Of all the requests I’ve had on my YouTube channel and blog, creating a soap using my scraps has to be one of the most frequent. I’ve been thinking on it for a long time, trying to come up with some original creative soap using all the bits of leftover soap I’ve accumulated. Unfortunately, the only thing I could think of was a gradient confetti soap. It sort of worked. The one thing I did manage successfully was to prevent gel phase and create the whitest soap I’ve ever made. Very exciting! Well, it is to me, anyway. ;)  If you just can’t wait to hear more, keep reading.  Oh, there’s also a 5 minute video documenting the whole thing. :)

When I think of confetti, I always picture a celebration where the floor is covered in colored paper with bits of it still falling from the ceiling. I really wanted my finished soap to have that appearance. What I discovered was that listening to a riveting audio book while measuring out confetti and pouring each layer just isn’t the best idea. At some point during the video (below), I point out when I should have laid off adding more soap scraps to the cup.  I think that was really the main mistake in getting my gradient look. But all in all, I’m actually quite pleased with the soap. The very white base color helps my naturally colored scraps look way more colorful than they ever did before.

Speaking of the very white base soap, most of my uncolored soaps are just not very white at all. More like a light beige. I started by using a recipe I knew would make a light colored soap. The olive oil I use is very light in color which really helps, too. I also knew I needed to avoid gel phase, as that can really make soap darker and less opaque. To prevent gel, I soaped at 80º F and placed the soap into the refrigerator as soon as possible. After about 24 hours, I removed it from the fridge and unmolded it. I left it alone for another 48 hours before cutting it. So a total of 72 hours went by between making and cutting, and the soap was hard enough to cut without any issues. I do have a large dehumidifier which helps. It has made an amazing difference in my shop if you ever want more information about it.

I had lighting issues during the video which caused the soap to look a little yellowish at times, but in reality, it’s actually white. :)

RECIPE
Olive Oil – 45%
Coconut Oil – 25%
Sunflower Oil – 10%
Shea Butter – 10%
Cocoa Butter – 5%
Castor Oil – 5%

I think lard makes an even whiter bar. If I’d had some, I would have used lard in place of the sunflower oil, shea butter, & cocoa butter.

Superfat – 6%

Lye Solution – 33% (Water = 2 x sodium hydroxide)

To calculate the sodium hydroxide for your specific recipe amounts, you can use a soap calculator like the one at Majestic Mountain Sage:
http://goo.gl/7hH5Vw

Peppermint Essential Oil – http://amzn.to/2AnPOgr (Amazon affiliate link)
2% of total oils in recipe

White Kaolin Clay – http://amzn.to/2Nh6Tel (Amazon affiliate link)
2 teaspoons per 500g of oils in recipe

My recipes are listed in percentages so you can adjust them to fit your specific mold size. If you need help converting the percentages to grams or ounces, here’s a great article from Lovin’ Soap:  http://bit.ly/2LGxofa

VIDEO

In case you’re interested, I have an affiliate store where I’ve listed all of the soap making supplies and materials that I purchase on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2DZmGfJ
If you use those links to buy anything, it won’t cost you anything extra, but I will receive a very small percentage of the sale. Every little bit helps, though, so thank you very much if you do! :)

Thank you so much for reading my post and watching my video!