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100% olive oil soap with cocoa and golden mica decoration
I hope you enjoy the summer and that now you have even more time to soap 🙂
I did not forget you, but as usual… no time to write.
However, I do still make experiments and today I share with you the very latest one, where I tried golden mica pattern on my 100% cocoa soap 🙂
Not long time ago I got from one friend in soap swap an all natural cocoa soap with raw cocoa beans, which I really LOVED!
Well… I could not make the very same soap, as I was visiting my parents and had only olive oil to work with, not to mention there was only a bit of the cocoa powder.
But – that was one more reason to exercise my knowledge on how to manage 100% olive oil soap 🙂
Recipe
1000 g Olive oil pomace
128 g NaOH
380 g distilled water – prior to adding NaOH I dissolved in 2 teaspoons of sugar (for nice foam) and 1 TBSP of salt (so that it is not slimmy).
DO NOT try to dissolve sugar and salt AFTER, but BEFORE adding your NaOH! Otherwise you will get a very big lump of sugar and salt and will have to use blender to mix it in, which is really very dangerous…
At trace
I added 34 g of cocoa powder (there is no particular reason for this amount – it was all I had and I would add more…)
and 20 ml EOÂ Lemon balm, mixed with 17g (2 full teaspoons) of cornstarch – to fix the fragrance
Then I poured into molds and let in mold for 12 hours
Notice, how the soap changed its color at the top to much lighter color while curing.
The next day – exactly 12 hours after pouring – it was very interesting to follow the soap “transpiration”. Small droplets of water and glycerine appeared on the top, in the very middle of the soap mold, where the gel phase started.
As the gel phase expanded to the sides of the mold, the droplets followed, see images below:
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Upon unmolding, the soap was still rather soft, but I was impatient, as we were about to leave soon… however, when cut, it looked so yummy…
I noticed another very interesting feature of this soap. After a month of curing, I cut it and found the middle to be softer and lighter in comparison to the edges from which the water evaporated. After two weeks, the difference of colors faded (the middle became darker), however not perfectly.
Then, I found this video on how to use gold mica to decorate melt and pour soap. If melt and pour, why not cold process? 🙂
Indeed when I tried it today, I used my fingers and did not follow the video at all, I am always like that…
For the mica decoration, I tried to:
- First stamp the soap and then powder it with mica (see bottom soap on the image above)
- Powder the stamp first and than stamp the soap (see top soap)
The second choice is better as it distributes the mica in a much more uniform pattern.
Soap well and let me know if you try (tried) something similar!
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#3 written by Marcsi 7 years ago
Thank you very much for sharing this!
I am ver curius why the colour and texture change happen in the middle of the soap. Does anyone know?
I keep having this with my soaps as well. Even with individual silicone molds. As I am giving some smaller pieces of soap away for trial, I cut some of the individual bars later and I am often surprised to see the middle of the bar being darker, just like on the pictre and being softer/having differetn texture. Altough, after a couple of days the couor and texture becomes almost even It might has something to do with the gel pahse, but somehow I do not think so. Does anybody know the reson. It is not only colour difference, but the inside is much softer.
I’d appreacite if someone know the answer. Is this a bad thing?
Thank you!
Maria -
#5 written by Marcsi 7 years ago
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#6 written by evik 7 years ago
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#8 written by Nanitta Spain 7 years ago
Hello Evik, I have been follwing your blog for a few months now and tried several of your recipes. Thank you for all the interesting information you publish. With this soap I had the problem of it crumbling on me. When I cutted it after being two days in the mould it would break badly on the edges.
I had a batch insolated lightly and another in that I putted in the fridge right away though both behaved the same so it is hard for me to guess what went wrong…! Maybe 1Tbsp salt before the lye is too much…? Could you give me some light on this one, please…
Thank you and many greetings! 🙂-
#9 written by evik 7 years ago
Hi Nanitta! Crumbling on the edges means your soap was too cold on the edges – therefore it did not saponify as fast as the rest of soap which was warmer inside. It means it is still too “raw” to be cut (on the edges). It happens if you use moulds with thin walls, which are not able to insulate well and the heat from the reaction goes into the surroundings.
It would be even worse if you had one in the fridge. This is certainly not a recipe to put in the fridge, since the saponification reaction is slow enough due to olive oil. The cooling does not help it at all!
So the solution is – leave it in the mould some more, or put it close to some heat source – beware, it will gel and your soap will get liquid, therefore do not heat individual soap bars. If you already cut it, just leave it as is, it will saponify, although it may take longer than usual.For the next time, make sure the soap gels (insulate well your mould or use a wooden one, put it on a radriator or close to heat source), or if you don’t want it gelled, just leave it 3-4 days in the mould.
Hope this helps, soap well!
Evik
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#10 written by Nanitta Spain 7 years ago
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Hi! It’s amazing…I’ve been planning to make a cocoa 100% olive oil soap for weeks, AND I just got some gold mica and practice soap stamps. Thanks for the sugar and alt tip. I did the other way and ended up with a lump of caramel in my lye solution…lol. Good work on your blog, I’m signing up after posting this comment.