try it.
You can see why you need to add some oil to get a feel for what the colour will be like!
Something I was really interested in trying was this technique for getting perfectly level layers. I tried it, and while I obviously didn’t nail it, I have a few ideas as to why. First off, my trace wasn’t thin enough in most of my layers, so I didn’t get that automatic even settling out that thin liquids will do in a container. I did tweak this recipe from my usual base recipe to drop the shea so I could have a thinner trace, but it clearly wasn’t enough. Noted for next time!
Adjusting the colours with more indigo.
My final coloursāthere’s a good view of them in the video as well š
Second, I didn’t wait long enough between pouring the layers, meaning the layer beneath hadn’t had enough time to set up and support the layer being poured on top. Next time I do this, I’ll probably wait ten minutes between layers to try and prevent this. And third; I didn’t use a level to check that my surface/mould was level, so I suppose if I want to keep doing soaps like this, I should buy one.
I used indigo to colour the soap, and I am smitten with it. It gives a much more muted, cooler blue than ultramarine blue, and I love its subtlety. You can absolutely use blue ultramarine instead if that’s what you’ve got, or if you want a brighter blue.
I used a vegetable peeler to bevel the edges of the bars.
The scent blend is a lovely, cool one for winter; mostly soft spearmint with a crisp hit of cajeput and a warm, subtle vanilla base note from some benzoin. Yum! Anyhow, let’s dive in. I’m glad I filmed this recipe so you can see how I did it, because writing it all out was a bear and I’m still not sure it’s much clearer than mud š If you make these Winter Wonderland Christmas Soap bars I’d love it if you shared a photo with me via Facebook or Instagram š
Winter Wonderland Christmas Soap
25% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
25% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
30% beef tallow or lard (why?)
15% soybean oil
5% castor oil (USA / Canada)Calculate to a 5% superfat
Per 500g oils:
- 18g | 0.63oz spearmint essential oil
- 7g | 0.25oz cajeput essential oil
- 5g | 0.21oz benzoin essential oil
- Titanium dioxide, as needed
- Indigo powder, as needed
- White glitter or silver mica, as needed
- Extra soybean oil, as needed
Kick things off by calculating out your recipeĀ 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.
Prepare your mouldāyou’ll want a loaf mould for this soap. Weigh out your essential oils into a container with a pouring spout. Melt your oils together and transfer them to a container with a pouring spout (my 700g batch just fit in a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup and that was perfect). Let your oils cool to room temperature. Mix up your lye water in a container with a pouring spout (I use a pitcher that is only ever used for lye water) and let that cool to room temperature as well (you can use ice for part of your water to speed up the cooling process).
Mix about a teaspoon of your glitter/mica with some soybean oil in a small bowl and set that aside.
Divide the weight of your fats by 5, and write down that number. Divide the weight of your lye water by 5, and write down that number. And finally divide the weight of your essential oils by 5, and write down that number. For my 700g batch, that ended up being 140g of oils, 73g of lye water, and 8g of essential oils. I recommend rounding all your numbers down to account for the inevitable loss of some ingredients to the containers they’re in.
Set out five small bowls to measure your colourants into. For my 140g layers, I used 1/4 tsp titanium dioxide per layer, and from the second to fifth layer, I used progressively more indigo powder. Layer two had ~1/32 tsp indigo powder in it, and I roughly doubled that for each layer, but it was a lot of eyeballing and adjusting the colours based on what the dishes looked like all lined up. I was aiming for enough contrast to be noticeable, but nothing too extreme so I got that gradient look. You’ll need to whisk about 2 tsp of soybean oil into each dish so you can get a good feel for how the titanium dioxide and indigo are blending together (I got this awesome 12-pack of teensy whisks that has been super useful for all kinds of projects). Do be sparing with the indigo root as it is quite potent, and feel free to use the appearance of my dishes as a rough guide.
Now it’s time to prepare your work space. You’ll need a smaller container to blend your oils and lye together in (your soap pot will be too large unless you’re making a massive batch). I used a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup and that worked really well. Set out your five dishes of pigment. You’ll need your scale, so make sure you have that, and make sure your 1/5 weight measurements are written down somewhere you can easily refer back to them. You’ll want some flexible silicone spatulas on hand, as well as your immersion blender and some paper towels. Make sure you have a larger spoon or spatula to use as a pouring buffer as well. If you want to make sure your layers are even, use a level to ensure your mould is perfectly level.
Once your oils and lye water have both settled at room temperature, you can get started!
We’ll be bringing each layer to trace separately. To start, weigh 1/5 of the oils and 1/5 of the lye water into your smaller mixing container. You must do this by weight! Bring that to a thin trace, then blend in 1/5 of the essential oils and the white pigment blend. Pour that into your mould.
Layer #2! Weigh 1/5 of the oils and 1/5 of the lye water into your smaller mixing container.Ā Bring that to a thin trace, then blend in 1/5 of the essential oils and the palest blue pigment blend. Using the larger spatula as a shield, pour the soap over the spatula and into the mould, on top of the white layer (watch the video to see what that looks like).
Repeat for layers #3ā5, taking care not to let your trace get thick or the layers won’t settle out well on their own.
For the topping, drip the glitter/oil mixture over the top of the soap and use the tip of your spatula or a toothpick to swirl it around in an abstract manner. Cover the soap and leave it to saponify for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, remove your soap from the mould and slice it; be sure to slice it through the side so you don’t drag glitter through the bars with your knife. Leave the soap to age somewhere cool and dry for at least three weeks before gifting. If you want, a day or two after cutting you can use a vegetable peeler (or a fancy soap beveler) to bevel the edges of your bars. I waited a couple days so I was less likely to damage the soft soap when handling it.
Enjoy!
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I have been following your page for a couple years now and I love it. I have purchased most of my ingredients thus for from Saffire Blue and New Directions and been very satisfied with the quality of those products. But I live in the US so shipping is quite expensive for that. Sometimes I see a recipe and I need just ONE more thing to make it. I noticed recently that most of your ingredients have links to be found on Amazon. S I was super excited about this. Free shipping and it gets here fast. But I was wondering if the links you post are products that you have purchased yourself? I ordered the Indigo powder and it was a seaweed green color. Yours looks really blue in the pictures.
I ordered the same, I hope it’s blue?
I am having my doubts about the accuracy of that indigo listing :/ The ingredients say 100% indigo (which is what I looked at), but once you get down to the reviews, it honestly sounds like it’s henna, not indigo. Argh! I would return it and get something like this or use ultramarine blue. I’m so sorry, what a pain! I imagine Amazon should do free return shipping when you point out that their description is blatantly wrong, though.
I just ordered it too…been having a diff. time finding Indigo lately.
Can I pipe up? I agree, it sounds like you got the indigo meant to go with henna and not the pure indigo meant for batik or tie dying fabric. Try this: http://tinyurl.com/jmgtmno
Thank you! š
Hey Maggie! I have purchased some of the things I link to, but not all of them. If you think shipping from Canada to the US is bad, try the reverse! Not only is the Canadian dollar weaker, so everything is ~30% more, but the last box I had sent up from the US cost about $70 to ship and was only slightly larger than a shoe box. Readers have told me shipping from SB and NDA to the USA is ~$30, but that’s what it costs within Canada as well, so if that’s the case, it’s not so bad. Americans are, in general, pretty spoiled with cheap/free shipping almost everywhereāyou guys are so lucky!
I am having my doubts about the accuracy of that indigo listing, though :/ The ingredients say 100% indigo (which is what I looked at), but once you get down to the reviews, it honestly sounds like it’s henna, not indigo. Argh! I would return it and get something like this or use ultramarine blue. I’m so sorry, what a pain! I imagine Amazon should do free return shipping when you point out that their description is blatantly wrong, though.
No worries! Amazon does have a great return policy. 30.00 is about what it is, which, when I have a big order really isn’t that bad. I have like a 400.00 cart with NDA right now and a 200.00 with Saffire Blue. And to think, this all started because I was unhappy with store bought chapstick, now I’m a DIY addict lol
I know that feeling ha! I think shipping on my last NDA order was $40, and that was within Canada. Sigh. I love it, though š
Marie, I have been following you for 2+years. Your recipes are great. Thank you again for another wonderful recipe. I would not change the look of this soap as it resembles suttle waves of the ocean, Ahhh so relaxing. I cannot use tallow or lard as I have vegan friends I share my soaps with, but I will be making this soap soon. P.S. I preordered your book, yea!!
Barb
Thank you so much, Barb! I really enjoyed making this and can’t wait to keep playing with the technique š Happy soaping and thank you for pre-ordering my book!
I have not yet ‘dared’ to make my own soap from scratch. I do do have some melt and pour and I will recreate this lovely look for Xmas presents. Thanks for the inspiration!
Happy making! š
Ahhhh! I wish this came out yesterday morning! I would have attempted to do this with my sea buckthorn soap. Can you imagine the colour in that lovely orange?
And I cannot try this out until next week! I ran out of lye. Weep for me! Two more weeks of soaping left for me for the Christmas season. And if I do make it to England over Spring Festival, four more weeks of soaping as Christmas will be delayed!
Oooh, so pretty! Good call, too, it would be so pretty in oranges š
Marie, what a lovely soap you’ve made here. I can’t wait to try it. Thank you so much for sharing all the great products you make. You are such a doll and I love everything you do. Your videos are so fun to watch and very informative. Thanks again.
Thank you so much, Alison! š
Soap looks great as usual. I was wondering if the extra oil for mixing the colors needs to be run through the lye calculator. That’s 10 teaspoons or 50 grams. What about just mixing the colors as you go with a bit of the soap before you stick blend it? Or won’t it make much difference?
I don’t use extra oil, I use oil from my soap pot for oil soluble stuff like micas and clays and a tiny bit of glycerin for oxides. So far, no catastrophes. But I mean scant amounts most of the time, just enough to get them to mix and get lumps out.
I’m generally not that fussed about it since it is such a small amountāless than 50g, even, as oil is lighter than water. You could do what Persteph does, too, and steal some from the soap pot as well š I do find, though, that sometimes after I’ve blended up the colours + oils I don’t use all of them in the final soap, so I’d hate to be counting on all the oil in those wee dishes to complete my soap and then not want it all in the batch as I already had the colour I wanted. I definitely did that earlier this week and was glad not to be worrying about having too little oil in the soapāI’d rather have a bit extra š
So pretty! Great job. I love watching the soap being cut.
One question, not soap related- what kind of camera do you use? I am in the midst of camera searching. š
Thanks!!
I’m using a Nikon D750; I film with the 24-120mm kit lens and usually use a 60mm f2.8 macro for stills (though I will use a 50mm f1.4 for portraits and lower light work). I also have a Nikon D5000, which is what I started with (all photos here from 2015 and earlier are shot with that), and that’s also a great camera for digital work. I upgraded to the D750 because I did the vast majority of the photography for my book, and I needed a higher megapixel camera with a full frame sensor for that size of print work š Hope that helps, happy camera shopping!
Thanks so much for sharing, Marie!
Your photography skills are “the balm”!
You have a creative eye and your photos are very well done. My current camera is a 12mp with a crop sensor. With black Friday on it’s way though I am on the hunt for a good deal. š
Thanks again.
Keep up the excellent work. Your creations are inspiring.
Take care,
Leah
Thanks, haha! Being a professional graphic designer is basically a super power in my humble opinion š I’m definitely glad to have skills in web design, HTML, PHP, the Adobe Creative Suite, and photographyāthey are infinitely useful! Happy camera shopping š
I forgot to mention on the first read through. No need to buy a level. The iPhone has a feature in the compass. Open the compass app and swipe!
Ah, brilliant! I just used this trick for my next batch and it turned out pretty darn wellācheck Instagram!
I checked Instagram thingie. Love the grays!
I tried this out yesterday while I made some “sample” sized soaps (Christmas presents for my students). I noticed that the soaps I made with lard didn’t work very well as it got too thick too quickly. But I did notice the soaps I made with palm oil worked better as they remained a liquid longer.
Going to try this stripe thingie again today! Maybe on a larger scale rather than just tiny molds might work better. I need to say thank you for the idea of making soaps in mini batches, I used that method yesterday too. I made 6.7kg of soaps yesterday.
CHRISTMAS IS COMING!
Thanks! I just shared a full shot of those bars last night after cutting and bevelling, and I love them! As I’ve been practicing with layering I have been tweaking the recipe to use less hard fats and working at slightly higher temperatures, otherwise the trace gets much too thick much too fast. Happy Christmas soaping!
So pretty! In between this and your lumps of coal, you’ve really gotten Christmas in the bag. I made a shea butter heavy soap months ago that’s been curing for Christmas and I may steal your fruitcake soap idea (with my own twist, of course!) but time is running out to make Christmas soap! Eek! Still, beautiful job here!
Thanks so much, Persteph! I had a lot of fun with these this year… it’s honestly getting to the point where I wonder if I’ll be able to come up with two more Christmas soaps every year haha. Happy sudsing!
Hi Marie,just a quick question. Which other oil could I possibly use instead of the soybean oil? I have all the other ingredients just not that one!
Thanks,
Debbie
More olive oil will work well š
Help! I made this soap, but couldn’t get it to set-up between layers, I waited over 10 minutes, so it’s now a drop swirl. Could I have waited longer??
Hey Nancy! In my continued experiments with this technique I’ve waited up to 20 minutes with good results, so I suspect you could’ve š
I had high hopes for this soap. So when I unmoulded it today I was happy to see the layers had worked. But when I sliced it, some of the layers separated. It was left 24 hours.
It is cold here (UK), I don’t know if that has had any effect.
So, I’m really disappointed. Any ideas what I can do with the layers?
Cheers
Wendy
Hmm, odd indeed. How long did you wait between pouring the layers? I’ve waited up to 20 minutes between layers with no separating issues, and from my reading, the waiting is usually the thing that causes separation. Some sources also recommend not waiting too long to cut it, but 24 hours shouldn’t be too long, either. Hmm.
HiMarie -There was about 10 minutes + between pouring the layers. I’m hoping they may be okay. ..I wetted the ones that had separated with a bit of water on my finger then sort of encouraged them to stay together. It wasn’t every layer or even the same layers on each bar.
Now the bars are hardening they seem okay (crossing fingers). So am hoping they won’t separate once fully cured. I do love the layering effect – might try it with a different colour. Thanks for sharing the recipe. The spearmint is a lovely scent, wafting through the house.
That certainly doesn’t sound like too long… I’m sorry, but I’m quite perplexed :/ I haven’t worked with this method enough to have encountered that or noticed any patterns in why that might happen. I hope they stick together as they age and work out in the end! Thanks for DIYing with me š
Hi Marie, I see you’ve been using essential oils to scent your soaps. Do you experience scent fading?
Oh, definitely. That’s par for the course, and a huge part of why we use so much in soaps; saponification is very hard on EOs, and they’re quite volatile, so the ageing process gives them additional time to age. I find some scents/EOs stick around longer than other, but after a few years, pretty much everything fades to nothing. If you don’t want strong fading, you’ll have to use fragrance oils, which are much stronger and longer lasting.
Can I use your recipe and the soap name to make this soap to sell?
If you are going to, please sign up for a $20/month contribution to my Patreon; if you’re going to profit off my hard work, it’s only fair that you share š Keeping this website online, creating content, and sending out emails costs me hundreds of dollars a month! I’d also appreciate credit on your labels so your customers know they can do exactly what you did š
Marie, Just made this but I made HP so I can have it ready for xmas. I didn’t have spearmint so I used peppermint. The smell is super strong, you think it will die down or should I make a new batch?
Hey Monica! It’ll die down as it ages, but perhaps not as much as if you had CP’ed it as the EOs didn’t go through saponification. It will continue to die down as the soap ages, too, even after you gift it, so I probably wouldn’t worry about it unless it’s insta-headache-inducing in a week’s time.
Made this today š I didn’t have soybean oil, so I used canola oil. I hope that switch works out, lol. And I don’t own titanium oxide, I did have zinc, so I tried it. We will see how that works out. I’m dying on the amount of essential oil though. I find it’s the costly piece and I hate using soooo much of my good oils. I think I need to look around for where to find larger volumes of them for a better price. I will try to share a picture tomorrow when they pop out of the mold š Sooo excited to see my first soap EVER! Thanks for lovely directions!
Congrats on your first soap! I can’t wait to hear how it turned out š And yes, EOs for soaping are not cheap, so a good supplier is a must! Once you’re committed enough to invest a bit, look at upgrading to somewhere like New Directions Aromatics. You have to spend at least $100 and shipping isn’t cheap (so I usually want to spend closer to $200/$300 to make it worth it), but the cost per mL/g is amazing, and makes a lot of EOs a lot more soap accessible š Happy making!
I popped them out of the molds too soon, I think. The top layer kind of separated off from the rest š They smell heavenly but are still really soft.I wrecked that batch, guess I will try again, tomorrow š I looked at New Directions but they aren’t shipping until January now, sigh…
Hmm, odd. I’ve had good luck right around the 24 hour mark, but I still haven’t made enough of these multi-layer batches to have noticed a solid pattern here. Hmmm. And yeah, this NDA shipping stoppage is such a pain! I’m out of lots of soaping ingredients and I am unimpressed haha.
Well I reckon the soap has held – hooray, half way through getting it packaged for family gifting – I went a bit overboard with trying out recipes and kept getting ideas (cucumber aloe & avocado; coffee; chocolate; carrot & calendula – now have 10 different types of soap! No one needs that much. Only one disaster, not of your recipe making, where it had oily pools. I do tend to stick to your basic CP recipe mostly as it is proving to be so reliable. So thank you, Marie, for all your generosity in training me up.
You book arrived last week – lovely, I can see it has been a labour of love, and so much information. I like that you have made it adaptable ie it’s not just a bunch of recipes but info on how and why, so it’s possible to experiment. Have managed to track down a couple of necessary, if elusive (here in the UK), ingredients, but can’t order till the new year. So am looking forward to more discovery.
Have a lovely break and enjoy your hols.
Woohoo! That’s awesome š And if you think that is too much soap… you should see my basement haha. It’s a bit nuts š And I am so glad my book has arrivedāit’s currently unavailable on UK Amazon so I think it sold out in pre-orders, which is sort of great, but also kind of sad because it means it’s quite hard to get now š I can’t wait to hear about what you make as you get the ingredients and dive in!
Hi,
You mentioned in one of your YouTube videos that you’d include directions for your soap mold that your father made for you. I’m not able to find those anywhere. Where do you have it posted? I love the design of the removable ends.
Thank you,
Kate
If you do a search for “soap mould” it will come upāI suspect your American spelling is to blame for the hiding š
I am interested in the gift set you mentioned in your video on making bath bombs. I thought I could go back and find that video but am having problem finding it, It was the bath bomb ,lip balm soap and cream. I believe you called it winter something sorry to be so vague, thanks
Hey! I’m not completely certain what you’re looking for, but it sounds like it would’ve been something from one of my holiday gift guides. You can find ones from past years here š Happy making!