Tutorial: Snow Soap with Indigo & Cambrian Blue Clay

With the harsh winter weather upon us, and record-setting cold here in the Midwest, I decided it was time to cross off an item on my soapy to-do list!

Now, snow is notoriously dirty. You wouldn't think so with how crisp and pretty it looks undisturbed, but it collects a lot of yucky stuff on it's way down from the sky.

So before we even make soap, we're going to capture some fresh fallen snow for our soap, melt it down, filter it, and then get to work!

Time for making snow soap!

Soap Formula Used

• 10 ounces Rice Bran Oil
• 7 ounces Babassu Oil
• 7 ounces Coconut Oil
• 5 ounces Kokum Butter
• 5 ounces Hi Oleic Sunflower Oil
• 3 ounces Castor Oil
• 5.12 ounces Sodium Hydroxide
• 10.4 ounces Snow (or Distilled Water)

Essential Oil Blend Used

• 22 grams Coriander Essential Oil
• 15 grams Peppermint Essential Oil
• 15 grams Orange Essential Oil
• 7 grams Pink Grapefruit Essential Oil

Colorants Used

• 1 teaspoon Indigo Powder
• 1 teaspoon Cambrian Blue Clay

PREP WORK: Place a large mixing bowl outside where it is unlikely to be disturbed to collect snow. When you think you have enough snow, bring it inside and let it melt.

Once melted, filter the snow through a sieve with a piece of cheesecloth. Or if you have one handy, place a muslin bag inside a cup and pour the melted snow into the muslin bag. Lift the muslin bag out of the cup to filter the melted snow and catch all the nasties inside the bag! Magic!

PREP WORK: Make your lye solution with the melted and filtered snow, prep your soaping oils, and measure your colorants.

I like to premix a small portion of my soaping oils into my colorants for easier incorporation, and refer to it as my colorant slurry.

I also like to add my essential oils to my soaping oils so that I do not have to remember to add them later.

GET STARTED: Add your lye solution to your soaping oils and stick blend until emulsified. Once you have reached an emulsified state, pour half of your batch into a measuring cup with your indigo & cambrian blue clay slurry. (If you have not added your fragrance, you need to do that first!)

Thoroughly mix your colorants into the split batch, and get ready to pour!

Pouring the Lye Solution down the shaft of my stickblender to minimize splashes!

Splitting the batch of soap in half.

Incorporating the indigo and cambrian clay.

SWIRL  IT: Pour half of the white soap into the mold.

Next, pour half of the indigo & cambrian blue clay portion into the mold by pouring randomly around into the mold.

Switch back to the white soap and again, pour randomly around in the mold.

Finish it up with the rest of the indigo & cambrian blue clay portion.

Pour half of the white soap into the mold.

Pour half of the indigo & cambrian blue clay soap into the mold, with a random pour pattern.

THE FINISH LINE: Put the snow soap to sleep (insulate lightly), and unmold in 12 to 24 hours.

If the soap is too soft, leave it for another 12 to 24 hours before attempting to unmold again.

Slice it up, cure it out, & enjoy!

The snow soap formula featured in this tutorial is a Modern Soapmaking original. It is palm-free & vegan friendly. It uses a 7% superfat and a 33% lye solution strength. Feel free to adjust as necessary!

Have you ever made snow soap? Tell me about it right here in the comments, I want to know what you did!