Slowly and carefully add 4.8 ounces of lye to 9.9 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 5 ounces of babassu oil, 0.7 ounces of castor oil, 3.3 ounces of cocoa butter, 8.3 ounces of coconut oil, 1 ounce of mango butter, 3.3 ounces of oat oil, 6.6 ounces of olive oil, and 5 ounces of sunflower oil into a large mixing bowl. Once the lye water and the oils have cooled to 130° 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 thin trace.

Split off 200 mL of batter into one container and 300 mL of batter into another container. Add the following colorants to the three containers and whisk in.

• Container A (200 mL): 1/2 teaspoon dispersed black oxide
• Container B (300 mL): 1 teaspoon dispersed brown oxide
• Container C (remaining batter): All dispersed titanium dioxide

Add the fragrance oil proportionately to the black and brown soap. Use a whisk to thoroughly mix in the fragrance.

Pour a small amount of the white soap into the mold – just enough to cover the bottom. Then, alternate pouring small amounts of the black, brown, and white soap into the mold at varying heights. That helps the soap drop to different areas of the mold rather than sitting on top and creating layers. Don’t worry about being too precise when you’re pouring.

Continue pouring the soap into the mold. Save a very small amount of each color for the top.

Insert the Hanger Swirl Tool into one side of the mold. Then, use loop-de-loop motions to swirl the soap. There is no right or wrong way to do this. Just keep moving the Hanger Swirl Tool in circular motions. Some loops should be big and some small. Once you’ve swirled the soap about 5-7 times, remove the Hanger Swirl Tool by bringing it up and out on one side of the mold.

Pour or plop (depending on your trace – ours was quite thick at this point) lines of the black, white, and brown soap down the length of the mold. Placing the white soap in the center will help create contrast.

Insert a dowel or chopstick to swirl the very top of the soap. We used an “S” curve pattern down the length of the mold. Be careful to not over-swirl the soap, or the colors will become muddled.

Place cinnamon sticks into one side of the soap at an angle. Place each stick where you’d like the center of the bar to be.

Spritz the soap with 99% isopropyl alcohol to help prevent soda ash. Let the soap sit uncovered at room temperature for 2-3 days (depending if you used sodium lactate or not). We found that because this recipe doesn’t contain palm oil, it needed a little bit more time in the mold than usual. Once the mold pulls away from the soap without tearing, unmold it and cut into bars. Allow them to cure for 4-6 weeks and enjoy.