DIY Homemade Cherry Bomb Soap Recipe with Printable Labels

With the holidays right around the corner I’ve been trying a few new seasonal fragrances, one of which is called Santa’s Pipe. This fragrance oil smells rather like a cherry cigar with more emphasis on the cherry than the cigar smoke, and is a pretty interesting fragrance. However, calling it Santa’s Pipe Soap made it seem like you’d only want to enjoy this homemade soap during the Christmas season, so I decided instead to call it Cherry Bomb Soap. Although I can’t take credit for the name as my boyfriend was the one who came up with it. The Santa’s Pipe fragrance is described as a cozy scent with notes of cherrywood, raspberry, vanilla and tobacco.

Additionally, I’ve been trying to craft homemade soap recipes that don’t use palm oil as I know there are a lot of soapers who choose to not use palm oil or cannot reasonably source sustainable palm oil. Therefore I use babussu oil in lieu of the palm oil in this recipe. The resulting bar, which I wanted to be superbly moisturizing to combat itchy, dry winter skin, also uses safflower oil, apricot kernel oil, grape seed oil, coconut milk powder and shea butter along with a few other choice ingredients. The result is a soap that leaves your skin feeling like you just put on lotion after stepping out of the shower.

You don’t have to decorate your own Cherry Bomb Soap like mine, however, you should be aware that the fragrance oil will turn this soap a dark brown due to the vanilla content. I decided to play this up by adding shimmery black as well as some red colored soap chunks from a previous batch of soap.

Handmade Cherry Bomb Cold Process Soap Recipe

© Rebecca’s Soap Delicatessen

Ingredients:

7.2 oz. babassu oil
3.6 oz. castor oil
7.2 oz. fractionated coconut oil
3.6 oz. apricot kernel oil
3.6 oz. refined shea butter
1.8 oz. safflower oil
5.4 oz. sunflower oil
3.6 oz. grape seed oil

5.4 oz. lye/sodium hydroxide
12 fluid ounces distilled water

1.5 oz. (or 2 oz. for stronger fragrance) Santa’s Pipe fragrance oil
1 oz. coconut milk powder
.1 oz. jet black glitter
1 Tablespoon activated charcoal
2 Tablespoons Diamond Dust mica
red colored soap chunks

Instructions:

This homemade soap recipe will fit neatly inside one of my wood loaf soap molds. {Learn how to make one here.} Alternately, you can also use silicone loaf soap molds of your choice. The advantage of silicone soap molds is that they don’t need to be lined. Be sure to follow the basic cold process soapmaking instructions to create this soap and take all necessary safety precautions. If this is your first go ’round making old fashioned lye soap, I recommend starting with a basic handmade soap recipe.

Start by measuring out the distilled water, then adding 5.4 oz. of lye – by weight – to the water. Then stir into the lye has dissolved completely. Set aside in a well ventilated area to cool.

Now, using a digital kitchen scale, weigh out the soapmaking oils –  the babassu, castor, fractionated coconut, apricot kernel, safflower, sunflower, and grape seed oil – and  the shea butter and combine in a large non-aluminum pot. Place the pot on the stove over medium heat until all of the oils have melted, then remove from heat.

Once your soapmaking oils have cooled to about 100 degrees F, weigh out and add 1 oz. coconut milk powder to the oils along with one Tablespoon of Diamond Dust mica and mix well using a stick/immersion hand blender. Then slowly pour the lye-water into the oils and mix with the stick blender until you reach a light trace.

Next weigh out the fragrance oil – I initially used 2 oz. of fragrance but this one is pretty potent so you can tone down the fragrance by using less – and stir into the soap until thorough mixed. Pour 1/3 to 1/2 of the soap mixture into your prepared mold then evenly layer the other Tablespoon of Diamond Dust mica on top of the soap you just poured.

With the remaining soap, mix in the jet black glitter and activated charcoal with the stick blender. Then add your red soap chunks to suit and mix into the soap with a spatula. Finally pour the remaining soap on top of the first layer. Level the soap as much as possible so the final size of your bars will be consistent. I generally level out the top of my soap using a butter knife. I run a butter knife back and forth along the width of the mold to evenly distribute the soap, then run it back and forth along the length. However, you can use whatever method works best for you. Now cover the soap and insulate for at least twenty-four hours.

Once the soap has completed the saponification process, you can unmold the soap and cut it into bars. {Learn how to make a soap cutting guide here.} Allow soaps to cure for 3-6 weeks, then wrap and label. I use professional plastic food wrap film to wrap my homemade soaps as it works GREAT and is MUCH cheaper than buying small containers of cling wrap. For my labels, I used full size white label sticker sheets from WorldLabel. You can download a printable version of this handmade soap recipe along with the cherry bomb soap labels – in both color and black & white – here.

The final bars will have a thin lather – as they won’t strip skin of natural oils so vital to dry skin – with a lotion like smoothness. To boost the lather simply use with a bath pouf or soap saver.

Looking for more DIY bath and body projects with printable labels? Check out my new Natural Homemade Tomato & Basil Cold Process Soap Recipe or my DIY Pumpkin Massage Candles. Or try your hand at stamping soaps and craft my seasonal festival holiday DIY Frosted Cranberry Scented Coconut Milk Soaps! They also make great homemade gifts!

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