Funfetti: a celebratory DIY soap!

Let bubbles, colour, and confetti party together!

Pull out your streamers, party hats, and sparklers: it’s Funfetti time! Our new homemade soap recipe is a party in a bar of soap! Featuring confetti-like embeds and sparkling mica, this soap is perfect for special occasions.

We wanted to create a homemade soap flecked with colour—a soap that’s gentle on your skin and that’s as bubbly as bubbly. Funfetti does not disappoint! This DIY cold process soap is a party for your eyes, and so much more. It yields a lush lather and gently cleans all skin types. You can even use it on your face! With its sweet floral scent, it has all the perfect ingredients for a great party—and a great soap!

Whether it’s the holidays or a birthday, no party is complete without Funfetti!

How to make soap with little glycerin embeds

Before you begin

• The scents in this recipe speed up trace. To compensate, it uses a 2:1 ratio of water to sodium hydroxide.
• For this soap recipe, you’ll need to work first at light trace and then at medium trace. It’s important that the batter be at medium trace when you incorporate the embeds so that they don’t sink to the bottom of the mold. This recipe is intended for soap makers who have a few cold process soaps under their belt and are comfortable identifying various traces.

Ingredients

Sodium hydroxide solution

• 12 g (1%) sodium lactate
• 88 g (8.1%) sodium hydroxide
• 176 g (16.2%) demineralized water

Base oil and butter mixture

• 150 g (13.8%) coconut oil
• 170 g (15.6%) shea butter
• 130 g (12%) macadamia oil
• 60 g (5.5%) castor oil
• 90 g (8.3%) hazelnut oil

Superfatting

• 30 g (2.8%) hazelnut oil

Scent blend

• 10 g (0.9%) ylang-ylang essential oil
• 10 g (0.9%) honey aromatic essence 
• 10 g (0.9%) almond aromatic essence

Colourants

• 1.8 g (0.2%) titanium dioxide
• ½ to 1 teaspoon of the mica of your choosing

Embeds

• 150 g (13.8%) glycerin soap (we used white glycerin soap but you can also use clear)
• A few drops of the liquid colourants of your choosing 

Tools

• Three small stainless steel bowls
• Large Pyrex cup or high-density polyethylene (HDPE) jar for the sodium hydroxide solution (minimum capacity of 500 ml)
• A jar for weighing the sodium hydroxide
• Hot plate or stove element
• Components to make a double boiler
• Large stainless steel bowl
• Small silicone spatula
• Regular-sized silicone spatula
• Scale, accurate to 0.1 g
• Pipette
• Pyrex measuring cup
• A few ramekins
• A few teaspoons
• Immersion blender
• Thermometer
• Silicone loaf mold (for the main soap)
• Silicone mini ovals mold (for the glycerin soap confetti)
• Vegetable peeler
• Small mesh strainer
• Whisk
• Wavy soap cutter

Good to know!

• You should never change an oil or butter in a soap recipe without re-entering all your ingredients in a sodium hydroxide calculator.
• This DIY soap is superfatted at 7% by adding a superfatting oil at trace. We chose hazelnut oil as our superfatting because it is softening, non-comedogenic, and suitable for all skin types. 
• The saponified oils and butters provide your homemade soap with these fantastic properties:
  • Coconut oil hardens your soap, cleanses, and provides great lather.
  • Shea butter hardens the soap, makes it milder, and provides lather.
  • Macadamia oil makes this soap gentle on your skin.
  • Castor oil makes the soap milder and creates wonderful lather.
  • Hazelnut oil makes this soap gentle on your skin.
• Instead of using confetti-like bits of glycerin soap, you can use little scraps from trimming cold process soaps you’ve previously made. If you do so, ignore steps 8 to 10 and add 150 g of soap scraps at step 14.
• The sodium lactate helps harden the soap. Without it, this soap would be difficult to unmold and use.

Steps to follow

1. Prepare and disinfect your equipment and workspace.

Sodium hydroxide solution

2. Weigh the sodium lactate and demineralized water in an HDPE jar, then mix with the spatula to dissolve the sodium lactate.
3. Prepare the sodium hydroxide solution: Weigh the sodium hydroxide, add it to the sodium lactate solution, mix well, and set aside to cool.

Base oils and butter, scents, and colourants

4. Weigh the coconut oil and shea butter in a large bowl and melt.
5. Weigh the other base oils (macadamia, castor, and hazelnut) in the first small bowl.
6. Weigh the hazelnut oil for the superfatting, along with your scents, in the second small bowl. Mix together with the small spatula.
7. Weigh the titanium dioxide in a ramekin.

Glycerin confetti

8. Weigh 30 g of glycerin (melt-and-pour) soap in a Pyrex cup. Melt on the double boiler. Once it has melted, add a couple of drops of the liquid colourant of your choosing, then mix together with a spoon. Pour the melted, coloured soap into one of the cavities of the oval soap mold and leave it to cool.
9. Repeat step 8 four more times, each with a different colour. Let the glycerin soaps cool. You can put the mold into the freezer for five minutes to speed things up.
10. When the glycerin soap has solidified, use a vegetable peeler to make little confetti bits of soap. Dump your confetti bits into the third small bowl and break them by mixing them together with your hands. This helps break off the little “frizzy” bits, which detract from the soap’s final appearance.

Soap batter

11. When the solid fats have melted, remove them from the heat and add the liquid oils for the soap base along with the titanium dioxide. Mix with the immersion blender to disperse the colourant.
12. When the sodium hydroxide solution and the base oils and butter have both cooled to around 35°C, add the sodium hydroxide solution to the base oils and butter mixture. Mix with the spatula for a few seconds, then continue mixing with the immersion blender on its lowest setting.
13. When the batter reaches light trace, add the superfatting oil and scent mixture. Mix with the spatula to homogenize, then mix again with the immersion blender for a few seconds until it reaches medium trace.
14. At medium trace, add the glycerin soap confetti, then mix with the spatula to distribute it evenly throughout the soap batter.
15. Pour the soap batter into the mold. Gently tap the soap mold on your table or countertop to level the soap batter and distribute it evenly throughout the mold.

Decoration

16. Set the tip of your whisk pointing downward on the surface of the soap, then lift it up. This will create a pattern on the surface of the soap. Repeat across the full top surface of the soap.
17. Dust the surface of the soap with mica in diagonal lines, using a small mesh strainer. Hold the strainer closer to the surface of the soap for greater accuracy.
18. Blow on the surface of the soap to remove excess mica.

Cutting and curing

19. After 24 hours, unmold the soap and cut it with a wavy soap cutter. Be sure to wear gloves throughout this step.
20. Leave to cure for six weeks in a dry, dark place.

Use and conservation

This homemade soap is gentle thanks to its 7% superfatting with hazelnut oil. It’s formulated for normal skin and can be used on both your body and your face.

When made in optimal sanitary conditions, it will keep for at least 12 months.