Beginners guide to cold process soap making: Episode 6 - Making a layered, two colour soap loaf

Welcome to our "Soap making for Beginners" guide! Over the next 7 days, we will be uploading a mini series of videos focusing on soap making for absolute beginners. We will cover things such as equipment, lye safety, soap making oils, terminology and how to make your very first soap.
We have put together this guide as we have had a lot of questions from people asking how to get into soap making and how they can learn to make soap. We are not the first people to put together a guide like this, but we know that when you are new to soap making it helps to have as many different resources to learn from as possible!
We have tried to cover everything that we can think of in our guide and if you watch each of our daily episodes they will hopefully give you a basic understanding of how to begin making soap safely. We will be covering a different soap making topic each days for the next seven days.
In today's episode we will be making our second loaf of soap. We will be showing you how to layer soap in today's video and we will be colouring our soap in two different shades of blue. We have chosen to scent the loaf with Peppermint essential oil, though you can scent with a different oil if you wish to (but do check safe usage rates first) or you can leave your loaf unscented.
If you are unsure about any aspect of the soap making process then it is important that you stop and do not attempt to make soap and instead research things further until you do feel confident!
If you are planning to follow our recipe, then you will need the following ingredients:
221g Water
110.5g Sodium Hyrdoxide
560g Olive Oil
200g Coconut oil
40g Castor Oil
1g "Hollywood Gaze" mica (or any other colour mica)
1g "Tropical Temptations" mica (or any other colour mica)
16g Peppermint Essential Oil (or another scent, optional)
If you have any comments or questions along the way, please do let us know so we can do our best to help you learn how to make soap!
If you enjoy our videos and soap making tutorials please do give us a like and subscribe :-)
In addition to this special, one off mini series, we also upload new soap making videos every Friday and new behind the scenes/business tips videos every Tuesday.
You can also follow us and find our soaps here:
www.sussexsoap.co.uk
sussexhandmadesoap
sussex_handmade_soap
If you do head over to our website, we offer our KZbin friends 20% off purchases if you enter code "youtube20" at checkout :-)

[@cathydixon5218]

Thank you for all these beginner videos. They really help me understand better

[@tofty21]

This is the best instructional video of ANYTHING I’ve seen on YT.

[@gladysharker8728]

I made my first batch of soap today thanks to you helping me not feel overwhelmed and have everything I needed. It was 100% Tallow because thats what I have on hand and didn't know if it would work. Its in the mold and I'm sooo excited I want to scream it to the world! Thankyou a thousand times for helping me with this series!!!

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

You are so welcome! Congratulations on your first soap and do let me know how it turns out! We will be making a predominantly lard based soap soon. I have never used lard in a soap before but know it is meant to be a good ingredient for soap and it is so much cheaper than some other soap making oils!

[@glenisgibson9736]

Really enjoyed this video, very slow and methodical for newbies to follow.

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Glenis.

[@Magomerlin90210]

Absolutely lovely! thanks for sharing this beautiful art

[@TheeHerbJunkie]

Very informative . Thank you

[@katarzynaderkacz39]

I make soaps already but really do enjoy watching your videos 💞🌙

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Katarzyna :-)

[@cesarsilvam]

thanks

[@priyanshagour2035]

You really have put your hard efforts to make the series. Kudos to you😊

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you so much Priyansha :-)

[@annettebobko3628]

I love this series and your videos overall! So new to soap making I haven't made my 1st bar yet. Plan on doing that this weekend after watching as many videos as I can to be totally prepared. Thanks!!

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Annette and best of luck for your upcoming soap making weekend :-)

[@travelswithann4616]

Great teaching Anne.

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you :-)

[@joykimbrough8128]

This is so awesome that your including so much great info! I needed this when I first started soaping for sure. Thank you this is fun to watch.

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you so much Joy. I am glad that you are enjoying it.

[@keriwilde9772]

Curious about more details on mica. I always understood they weren’t for cold press style. Any additional details would be helpful

[@NaeNatrual22]

Hey Ann! Loved the video great info! Keep them coming. Also, hi Wayne😁

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you so much and we will! I think Wayne is pleased to get a hello in the comments for once! :-)

[@stellamarisokello2140]

Thank you so much.

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

You are welcome Stella :-)

[@sadafshah2893]

Great info thank you so much 😊

[@sadafshah2893]

I really enjoyed ur video x

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

You are welcome and I am very glad you enjoyed our video :-)

[@nanomc3174]

Thank you for this vid..well explained and easy to understand your instructions..wish I had your mini series of vids to watch when I was learning to soap seven years ago ! I tried your recipe too and did a steeper water discount , the soap unmolded a bit on the soft side , so am hoping with the water discount it will harden up nicely..tfs !

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you for your comment :-) Yes, this soap is a little soft when unmoulded but we have found that it firms up nicely after curing :-)

[@DianaKPoor]

Excellent video ! What type of oil can I replace the castor oil? Thank you

[@hediewiebe2128]

Thank you for all your info and knowledge. I have learned so much. But I am wondering why some people spray the top of the soap with alcohol before wrapping it up? great teaching and God bless!

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Hello Hedie, Many soap makers will spray the top of the soap with alcohol before allowing it to saponify as this is one technique used to try and avoid getting "soda ash". Soda ash is a harmless but not always aesthetically pleasing white powdery substance that can form on the top of soap as it saponifies and cures. We have tried this a few times and for us personally it doesn't make a huge difference, but I guess for some people it does or no one would do it!

[@hediewiebe2128]

@@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany Thank you. I have enjoyed and learned much from you. I have subscribed.

[@myiridescentlovecandleco.5399]

Hey Ann & Wayne, quick question. If I was to half this recipe (I've made more soap than I can use 🤦‍♀️,) would i need to half the mica too or can I put more in to make the colours stronger? Thankyou so much for all your help xxx

[@itzakpoelzig330]

Every time I hear your intro music, I'm all geared up for you to have a Beverly Hillbillies accent, and then I do a little double take when a charming English accent comes out instead.

[@erdbeerlips]

Hi your videos are amazing,you make soap making so simple...I have a question though,I am following yiur recipe but dont have castor oil,if I substitute the 40 g of castor oil with 40 g of sunflower oil?Will I then need to change the water and lye ratio? I have used a lye calculator but I'm not so sure if the amount is correct. I'd rather ask an expert instead of an app.Thankyou so much.

[@EEHCOL]

Hi Anne, loving the channel :) where can I get those scales you're using?

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Hi JC, To be honest, I thought they were from Argos, but when I looked on their site to try and link to them in a previous video, they didn't have them, so now I am not sure where we got them from! Argos do have some similar sets though that may be of use to you :-)

[@sadafshah2893]

Where do you get ur essential oil? Any good resources to read the usage of essential oil? Is it same with fragrance oils?

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

We tend to purchase our essential oils from either Mystic Moments or The Soapery as we find both of these places to offer good quality oils at affordable prices. The principle on use is similar with fragrance oils, you will need to check the IFRA document for safe usage rates for individual fragrances and obviously they don't have the same aromatherapy benefits that essential oils do. I have a couple of books that I found really useful for learning about essential oils and one I would recommend is "The encyclopedia of Essential Oils" by Julia Lawless. It is very interesting and informative :-)

[@kellensimonedossantos8442]

Amei mas fiquei em dúvida essa fórmula é pra 1 k de óleos? Ou qual peso da base dos óleos 🇧🇷

[@mayelajuarez3825]

How many pounds is these recipe? Hello from Texas

[@Stonehavenhomestead]

would natural clay be the same equivalent as colour mica?

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Natural clays can certainly be used in place of mica to create different colours but I personally wouldn't say they are a "like for like" swap. You will probably need to use a higher amount of clay than you would mica to create the colour and with clays you will not be able to get the same bright, vibrant colours that you do with mica. The clay colour palette is certainly a lot more limited than the mica one! On the plus side, we do find that clays (as well as providing colour) also add a lovely feel to the soaps and many people also use them to anchor scents into their soap, so they are a great multi-functional ingredient to use.