



Homemade Gift Ideas – Soap

I thought I would have a crack at soap making. I’ve wanted to make soap for ages but it seemed like a really complicated task, and a worrying amount of chemicals that needed to be carefully and precisely used. I looked into it a lot and found Melt and Pour Soap Base on Amazon. I was on a trial of Amazon Prime for free for one month so postage was covered!

I received 2 big 1Kg blocks of the Melt and Pour Soap Base in white. It provides a vegetable oil soap base for you to fragrance, colour and mould yourself. It is odour free and can be bought in either white or clear, I chose white as I love the look of petals in white soap. The soap has a very creamy, moisturising texture, has a neutral pH and has not been tested on animals. The soap bases creates a luxurious lather as it is produced from high quality double distilled and deodorised clear coconut oil that can easily work with wide range of fragrances.

I made 2 different soaps, rose soap with rose petals and butterfly shaped honey, vanilla and oat exfoliating soap, perfect for Mothering Sunday gifts! I will be making many more for presents for friends.

To make the soap cut the Melt and Pour Soap Base into blocks, put in a Pyrex jug and melt in the microwave. Check on it every 20 seconds or so, the time needed to melt the soap will vary on the size of the cut blocks. Mine took about 2 minutes in total using a 700 watt microwave. Add the fragrance oil of choice, I used a Rose Geranium oil and Honey Vanilla oil. I wanted more texture and interest to my soap so also added rose petals to my rose soap. I added 2 spoonfuls of honey and some oats to my butterfly soap as honey has such a range of fantastic effects on the skin and the oats will act as a natural exfoliant. Pour into ramicins, I used Sainsburys silicon moulds, a Rose Silicon Mould and Butterfly Silicon Mould (they are on offer at the moment) as they are easy to pop the soap from. Leave in the fridge until set, again my soaps were large so I left them for an hour, smaller soaps won’t need that time.

The Melt and Pour Soap Base contain water as part of the formula so if left exposed to the atmosphere, the water will evaporate and the bar of soap will shrink so it will need to be fully wrapped as soon as cooled. I will be wrapping mine in printed fabric and ribbon as it is a gift. I’m so excited to try new fragrances and creations of soap! Any suggestions?

Have you ever handmade soap before? What scents did you try?

Melt and Pour Soap Base

Rose Geranium oil

Honey Vanilla oil

Rose Petals

Rose Silicon Mould

Butterfly Silicon Mould

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