Mahogany & Amber Best Cold Process Soap Making Video and DIY

The cold process soap formulation I am using for this Mahogany and Amber cold process soap is one of my favorites. It is a double butter with lots of shea and cocoa butter. It is simple with only five oils and butters which makes it great if you are starting to make soap or even for an experienced soap maker. This formulation contains 15% of shea butter and 10% of cocoa butter. Both these butters add great properties to the soap and make a very hard long long-lasting bar of soap. With this recipe, I used a 7% “superfat”/lye discount. If you want a higher amount of “superfat” just make sure to run it through your favorite lye calculator. My favorite lye calculator is soapcalc.net. This is the one I used for the screenshot below.

I doubled this recipe for this video. Make sure to resize if making a larger batch using your favorite lye calculator.

I have shared several cold process soap formulations in the posts linked below. Take a look and you may find a favorite.

Handmade Cold Process Soap Making

All Natural Aloe Vera Cold Process Soap

Kiss Pour and Handmade Mold DIY

Coconut Milk & Coconut Water Cold Process Soap

How to make Mahogany and Amber Cold Process Soap

Some of my favorites soap making additives

Kaolin clay

Colloidal oatmeal

Two of my favorite additives that I include in every batch of my cold process soaps are kaolin clay and colloidal oatmeal. I love how these additives make the soap feel very luxurious and silky. The kaolin clay helps anchor the scent and also adds extra hardness to the soap and making it last longer in the shower. The colloidal oatmeal is known to have great properties for the skin, and I just love the feel it gives to the soap.

Additional materials needed for cold process soap making

• Mixing pitchers
• Immersion blender
• Silicone spatulas
• Funnel pitchers
• Infrared thermometer
• Digital scale

Other Ingredients used

• Mica colorants (I used Mocha color mica from Nurture Soap, Dark Shimmering Gold and Crimson Red Wine color micas from Wholesale Supplies Plus.)
• Fragrance – Mahogany and Amber from Wholesale Supplies Plus. This fragrance turned yellow as soon as it hit the soap batter, but it did not discolor the final soap. I had no issues working with this fragrance. It might have accelerated the batter a bit, but not enough to create any issues for the design I had planned for this soap.

If you have never made soap before, be aware that handcrafted soap uses lye. Lye is caustic and can burn your skin in contact. Before you try to make soap, make sure to use the proper safety equipment. Use gloves, safety glasses, long sleeves, long pants, and closed-toe shoes.

Step by Step Cold Process soap making

1. Weigh and melt the oils and butters, and set aside to coolto approximately 85 degrees Fahrenheit. I prefer soaping at around 80 to 85 degrees for this soap formulation because of the high hard butter content. This will prevent a false trace and will give you a bit more time to create swirls. I normally make soap with oils and lye water between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I find that for my favorite formulations, this temperature is just right.
2. Add the kaolin clay and colloidal oatmeal to the oils and mix well using an immersion blender.
3. Weigh out the water and NaOH (lye) in separate containers. Then add the lye to the water (never the other way around) and mix well until the lye is fully dissolved. Set aside until it cools down to 80 to 90 degrees in temperature.
4. Once the lye water solution and the oils have reached the soaping temperature,e add the lye solution to the oils.
5. Mix well with the immersion blender for a full minute to achieve a thin trace.
6. Add the fragrance oil and mix well.
7. Disperse one teaspoon of mica colorant with one tablespoon of olive oil or other lightweight oil.
8. Split approximately half of the total soap into the three mica containers. Mix the colorants well.
9. Pour the layer of soap using the uncolored half of the soap batter into the mold.
10. Pour the colored batter and use the hanger swirl method to create some swirl. Save some of the brown mica to create the small layer towards the top of the soap. Use a small amount of the red wine and shimmering gold soap batter to decorate the top of the soap.

This soap can be unmolded and cut after 24 hours. Allow the soap to cure for six to eight weeks and enjoy!

More Cold Process Soap Ideas:

Summer Vibes Cold Process Soap

Lemonade Stand Cold Process Soap

Where to cure cold process soap? What ingredients can I use to make cold process soap harder? Does cold process soap have to gel? All these questions are answered here.