Ballerina Soap

This year I wanted to revisit the Sugar Plum Fairy Soap I had made in 2019, but with a different ballerina embed. In keeping with the color of sugarplums (a candy that does not necessarily have plums in it), I also used purple Brazilian clay as a colorant, but I was not very happy how it turned out, the purple chopped embeds do make a contrast against it though.

Here are the ingredients and supplies used:

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Several of the links above/below are affiliate links, as the ones below. If you buy from them, it will not cost you any more, and I would get a tiny commission on it. As amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

NURTURE SOAP

AMAZON

MAKE YOUR OWN

Colorants:

1 tsp of purple Brazilian clay

Holo silver glitter

Mardi grass enviroglitter

Mold:

5 lb loaf mold

Embeds

Ballerina mold

Soap dough

Equipment

• List of regular equipment

Safety Equipment:

• Nitrile gloves
• Facial Shield (I use either a facial shield or the goggles below)
• Safety Goggles
• Respirator  (I use this when mixing the lye, I mix the lye in the window sill, window opened, with a pedestal fan blowing the fumes away, better yet, freeze your distilled water prior) I also try to wear long sleeves, pants and closed shoes.  In my personal experience, most of my near misses (when I feel my skin itching or a slight burning sensation), or when I come contact with the soap batter, have happened when I am wiping down the containers, when I am almost done.
  

Recipe Totals

Please note that this recipe has a low superfat* percentage and a considerable water discount*. (I like a cleansing, bubbly bar) If you are a beginner, a recipe like this one might be better. I am also using a dual lye blend. If you only want to use sodium hydroxide, you will need to run this through a lye calculator, I like soapmakingfriend.com

I thought the bars were a bit too thick, next time I will make it with lesser oils.

Recipe Totals

Liquid Required	6.44 oz	182.46 g
NaOH Weight	3.97 oz	112.41 g
KOH Weight	0.33 oz	9.22 g at 90% Purity
Lye Weight	4.29 oz	121.64 g
Oil Weight	29 oz	822.14 g
Fragrance Oil Weight	2.08 oz	59.09 g
Superfat		3%
Total Batch Weight	42.24 oz	1197.59 g
Lye Concentration		40%
NaOH / KOH Ratio		95% / 5%

Recipe Oils, Fats and Waxes

Oil	%	Ounces	Grams
Olive Oil	30	8.7	246.64
Tallow Beef	30	8.7	246.64
Coconut Oil, 76 deg	25	7.25	205.53
Castor Oil	8	2.32	65.77
Shea Butter	7	2.03	57.55
Total	100	29	822.14

Custom Additives

Add with the Fats
Rosemary oleoresin	0.01 ounce
Add at trace
EDTA mixed with water	0.42 ounce



For more information on these additives you can click in the links below, please note above links are affiliate ones

• Rosemary oleresin (My oils already had this added when I masterbatched the oils)
• Tetrasodium EDTA

Fragrance

2 oz of Black Raspberry Vanilla

MAKING THE SOAP

1. Normally I heat up some of my masterbatched oils, weigh what I need and set it apart.
2. Then I measure the masterbatched lye needed. However, if you do not masterbatch the oils or lye, I detail it below:
3. In a well ventilated area (outside or by a window), add the lye gradually to the distilled water.  Do not breathe the fumes.   You can freeze half of the 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, or even days ahead, keep it properly covered. (If making it the same day, loosely cover it to allow it to cool. Once at room temperature, use an airtight lid).a
4. While you wait for the lye water to cool down, you can weigh and melt your oils. Weigh your fragrance oil or essential oils into a glass container or ceramic container (fragrance oils can dissolve thin plastics).
5. Prepare your colorant. If using a clay like I did, mix it with distilled water prior.
6. When your oils and lye solution are at or below 105°F (37.77°C), put on your PPE (Personal protective equipment) again, and add your lye solution to the oils slowly, to avoid splatters pour it on the blender shaft. If your lye solution is cooler than this, is ok. As long as it not near freezing. (Room temperature is fine). If your oils go under 95° F, warm them up to lightly above 100° F
7. Add the clay to the mix if using
8. Stir with the blender on Off position initially, then blend for 5-7 second periods, alternating with stirring for 10 seconds or longer, until it is emulsified.  This takes about 30-50 seconds with this recipe. When a recipe reaches emulsion, everything has a uniform, lighter color than before, you do not see the darker oil swirls when blending. It is better to err on the side of the mix being under emulsion that it being at light trace. We will blend again to mix the colors.
9. Add the fragrance and stir thoroughly for about 30 seconds
10. Pour half of the mix and then add the chopped embeds, cover with the remaining soap batter.
11. I added enviroglitter and holo glitter on top
12. Add the embeds and all decorations
13. Cover the soap to help promote gel phase if desired. If using a wooden mold like this one, I only cover the top.
14. Wait 24-48 hours and remove from the mold when it peels easily from the sides.
15. To cut the soap into bars I used a single bar cutter.
16. Let them cure for at least 4 weeks in an open area protected from direct sunlight before using. (not touching any metal)

*SUPERFAT:

By now you probably know that lye (sodium hydroxide) converts oils into soap, through a process called saponification.  And you probably also know that there are specific amounts needed of each for this to happen.    Because each soap has a different SAPonification value, different amounts of lye are needed for each oil.

Superfatting sounds like something I like to do to myself when I keep eating after I feel full.  But in the soap world, many will know it is when you either add more oils or less lye than it is required.  Let’s say, hypothetically, that you need 3 oz of lye to convert 16 oz of manacao oil  (totally made up oil) into soap. If you only use 2.5 oz of lye instead of 3, that means that a percentage of the manaco oil will not become soap, but will remain an oil.  And this is desirable as that extra oil will cause the soap to become more gentle on your skin, by reducing its cleansing ability slightly.   But if you use 4 oz of lye instead of 3, that means all 16 oz of manacao oil will become soap, and not only that, there will be extra lye floating around.  That extra lye will be looking for more oil to convert to soap, that oil could be the natural skin oils, which means this soap can burn or irritate the skin.

Usually superfat of at least 3% is recommended as oils properties may change from crop to crop. But even if you had a 0% superfat soap, it would still be gentle as handmade soap creates glycerin, which is a skin humectant. (From most commercially produced soap, glycerin is removed to be sold separately).

*LYE CONCENTRATION / WATER DISCOUNT:

Most soap calculators will give you the amount of water needed to mix the lye with, based on traditional cooking methods of making soap, what we now know as hot process. This is a big percentage of water (38% of the oils) because a lot of it would evaporate through the cooking process. However, for cold process soap this is usually too much water, which can lead to a lot of soda ash or a lot of shrinkage during the cure.

This blogpost explains it better (from modern soapmaking).