Nature produces amazing ingredients to use in bath and beauty products. These bath bombs are colored with jagua blue extract, which is a powder produced from Genipa americana trees. The plant-derived extract gives the recipe a beautiful light blue color.

Jagua blue extract has an interesting texture. It tends to clump, so it’s easier to work with after being dispersed in liquid. We found the easiest way to incorporate jagua blue extract with the dry bath bomb ingredients is mixing it with witch hazel. Then, we added small amounts of the concentrated mixture to the bath bombs and combined everything thoroughly.

In our tests, these bath bombs lightly colored the water blue without any residue or staining. We purposefully didn’t add any oil to this recipe to prevent ring around the tub. If you add more jagua blue extract, it may stain the skin. We recommend a small test batch first.

What You Need:
About 13 Disk Mold & Packages
Pink Sea Salt, Medium
32 oz. Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda)
16 oz. Citric Acid
0.5 oz. Pacific Pearl Fragrance Oil
1/8 tsp. Jagua Blue Extract
1/2 – 1 Tbsp. Witch Hazel
Optional: Witch Hazel in a Spray Bottle

Click below to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!

ONE: Lay out 13 Disk Molds and place a small amount of pink sea salt into the center of each one. Set the molds aside.

TWO: In a large bowl, add 32 ounces of baking soda and 16 ounces of citric acid. To get rid of clumps in the mixture, you can push the powders through a sifter or break them up with your fingers. Citric acid has a tendency to take off nail polish, so wear gloves to protect your manicure. Thoroughly stir the ingredients together. Add 0.5 oz. of Pacific Pearl Fragrance Oil and stir to fully incorporate.

THREE: In a small container, mix 1/8 teaspoon of jagua blue extract and 1/2 tablespoon of witch hazel. Use the back of a spoon to break up any chunks in the extract. Add another 1/2 tablespoon of witch hazel if necessary.
Note: Be very careful with this mixture, it will stain your skin and other porous surfaces. 

FOUR: Add about 1/3 of the jagua blue powder mixture into the dry ingredients and use your hands to mix together. Continue adding splashes of the jagua blue until all of it is added, mixing between each addition. You may find that adding that much liquid at once causes your mixture to fizz – this is fine, just mix very quickly.

FIVE: Check the consistency of the bath bomb mixture. The perfect consistency is similar to wet sand that holds its shape when squeezed. If it’s too dry, use one hand to spritz the mixture with witch hazel and one to mix. Continue spritzing until the mixture holds its shape when squeezed. We found the witch hazel in the jagua blue extract mixture was enough, and we didn’t add more witch hazel.
Note: We found the jagua blue extract gave the mixture a slightly “sticky” texture – notice in the photo how it stuck to our gloves. We’re not quite sure why this happens, but don’t be alarmed if your mixture also has a slightly strange texture. 

SIX: Begin filling each mold to the inner lip. Firmly compact the mixture into the mold to create a solid shape. Allow the bath bombs to dry and harden for at least 4 hours or up to overnight. To use, place in a hot bath and enjoy.

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Jagua Blue Extract Bath Bomb DIY

Course Bath Bombs

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 13 bath bombs

Author Soap Queen

Ingredients

• About 13 Disk Mold & Packages
• Pink Sea Salt Medium
• 32 oz. Sodium Bicarbonate Baking Soda
• 16 oz. Citric Acid
• 0.5 oz. Pacific Pearl Fragrance Oil
• 1/8 tsp. Jagua Blue Extract
• 1/2 – 1 Tbsp. Witch Hazel
• Optional: Witch Hazel in a Spray Bottle

Instructions

• Lay out 13 Disk Molds and place a small amount of pink sea salt into the center of each one. Set the molds aside.
• In a large bowl, add 32 ounces of baking soda and 16 ounces of citric acid. To get rid of clumps in the mixture, you can push the powders through a sifter or break them up with your fingers. Citric acid has a tendency to take off nail polish, so wear gloves to protect your manicure. Thoroughly stir the ingredients together. Add 0.5 oz. of Pacific Pearl Fragrance Oil and stir to fully incorporate.
• In a small container, mix 1/8 teaspoon of jagua blue extract and 1/2 tablespoon of witch hazel. Use the back of a spoon to break up any chunks in the extract. Add another 1/2 tablespoon of witch hazel if necessary. Note: Be very careful with this mixture, it will stain your skin and other porous surfaces.
• Add about 1/3 of the jagua blue powder mixture into the dry ingredients and use your hands to mix together. Continue adding splashes of the jagua blue until all of it is added, mixing between each addition. You may find that adding that much liquid at once causes your mixture to fizz – this is fine, just mix very quickly.
• Check the consistency of the bath bomb mixture. The perfect consistency is similar to wet sand that holds its shape when squeezed. If it’s too dry, use one hand to spritz the mixture with witch hazel and one to mix. Continue spritzing until the mixture holds its shape when squeezed. We found the witch hazel in the jagua blue extract mixture was enough, and we didn’t add more witch hazel. Note: We found the jagua blue extract gave the mixture a slightly “sticky” texture – notice in the photo how it stuck to our gloves. We’re not quite sure why this happens, but don’t be alarmed if your mixture also has a slightly strange texture.
• Begin filling each mold to the inner lip. Firmly compact the mixture into the mold to create a solid shape. Allow the bath bombs to dry and harden for at least 4 hours or up to overnight. To use, place in a hot bath and enjoy.

The post Jagua Blue Extract Bath Bomb DIY appeared first on Soap Queen.

Sea sponges add interest and extra lather to soap. In this cold process recipe, silk sea sponges are placed into each section of the 9 Bar Unfinished Birchwood Mold. When wet, the sponges become quite soft and act similar to a washcloth.

The silk sponges used in this project come from the Philippines – they are sustainably harvested by specially-trained divers. Because they are a natural product, they do vary in color, size, and shape. The sponges are also available in a wool variety that have a different look and feel. The wool sponges can be used in this tutorial if you prefer, although they need to be cut to size.

The bars are scented with Sea Salt Fragrance Oil. It’s a unique scent with notes of seaweed, cucumber water, and white tea leaves. It gives you plenty of time to create the swirls in this project and it doesn’t discolor.

Speaking of swirls, this project does use a technique that may look a little intimidating. But as you can see in the steps below, the colors are layered into the mold in a very imprecise way. The key is equally distributing the colors so the top has a little bit of each. That helps create a more dynamic swirl.

The Sea Salt Fragrance Oil, jagua blue extract, and sea sponges are all part of the new Seascape Collection. It includes four ocean-inspired fragrance oils, exfoliants, sugar pearls, and more. Click here to shop the entire collection.

What You Need:
9 Bar Unfinished Birchwood Mold
Silicone Liner for 9 Bar Mold
9 Silk Sea Sponges
9.5 oz. Coconut Oil (27%)
2.5 oz. Cucumber Seed Oil (7.1%)
2.5 oz. Mango Butter (7.1%)
11.2 oz. Olive Oil (31.8%)
9.5 oz. Palm Oil (27%)
5 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
10.4 oz. Distilled Water (10% water discount)
2.2 oz. Sea Salt Fragrance Oil
Hydrated Chrome Green Pigment
Caribbean Blue Mica
Jagua Blue Extract

Click below to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!

If you’ve never made cold process soap before, stop here. We highly recommend checking out our FREE four part SoapQueen.tv series on cold process soapmaking, especially the episode on lye safety. If you’d rather do some reading, Bramble Berry carries a wide range of books on the topic, including Pure Soapmaking. You can also check out the digital downloads for that instant gratification factor.

FRAGRANCE PREP: Measure 2.2 ounces of Sea Salt Fragrance Oil into a small glass container and set aside.

COLORANT PREP: In separate containers, disperse 1 teaspoon Caribbean Blue Mica and 1 teaspoon Hydrated Chrome Green Pigment into 1 tablespoon of lightweight liquid oil such as sweet almond oil or sunflower oil. Use a mini mixer to get rid of clumps. Then, mix together 1/2 teaspoon of jagua blue extract with 1/2 tablespoon of distilled water with a spoon. Be very careful with this mixture – it’s highly concentrated and will stain skin and other surfaces. If necessary, you can use a mini mixer to help get rid of clumps. We recommend covering the container with your hands if you use the mixer, it can cause the water to spray.

SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safe handling practices. That means goggles, gloves, and long sleeves. Make sure kids, pets, other distractions, and tripping hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.

ONE: Slowly and carefully add 5 ounces of lye to 10.4 ounces of distilled water. Gently stir until the lye has fully dissolved. Set it aside to cool. If you’d like a harder bar of soap that releases faster from the mold, you can add sodium lactate to the cooled lye water. Use 1 teaspoon of sodium lactate per pound of oils in the recipe. For this recipe, you’d add 2 teaspoons sodium lactate.

TWO: Melt and combine 9.5 ounces of coconut oil, 2.5 ounces of cucumber seed oil, 2.5 ounces of mango butter, 11.2 ounces of olive oil, and 9.5 ounces of palm oil into a large container (remember to fully melt then mix your entire container of palm oil before portioning). Once the lye water and the oils have cooled to 130 degrees F or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils and stick blend the mixture to a very thin trace.

THREE: Split the soap into four containers and add the following amounts of dispersed colorants. Use a whisk to fully mix them in.

• Container A (300 mL): Uncolored
• Container B (300 mL): 2 tsp. dispersed jagua blue extract
• Container C (400 mL): 2 tsp. dispersed Caribbean Blue Mica
• Container D (400 mL): 2 tsp. dispersed Hydrated Chrome Green Pigment

NOTE: You’ll notice in the final bars, the jagua blue extract became a much lighter color. Interestingly, this only happened on the top of the bars – the jagua blue shade on the inside of the soap stayed a deep blue. Natural colors can do interesting things. We think the light gray is still pretty, but if you like contrast you can add more jagua blue extract or add a touch of dispersed black oxide pigment or activated charcoal to ensure the color stays dark. 

FOUR: Pour the 2.2 ounces of Sea Salt Fragrance Oil equally into all the containers (it’s okay to eyeball it). Use a whisk to fully mix in the fragrance oil.

FIVE: Pour some of the first color (it doesn’t matter which) into the mold in long S-curves lengthwise. Pour some of a different color in the mold, still going lengthwise. Continue pouring alternate colors lengthwise into the mold. If the soap starts to thicken, mix with a whisk to loosen it up.

SIX: For the first few passes of color, the order doesn’t really matter. Once the mold is about half full, take more care to differentiate the colors to make a more distinct pattern when you swirl them. Once you get to the top of the soap, pour so that each color is showing.

SEVEN: Once all the soap is in the mold, tap it firmly on the counter to get rid of bubbles. Insert a chopstick or dowel into the very top of the soap and drag the tool so that it crosses the lines created by the soap. Continue this S-curve down the entire length of the mold.

EIGHT: Insert the chopstick again, and move it up and down the mold in small wavy lines.

EIGHT: Insert the dividers into the soap. This drags the design down the sides of the bars. If you prefer to cut your bars, you can skip this step.

NINE: Insert a dry silk sea sponge into each bar. We placed most of them toward one side of the bar to allow the swirl to be seen.

TEN: Spritz the top of the soap with 99% isopropyl alcohol to prevent soda ash. Cover the mold to insulate and promote gel phase. Gel phase helps the colors pop and it helps the bars release from the dividers faster and more easily. If you live in a very cold climate, place the mold on a heating pad set to medium for about 30-60 minutes to help raise the temperature.

TEN: Allow the soap to stay in the mold for 2-3 days. To remove, take out the silicone liner and pull on the sides to break the airlock. Push the soap up from the bottom to release. If the bottom of the soap is still soft, let it harden in the dividers for a few more days.

Once firm enough to handle, gently remove the soap from the dividers. To prevent tearing, do not pull the dividers. Instead, push the soap down or slide the dividers up or down to remove the soap without tearing. This video shows that process in more detail. Allow the soap to cure for 4-6 weeks and enjoy.

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Sea Sponge Cold Process Soap Tutorial

New silk sponges give this cold process recipe a beachy look and creamy lather.

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours

Servings 3 pounds of soap

Author Soap Queen

Ingredients

• 9 Bar Birchwood Mold
• Silicone Liner for 9 Bar Mold
• 9 Silk Sea Sponges
• 9.5 oz. Coconut Oil 27%
• 2.5 oz. Cucumber Seed Oil 7.1%
• 2.5 oz. Mango Butter 7.1%
• 11.2 oz. Olive Oil 31.8%
• 9.5 oz. Palm Oil 27%
• 5 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
• 10.4 oz. Distilled Water 10% water discount
• 2.2 oz. Sea Salt Fragrance Oil
• Hydrated Chrome Green Pigment
• Caribbean Blue Mica
• Jagua Blue Extract

Instructions

FRAGRANCE PREP: Measure 2.2 ounces of Sea Salt Fragrance Oil into a small glass container and set aside.

COLORANT PREP: In separate containers, disperse 1 teaspoon Caribbean Blue Mica and 1 teaspoon Hydrated Chrome Green Pigment into 1 tablespoon of lightweight liquid oil such as sweet almond oil or sunflower oil. Use a mini mixer to get rid of clumps. Then, mix together 1/2 teaspoon of jagua blue extract with 1/2 tablespoon of distilled water. Be very careful with this mixture – it’s highly concentrated and will stain skin and other surfaces. Use a small spoon to mix together the jagua blue extract and water. If necessary, you can use a mini mixer to help get rid of clumps. We recommend covering the container with your hands if you use the mixer, it can cause the water to spray.

SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safe handling practices. That means goggles, gloves, and long sleeves. Make sure kids, pets, other distractions, and tripping hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.

• Slowly and carefully add 5 ounces of lye to 10.4 ounces of distilled water. Gently stir until the lye has fully dissolved. Set it aside to cool. If you’d like a harder bar of soap that releases faster from the mold, you can add sodium lactate to the cooled lye water. Use 1 teaspoon of sodium lactate per pound of oils in the recipe. For this recipe, you’d add 2 teaspoons sodium lactate.
• Melt and combine 9.5 ounces of coconut oil, 2.5 ounces of cucumber seed oil, 2.5 ounces of mango butter, 11.2 ounces of olive oil, and 9.5 ounces of palm oil into a large container (remember to fully melt then mix your entire container of palm oil before portioning). Once the lye water and the oils have cooled to 130 degrees F or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils and stick blend the mixture to a very thin trace.
• Split the soap into four containers of the following amounts. Then add the following amounts of dispersed colorants and use a whisk to fully mix them in.

  Container A (300 mL): Uncolored

  Container B (300 mL): 2 tsp. dispersed jagua blue extract

  Container C (400 mL): 2 tsp. dispersed Caribbean Blue Mica

  Container D (400 mL): 2 tsp. dispersed Hydrated Chrome Green Pigment
• Pour the 2.2 ounces of Sea Salt Fragrance Oil equally into all the containers (it’s okay to eyeball it). Use a whisk to fully mix in the fragrance oil.
• Pour some of the first color (it doesn’t matter which) into the mold in long S-curves lengthwise. Pour some of a different color in the mold, still going lengthwise. Continue pouring alternate colors lengthwise into the mold. If the soap starts to thicken, mix with a whisk to loosen it up.
• For the first few passes of color, the order doesn’t really matter. Once the mold is about halfway full, take more care to differentiate the colors to make a more distinct pattern when you swirl them. Once you get to the top of the soap, pour so that each color is showing.
• Once all the soap is in the mold, tap the mold firmly on the counter to get rid of bubbles. Insert a chopstick or dowel into the very top of the soap and drag the tool so that it crosses the lines created by the soap. Continue this S-curve pattern down the length of the mold until the entire soap has been swirled.
• Insert the chopstick again, and move it up and down the mold in small wavy-lines.
• Insert the dividers into the soap so that the dividers reach the bottom of the mold in every section. This drags the design down the sides of the bars. If you prefer to cut your bars, you can skip this step.
• Insert a dry silk sea sponge into each bar. We placed most of them towards one side of the bar, to allow the swirl to be seen.
• Spritz the top of the soap with 99% isopropyl alcohol to prevent soda ash. Cover the mold to insulate and promote gel phase. Gel phase helps the colors of this soap pop and it helps the bars release from the dividers faster and more easily. If you live in a very cold climate, place the mold on a heating pad set to medium for about 30-60 minutes to help raise the temperature and promote gel phase.
• Allow the soap to stay in the mold for 2-3 days. To remove, pull the silicone mold out from the wood mold. Then pull away the sides of the silicone mold to break the airlock. Push the soap from the bottom to release. If the bottom of the soap is still quite soft, allow the soap to harden upside down in the dividers for one day. Once firm enough to handle, gently remove the soap from the dividers. To prevent tearing, do not pull the dividers. Push the soap down, or slide the dividers up or down to remove the soap without tearing. This video shows that process in more detail. Allow the soap to cure for 4-6 weeks, and enjoy

The post Sea Sponge Cold Process Soap Tutorial appeared first on Soap Queen.

This melt and pour soap is easy to make and brings a bit of the sea into your home. The wool sea sponges are quite soft and help promote a dense lather. The deep color comes from jagua blue extract, a natural colorant.

Jagua blue extract is a unique ingredient. It comes from the Genipa americana tree, which is native to tropical forests in North and South America. It’s very pigmented and a little goes a long way. To use in melt and pour, we like to mix it with 99% isopropyl alcohol to get rid of clumps and then add that directly to the melted soap.

These soaps are scented with Midnight Waters Fragrance Oil. It’s a deep and complex scent with notes of bergamot, deep sea water, and patchouli. It does discolor to a light tan, so this recipe uses Vanilla Color Stabilizer. Midnight Waters Fragrance Oil, jagua blue extract, and sea sponges are part of the new Seascape Collection – explore all the products here.

What You Need:
6 Bar Oval Silicone Mold
29 oz. Clear Melt & Pour Soap Base
2 Wool Sea Sponges
Jagua Blue Extract
0.6 oz. Midnight Waters Fragrance Oil
0.6 oz. Vanilla Color Stabilizer
99% Isopropyl Alcohol in a Spray Bottle

Click below to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!

SEA SPONGE PREP: Cut the wool sea sponges into about 3-4 pieces. We cut them into 3 pieces, but you can make them smaller or larger if you want.

ONE: Chop 29 ounces of Clear Melt and Pour Soap Base into small, uniform cubes. Place them into a heat-safe container and melt in the microwave using 30-60 second bursts. Stir between each burst.

TWO: While the soap is melting, mix together 1/16th teaspoon of jagua blue extract and 2 teaspoons of 99% isopropyl alcohol. Mixing the jagua blue extract with alcohol helps prevent clumps.

THREE: Once the soap is melted, pour all of the dispersed jagua blue extract into the soap and stir until completely incorporated.

FOUR: Add 0.6 ounces of Midnight Waters Fragrance Oil and 0.6 ounces of Vanilla Color Stabilizer. Mix together.

FIVE: Fill each cavity of the mold about 80% full. Spritz the top with alcohol to help get rid of bubbles. Allow this layer of soap to harden and cool for about 15-20 minutes. The soap needs to build a strong enough skin to support the sea sponge.

SIX: Once the soap has slightly hardened and formed a strong skin on top, reheat the remaining soap using 15 second bursts. Spritz all the cavities with 99% isopropyl alcohol to help the layers stick together.

SEVEN: Fill the cavity with melted soap. Once full, place the sea sponges into the soap. Spritz the soap with 99% isopropyl alcohol to get rid of any bubbles. Continue for each cavity.

EIGHT: Allow the soap to fully cool and harden for several hours or up to overnight. Once fully cool, remove the soap from the mold and enjoy. To prevent glycerin dew, wrap the soaps in plastic wrap and store in a cool, dry place.

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Sea Sponge Melt & Pour Soap DIY

These sea-inspired melt and pour bars have amazing lather.

Course Melt and Pour Soap

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 6 soaps

Author Soap Queen

Ingredients

• 6 Bar Oval Silicone Mold
• 29 oz. Clear Melt & Pour Soap Base
• 2 Wool Sea Sponges
• Jagua Blue Extract
• 0.6 oz. Midnight Waters Fragrance Oil
• 0.6 oz. Vanilla Color Stabilizer
• 99 % Isopropyl Alcohol in a Spray Bottle

Instructions

SEA SPONGE PREP: Cut the wool sea sponges into about 3-4 pieces. We cut them into 3 pieces, but you can make them smaller or larger if you want.

• Chop 29 ounces of Clear Melt and Pour Soap Base into small, uniform cubes. Place them into a heat-safe container and melt in the microwave using 30-60 second bursts. Stir between each burst.
• While the soap is melting, mix together 1/16th teaspoon of jagua blue extract and 2 teaspoons of 99% isopropyl alcohol. Mixing the jagua blue extract with alcohol helps prevent clumps.
• Once the soap is melted, pour all of the dispersed jagua blue extract into the soap and stir until completely incorporated.
• Add 0.6 ounces of Midnight Waters Fragrance Oil and 0.6 ounces of Vanilla Color Stabilizer. Mix together.
• Fill each cavity of the mold about 80% full. Spritz the top with alcohol to help get rid of bubbles. Allow this layer of soap to harden and cool for about 15-20 minutes. The soap needs to build a strong enough skin to support the sea sponge.
• Once the soap has slightly hardened and formed a strong skin on top, reheat the remaining soap using 15 second bursts. Spritz all the cavities with 99% isopropyl alcohol to help the layers stick together.
• Fill the cavity with melted soap. Once full, place the sea sponges into the soap. Spritz the soap with 99% isopropyl alcohol to get rid of any bubbles. Continue for each cavity.
• Allow the soap to fully cool and harden for several hours or up to overnight. Once fully cool, remove the soap from the mold and enjoy. To prevent glycerin dew, wrap the soaps in plastic wrap and store in a cool, dry place.

The post Sea Sponge Melt & Pour Soap DIY appeared first on Soap Queen.