My friend, Brittany, is quite awesome. She’s my soap-making buddy, and though we each make soap on our own, I think its more fun to make soap together!
We got together about a month ago to make an easy batch with another friend of ours, and we ended up with this lovely, luscious, cold process soap that just makes me so happy I had to share it with you all.
We started with the basic formula from www.soapqueen.com, and then we tweaked it a bit, checking our recipe with Brambleberry’s lye calculator. This is a pretty nifty tool, by the way.
So here’s what you need for a 2 lb batch:
7.5 oz coconut oil
7.5 oz palm oil
7.5 oz olive oil
2.5 oz avocado oil
3.5 oz sodium hydroxide (lye)
8.25 oz prepared calendula tea (room temperature) – you can also use water
1.5 oz orange essential oil
2 tsp paprika
2 lb loaf mold (or whatever mold you would like)
Stick Blender
Safety Gear – Gloves & Goggles
If you have never made cold process soap before, I suggest you watch this quick video on lye safety.
To make your soap:
1. Line your molds with freezer paper (you don’t need to do this if you’re using silicone)
2. Put on your gloves and goggles.
3. In a heat safe bowl (not aluminum), carefully sprinkle your lye into your cooled calendula tea. Do this in a well ventilated area, and be very careful not to breath in the fumes. Stir the mixture until it is clear, and then set it in a safe place to cool.
4. In a separate, large, non-aluminum bowl, melt the coconut and palm oil to combine them. Stir in the olive and avocado oil.
5. Very carefully add your cooled lye mixture to your oils, and blend with a stick blender until it reaches light trace. This will look like thin pudding.
6. Sprinkle the paprika over your soap, and then blend well. Once your paprika is blended in, add your orange essential oil and blend again.
7. Carefully pour into your mold.
8. Wait 24 hours, and then you may slice your soap.
9. Set your soap in a well ventilated area and cure for 4 – 6 weeks, turning your soap every so often to ensure even drying.
Enjoy!
Good Intentions, Bad Follow-Through 
I’m totally loving the gorgeous orange color in your soap! Thank you so much for sharing. =)
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Thank you! 😀
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I really like the color of your soap, and orange is one of my favorite scents. 🙂
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Thank you! The paprika works great with the orange essential oil! 🙂
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That recipe turned out great, I used chamomile and forgot the paprika, but still came out with a very nice bar. Thanks
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I’m so happy to hear you liked it! Chamomile sounds fantastic 🙂
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Can’t wait to try this soap! Orange is one of my very favorite scents!
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This is probably my very favorite recipe! I hope you love it! 🙂
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I love the color paprika gives in cold process soap! Those are so pretty! I can almost smell the orange. 🙂
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Thank you! It makes it nice and scrubby, too! 🙂
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I love this! I think I’d like to try it but will be adapting it to a CPHP recipe.
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I would love to here how it turns out!
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I try this recipe, it turns out a great bar! but unfortunately mine wasn’t so orange 😦 maybe could be de different kind of paprika??
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I’m glad it turned out well, but I’m sorry about the color. I haven’t experimented with different kinds of paprika, but that might be a good place to start. You could also add in a little more next time. I wouldn’t go too crazy–the paprika makes the bar ‘scrubby’, and too much might make it too rough. It also might have something to do with the olive oil. Mine is a really dark green, and it makes a very yellow bar without paprika, so it doesn’t take much to turn it orange. Next time, if it doesn’t look orange enough before you pour, you could add in a tiny bit of red oxide to darken it up. I hope this helps! Definitely let me know how it goes if you make it again 🙂
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yes, my oil is more yellow… i’ll give a try with a greener one and with more paprika! and i let you know how it turns! thanks a lot 🙂
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