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How To Make Christmas Cold Process Soap
This little beauty is a perfect Christmas make, fragranced with Winter Breeze and gently decorated to add character. We made our Christmas Cold Process Soap using our basic palm free cold process recipe, adapting it to create these wonderful and visually stunning soap.
Gifting at Christmas has become a big deal over the years, thinking of a unique gift or homemade present is becoming a better and more appreciated option. So, why not craft your very own soaps as a gift idea this Christmas? You can tailor them to your preferred scent, colour and design, you could even include a little bit of spice to make them extra special!
If you have not tried cold process soap making before, we would recommend checking out our basic palm free cold process recipe. This contains more information and relevant details.
DIY Christmas Gift Ideas
Have you ever wanted to make your own cosmetics and toiletries? They make the perfect gift idea for Christmas, there is nothing like a personalised Christmas gift. Making personal care products means you can tailor the ingredients to your desired scent and finish. Fill your soaps or lotions with cranberry and orange, add a touch of nutmeg to your bath bombs and candy cane mintiness to your foot scrubs. DIY Christmas gifts has never been so easy!
When is the best time to make soap for Christmas?
Due to the nature of Cold Process Soap you will need to give yourself plenty of time for the making and curing process. Generally, a cold process soap needs to cure for a minimum of four weeks before it is best to be used. Curing your soaps, allows them to harden fully and be safe for use without the risk of turning to a paste. The longer you leave a soap to cure, the better the quality and scent throw.
Preparing and making your soaps in September, is the perfect time for Christmas. Allowing them to cure and be in perfect condition for gift giving season.
Equipment for Cold Process Soap
• Two Saucepans (good sized stainless steel or enamel)
• Measuring Jug (glass or plastic, to with stand boiling water)
• Accurate Scales
• Whisk
• Spatula
• Cardboard Box (lined with silicone paper)
• Eye & Hand Protection (safety glasses and rubber gloves)
• Blanket or Large Towel
Ingredients for Christmas Cold Process Soap
• 340g of Cold, Clean Water
• 125g of Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic Soda)
• 454g of Olive Oil (preferably pomace grade)
• 284g Coconut Oil (hard variety)
• 170g Shea Butter
• 20ml Winter Breeze Fragrance
• Calendula Petals
• Heather Flowers
• OPTIONAL: 1/4 tsp Grapefruit Seed Extract OR Vitamin E. (NOTE: Grapefruit seed extract will speed up how quick 'trace' occurs.
• We also added dried cranberries from our local supermarket
To make the green flowers, we mixed our heather flowers with a tiny bit of green mica and IPA in a small bowl.
Make your own Cold Process Soap for Christmas...
- Firstly prepare your working area and collect all of your ingredients and equipment needed for this recipe.
- Next, wearing appropriate safety gear, create your Lye, and suspend it in your prepared cold-water bath. I hang the jug handle over the side of the bowl.
- While your lye cools, measure out your shea butter and coconut oil into your saucepan. Gently melt it on the stove. Don’t overheat it, just melt it. When there are tiny pieces of solid oil still left to melt, remove from the heat. Leave until completely liquid. If adding grapefruit seed extract, add it to the saucepan now.
- Then measure out your olive oil in you other saucepan and pour in your combined shea butter and coconut oil.
- Once the lye has cooled and is roughly the same temperature as the melted oil, slowly and carefully pour the lye into the oils. Start stirring with a balloon whisk to ensure the mixture all starts to chemically react and combine.
- You should stir the mixture fairly briskly. You will notice the solution start to turn more opaque and as the minutes pass it will start to thicken.
- Once you reach a very light trace, add in your fragrance and gently mix until evenly dispersed.
- If adding colour, you want to add this in now. We haven't used any extra colour in our Christmas Cold Process Soap.
- As soon as you are happy all of your soap is mixed well, you can pour into your box mould. We left ours for 5/10mins to allow it time to thicken slightly, we then decorated our soap. By gently sprinkling with our botanicals and dried cranberries.
- Then let your soap to set, we left ours open to allow for a bit of soda ash. Just to add that extra bit of a christmassy touch!
- Once your soap has set and cured, cut into bars, tie rustic string in little bows around your bars and enjoy your Christmas Cold Process Soap!
Do botanicals turn brown in cold process soap?
Due to the nature of a lot of flower petals, botanicals can often turn brown in soaps. This is because of the soaps high pH and water content, the water gets absorbed into the petals and turns them brown. This doesn't always cause issues if soaps are used quickly but it can cause issues for business when storing larger quantities of soaps.
Can I add botanicals from my garden to my cold process soap?
Yes! There are hundreds of natural herbs, flowers, extracts and more that you can grow in your garden and then use in soaps. It adds a bit more of a personal touch to your creations, especially if they are for use at home. However, there can be a microbiological risk for these kind of additives, we would always recommend testing and getting the appropriate assessment done if you are wanting to sell these products on the market.
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