Using Cranberry Fiber in Cold Process Soap

We recently had a technical support call concerning the use of Cranberry Fiber in cold process soap. Our advice is to use one tablespoon per pound of oils in your recipe. Since I have some Cranberry Fiber I have wanted to use, I grabbed my soaping supplies to make some test bars!

Finished bars of soap made with Cranberry Fiber and Apple Jack Fragrance Oil.

Cranberry Fiber is a gentle exfoliant perfect for everyday use. It adds deep red flecks of color to your soap, creating visual interest. There are so many ways to use Cranberry Fiber! It works well in any type of soap, but have you thought of adding it to scrubs? You could even add it to a lotion cleanser for a gentle facial scrub like Tonya did in this blog post from 2014 using one of our convenient lotion bases.

I was inspired by the memory of a delicious cranberry-apple pie to scent this soap with our Apple Jack Fragrance Oil. Its crisp aroma is like the first bite into a perfectly sweet and tart apple. I think it is the perfect scent for this soap!

I’ll also be using goats milk in the half & half method since I have dairy goats and I’m currently inundated with an abundance of milk.

Come join me for some adventurous soapmaking!

Combining my oil and lye mixtures.

Adding one tablespoon of Cranberry Fiber to soap batter at light trace.

Recipe:

INSTRUCTIONS:

Scent as recommended in our Fragrance Calculator for whatever scent you will use with your soap. The calculator had a note that Apple Jack Fragrance Oil is strong, so I chose a lower usage rate than I might have, given that I really like this scent! I appreciate the time and effort that goes into our calculators – it makes it so much easier to get the results I need without wasting time and materials on mistakes!

Stirring in Cranberry Fibers by hand with our Soap Spoon. I did not want to use a stick blender here.

Cranberry Fibers are all mixed in and soap is at a light trace – perfect for pouring.

Measure oils into microwave-safe container or double boiler and heat just until melted. You don’t want to get your oils too hot. Mix lye into the water and stir until all the lye has dissolved. Make sure you do this in a well-ventilated area – I usually carry mine out to the porch for this. After both mixtures are ready, take a temperature reading. It’s best if both are within about 10 degrees.

Once my lye solution and oils were to my ideal temperature range, I mixed the melted oils and lye solution together until I reached a very thin trace. Then I added the milk and the fragrance oil and stirred with our soap spoon to fully incorporate the fragrance. I wanted to get a thicker trace, so I used the stick blender in short bursts until I had achieved the trace I was looking for. Then I stirred in one tablespoon of Cranberry Fiber. I was surprised at how easy it was to stir it in – no clumping! The fiber immediately dispersed throughout my soap batter, and I had the soap poured into my favorite cavity mold in no time.

Pouring the soap into my mold.

A close up of the soap after being poured into the mold.

I unmolded the soap after 24 hours. The soap came out of the mold easily, which always makes my day, and it was sufficiently hardened that the raised dot design from the mold was intact. I left it to continue to cure for several weeks. I’m very much looking forward to trying this soap as soon as it’s cured!

I’m using our Cure Cards to see just how quickly soap cures here in Alaska. I think it will not be as long as I usually give my soaps. (I was taught to hold soap 6-8 weeks before use, but in a drier climate, that may not be necessary.) Here’s how the cure cards work: weigh the bars of soap every week, recording the weights on the cure card. When the soap stops losing weight, that means all the excess liquid in the soap has evaporated and it is ready to use.

A close up of the soap after being removed from the mold.

Soap being weighed with cure card.

I love the look of this soap! The cranberry flecks in the light tan soap remind me a bit of pink granite. It’s a dynamite look with great visual appeal. Though bright colors and delicate swirls always grab my eye, I enjoy creating lovely soap with natural additives that don’t require a lot of extra work like using colorants and creating extravagant swirls. Best of all, this additive provides a gentle exfoliating action every time you use the soap; it’s more than just a pretty look!

If you are new to cold process soap making, please begin by reading this blog post on how to make cold process soap!

I hope you have some time to create very soon, and if you need any help, don’t hesitate to reach out to our technical support team!