Neon Tiger CP Soap Making, Neon Cold Process Soap Recipe

Sophia Jihye Yun

Published in

Sophia Yun Candle and Soap

9 min readNov 13, 2021

Potassium hydroxide helps the soap get harden :)

November is the month of gratitude. I think it’s because why I get so many custom soap requests from my clients.

Well, I do also have a birthday party soon for my son, I made the soap for other kids to use for hands. I think kids will be delighted with the transparent dinosaur MP soaps.

Oh and I received a question about potassium hydroxide I want to introduce. She asked me if she can substitute sodium hydroxide with potassium hydroxide vice versa.

Well, sodium hydroxide makes somewhat hard soaps, good for cold process method. potassium hydroxide makes somewhat soft, squashy soaps; good for liquid soaps.

But, there’s an exception. When you add potassium hydroxide for small amount, it will act like coconut oil. It becomes a harder soap. This one is ordinary recipe with potassium hydroxide. And after 48 hours, it was too hard to cut like a rock. I shouldn’t have left for too long.

Despite the result, potassium hydroxide actually helps make harder soaps. I guess between 10–20% it would be a little too soft, but 5% it can get hard soaps. When you mix two lyes together, we say it is a hybrid soap.

This is the recipe :D

40% Lye solution 5% Superfat
426.2 g Distilled Water ~ https://amzn.to/3jE44WA
282.2 g Sodium Hydroxide ~ https://amzn.to/3mVRPXO
21.5 g Potassium Hydroxide ~ https://amzn.to/3C2AfoB

740 g Olive Oil (37%) ~ https://amzn.to/3DMlRCz
400 g Palm Oil (20%) ~ https://amzn.to/3jpa31h
400 g Coconut Oil (20%) ~ https://amzn.to/38y8yrz
400 g Canola Oil (20%) ~ https://amzn.to/3CmRrpw
60 g Castor Oil (3%) ~ https://amzn.to/3zqGlxM

20 g Sugar ~ https://amzn.to/3kKeMua
20 g Citric Acid ~ https://amzn.to/3ltK9JV
20 g Sodium Lactate 60% ~ https://amzn.to/3oeasoC

20 g Cornstarch ~ https://amzn.to/3zEYW9H
20 g Yuzu Fragrance Oil ~ https://amzn.to/30a8ZYo

2 g Rosemary Oleoresin Extract (ROE) ~ https://amzn.to/3gV0Mwp
Mica ~ https://amzn.to/2YOZw8y

I’ve started a project in Kickstarter :) http://kck.st/3BF9si0

Up to 40% off ! Please visit the website if you are interested :D

Soap giveaway has been started! https://kingsumo.com/g/pee42f/monthly-giveaway-november It’s also free shipping, please click the link!

https://sophiayun.simvoly.com/ This main page has also the same link for every month. Thank you for participation! :)

This is the recipe I used in previous posts. It makes good soap, a little soft at first. But easy to unmold after 48 hours, but this time, with hybrid recipe, it felt like I added cocoa butter, very brittle.

Saturated 33
Lauric ~ (for hardness, water solubility, big bubbles) ~ 10
Myristic ~ (for hardness, water solubility, big bubbles) ~ 4
Palmitic ~ (for hardness, long lasting, small bubbles) ~ 17
Stearic ~ (for hardness, long lasting, small bubbles) ~ 3
Unsaturated 67
Ricinoleic ~ (for mildness, bubble stabilizer) ~ 3
Oleic ~ (for mildness, water solubility) ~ 47
Linoleic ~ (for softness, mildness)~ 11
Linolenic ~ (for softness, mildness) ~ 2

Interesting, huh? Even though same fatty acid value + additives can make the property of the soaps. It’s really fun.

282.2 g Sodium Hydroxide ~ https://amzn.to/3mVRPXO

Measure sodium hydroxide. Please wear mask, goggles, gloves, long sleeve shirts and pants.

21.5 g Potassium Hydroxide ~ https://amzn.to/3C2AfoB

And my potassium hydroxide is not probably 90% purity, I bought it few months ago. But in calculator I put it as 90% purity, since I’m not sure.

For hybrid soaps, please use soap calculator.

426.2 g Distilled Water ~ https://amzn.to/3jE44WA

Freeze your distilled water. When you use iced water, less lye fume is produced, and easier to get the temperature down.

I also added distilled water.

Now we will get the water poured into the other container, melt sugar and citric acid. Then we will add them back into lye solution.

Now add lyes to iced water.

Please make sure you wear goggles, mask, and gloves.

Stir well, because the lye can be accumulated at the bottom.

400 g Coconut Oil (20%) ~ https://amzn.to/38y8yrz

Now use double boiler method for hard oil, butter, solid fats.

400 g Palm Oil (20%) ~ https://amzn.to/3jpa31h

The palm oil I use is sustainable, certified one.

If you cannot get palm oil in your area, you can get Crisco from Walmart or Target. You can get SAP value in Crisco using soap calculator. I checked the recent Crisco from Target, the ingredient was refined palm oils and soy, I think.

60 g Castor Oil (3%) ~ https://amzn.to/3zqGlxM

Now measure castor oil.

400 g Canola Oil (20%) ~ https://amzn.to/3CmRrpw

Canola oil makes very soft soap. You can use sunflower oil or sweet almond instead. If so, please use soap calculator again to renew SAP value.

Canola makes lotion like, small lather. Too much will make squashy soap, too soft and less lather.

740 g Olive Oil (37%) ~ https://amzn.to/3DMlRCz

Olive oil can be used 100%, making soft, somewhat hard, but you have to cure more than four weeks to get the best result. I personally like the soaps with more than 50% of olive oil.

20 g Citric Acid ~ https://amzn.to/3ltK9JV

I said it too many times I think, citric acid prevents soap scum in hard water.

20 g Sugar ~ https://amzn.to/3kKeMua

When you put sugar into lye solution, sugar gets crystalized right away. So if you want to substitute with honey or sugar solution premixed ahead of time, that’s totally fine. Then the crystallization of sugar happens in molecule level.

Sugar helps soap lather better, making big suds.

20 g Sodium Lactate 60% ~ https://amzn.to/3oeasoC

Sodium lactate is like a salt in soap. It makes a soap hard. But too much will make soap squashy and too soft.

Sodium lactate basically holds water into it. And the goal of making soap hard is achieved by drying all water up during drying and curing time. But sodium lactate holds the water, it can get soft as well, too much is not good.

You can substitute with salt solution. But sodium lactate will have more salt, sodium than salt solution. It’s just because of the salt solubility is way low.

Now mix all water solutions go into one container. Lye solution, citric acid, sugar solution, sodium lactate all go into one container. If temp of lye is high, citric acid can make boiling effect on lye solution.

You can also combine hard oils and soft oils together.

Mica ~ https://amzn.to/2YOZw8y

Since I’m using neon colors, so I put white mica and titanium dioxide into the oils

I got neon mica, oxides. These are skin safe colorants.

Spare some oils and mix neon colors ahead.

Now emulsion time! Mix lye water and oils.

Stir well, top and bottom. And use stick blender for few seconds, and see what you get, then use it again until you see a slight tracing.

Now pour some more to mix with colorants.

Tada! Neon color done.

20 g Cornstarch ~ https://amzn.to/3zEYW9H
20 g Yuzu Fragrance Oil ~ https://amzn.to/30a8ZYo
2 g Rosemary Oleoresin Extract (ROE) ~ https://amzn.to/3gV0Mwp

I use cornstarch to stick fragrances to last longer, and I use it 1:1 ratio.

But, I only use 1% of total fats, because it was for kids, so scents are almost gone. It’s a little disappointing. But well, fragrance oil sometimes causes skin irritation on kids, maybe it’s all good.

And I like to put ROE at this stage because it will darken and yellow your total batter. But no worries, after four weeks of curing and drying, the yellow darker colors disappear.