Ylang-ylang and geranium bar
A rich, butter-heavy bar with a floral blend of ylang-ylang, geranium and a little sweet orange, spooned into soft swirls of dusty pink and cream. The pink is rose clay, which holds its colour, and the blend stays well inside its IFRA limits.
- Skill
- Intermediate
- Method
- Cold process
- Batch
- 1000 g of oils about 1445 g of batter
- Hands-on
- 1 h 20 min
- Cure
- 6 weeks
- Gel phase
- Either way gel or not, both work
What you need
For 1000 g of oils, which fills a 1.5 litre loaf mould. Weigh everything, liquids included.
| Olive Oil · 40.0 % | 400 g | 14.11 oz |
| Shea Butter · 20.0 % | 200 g | 7.05 oz |
| Coconut Oil · 20.0 % | 200 g | 7.05 oz |
| Cocoa Butter · 10.0 % | 100 g | 3.53 oz |
| Avocado Oil · 5.0 % | 50 g | 1.76 oz |
| Castor Oil · 5.0 % | 50 g | 1.76 oz |
| Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) · the lye, 100 % pure | 135.0 g | 4.76 oz |
| Distilled water · 254 g for a 35 % lye solution, 20 g set aside | 274.1 g | 9.67 oz |
| Rose clay · 2 tsp, whisked into 20 g of water held back from the recipe's water; for the pink half | 6.3 g | 0.22 oz |
| Ylang-ylang essential oil · 0.8 % of the oils, at trace | 8 g | 0.28 oz |
| Geranium essential oil · 1.4 % of the oils, at trace | 14 g | 0.49 oz |
| Sweet orange essential oil · 0.8 % of the oils, at trace | 8 g | 0.28 oz |
- Superfat
- 6 %
- Temperatures
- Oils and lye solution each between 35 and 43 °C (95 and 110 °F)
Method
-
Get ready
Open a window or turn on the extractor fan, send children and pets out, and put on splash goggles, nitrile gloves and long sleeves. Set a 1.5 litre loaf mould on a level surface and have a second jug and two large spoons ready. -
Weigh everything
Weigh 200 g shea butter, 200 g coconut oil and 100 g cocoa butter into the pot, and 400 g olive oil, 50 g avocado oil and 50 g castor oil into a jug. Weigh 274.1 g of distilled water into the lye jug and pour 20 g of it into a small cup for the clay, weigh 8 g of ylang-ylang, 14 g of geranium and 8 g of sweet orange essential oil into a small cup, and weigh the 135.0 g of sodium hydroxide last, into a dry container. -
Make the lye solution
Where air moves, pour the sodium hydroxide slowly into the 254.1 g of water left in the jug, never the water onto the lye, and stir until it turns clear. Keep your face away from the vapour and leave it to cool, labelled and out of reach. -
Mix the clay
Whisk 2 teaspoons of rose clay into the 20 g of held-back water until it is smooth, with no dry lumps. -
Melt the fats
Melt the shea butter, coconut oil and cocoa butter on the lowest heat until just clear, then pour in the olive, avocado and castor oils. -
Blend to light trace
When the oils and the lye solution are each between 35 and 43 °C (95 and 110 °F), pour the lye solution into the oils down the blender shaft, and pulse and stir to light trace. Stir in the essential oils by hand. -
Split and colour
Pour half the batter, about 710 g, into the second jug and whisk in the clay until it is an even pink. Then stir or pulse each half until both reach medium trace, like soft pudding, so the dollops hold their shape. -
Spoon the swirl
With one spoon for each colour, drop dollops of pink and cream into the mould in turn, in two or three places at a time, some large and some small. Tap the mould on the worktop after every 2.5 cm (1 in) or so of batter. -
Finish the top
Drizzle what is left of each colour over the top, then draw a chopstick 1 cm deep in a zigzag across the width, working down the mould, or push the top into soft peaks with the back of a spoon. -
Cover and leave
Cover the mould with its lid or a board and lay a towel over it for a day. It may gel or not; either is fine. -
Unmould and cut
After 24 to 48 hours, when the loaf is firm, unmould it with gloves on and cut it into bars about 2.5 cm (1 in) thick. -
Cure
Stand the bars on edge in a dry, airy place for six weeks, turning them every few days.
Tips
- Ylang-ylang is limited to 1.4 % of a finished soap by its own IFRA Standard; at 0.8 % of the oils this bar uses under half of that. For a stronger scent, raise the geranium, not the ylang-ylang.
- Floral oils can speed trace. That suits a spoon swirl, but try a new lot in a small batch before a full loaf.
- Rose clay stays pink through the cure. Stirred into part of the batter it gives a softer pink than it would in the lye, which keeps the pink and cream distinct.
The oils
| Oil | Share |
|---|---|
| Olive Oil (virgin / refined / olive oil) | 40.0 % |
| Shea Butter | 20.0 % |
| Coconut Oil | 20.0 % |
| Cocoa Butter (Theobroma Oil) | 10.0 % |
| Avocado Oil | 5.0 % |
| Castor Oil | 5.0 % |
How it is made
| Process | Cold process |
| Alkali | NaOH |
| Superfat | 6 % |
| Water | lye water at 33 % |
| Iodine value | 58 |
| INS | 143 |
Why make it
A rich, butter-heavy bar, conditioning 58 and cleansing a gentle 14 on our scale, with a 6 % superfat: a luxury bar for normal to dry skin. People choose it for the scent, the sweet, heady floral of ylang-ylang, long a favourite in perfumery, rounded with rosy geranium and a little orange. The pink is rose clay, which holds its colour where plant pinks fade. Florals are also among the likelier scents to bother sensitive skin: IFRA restricts ylang-ylang for its potential to cause skin sensitisation, allowing at most 1.4 % in a soap (IFRA Standard, 2020), and this blend keeps it under half of that. If perfumes make your skin react, an unscented bar is the better choice.
Sources
- IFRA Standard: Ylang ylang extracts (Amendment 49) · International Fragrance Association, 2020
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 9.8 %
- Myristic acid 3.8 %
- Palmitic acid 11.5 %
- Stearic acid 13.7 %
- Ricinoleic acid 4.4 %
- Oleic acid 45.3 %
- Linoleic acid 7.7 %
- Other 4.5 %
Saturated : unsaturated 42 : 58
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.
From the guides
All guides
Swirl techniques: in the pot, drop, hanger, spoon and Taiwan
Seven cold-process swirls step by step, with the batter, recipe and temperatures that keep soap fluid, and why swirls turn muddy or lumpy.
Scenting soap: essential oils and fragrance oils
How much essential or fragrance oil to use in soap, what ounces per pound mean in percent, the IFRA limits for common essential oils, and EU allergen labelling.
Natural colourants: what herbs, clays and spices really do in soap
Clays, charcoal and plant colours in cold-process soap: doses per 500 g of oils, infused oil, powder or lye, and the colour each one actually turns.
Where these proportions come from
Our own palm-free formulation with shea and cocoa butter at a 6 % superfat. The floral blend keeps ylang-ylang under half of its IFRA category 9 limit, with geranium and a little sweet orange carrying most of the scent.