I don't know about you but as Summer starts to wind down I start thinking about all things Fall. Fall is definitely my favorite time of year, cozy clothes, cooler temperatures and all the Fall baked goods and scents, yes please! Each year as we get close to Fall I like to make a Fall inspired soap. The one I am sharing today is a cold process soap and uses real pumpkin in the soap batter.
If you have never made cold process soap before you are going to want to do some research before trying to make this soap. Cold process soap involves the use of Lye so certain safety precautions are necessary. Don't let that scare you away from making soap. Soap making is a great creative outlet and is safe as long as you take proper precautions. Royalty Soaps has a great video for beginner soap makers that I suggest you check out if you have never made cold process soap before which I have linked here for anyone who is interested.
The recipe for this soap is as follows:
Olive Oil - 40%
Coconut Oil - 30%
Shea Butter - 15%
Rice Bran Oil - 5%
Castor Oil - 5%
Sweet Almond Oil - 5%
Superfat 5%
Water as % of oils 35%
Pumpkin(be sure to use pure pumpkin not pumpkin pie filling) I used 4 oz but you could use more or less depending on your batch size. I reduce my water by the amount of Pumpkin I am using in the recipe.
Sodium Lactate(optional) I like to use sodium lactate to help my soap harden faster and remove more cleanly from the soap liner.
The Essential Oil Blend I used for this soap is:
50% Orange
25% Clove
25% Cinnamon
I typically use eocalc.com to determine my essential oil usage rates for cold process soap. I also added in 2 TSP of Kaolin Clay to my essential oils. This helps anchor the essential oils into the soap and will make the scent stay strong longer.
First prepare your lye water and oils and let them come to your preferred soaping temperature. I typically soap at room temperature.
Once your lye water and oils are at your preferred temperature, add your pumpkin into the soap batter and blend with an immersion blender to combine. Adding the pumpkin before the lye water allows you to blend everything thoroughly without having to worry about the batter becoming too thick.
Now slowly pour your lye water into your soap batter and blend to a light to medium trace.
Next split your soap into three parts. I kept half the batter in one container and split the other half over my other two containers.
Now add your colorants into your containers and either stir or blend to combine. For this soap I used three colors. A brown, gold and red mica but use whatever colors speak Fall to you:)
Once your colors are blended, it's time for the in the pot swirl. Take your first color and pour it into the largest container and then do the same thing with the second container. I typically pour my accent colors into my base as follows: 1st color pour at the top and bottom of the large container and then for the second color I pour in on the left and right of the container. Depending on how fluid the batter is I will sometimes give it a light stir to ensure the accent colors go throughout the batter(see video for reference).
Now pour your soap batter into your mold. Once this is done scrape any remaining soap batter that was left in your containers into the mold and then use a chopstick to swirl the top.
Now for an added touch, sprinkle on some gold ecoglitter(you can skip this step if you are not a glitter fan).
Spritz the top with rubbing alcohol to help with soda ash.
Now comes the hard part. Wait 18-24 hrs before unmolding your soap.
If you make this recipe, tag me on instagram @essentially.tonya so that I can see your creation!