Are you ready to dive into the world of soapmaking? Making cold process soap is not only a fun and creative activity but also allows you to craft beautiful bars of soap that are perfect for gifting, to sell, or for personal use. Learn how to make cold process soap at home In this step-by-step tutorial. I’ll walk you through the process of making cold process soap, making it both enjoyable and easy to understand!

For this tutorial, we are going to do a simple drop swirl soap pattern using only two colors. This is probably the easiest swirl technique there is! As the name suggests, in this technique the different colors of soap are dropped into the mold from above creating a beautiful swirl. Of course, feel free to take your creative liberty with design

Download Soap Recipe

Download an easy PDF printable of my tried and true soap recipe here—it’s a total game-changer! I like to call it my “no-fail” recipe because the bars come out hard, lather like crazy, and have a luxurious 5% superfat for ultra moisturizing goodness!

I created this recipe back when I was selling my soap, and I wanted to make sure it appealed to everyone, so it’s completely vegan-friendly. This recipe is formulated for beginners, so it uses a small rectangular soap mold that you can snag on Amazon here for a steal! If you are making cold process soap at home, I encourage you to give it a try—I bet you already have most of the oils you need in your kitchen right now!

Gather Your Goods

Gather Your Ingredients First things first, gather all your ingredients. You’ll need a variety of oils, lye, water, fragrance oil, mica powder (for color), and any additional additives you’d like to include in your soap. In this batch of soap, I used:

• Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) – 150g
• Distilled Water – 336 g
• Olive Oil – 369 g
• Coconut Oil – 567 g
• Shea Butter – 28 g
• Cocoa Butter – 28 g
• Fragrance Oil – 57 g
• Mica Powder
• Titanium Dioxide

Do you want to change the ratios or fats used in this recipe? Click here to use my free online lye calculator and formulate your own recipe.

Gather your supplies. refer to The Ultimate Soapmaking Supply Checklist here for a complete beginner-friendly list of soapmaking supplies. When you are making cold process soap at home, you likely have many supplies you can donate to your new hobby right in your kitchen. Just make sure that when you use them for soap, you continue to use them only for soap.

• Scale
• Soap Mold
• Stick Blender
• Mixing Bowl
• Funnel Pitcher or Plastic Measuring Cup
• Spatula
• PPE: Gloves, Apron, Eye Protection, Long Sleeves
• Microfiber Towels
• Vinegar
• Soap Cutter

Weigh and Prepare Your Fats

Weigh your oils, fats and butters and heat them until they are melted and combined. For small batches, I often just heat the fats in the microwave. Coconut oil melts quickly, but butters like cocoa and shea take a little longer to melt. If you are using a microwave, heat your fats in 60 second increments and stir in between until they are fully melted to a liquid. Set aside to cool to around 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Prepare Lye Solution

Be sure you’re wearing your PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) for this next step! Be sure that children, pets and snoopy significant others are out of the room. Also be sure your space has proper ventilation.

Weigh out your lye and water. Lye can be staticky, so keep an eye on where it goes as you weight it and be careful not to spill.

Next, you will combine your water and lye.

☠️ REMEMBER: It’s crucial to add the lye to the water, NEVER ADD WATER TO LYE!

Slowly pour your lye into your water and stir gently to combine. Stir until lye is fully dissolved. Be sure you are preparing your lye water in a well-ventilated area to avoid any harmful fumes. When making cold process soap at home, I will sometimes prepare the lye solution outside because when it heats up, the fumes can be quite caustic, this way I’m not breathing the hot lye fumes in my soap studio.

Allow the lye solution to cool to around 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Prepare Fragrance Oils and Colorant

Weigh your essential or fragrance oils. If you are using my soap recipe, I have found that about 2 ounces of fragrance oil works great. However, research the fragrance oil you are using to ensure proper results. Most suppliers who sell soap fragrances have calculator where you can calculate the exact amount you need.

Make sure to purchase fragrance oils specifically formulated for cold process soap making. Using oils not intended for this process can cause your batch to seize, making it nearly unusable, or worse, separate your fats, resulting in a total loss.

However, most essential oils are suitable for cold process soap and can be used without issue, but still use caution as some essential oils, particularly essential oils that have a spice or floral hue like Cinnamon, Clove, Ylang ylang, and Geranium can accelerate trace.

Once your fragrance or essential oil is measured, set it aside.

In this tutorial, I am using a Mica Powder that I have worked with many times, so I am going to add the Mica Powder directly into the soap, but if you are doing multiple colors, many soapmakers recommend mixing your mica and a little bit of oil before adding it into your soap.

Combine Oils and Lye Solution

Check to make sure both your oils and lye solution have cooled to around 90-120 degrees.

Slowly pour the lye solution into the oils.

Using a stick blender, mix the two together until you reach a very light trace.

But wait, what’s trace? Trace is the stage in soap making where the mixture thickens to a pudding-like consistency and a trail is left when you drizzle the mixture across the surface. Note- if you are working with a fragrance oil that is known to accelerate trace, keep your trace pretty thin, more of a cream consistency.

You will need to work rather quickly once your soap has reached trace, so be sure you have everything ready for the following steps.

Customize Your Soap

Once your fats and lye water have reached trace, you can pour your soap in a mold and wait for it to go through saponification. The result will be, plain, fragrance-free bars of soap. But, if you’re like me, you NEED to make these bars of soap pretty! And, of course, you really want them to smell divine, so it’s time to make them unique in appearance and fragrance. We are going to be doing a drop swirl pattern, using two colors, blue and white.

Pour half of your soap into a different container.

In one container add some premixed Titanium Dioxide.

Add your mica/oil mixture and lightly blend both the white mixture and the blue picture with your stick blender until it is just combined.

Add about half of the fragrance oil to each one of the soap mixtures and combine.

Keep an eye on what is happening to your soap after adding the fragrance. This is where you need to start working quickly so the mixture doesn’t rice or seize.

Pour Soap into Mold

Carefully pour the majority of the white soap mixture into your soap mold.

Next, holding the pitcher up high, the slowly pour the colored mixture into the soap mold.

Let gravity work on your side, the higher you pour, the larger the swirl pattern.

Tamp filled mold down to ensure there are no air bubbles.

Add remaining soap into the mold scraping the bowl. As soap begins to thicken in the mold, you can get creative here and add swirls to the top with a spoon, chopstick or fork, you could also sprinkle a small amount of mica powder to the top for a splash of color.

Cover and Wait

Cover your soap with a towel and set it aside in a safe place for 24 hours.

This is where the magic happens! The magic is called Saponification. Saponification is the process where the oils and lye chemically react to form soap. Depending on various factors, your soap may take longer than 24 hours to harden. Generally, the saponification process is complete within 24-48 hours.

Clean Your Work Surface & Supplies

Next, wipe down your work surface with water and clean up any remaining oil and debris. Rinse all of your bowls and utensils with warm water. Then, spray everything with a little bit of vinegar, let sit for a few minutes and wipe dry. The vinegar will neutralize any remaining traces of lye.

Unmold and Slice

Once your soap is firm to the touch, carefully remove it from the mold. If your soap is still very wet, leave it in the mold and let it dry out a little longer to avoid frustration.

Once unmolded, slice your soap into bars using a sharp knife, soap cutter, or cheese cutter.

Isn’t a drop swirl pattern so pretty? It is honestly one of my favorites because it is SO EASY and creates such a huge impact!

At this point, your soap is likely safe to use, but it won’t be completely hard until it is cured. However, if you just can’t wait to wash your hands with your beautiful fresh bars of soap, you can test your soap to ensure the lye has worked its way out of the soap.

You can test your soap using PH strips which we will discuss in another blog post, or try the zap test. Simply dampen your fingertip, lightly swipe it on the soap, and gently touch it to your tongue. If the soap still contains a lot of lye, you’ll feel a distinct zap sensation, similar to a static shock. If this is the case, the only thing keeping you from testing your beautiful soap is time.

Cure Soap

Finally, place your freshly sliced soap bars on a rack in a cool, dry place and allow them to cure for 4-6 weeks. During this time, the soap will harden and any excess moisture will evaporate. The longer cure time, the harder the bar will be, resulting in a longer-lasting bar of soap.

And there you have it! You have made your very own batch of cold process soap at home. With a little patience and creativity, you can create an endless variety of soap designs and scents to suit your preferences. So why not give it a try? Happy soap making!

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