Here are some links to the soap queen tutorials... I think it's a good example of some colour options.
http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-b...-soap/cold-process-christmas-soap-part-one-2/
http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/hot-process-series-cpop-swirls/
I just did a red & white striped soap scented with peppermint EO, topped off with a candy cane m&p decoration.
I suggest starting out with a white-based recipe (first time I did my peppermint soap I used a recipe that stays quite yellow... oops. No amount of titanium dioxide could fix it...)
Bright red is hard... I got mine using a large amount of mica, and some liquid red, and it's still not quite right - although it doesn't seem to leave too much red stain everywhere. Search the forum for a lot more ideas (I think Vibrance micas suggest adding a bit of hot pink to their red...)
I used a bit of kaolin clay as well as titanium dioxide to help give mine a bit nicer feel.
Peppermint EO can speed things up so I mixed it in to my oils.
If you are looking for inspiration for the 'design', I love pinterest... Usually I will see a picture of what I want and then have to spend some time trying to find the technique.
My go-to recipe*:
22% lard or palm oil
23% olive oil
20% coconut oil
20% canola oil
7% castor oil
10% shea butter
8% superfat
* - I like it, but I am still working out how to perfect it.
Gives a bubbly value of 20 so I added some sugar (1tsp ppo) to the water before the lye. I like that the canola gives a nice white soap - I use EVOO and it's quite dark.
Hope that helps