Ukraine Soap – with natural colourants!

Living in New Zealand, the war in Ukraine seems so far away, and yet I constantly meet people who are affected by this terrible war. A good friend of mine is Ukrainian. In my Diploma Course at Formula Botanica, students had to flee Ukraine and leave everything behind. I know this, because despite the war, they are still trying to keep up with their studies. As a bunny person, who belongs to way too many bunny facebook groups, I know of rescue organisations who are trying to save as many pets as they can from the war. It’s a whole network of people and helpers, not only in Ukraine, who are trying to help people and their pets.

The soap I created is a 100% natural soap made with only olive oil. I would have liked to use sunflower oil, as the sunflower is Ukrainian’s national flower, but sunflower oil soaps do not make for good soaps, and I didn’t want to complicate the process by using more than one oil. The colours are gold and blue, which are the colours of the Ukrainian flag, which we probably all know now. But what you might not know is that the golden yellow on the bottom of the flag signifies the wheat fields and the blue is the sky above. Ukraine has long been an agricultural nation since ancient times, and most of the world depends on their crops, like wheat.

The fragrance I am using for this soap is sweet orange, because sweet orange is such a lovely, uplifting and kind fragrance. Sweet orange essential oil is said to alleviate anxiety, anger and reduce nervous tension and worries. It feels like it’s exactly the right scent for this soap.

So make this soap, give it away, and spread the kindness and show that we stand with Ukraine – one soap at a time 💛💙

Using natural botanicals as colourants!

To make this soap I am using natural botanicals as colourants. To make the blue, I used the indigo powder from Pure Nature. For the stunning golden yellow, I used annatto seeds, which I got from my local Mexican store, but I’m sure you can buy it from spice shops or even online.

Indigo (lye infusion) = blue
Annatto seed (oil infusion) = golden yellow

Botanical colourants aren’t as easy to use as your standard mica or soap pigments. Most of them won’t work if you just add them to your soap, they’ll either go grey or brown in your soap, or you won’t get a colour at all. For best results, you’ll need to infuse them. I used the indigo powder in a lye infusion and the annatto seed in an oil infusion. This is not a quick method. The oil infusions need to sit for at least several months to get a good colour out of them. You can speed it up by doing a heat infusion (heating the oil gently on the stove for 30-60 minutes), but it won’t give you the bright vibrant colours like a slow cold infusion.

I make my oil infusions ahead of time. I have big 1 litre glass jars sitting in cardboard box at the bottom of my pantry. They’re all filled with olive oil (which is my main soaping oil), and each is filled with a different plant material. I have alkanet root, yellow dock, safflower, sandalwood, annatto seed, paprika, and some experimental ones like rhubarb and avocado skin (apparantely that goes pink in wool dyeing).

The ones that you can add to and infuse in your lye are not as time consuming. You can infuse them for a short time, until the lye has cooled down, or you can leave to sit them overnight. Infusing them any longer doesn’t make for much of a difference in colour.

The biggest challenge in making this soap is that you are using two different techniques. This might sound daunting, but really all you’re doing is making two soaps, one after the other. Nothing complicated! And if you don’t want to do a layer like I did, you can do swirls instead.

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Before starting, please read the safety and precautions post, especially since this tutorial requires the handling of caustic soda!

If you have never made cold-process soap before, I strongly recommend you check out the basic cold process soap tutorial first.

For a printable version of this soap tutorial, please scroll down!

Ukraine soap 💛💙

• 50 g caustic soda (NaOH)
• 100 g (distilled) water

• 700 g olive oil

• 15 ml sweet orange essential oil or a fragrance of your choice

• 30 g annatto seed powder
• 1 teaspoon indigo powder

Making the Ukraine soap

Before you start, make sure you are wearing safety goggles and protective gloves, and that you have all the ingredients you need to make this soap.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to wait 3 months, annatto seed works really well with a heat infusion method. Add 30 grams of annatto seed powder to 500 grams of pomace olive oil. Heat the oil gently on the stove on the lowest setting. You don’t want the oil to get over 45ºC (113ºF). Heat for 30 minutes and then turn the stove off and let the oil cool down.

>>> Note you will have some of the infused oil left over, which you can use for another soap <<<

Preparing your lye

Step one:

Prepare your lye as usual. Make sure you wear protective gear and safety goggles.

Using your scales to weigh accurately, separate the lye into two equal portions. If you are using my recipe below, you will need 75 grams of lye solution in each jug or beaker.

Part one – yellow – annatto seed

Step three:

Weigh out and strain the annatto seed infused oil. If you are using my recipe, you will need 200 grams of annatto seed infused pomace olive oil. Add 1/2 teaspoon sweet orange essential oil or a fragrance of your choice.

Step four:

Make sure you wear protective gear and safety goggles and that the lye solution has cooled down to room temperature. Carefully add the UNCOLOURED portion of lye to the oil and using your stick blender, mix until the soap is has thickened (medium trace), but you can still pour it.

Wait for 30 minutes for the yellow layer to set.

Part two – blue – indigo

Step six:

Weigh out 200 grams of (normal) pomace olive oil, and add 1/2 tablespoon sweet orange essential oil or a fragrance of your choice.

Step seven:

Wearing your protective gear and safety goggles, add the COLOURED lye solution to the oil. Mix, using your stick blender, until the soap starts to thicken but is still pourable (thin to medium trace).

Step eight:

Your other soap should have set by now, and you can carefully pour the blue soap over the yellow soap. If you pour the soap over the flat part of a spatula, you spread the pour, which helps prevent it from breaking through the yellow layer.

Step nine:

Gently tap the soap on the bench to even out the surface, and then place the soap in the oven at 60ºC (140ºF) for one hour to enforce gel. This will make the colours appear more vibrant. After one hour, turn off the oven but leave the soap in the oven with the door closed overnight.

Step ten:

The following day, cut the soap into bars. They will need at least a further 6-8 weeks to cure before they are ready for use. Rule of thumb is the longer the curing the better quality the soap!

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