Easy glycerin soap recipe| COCOÉCO blog

A DIY soap as lovely as turquoise shoal

Our latest soap recipe won’t leave you out at sea! Seascape looks just like a snapshot of tropical waters breaking on a glittery beach, but it’s oh-so-easy to make. All you have to do is pour alternating layers of two melt-and-pour soap bases and dust with some mica. And ta-da! You’ve made bars of soap as mesmerizing as the ocean!

This homemade soap’s power lies not only in its beauty; it also has restructuring and revitalizing properties that your skin will adore. It’s as hydrating as the waters it resembles and will deeply nourish your skin. Beauty, benefits, and a breeze to make—what more could you want from a homemade soap?

Read on to learn how to make this gorgeous glycerin soap and bring a Seascape into your tub!

How to make glycerin soap

Ingredients

White soap base

454 g (49.2%) white glycerin soap

Turquoise soap base

454 g (49.2%) clear glycerin soap
2.5 g (0.3%) blue liquid colourant
1.25 g (0.1%) green liquid colourant

Additions

5 g (0.5%) argan oil
5 g (0.5%) aromatic essence of your choosing
2 g (0.2%) gold leaf mica

Tools

Components to make two double boilers
Scale, accurate to 0.1 g
Two measuring funnel pitchers
Large stainless steel bowl
Two small stainless steel bowls
A few ramekins
Spray bottle containing 70% isopropyl alcohol
Two small silicone spatulas
Pipette
Mesh sieve
Thermometer
Silicone loaf mold
Soap cutter

Good to know!

We chose to use an aromatic essence in this soap recipe, but you can replace it with the essential oil of your choosing. Essential oils don’t just smell great, they also confer wonderful properties! Check out our article for help choosing an essential oil that’s right for your skin type. Keep in mind that some essential oils are dermocaustic or photosensitizing; these should not be used in your homemade soap.
Glycerin (melt-and-pour) soaps contain a large amount of glycerin—that’s what they’re named for! Glycerin is a hydrating ingredient and helps provide a gentle lather.
We chose argan oil for its nourishing, revitalizing, and restructuring properties. Its fatty acids restore your skin’s suppleness, leaving it soft, reinvigorated, and toned. Rich in antioxidants, argan oil is an excellent active ingredient for helping prevent the visible signs of aging.
For the most part, it’s important to stick to this recipe’s quantities, or to maintain the percentages of each ingredient if you scale it up or down. This recipe contains 1.1% aromatic essence (which you’re free to choose!), because we wanted a subtly scented soap. However, you can use more aromatic essence or more argan oil if you’d like a stronger scent or an extra-nourishing soap, with one important caveat: the total oil in a glycerin soap recipe must be no more than 2.4%, otherwise your soap will “sweat.” Aromatic essences are actually suspended in a vegetable oil base, so when you’re adding an aromatic essence to a recipe, you’re also adding oil.
You can replace the gold leaf mica with the mica of your choosing or one of our biodegradable glitters.
It is possible to adapt the choice of liquid colourants to your personal tastes, however, be sure to respect the percentages indicated in the recipe.
Isopropyl alcohol helps burst any air bubbles on the surface of your soap.
It’s important to respect the recommended waiting time before unmolding your soap.
- If you unmold it too early, your soap will still be warm, meaning it will be too soft and malleable. The layers may not stick together as well and may even break apart.
- If you wait too long to unmold it, the inner layers of your homemade soap will break apart more easily, while the outer layers may crumble when you cut them.
We advise against placing your homemade soap in the refrigerator to save time. If you do so, your soap won’t cool evenly, and the layers of your soap may break apart.

Steps to follow

Prepare and disinfect your equipment and workspace.

Glycerin soap bases

Using a soap cutter, cut the white glycerin soap into medium-sized cubes to help it melt. Place the cubes in the first double boiler.
Repeat step 2 for the clear soap, this time placing your soap cubes in the second double boiler.
While the glycerin soaps are melting, weigh the argan oil and aromatic essence in a ramekin. Mix to combine.
Use the scale to divide this mixture into two equal parts, one for the white soap base and the other for the clear soap base.
Weigh the blue and green liquid colourants in a ramekin and set aside.
Weigh the gold leaf mica in a ramekin and set aside.
When the white glycerin soap base has melted, pour the liquid soap into the first measuring funnel pitcher.
Do the same for the clear glycerin soap when it’s melted.
Add the colourants to the clear glycerin soap.
Pour one half of the argan oil-aromatic essence mixture into the pitcher containing the white soap base and the other into the clear soap base.
Stir to combine the mixture in each pitcher. Wait until both liquids have cooled to 54–60°C.

Pouring

When both bases have cooled to 54–60°C, gently pour a thin layer of the white base. Use the sieve to dust the surface with a bit of mica, then gently pour a thin layer of the turquoise base. Dust again with a bit more mica, using the sieve.
Continue to alternate these layers in the order provided in step 13 until both soap bases are used up. Be sure to pour the soap bases very gently and keep an eye out for clumps.
If clumps are forming, which happens if the soap bases are cooling off too quickly, just return them to their respective double boilers and reheat gently.
When you’ve used up both soap bases, spray some isopropyl alcohol on the surface of the soap.

Cutting

We recommend waiting about five hours before unmolding your soap so that it has time to cool properly but is still soft enough to cut without breaking.
After unmolding the soap, cut it into three equal parts using the soap cutter.
Take one of the parts and place it on its side, so that the layers are vertical, and cut it into three bars.
Repeat step 19 for the other two parts.