Aqua Soap
I find myself making men’s soap quite often. In addition to my husband, there are several men in my life: I have about 8 nephews, and 3 brothers (including the in law’s). Although for the younger nephews I still make fruity fragranced soaps.
My go to fragrance for men’s soap is The Perfect Man, however this one is pretty good too. It is Aqua di Gio Type by Nature’s Garden. I actually named the soap inspired in the fragrance name, but did not want to copy the entire name, so I only took the first word. I made it last year (such a long time ago, lol) , when I was unaware of the Aqua man movie release (which I liked, by the way, and found myself inspired with the costumes and sea creatures). Anyway, any similarities to the movie theme are purely coincidental!
Here is the recipe:
Aqua Soap
Soapmaker level: Intermediate
Tools Needed:
- Standard soap making tools and protective equipment
- 11 lb Slab mold (though only the bottom half will be used)
Having a recipe with 70% of solid fats can be tricky, as it tends to get thick fast. Feel free to use your own or an easier recipe, and just follow the design guidelines:
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Gram(s) | Ounce(s) | Pounds(s) | Oil % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karite Butter (Shea) | 172.93 | 6.10 | 0.38 | 10% |
| Tallow, Beef | 605.26 | 21.35 | 1.33 | 35% |
| Rice Bran Oil | 432.33 | 15.25 | 0.95 | 25% |
| Ricinus Oil (Castor Oil) | 86.47 | 3.05 | 0.19 | 5% |
| Coconut Oil, 76 deg | 432.33 | 15.25 | 0.95 | 25% |
| Ingredient | Gram(s) | Ounce(s) | Pounds(s) | Batch % |
| Lye – NaOH 100% Purity (5% Superfat) | 240.27 | 8.48 | 0.53 | 9.68% |
| Water (33% Lye + 67% Water Solution) | 487.82 | 17.21 | 1.08 | 19.65% |
| Total Oils | 1,729.32 | 61 | 3.81 | 69.64% |
| Soap Weight (Pre-Cook) | 2,483.08 | 87.59 | 5.47 | 100% |
Fragrance:
- 4 oz of Aqua Di Gio Fragrance or any other non discoloring or non accelerating fragrance.
Additives/ Colorants:
- 1 teaspoons of Sea Green Mica powder from Nurture Soap (or any teal color mica)
- 1 teaspoon of Azure blue mica (WSP) or any turquoise/light blue mica + 0.25 teaspoon of Klein blue mica or any royal blue mica
- 0.5 teaspoons of Titanium Dioxide dispersed in 1 tablespoon of water
- Extra light colored oil to mix the micas (1-2 tablespoons)
For Decorations:
- Ocean animal theme embeds, I made octopus, a sea horse and dolphins with soap dough
If you do not have soap dough, you could buy some or make from the recipe found here). Allow three days for the soap dough to be ready if making it yourself. Or you can use melt and pour embeds
PROCESS:
FOR THE EMBEDS (Optional)
If you have ocean animals molds:
Just take a small piece of soap dough in your color of choice, squeeze it and play with it until soft, then form into an oval and press it against the mold cavity. Wait about a minute and then pop it out.
I have listed the octopus mold used here, though I did modify my octopus by “poking” their eyes with a pen to make the iris bigger or direct their gaze.
If you prefer to form the animals with your hands, here are some videos:
- For the dolphins
- For the sea horses
MAKING THE SOAP
- In a well ventilated area (outside or by a window), add gradually the lye to the distilled water. Do not breathe the fumes. You can freeze your water ahead to avoid fumes, and weigh the ice cubes. You need to wear your safety gear. Lye burns! You can prepare this several hours ahead, keep it properly covered.
- While you wait for the lye water to cool down to 110 or to room temperature, you can weigh and melt your oils, and weigh your fragrance oil into a glass container (fragrance oils can dissolve thin plastics)
- Mix teal and blue micas with a light colored oil like almond oil, using the mini mixer. Mix the Titanium dioxide with 1-2 tablespoons of water.
- When your oils and lye solution are at 110°F (37.77°C) or cooler, add your lye solution to the oils slowly, to avoid splatters pour it on the blender shaft.
- Stir with the blender on Off position initially, then blend for 15 second periods, alternating with stirring, until it is almost emulsified. This takes about 50 seconds to 1 minute with this recipe.
- Pour out the batter into 50 / 25 /25 portions. (Divide in half, then one half divide again in half)
- Add the sea green (light teal) mica to 50% of the batter, and the titanium dioxide to 25%, and the azure blue with the klein blue (a turquoise and a royal blue) to the remaining 25%, blend until thoroughly dispersed.
- You now have two options:
- THE EASIER ROUTE: Pour a little bit of each container into the mold in an circular pattern (this is to create a motion effect), alternating the colors into different areas of the mold until you are out of batter. This is what I would do next time if I was to recreate the soap.
- THE MORE TIME CONSUMING ROUTE: In a different container, pour layers of each of the colors, and pour it into the mold, you will need to repeat this 2-3 times as seen in the video, however, I honestly do not think this made much of a difference.
- Once the top is solid enough, put the embeds on top.
- Take pictures! You can insulate it or not. If I was going to insulate it, I would cover the mold with a piece of cardboard and a blanket on top.
- After 8-10 hours start checking for hardness. Try releasing from one side of the mold, and if nothing sticks back, it is ready to be removed from the mold and cut. It may still be warm, that is okay.
You can watch the video of the making below:
Soaps by Glenda 