Valentine’s Day is coming up, and with it comes all of the sweets and treats! To celebrate the season, I’m sharing my take on a chocolate covered strawberry in soap form! (Chocolate covered strawberries are my very favorite thing to say “Be my Valentine!!” – Perfection!)
This chocolate covered strawberry soap involves making your own strawberry puree and grinding your own cacao nibs. However, you can choose to leave them out if you want to skip the extra work. If you want to leave out the prep work, skip down below to dive right into the chocolate covered strawberry soap tutorial!
Preparing the Ingredients
Before we can use fresh ingredients in our cold process soap, we need to prepare them! So, here’s what you’ll need to make our two fresh homemade ingredients: strawberry puree and ground cacao nibs.
Ingredients Used
- 1 cup Fresh Strawberries, with tops removed
- 1 tablespoon Cacao Nibs
- Distilled Water
I used these Cacao Nibs, but you can find different brands at your local market where organics and and health foods are sold.
Other Tools Used
- Cutting Board
- Knife
- Blender or Food Processor
- Spice Grinder
Kenna uses this electric coffee grinder/spice grinder for soapmaking – lasts forever, easy to use, and cheap!
Making the Strawberry Puree
PREP THE STRAWBERRIES: Remove the tops of the strawberries and slice them in half. Then, place the strawberries into your blender with 1 to 2 tablespoons of distilled water.
PUREE: After putting on the lid, blend the strawberries on low speed until pureed.
When you are done, set your fresh strawberry puree aside. If you are not making your chocolate covered strawberry soap immediately, cover the strawberry puree with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.
Making the Ground Cacao nibs
MEASURE: Measure approximately 1 to 2 tablespoons of cacao nibs and place them into a spice grinder. Grind until mostly powder with some coarser pieces.
If you don’t have a spice grinder, you can crush the cacao nibs on a cutting board by placing a heavy pot on top of them and rocking it back and forth to break the nibs into smaller pieces.
A wonderful side effect of using the cacao nibs in your soap is their rich chocolate aroma!
Making the Chocolate Covered Strawberry Soap
This chocolate covered strawberry soap recipe is sized for a 12″ round PVC with 3″ diameter mold that I made. If you don’t have one, you can follow along with this tutorial to make your own. If you are using a different mold, you can resize this recipe using a lye calculator for whichever mold works for you.
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Soap Recipe Used
This chocolate covered strawberry soap was made as a single recipe, and then split in half with some ingredients going into the strawberry soap half and other ingredients going into the chocolate soap half.
Total Soap Recipe Oil Amounts
- 12.25 ounces of Coconut Oil (35% of the oils)
- 10.5 ounces of Olive Oil (30% of the oils)
- 3.5 ounces of Avocado Oil (10% of the oils)
- 3.5 ounces of Shea Butter (10% of the oils)
- 3.5 ounces of Rice Bran Oil (10% of the oils)
- 1.75 ounces of Castor Oil (5% of the oils)
- 4.75 ounces of Sodium Hydroxide (10% superfat)
- 7.15 ounces of Distilled Water (40% lye solution)*
* I know that this is a steep water discount. I like to do this so that my soaps harden quickly and cure quickly. Please feel free to adjust this recipe for more water: a 33% solution would use 13.2 ounces of water total.
I buy most of my soaping oils from Soaper’s Choice and Wholesale Supplies Plus.
Fragrance Oil Used
- 1 oz of Strawberry Fragrance Oil
I buy most essential oils and fragrance oils from New Directions or Mad Oils.
Looking for essential oil blends to use instead? Check out the Essential Oil Blending Calculator here on Modern Soapmaking!
Colorants and Additives Used
Used in Chocolate Soap Half
- 2 teaspoons of Cocoa Powder
- 1 tablespoon of Ground Cacao Nibs
Used in Strawberry Soap Half
- 1 teaspoon Firecracker Mica (Nurture Soap Supply)
- 1 ounce Strawberry Puree
Used in Both Portions
- 2 teaspoons of Sodium Lactate (Soaper’s Choice)**
- 2 teaspoons of White Kaolin Clay (Wholesale Supplies Plus)**
** Optional ingredients
PREP IT UP: Prepare your oils, lye solution, and additives. I premixed my mica into 1 tablespoon of sweet almond oil to disperse it easily in the soap later. You could also use a tablespoon of oils from your soap pot to premix your micas.
Line your mold, if you wish. I like to line my mold with some freezer paper, and cover the end with plastic wrap before adding the end cap.
MAKE THE SOAP: Slowly pour your lye solution into your premixed oils. Personally, I add my kaolin clay and sodium lactate to my oils and stick blend before adding my lye solution, but you can add it later if you want!
Stick blend until you reach a light to medium trace. When thoroughly mixed, add your fragrance oil and stir to incorporate. (You can also add your fragrance oil before your lye solution, if you’d like.) Next, divide your raw soap into two portions – half for the strawberry soap and half for the chocolate soap.
Add the mica and the strawberry puree to one half to create the strawberry soap. Then, add the cacao nibs and cocoa powder to the other half to create the chocolate soap. (You can add a brown colorant such as mica to your chocolate half, if you wish!)
Stick blend each half of the soap to thoroughly incorporate the additives. Be careful to clean your stick blender between uses, so you don’t muddy the pink strawberry soap! (And try not to overmix so it doesn’t get too thick on you!)
SWIRL IT UP: Once you’ve stick blended both the chocolate soap and strawberry soap, it’s time to pour your soap into the mold! Alternate between each color of soap, pouring one at a time in the mold. When pouring, count to three with each pour to help you split the soap evenly.
If possible, do your best to pour into the center of the mold to make a bullseye pattern!
Next, I used a bamboo skewer to swirl the soap in the mold, starting in the center and going in a spiral pattern.
I left the chocolate covered strawberry soap in the mold overnight, uncovered to saponify. The next day, I sliced it up and was so happy to find little hearts in some of the bars!
I loved making this fun twist on a Valentines classic, and enjoyed the final soap! Plus, it is always fun to think of ways to turn food into soap. I would love to hear what you think!
Please me know in the comments below if there is a food item or liquid you’d like to see in my next Using Food in Soap tutorial!
Hi Leanna,
What a great idea, just in time for Valentine’s Day! I can’t wait to try it. I always enjoy your combinations of food and soap.
Thanks! Lisa
Thank you so much!!
You are welcome! I finally made this yesterday with voodoo pink mica from mad oils and it turned out gorgeous. Thanks again for this fabulous rescipe.
Is there a benefit to the skin for using strawberries? Do they turn the soap brown like some organic material sometimes dose? I love this idea! It is so fun!
Hi Leanna,
This looks like a great soap recipe & I can’t wait to try it out. I love using food & plant material in my soaps. I just can’t think of a good complimentary essential oil to go along with the chocolate scent that would be sweet like the strawberry. Any suggestion?
Thanks,
Judy
Judy,
That’s a great question. For this, I would just choose a warm scented essential oil. Maybe like allspice, cardamom, Cedarwood, Myrrh, Sandalwood, clary sage, or even use a pure vanilla extract. Hope this helps!
Hi leanna,
That was a great tutorial, I am going to give it a go sometime, making the mould. Keep up the good work.
Kind regards from Australia
Jacqueline.
Great!! I hope you try it. And thank you for the kind words!
I made this used espresso fo from Brambleberry, so nice. However, the soap is still pretty soft even 2 days after making it and my colors don’t pop as nicely as yours…..hoping that as it cures it’ll get there. Btw, i also got a little heart in one of my cuts…lol
Yay for the hearts!!! Hopefully it will harden up for you. Did you use sodium lactate? I find that makes my bars much harder and easy to unmold. I also use a pretty high percentage of hard oils, which helps as well. Thanks for trying it!!!
hi leanna,
does adding sodium lactate also result in a longer lasting bar? What EO can i add instead of strawberry fragrance, if i want to make a totally natural soap. any ideas?
Do you have any recommendations for a natural red or pink pigment instead of mica?
Kelly,
You can definitely use madder root powder for a brick red color, or Australian red clay or Australian pink clay. All of these work great! Good luck!
gromwell root infused into oil makes a nice magenta. I usually do it in a mason jar in a pot of water (semi double boiler) on the stove on very low for 3-4 days, turning it off at night. At the end is a deep, beautiful maroon-magenta that will either be pink or purple in your soap.
I’m a newbie on soap making. Hot hooked on the first book and video I saw. Would love to eventually sell soap. Is there a beginners kit on the whole subject of starting out. I want to go as natural as possible. Thanks
You have come to the right place. Modernsoapmaking.com is a great resource for soapmakers at any level. I would suggest reading all you can, practicing as much as possible, and asking questions.
There are also some very informative youtubers out there for soapmaking. Good luck and happy soaping!
Hi Leanna! I have just stumbled upon your site today, and am so happy I did. I just received Cacao essential oil yesterday, and it smells SO DELICIOUS! Just like chocolate. Can I use this in the chocolate portion of your recipe? If so, according to your recipe, how much of that eo would you use? I was just thinking this past week that I would love to make a strawberry chocolate soap, and have been wanting to work with purees as well. Thank you!
I apologize, I meant cacao fragrance oil (FO), not essential oil (EO). Was in a hurry while typing! 😛