This last weekend I participated in a Christmas in July Show. One of the soaps designs I wanted to make sure I brought were these ballerina soaps. I actually made two versions of them, one like the ballerinas from last Christmas, and these, a ballerina that goes all through the soap with extruded embeds.
A previous client had placed an order and picked it up at the show, while there, she said something that made me smile, well, it was her friend actually, but she had told me the exact same thing over the phone a few months ago. Her friend said that the ballerina soap made her smile when she got in the shower, then added that it reminds her of when she was a little girl. And that made me smile genuinely; to think that something I made brought someone joy!
Extruding multiple part embeds and putting them together was very time consuming though, and people seem to prefer designs with a relief effect instead, from feedback received. So I am not sure that I will try this again, but perhaps, if anything to improve on the face mainly, as I was not very happy with how that turned out.
You can buy the soap here: Ballerina Soap or the Ballerina extruder discs here.
Here is how I made them and below are the supplies used.
Here is the video of the making:
Needed Ingredients
| Ingredient | Gram(s) | Ounce(s) | Pounds(s) | Oil % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coconut Oil, 76 deg | 208.37 | 7.35 | 0.46 | 25.04% |
| Ricinus Oil (Castor Oil) | 66.62 | 2.35 | 0.15 | 8.01% |
| Karite Butter (Shea) | 58.40 | 2.06 | 0.13 | 7.02% |
| Olive Oil – All Grades | 232.47 | 8.20 | 0.51 | 27.94% |
| Lard | 248.06 | 8.75 | 0.55 | 29.81% |
| Mango Butter | 9.07 | 0.32 | 0.02 | 1.09% |
| Cocoa Butter | 9.07 | 0.32 | 0.02 | 1.09% |
| Ingredient | Gram(s) | Ounce(s) | Pounds(s) | Batch % |
| NaOH (5% Superfat) | 112.49 | 3.97 | 0.25 | 9.92% |
| KOH (5% Superfat) | 4.55 | 0.16 | 0.01 | 0.40% |
| Water (40% Lye + 60% Water Solution) | 175.57 | 6.19 | 0.39 | 15.48% |
| Total Oils | 832.06 | 29.35 | 1.83 | 73.38% |
| Soap Weight (Pre-Cook) | 1,133.92 | 40 | 2.50 | 100% |
Please note that the recipe above has dual lye and a considerable discount-lye water concentration*. If you are a beginner, a recipe like this one might be better.
Custom Additives (Optional)
| Add with the Fats | |
|---|---|
| Rosemary oleoresin | 0.01 ounce |
| Add at trace | |
| EDTA mixed with distilled water (50/50) | 0.40 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
Colorant:
1/4 tsp Purple Vibrance Mica
Molds:
Fragrance:
Black raspberry Vanilla (currently the usage rate has gone down by the IFRA, which means manufacturer’s need to adjust their formulation, which hopefully they will do at some point.
Embeds
To make the embeds I used soap dough. I used copper mica to get the skin color. You can check the video for the process. If you are interested in the extruder discs set, you can find it in my Etsy shop.
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.
- Some concepts explained:
*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).
Soaps by Glenda 