One of my goals for the upcoming year is to revamp, or at least reorganize this blog, and become more diligent about posting projects and keeping up with the site. I haven’t been great at it so far, so I want to change that this year. I’ve been throwing a few ideas around that I am going to implement in the next few months, and one thing I am definitely adding is a monthly “Try Something New” project.
Yesterday, my daughter and I spent a good portion of the day making soap, which neither of us had ever done before, so I figured it would be perfect for my first entry!
Since we are beginners, we just decided to stick with the melt and pour process. I would like to keep experimenting and eventually try making it from scratch, but for now this was a fun and educational leap into the wacky world of soap making.
Supplies
You can get the soap base at your local craft store, I got these two from Hobby Lobby.
I wasn’t sure what all I should get, and really just wanted to experiment, so I just got a couple of scents, and a few colors. I also already had some of the standard pantry-type ingredients, which are listed below with each type of soap.
During the process, we discovered that we REALLY need to up our fragrance game, so I’ll be researching that for future soap crafting!
Not really knowing how this was going to go down, I didn’t want to break the bank and buy a bunch of stuff I’ll never use again, so I just bought one actual soap mold. It was pretty cheap, and I got these peanut snack cups that were also cheap. They are coated so I assumed they would work well as soap molds. They did! The soap popped right out. I already had the silicone heart mold. I will definitely invest in more silicone molds if I decide to keep this up.I also got a 4c. measuring cup that fits perfectly in a sauce pan to function as a double boiler. It was great for pouring the melted soap. You can use a microwave for melting, but I don’t have one, and this method was still super easy.
We made a few different concoctions, and like I said it was all experimenting, so we didn’t really measure anything. I will at least list the general ingredients with each one.
Vanilla Oatmeal
Vanilla Scent, Oatmeal, Coconut Oil, Cocoa Butter Blue Color, Cinnamon, Goat Milk Base. We originally tried this with half glycerin half goats milk, and olive oil. As you can see it started getting weird and gloppy and hardened before we could get it in the molds. We thought it might be the glycerin mix, so we omitted that the second time. It still got a little gloppy after we added oatmeal, but we got it into the molds faster. I think next time we need to let it cool longer before adding oatmeal.
Mocha
Cocoa Powder, Coffee, Coconut Oil, Cocoa Butter, Vanilla Scent, Goats Milk Base. I mixed about half a tbsp of cocoa powder with about 2 tbsp coffee so it wouldn’t be clumpy. I also added some ground coffee for exfoliation (hopefully) I haven’t used them yet to see how they work, but they smell good!
Peppermint Sea Salt
Peppermint Oil, Glycerin and Goats Milk Base, Vanilla Scent (in the white base) Sea Salt, Red or Green Color. These were fun, and I mean, it’s the holidays so you gotta do some red and green peppermint shit, right? We swirled some, (needs practice) layered some, and just did a solid green glycerin. I thought to add the sea salt for exfoliation, but really it just makes it look more wintery.
Green Tea and Ginger
Green Tea and Green Color in the Glycerin Layer, and Ginger, Chia Seeds, and Olive Oil in the Goats Milk Layer. We are calling this our hippie bar. I love how these turned out. However, we didn’t add any extra scent because the tea smelled so good to begin with, so I wish the scent was a little stronger.
This was a blast and a great way to spend an afternoon. The cleanup was super easy because, I mean… IT’S SOAP. I’ll definitely be making more in the near future.
all the soaps
mmm coffee
mocha, anyone
XL popsicle sticks are good for so many things.
these peanut cups make great soap molds
gloppy oatmeal, the finished product has more of a rubbery feel than the others
this shit was so satisfying to cut
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