🤍 Grandma’s Journal: The Quiet Wonder of Cold Process Soap

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There’s something special about a freshly poured loaf of cold process soap. Before the bars are cut, before they’re stamped, and long before they find their way beside the kitchen sink, there is this little moment, the soap resting quietly in its mold, with every swirl still shimmering and new.

This batch was dressed in soft blue and creamy white. I poured the colors, first cream, then blue, with a back and forth motion. I did a hanger swirl in the molds with a gear wire tie, and worked the top into gentle waves, never quite knowing when to stop. What would be waiting inside once the loaves were cut. That’s one of my favorite things about soapmaking. You can plan your colors and imagine your design, but the soap always seems to have a little say of its own. Every time the loaf is cut, there is a mystery waiting to unfold. This one was a pure delight!

Cold process soap is made by combining oils or butters with a carefully prepared sodium hydroxide solution. When they come together, a wonderful transformation called saponification begins. What started as separate ingredients slowly becomes soap.

But cold process soap isn’t hurried.

After pouring, the loaf needs time to firm before it can be unmolded and sliced. And even then, the little bars aren’t quite ready. They’re tucked away on the curing rack, where air can move around them while they rest for several weeks. During that time, excess water gradually evaporates and the bars become harder and longer lasting.

Grandma would probably say that soapmaking teaches the same lesson as a garden: It takes time to eventually reap what you sow.

And perhaps that is part of the country charm.

A humble mixture of oils, lye, water, color, and fragrance becomes something useful and unique, made slowly, cut by hand, and given plenty of time to become a bar with a story of its own.

From the soap pot to the curing rack, there’s a little bit of patience tucked into every batch.

-Soapmaking Hobby 🤍

Cold Process Soap

Made the Old-fashioned way!

Shopping List:

• Oil & Butter Blend

• Sodium Hydroxide

• Oats

• Kaolin Clay

• Titanium Dioxide

• Mica

• Fragrance Oil

• Mason jars

• Lye Pitcher

• Wood & Silicone Soap Mold

• Stick Blender

• Nitrile Gloves

• Infrared Thermometer

• Digital Scale

• Silicone Spatulas

• Soap Pot

• Soap cutter

• Curing Rack

🤍Triple Butter Bar Recipe

This cold process recipe makes a rich 72 oz oil batch with a 5% superfat. It combines olive oil and coconut oil with three beautiful butters (shea, cocoa, and mango seed butter)plus castor oil.

Oils & Butters

Olive Oil 28.8 oz

Coconut Oil, 76° 14.4 oz

Shea Butter 7.2 oz

Cocoa Butter 7.2 oz

Mango Seed Butter 7.2 oz

Castor Oil 7.2 oz

Lye Solution

Water 26.61 oz

Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) 9.84 oz

Sodium Lactate 1 .5 Tbsp (optional)

Additives

Kaolin Clay 2 Tbsp

Oats 2 Tbsp

Fragrance

Jasmine 4.5 oz or a floral blend

Trusted fragrance oil & soap-making suppliers in the USA : (In my opinion)

Nurture Handmade

Natures Garden

Wholesale Supplies Pllus

Brambleberry

Midwest Fragrance

Candle Science

Be Scented

Color & Design

Divide the soap batter into two containers. Add titanium dioxide to one portion and blue mica to the other. Pour the white batter first, followed by the blue, then finish the design with a hanger swirl.

Grandma’s Little Note

Three butters make this one feel extra special. Shea, cocoa, and mango butter all find their way into the same pot, while the blue-and-cream swirl gives each cut bar its own little pattern. Once it is poured and tucked away, all that is left is the familiar soapmaker’s lesson, patience!

Give it time, let it cure, and enjoy seeing what those swirls become. 🤍

-Soapmaking Hobby 🤍

🤍Triple Butter Bar FAQ

🤍What is a butter bar?

A butter bar is a soap recipe that includes a generous amount of solid plant butters, such as shea, cocoa, or mango butter. These ingredients are used alongside liquid oils and other fats in the soap formula.

🤍What makes this a Triple Butter Bar?

This recipe includes shea butter, cocoa butter, and mango seed butter, each at 10% of the oil blend, for a combined 30% butter content.

🤍Do butter bars make a hard soap?

Butters such as cocoa, shea, and mango contain higher amounts of saturated fatty acids, which can contribute firmness to the finished bar. This recipe’s calculated hardness value is 38.

🤍Will a high butter soap still lather?

Yes. This formula also includes coconut oil and castor oil, which help support bubbly and creamy lather. The recipe’s calculated values are 22 for bubbly lather and 34 for creamy lather.

🤍Do butter bars need a cure time?

Yes. Like other cold process soaps, butter bars benefit from a full cure so excess water can evaporate and the bar can become firmer and longer lasting.

🤍Can I swap one butter for another?

Not without recalculating the recipe. Different fats can require different amounts of sodium hydroxide, so any oil or butter substitution should be checked with a trusted lye calculator.

🤍Choose your next soap journal entry…

✨ Charred Rose Bouquet- floral elegance

✨Huckleberry Harvest Vegan- berry charming

✨Bluebird Lane-a blueberry scented- farmhouse bar

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