Pink and Pansy Soap with Cocoa Butter

I am nearly running out of soap so had to bite the bullet and make some over the weekend as it takes six weeks to cure before it can be used. This year I am trying to use up my soapmaking supplies especially the oils and, as I had some cocoa butter and macadamia nut oil on hand, I had a look through my old soap recipes and found the Sunny Soap with Cocoa Butter I made last year which had both the oil and butter in it so decided to make up another batch but coloured this lot with Pink Lemonade Mica and Pansy Mica which I bought from Green Living Australia.

I divided the mixture into three jugs and poured one jug of uncoloured soap into a large mould for my son and then divided the remaining mixture evenly and coloured two of the remaining jugs pink and mauve using the micas mentioned above and added 20g of combined Victorian Rose and Egyptian Amber fragrance oils from Little Green Workshops.  

I used this recipe:

100g         Cocoa Butter

450g         Coconut Oil

150g         Macadamia Nut Oil

550g         Plantain infused Olive Oil

182g         Lye

400g         Water             

  20g         Fragrance Oils

Soda ash forming on some of the soap after coming out of the moulds

Already the heart shaped soaps are starting to be covered in soda ash. If any beginners are wondering what that is you can read some info about it here Explaining and Preventing Soda Ash. It just washes off and doesn't hurt the soap and really isn't an issue unless you want to give it away or sell your soap. You can spray your soap with Isopropyl Alcohol which I have done in the past but the soda ash still formed so I don't worry about it these days. The Soap Queen says in that blog post I just linked to that it can occur when pouring at a thin trace and when soaping at a low temperature which is what I did as I used the room temperature method.

However there is no soda ash on the soap that I didn't add colour or perfume to so perhaps there is a connection there as well.

This soap can't cure quick enough as our son has nearly run out of his and I just might have to make some hot process soap for him if needs be. I am not a fan of the process though so hopefully won't have to. Technically this soap can't be used straight away.

I know there are a few readers who intend to make soap this year so why not give it a try. Rhonda has some easy recipes on her blog for beginners if you don't want to worry about adding colour and perfume.

I hope all the Aussies experiencing heatwave conditions at the moment are coping okay. So far we have been spared here in our city and most days are just 32C with a couple of 34C days coming up in the next week. Nothing like the 40plus temps in South Australia, Victoria and NSW.

 I can hear you all say 'Roll on winter!'