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How To Make Whipped Juniper Soap (Cold Process)
#Makeitmonday You may have seen a rather luxurious looking juniper soap in some of our recent advertising images, so we thought we’d let you know how we made it. Below is the basic recipe for ‘Palm free’ cold process soap, made using the whipped technique. For the adverts, we used a mixture of 2 different micas (Plum Purple and Mauve) and had to use more than usual to get the desired deep purple colour. We have left the recipe blank, so you can add your own colour and fragrance, maybe getting ready for…. Dare I say it, Christmas? We have a fantastic array of fragrances and essential oils; please check whether or not they will be suitable for whipped soap before using it. If you’re unsure, do a small sample test before your soap batch and check.
What you’ll need:
• 1 Large stainless steel or plastic bowl
• Heatproof jug
• Accurate scales
• Electric hand whisk
• Your choice of mould ( Silicone or Wooden) + Greaseproof paper if using wooden
• Measuring spoons and a normal teaspoon
• Eye and hand protection *Recommended when handling lye*
Ingredients:
• 244g Cold Water
• 91g Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic soda)
• 50g Olive Pomace Oil
• 200g Coconut Oil (Hard)
• 400g Shea Butter (Hard) the alternative to palm
• 20ml of your chosen fragrance or essential oil (We used Juniper Essential Oil)
• Dried Juniper berries
*Colour is optional* To achieve a similar colour to the one in the advertorial we used a selection of coated micas. OTYs of each colourant was determined by adding a little of each mica at a time.
Method:
Step 1
Prepare your lye by mixing the exact measurement of water with sodium hydroxide. Start by measuring out 244g of water in to a heatproof jug. Now measure out 95g of caustic and carefully add this to the water and stir well. Be as accurate here as possible, a good set of scales is a must. Be careful of the vapour at the beginning and try to hold your breath as you stir until the caustic has full dissolved.
Step 2
The Lye will heat to nearly 200F and we need this to be as cool as possible, so leave it to cool down for a while. You can use a fridge if the room temperature is warm or place the jug of lye in a bowl of cold water. It is important that your lye is a cool room temperature or below in order to achieve the whipped technique.
Step 3
Weigh out 400g of Shea butter and 200g of Coconut in to your stainless steel or plastic bowl. Make sure your oils are solid and not melted.
Step 4
Using an electric whisk, mix the Coconut oil and Shea butter together until all the lumps have been removed and a creamy consistency forms. This may take a few minutes.
Step 5
Gently add the olive oil and mix thoroughly once more.
Step 6
Once all the oils have been nicely combined, slowly and carefully add your lye, again, if you haven’t already, put eye protection gloves on to avoid any splashback from the whisk.
Step 7: *OPTIONAL*
Add 20ml of your chosen fragrance or essential oil. After you have done that, add your colour a bit at a time until you reach the desired colour and it has been evenly spread throughout the soap mixture. *If you are using Micas like us, you will need to mix these together with a tiny bit of oil to create a paste before you add the colour to the soap batter. This way you are avoiding any clumps of coloured powder in your mix and the colour should disperse more evenly. Step 7: Pour the mixture into your soap mould. It will start to thicken, here is where you can get really creative. Step 8: Using the end of a standard teaspoon, you can create little peaks and manipulate the soap. For our advert we used juniper berries to add a little bit of elegant decoration.
Step 9
Leave to saponify overnight, then your light whipped soap will be ready to cut as you wish. Step 10: Cure for 3-4 weeks as usual with Cold Process soap before use. If you have any questions about this recipe, please leave them in the comments box below. If you have had a go and would like to send us some photos please do, we are always looking for images that showcase our ingredients, so if you are a small business and are happy for us to use them across our social media, this is a great platform for some free advertising for you, don't be shy, get in contact! Either email promotion@thesoapkitchen.co.uk, messgae us on Facebook or tag us on instagram @thesoapkitchenuk. Happy soap making!
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