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White tea faux funnel pour bar

Square bars of cream soap whose tops show fine concentric rings of cream and soft sage green, beside a small heap of loose white tea leaves on a pink backdrop

Cream and sage green batter squeezed in turn into random circles, so the top of every bar shows fine rings like a funnel pour, with no funnel and no dividers. Strong white tea, frozen, is all of its liquid, and eucalyptus its scent.

Skill
Intermediate
Method
Cold process
Batch
900 g of oils about 1346 g of batter
Hands-on
1 h 15 min
Cure
6 weeks
Gel phase
No keep it cool
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What you need

For 900 g of oils, which fills a 20 cm (8 in) square slab mould at least 4 cm deep. Weigh everything, liquids included.

Olive Oil · 50.0 % 450 g 15.87 oz
Coconut Oil · 23.0 % 207 g 7.30 oz
Rapeseed Oil - Low Erucic Acid · 20.0 % 180 g 6.35 oz
Shea Butter · 7.0 % 63 g 2.22 oz
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) · the lye, 100 % pure 124.5 g 4.39 oz
White tea, brewed strong and frozen in cubes · all of the liquid, brewed from 8 g of loose white tea or 5 tea bags in about 350 ml of distilled water; the lye goes onto it. The calculator lists it as brewed green tea, the same plant 291 g 10.26 oz
Titanium dioxide · 1 tsp, white half only, dispersed in 14 g of the recipe's canola oil 4.7 g 0.17 oz
Chromium oxide green · 0.75 tsp, green half only, dispersed in 14 g of the recipe's canola oil 3.7 g 0.13 oz
Rubbing alcohol (isopropyl, 91 % or stronger), in a fine spray bottle · misted lightly over the top against soda ash; it evaporates. Flammable: keep it away from flames 1 tbsp
Eucalyptus oil (globulus) · 2.5 % of the oils, at trace 23 g 0.79 oz
Superfat
5 %
Temperatures
Tea lye kept as cold as you can while the lye dissolves; oils cooled to 32 to 38 °C (90 to 100 °F)

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Method

  1. Brew and freeze the tea

    The day before, steep 8 g of loose white tea, or 5 tea bags, in about 350 ml of distilled water just off the boil for 10 minutes. Strain it, let it cool, weigh 290.8 g into an ice-cube tray and freeze it solid.

  2. Get ready

    Put on goggles, gloves and long sleeves and open a window. Line the slab mould and set it level where it can stay, with two squeeze bottles of about 500 ml, a funnel to fill them, two jugs and a bowl of iced water in reach.

  3. Disperse the colours

    Weigh the canola oil and take 28 g of it. Stir the titanium dioxide into 14 g in one jug and the chromium green into the other 14 g in the second, until a smear on a white plate shows no grains.

  4. Add the lye to the frozen tea

    Stand the container of frozen tea in the iced water and sprinkle the 124.5 g of sodium hydroxide onto it a tablespoon at a time, stirring until each dissolves before the next; never pour the tea onto the lye. Take 5 to 10 minutes and keep it as cold as you can, since the slower it warms, the paler the soap. It darkens and smells odd, which is normal.

  5. Melt and scent the oils

    Melt the coconut oil and shea butter gently, add the olive oil and the rest of the canola oil, and let them cool to 32 to 38 °C (90 to 100 °F). Stir in the eucalyptus oil.

  6. Blend to very light trace

    Pour the tea lye into the oils through a stainless steel sieve, tap out trapped air, and blend in short pulses only until the batter is smooth and barely thickened, thinner than custard. The fine rings need thin batter.

  7. Split and fill the bottles

    Pour half the batter, about 655 g, into the green jug and whisk it evenly green; whisk the white into the half left in the pot. Fill one squeeze bottle from each, keeping the rest to top them up.

  8. Squeeze white circles

    Squeeze white batter into the mould in about six places, scattered at random, counting to five for each so the circles come out much the same size.

  9. Squeeze green into each

    Squeeze green firmly into the middle of each white circle, again for a count of five, so it pushes the white outwards into a ring.

  10. Keep alternating

    Go on squeezing white, then green, into the middle of each circle, topping up the bottles as they empty, until all the batter is in. Tap the mould on the worktop every few rounds to settle it, and don't add dividers: they break the rings.

  11. Keep it cool

    Mist the top lightly with rubbing alcohol, away from any flame, and leave the slab uncovered in a cool room so it does not gel. Kept cool, the tea stays pale and the white stays clear of glycerin rivers.

  12. Unmould and cut

    Unmould with gloves on after 2 to 3 days, once firm, and cut the slab into 9 bars, three by three.

  13. Cure

    Stand the bars on edge with air between them, out of direct sun, for 6 weeks, turning them every few days.

Tips

  • Random centres are what make the fine lines: scattered circles run into each other as they spread, and the rings crowd together where they meet.
  • Expect cream and a soft sage green, not white and emerald: lye turns tea tan, and chromium oxide is a muted green to begin with.
  • If the bottles start to clog, the batter has thickened: pour the rest straight from the jugs, still alternating into the middle of each circle. The rings come out broader.

Why make it

A gentle, conditioning bar, conditioning 65 and cleansing 16 on our scale, with half olive oil and a little shea, so it suits dry skin and daily use. People make it for the pattern: fine concentric rings of cream and sage from two squeeze bottles, with no funnel and no dividers. Strong white tea replaces the water. Tea soap is a lovely idea, but lye turns tea tan and changes much of what it holds, so the tea's part is colour and story rather than any proven effect on the skin. Eucalyptus gives a clean, fresh scent. Keep it out of gel so the cream stays pale, and give it the full six weeks: olive-rich bars start soft and firm up as they cure.

What tradition, makers' experience and research say about soaps like this, each labelled for what it is. It is not medical advice, and no soap treats a skin condition: if you have one, ask a doctor or pharmacist.

What the numbers say

  • Lauric acid 11.3 %
  • Myristic acid 4.4 %
  • Palmitic acid 10.1 %
  • Stearic acid 5.4 %
  • Oleic acid 51.6 %
  • Linoleic acid 11.5 %
  • α-Linolenic acid 2.2 %
  • Other 5.6 %

Saturated : unsaturated 34 : 66

Hardness 31 29–54
Cleansing 16 12–22
Conditioning 65 44–69
Bubbly lather 16 14–46
Creamy lather 15 below 16–48

Computed from the fatty acids of the fats above. The bands are what the craft has settled on, not chemistry — a bar outside one is not wrong.

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Where these proportions come from

Adapted from Anne-Marie Faiola's white tea faux funnel pour: her palm-free blend of half olive oil with coconut oil, canola and a little shea butter, frozen white tea as all of the liquid, and white and green batter squeezed in turn into random centres in a slab, with no dividers. We soap it at our 5 % superfat and a 30 % lye solution, keep it out of gel, and cut her eucalyptus from 4.5 % of the oils to 2.5 %.

Formulation adapted from Pure Soapmaking by Anne-Marie Faiola (Storey Publishing, 2016). The method and notes are ours.

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